Apture: The Missing Cog in the Language Learner's Blog?

Happening on Apture was a happy accident.

"A rich multimedia experience and linking platform for the web," Apture supercharges almost any blogging platform. Anywhere on my blog where you see a hyperlink accompanied by a book+bookmark symbol is an example of an Apture hyperlink. Within a blog entry (=without being routed to another page), readers can access links of all sorts, including music and video. Within the same page, a window appears with the link chosen by the blog author.

The ramifications are staggering. Apture makes citing/quoting/referencing in the blog format very user-friendly. From what I understand, Apture works on the majority of blogging platforms, and aims to be compatible with all of them. (User-friendly times 2.) But more importantly, Apture is transformative: how interesting would it be if all media outlets and all bloggers vowed to cite their sources by incorporating Apture into their websites....

From any perspective, the prospect of quick access to sources (primary and otherwise) is a way to foster honest interaction with information as well as promote better critical thinking skills.

For blogging in the language classroom, though, Apture has the virtue of letting student/end-user-X aggregate all sorts of media in one spot.

Over the next few days, I am going to post some examples of what I think such blog entries might look like. As I do this, I will try to consider other issues that dovetail with considerations of blogging in education: assessment, modelling and/or correcting of grammar and vocabulary usage, active learning, motivation, and others. I would love to hear others' comments and ideas!

As well, I intend to revisit Konrad Glogowski's blog more intently and reflect on what Growing a Blog in a language classroom might look like.