Introduction to Blogs and Wikis in Education

Stephanie T.L. Chu, eLearning Innovation Centre

Rob McTavish, Centre for Distance Education

Simon Fraser University

Session Overview

Introduction to BlogsIntroduction to WikisResearch ActivityWrap-up Discussion

Introduction to Blogs in Education

Blog presentation….

What’s a Blog Blog vs. Webpage Educational benefits & usesPoints to ponder with Blogs

What’s a Blog?

Blog: (n.) Short for Web log, a blog is a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for

an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author. (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/b/blog.html)

Originated in ~1997 Freely accessible to public Material is archived Extensive use of hyperlinks to reference

material, links to pertinent resources Personally edited - typically one “owner” with

the ability for comments to be added

What’s a Blog cont.

RSS - Rich Site Summary or Really Simple SyndicationEnables bloggers to “syndicate” their blogs

Users can use subscribe to their favourite blogs

Blog vs. Webpage

Chronological - most recent entry at the top of the page

Updated regularly, like a journal Annotated bibliography of internet resources,

often more than just links to resources - contextualized

Some are subscribale (RSS) Interactive - comments, polls etc.. Typically template driven - primarily text

Educational benefits & uses

Typically thematic in nature, war blogs, election blogs, event blogs…

Plagiarism may be more difficult with the public nature of blogs

Students can participate in socially constructing knowledge, similar to the principles of Knowledge Building1

Uncommercialized perspective (?) Organized/structured Mainly text - low bandwidth requirements

1. (see Scardamalia, 2003, http://ikit.org/SummerInstitute2003/posters/kbindicators.html)

Educational benefits & uses cont.

Historical context - archives postedNarrative evaluation of resourcesProvide effective means for interactive

online portfoliosClass “discussion” forum

Points to ponder with blogs

Privacy issues - students need to be aware of the public nature of blogs

Critical selection of resources/references Blogs are unedited, uncensored, unknown… Advertising on many blog sites Short entries, not a sustained discussion or

argument Set the standard for students - lead by example Provide purpose of reading or using blog in

your class

Introduction Wikis in Education

What’s a Wiki?

Similar to Blogs “Social software” (social interaction and group communication)

Originated in 1994/5. Growth in 2001 when Wikipedia (

http://wikipedia.org) began270,000+ entries (May, 2004)

Different from Blogs organized by context rather than time

Why Use Wikis?

“Wiki” “quick” in Hawaiian Anyone can change anything Simple

e.g. simplified Hypertext markup (HTML) e.g. WikiPageTitlesAreMashedTogether

“Content is ego-less, time-less, and never finished”

Open environment strong sense of community, decentralized

Empowers users (e.g. structure, content)

Educational Uses of Wikis

Information sources (simple websites easily created) Used as resources for courses Within courses (e.g. course definitions)

As a learning tool Collaborative web-writing and collections

e.g. Romantic Audience Project Project or team space

e.g. sketch pad, brainstorming, problem-solving, lists and links

Meeting planning and note-taking e.g. calendar, agenda serves as foundation for notes

Community building among students and learning to collaborate

e.g. “hot lists”, common interests, projects “Hall of Fame” Student assignment hand-in

e.g. peer ratings and feedback

Educational Uses of Wikis (cont.)

For the individual Metacognition

e.g. self-reflection journal

Research journal and organizer e.g. research for papers, projects, theses

Subject areas Cross class/courses projects

e.g. interdisciplinary projects

Not just for “writing” courses (e.g. Math)

Some content adapted from: TECFA and B. Lamb, UBC

Wiki Considerations

Requires comfort with computers Organization, keeping up, housekeeping

(instructor) Takes some getting used to:

Open to “all” to see and edit Focus is on content and not appearance

Content is co-developed (IP, credibility) Different types of wikis and no set standard for

mark-up (portability) Technology varies (no unified set of

characteristics across software)

How to Get Started?

Refer to the PhPWiki Site to http://phpwiki.sourceforge.net/phpwiki Learn more about how wikis work, different

available types of software (some free) and set-up Create your own test pages under “RecentVisitors”

(and explore others for ideas)

Refer to the resources at the end of the slides for ideas for your course

Search the web for wikis containing useful resources for your course (e.g. topic +wiki)

Blog Resources

Introduction to educational blogs http://manila.cet.middlebury.edu/weblogworkshop/

Blog hosting services: Blogger: http://blogger.com/ Groksoup: http://www.groksoup.com Nucleus: http://nucleuscms.org/ MoveableType: http://moveabletype.org/ TypePad: http://typepad.com/ Radio: http://radio.userland.com/ Drupal: http://drupal.org/ Manila: http://www.manilasites.com/

RSS Blog subscription services http://www.bloglines.com/ http://www.feedreader.com/ http://www.usablelabs.com/

More Blog resources

Blogging across the curriculum http://mywebspace.quinnipiac.edu/PHastings/bac.html

Using blogs in education http://www.weblogg-ed.com/

Educational blogger network http://www.ebn.weblogger.com/

Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-line Collaboration http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/emerging/default.html

Edu_RSS - service for collecting edu-blogs http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/xml/edu_rss.cgi

Weblogs in Higher Education http://www.mchron.net/site/edublog.php

Key Edu-bloggers http://fraser.typepad.com/edtechuk/2004/04/key_edubloggers.html

Blogs in education http://awd.cl.uh.edu/blog/

Wiki Resources Definition and Advantages of Wikis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki The Wiki Phenomenon

http://www.schwall.de/thewikiphenomenon/index.php A WikionWiki (B. Lamb @ UBC)

http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?wikionwiki Introduction to Wikis (includes educational uses)

http://distance.uaf.edu/dls/resources/facdev/oi/outlines/wiki-intro.cfm Pros and cons for using a Wiki in education

http://ssad.bowdoin.edu:8668/space/Pros+and+Cons+of+Using+a+Wiki Educational Wiki List

http://edtech.coedit.net/EducationalWikiList Wikis in the Classroom

http://edtech.coedit.net/WikisInTheClassroom Wiki in Education

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiInEducation Teaching Wikis

http://teachingwiki.org

More Wiki Resources

Educational Uses of Wikis http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiEducationalUses

Teaching and Learning with Wikis http://itp.innoved.org/wiki/wikis/

Wikis in Education http://nearlythere.com/cgi-bin/design/wiki.cgi?WikisInEducation

Wiki Sofware and its Uses in Distance Education http://www.tlg.ca/grouph/info.html

Quickiwiki, Swiki, Twiki, Zwiki and the Plone Wars Wiki as a PIM and Collaborative Content Tool

http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/apr03/mattison.shtml (see page 8) Emerging Technologies, Article by Godwin-Jones (2003)

http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/emerging/ Wikipedia: The largest wiki (and collaborative encyclopedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page WikiBooks Portal (find information about specific subjects like biology)

http://wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks_portal

Research Activity

Instructions for Activity

Search the web for 2 Blogs &’or Wikis which are useful for your course (15 minutes)

Share your findings and experience in a class discussion (25 minutes)

Total Time: 40 minutes

Wrap-up Discussion

12-point Framework

1. Encourages contacts between learners and instructors 2. Develops collaborative and cooperation among

learners3. Promotes active learning 4. Provides prompt feedback5. Responsive to diverse talents and ways of learning6. Motivates learning7. Engages learner with content8. Cost-effective from learner and institutional view9. Promotes higher level thinking10. Provides access to course events and content11. Promotes reflective practice12. ???