Blogs in Language Learning

I must say I have not been actively blogging here lately...however, this is not laziness..I have a two-week autumn break from school so I went away for some days. I was also invited to write an article on blogs in language learning for the Tesol Essential Teacher magazine so I spent some time collecting information and working on it. I have combined information about what web logs are, how these CMS tools that provide them can help teachers maximize language use and some practical examples, links and reflections on how both, tool and genre, can be integrated into the foreign language learning/teaching framework.

I was a bit taken aback when I was told I will have to release the copyright of this article to Tesol. I have never published in a teachers' magazine before so I do not know exactly what this means in practical terms and what benefits/advantages/disadvantages there are for the parties involved.

I am somewhat uncomfortable with this situation. I have a vague feeling that by doing this, I am going against the whole blogging philosophy which is exactly the possibility of publishing independent content and sharing it through a creative commons licence. Although I know many members of the Tesol group may benefit from reading it, the article cannot be put online for a wider audience, which seems to me a bit of a paradox.

I have posted this question to Webheads in Action Yahoo Groups but nobody seems to be interested in the matter as I had absolutely no answers. I wonder whether some of you who read me would have some time to devote to my moral dilemma.