Penzu, your own personal journal and online diary.

Written By Elinda Gjondedaj

Penzu is a Web 2.0 application that allows the user to keep his/her own journal online. It is easy and user-friendly. Penzu’s aesthetic looks like a piece of notebook paper — which is a pretty interesting effect. The whole idea of penzu is that you may keep your own thoughts online in private and share.If you do want to share an entry with someone, you can create a public entry for it and give it to whomever you choose.

FEATURES:

• Privacy First Penzu was designed to focus on your privacy. Unlike blogging,
  your entries are private by default.
• A Picture Is Worth A Thousand
  Insert your own photos and bring your entries to life!
• Share If You Want To.You can share your individual entries via email or create a public link and share with the world
• Instant Search .Find long-lost entries quickly and easily with our fast filtered search and sorting.
• Comments Welcome. Now you can share your thoughts with others by commenting on
  shared and public entries.
• Auto-saving is the New Save Never lose your entries again! Your work is saved as you
  type, so you never have to worry.

HOW YOU CAN USE IT IN CLASS:

• Encourage students to keep their own diaries in English. It is the best way of expressing themselves without the stress of time or getting a bad mark. They are private and confidential. A teacher may give to the students two choices. The students may write their diaries and keep them for themselves or give them to the teacher. The teacher will have to gain the trust of his/her students and persuade them that the diaries will be confidential.By reading these spontaneous student’s entries a teacher may assess his students’ writing or make an error analysis.
• Encourage students to keep their e-portofolios. Keeping all the writtings in a portofolio it can be very beneficial for both the students and the teacher. The students will keep a track af their work and will realise the work that have be done during the course. What is more, they will be able to see if and how  their writing skills developed. The teacher may make an overall assessement of the studetns progrees from their first writing. S/he may identify weakenesses on students’ writing and work on them.
• Encourage students send each other letters in English. After that ask them their opinion in class. Try peer-assessment.Ask them to keep notes.Students will come back in class and tell their impressions on their co-student’s writting. In this way the students will be influenced by each other writtings. (see mistakes that the also make, learn vacabulary that they don’t know etc.)
• Suggest your own ideas.