Foreign language

Electronic Journals or Electronic Dialogue Journals

Although the use of electronic journals might seem to be a quite recentdevelopment in teacher education, it has been used for nearly two decades.Researchers have pointed to the lack of opportunity to reflect on teaching during teacher education(Feiman-Nemser& Buchman, 1985; Wildman, Magliaro, Niles & McLaughlin, 1990), therefore, beginning in the mid-1990s the use of this new type of online tool was seen not only as a new alternative for professional development, but also as a tool to enhance regular journaling.

McIntyre and Tlusty (1995) conducted a study on eleven student teachers to perform reflection via e-mail dialogue journals at two different teaching placements. The students were asked to write critiques about their teaching practices in a 16-week semester and 294 messages were received in total. Additional data were collected from the supervisors of students‟ and a survey of the participants. The study reported promising findings regarding the use of technology in teacher education. The students engaged in reflective discourse and some of them stated that they felt themselves more comfortable and less isolated with the help of electronic response journal. The survey conducted to see the perceptions of the students on the use of this tool indicated that its first and foremost contribution was to connect the candidate teachers to their supervisor. The use of e-mails to get moral support from the supervisors was the second most important contribution, with the third being the reflection on the philosophy of education. An obstacle to the use of e-mails was the time demands of the process of online-reflection. Students stated that providing a critique and

reflection on their teaching experience took a great deal of time during their hectic program. This comment of the students may suggest practical concerns of online dialogue journals.

Similarly, Andrusyszyn and Davie (2007) conducted a study with graduate students on interactive journal writing in an online computer conferenced courses via e-mails and asynchronous interviews. Findings of the study indicated that reflective practices in an online platform helped learners evaluate their knowledge and experiences and gave them some time to synthesize the learning from internal and external sources to reconstruct new concepts. Moreover, the graduate students felt encouraged and self-confident when they shared their learning with the instructor and their peers.