The Effects of Photographs in Blogging:

A Pilot Study

Thomas J. Boutorwick,
Luke Ishihara

Kwansei Gakuin University

M a r c h 1 2 th , 2 0 1 0

2010 International Conference and Workshop on

TEFL & Applied Linguistics
 Overview

The Pilot Study



Social Network/Blog
 Ning
 Posterous

Call for Participation

 Introduction and Background

Background
 2 teachers/4 EFL freshman writing classes
 6 Blogs for each class per semester (Pictures required by
teacher A/ Not required by teacher B)
 99% of students have cell phones (smart)

Hypothesis
 Students are more motivated to read and comment on blogs
when there are photographs embedded in the blogs.
 New Blogging Technology – easy photograph embedding
 Introduction and Background

Method
 Students write blogs  Comment on own classes (3 blogs)
 Students write blogs  Comment on other class’ (3 blogs)
 Online Surveys


Conclusion
 More enjoyment from pictures
 Did you enjoy blogs with pictures more than blogs with no pictures?
 When you did blog exchange from other classes what was your reaction?

 Inconclusive results
 Ning Social Network

About Ning (www.ning.com)

 Easy social networking
 Strong privacy protection
 Automatic formatting of pictures and video

Example
 www.tj-english.ning.com
 Posterous

Why did we choose Posterous? (www.posterous.com)

 Centralized blog for all to post and comment
 Easy posting, formatting of pictures and videos

Examples:
 Sengari Camp Group C
 Luke and TJ’s trip to Taiwan
 2010 International Conference and Workshop on TEFL &
Applied Linguistics
 Call to Participate

ICTAL (International Conference of TESOL and

Applied Linguistics) Posterous – please take
pictures and e-mail your thoughts about this
conference and sessions to
post@ictal.posterous.com
During the conference – feel free to visit the ICTAL
conference Posterous and read other participants’
thoughts and view their pictures
 www.ictal.posterous.com
Thank you!
 Did you enjoy blogs with pictures more than blogs with no pictures?

Teacher A Teacher B Total

Yes 41 33 74 (80%)
No 1 1 2 (2%)
Both are the same 5 12 17 (18%)

Back
When you did blog exchange from other classes what was your
reaction?

Teacher A Teacher B
I was not interested in reading other class 2 (4%) 7 (14%)
blogs
I did not like other students reading my 4 (7%) 1 (2%)
blogs
I was more interested in blogs with 15 (27%) 16 (33%)
pictures
I did not like the other blogs; they had no 7 (13%) 1(2%)
Ipictures
liked reading about the other class 16 (29%) 15 (31%)
I like looking at pictures of the other class 9 (16%) 6 (12%)
Other reactions 2 (4%) 3 (6%)

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