Blogs and Wikis

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Blogs and Wikis

• Dr. Norm Friesen

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Questions

• What is a blog?
• What is a Wiki?
• What is Wikipedia?
• What is RSS?

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Terminology Blog

• Blog
• A website where entries are made in journal style
  and displayed in a reverse chronological order.
• Blogs often provide commentary or news on a
  particular subject, such as food, politics, or
  local news some function as more personal online
  diaries
• Wikipedia

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Terminology Wiki

• Wiki is a type of Web site that allows the
  visitors to easily
• add, remove, and otherwise edit and change some
  available content, sometimes without the need for
  registration.
• This ease of interaction and operation (along
  with change-tracking abilities) makes a wiki an
  effective tool for collaborative authoring.
• Wikipedia

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Terminology Wikipedia

• Wikipedia (from the words wiki and encyclopedia)
  a multilingual, Web-based free content
  encyclopedia project
• Written collaboratively by volunteers
• Currently Wikipedia has more than five million
  articles in many languages, including more than
  1.5 million in the English-language version

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Terminology RSS

• RSS a family of web feed formats used to publish
  frequently updated pages, such as blogs or news
  feeds.

• Consumers of RSS content use special browsers
  (aggregators) to watch for new content in dozens
  or even hundreds of web feeds.
• E.g mail.google.com

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Terminology Blogosphere

• Blogosphere is the collective term encompassing
  all blogs as a community or social network. Many
  weblogs are densely inter-connected bloggers
  read others' blogs, link to them, reference them
  in their own writing, and post comments on each
  others' blogs. Because of this, the
  interconnected blogs have grown their own
  culture. (e.g. http//technorati.com)

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Blogs educational uses generally (Brighouse
2004)

• Standard Class Webpage(s)
• Address recurring questions/issues
• Interesting developments that relate to the theme
  of the course (via instructor)
• Current events, Web sites mentioned, etc.
• Organization of in-class discussion
• Blogging has distinct advantages over more common
  threaded discussion in its support of style,
  ownership and identity
• Inefficiencies in threading and linking (Cameron
  Anderson)

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General educational uses (Brighouse 2004)

• Group Blogs students create (and present?) a
  group project using a blog
• Requiring students to write their own blogs as
  part of their grade
• In conjunction with an assignment e.g. an
  article review

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Wikis General Educational Uses(Science of
Spectroscopy)

• Easily create simple websites (eliminates
  technical obstacles to putting things online)
• Project development with peer review (e.g. write
  a report/paper gradually, with feedback from
  instructor/students before final draft)
• Group Authoring (i.e. online group work) Using a
  wiki pulls the group members together to build
  and edit the document on a wiki page. It also
  allows all group members immediate, equal access
  to the most recent version of the document.
  (Tracking collaborative work using multiple wiki

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Wikis General Educational Uses(Science of
Spectroscopy)

• Data Collection Because of its ease of editing,
  a wiki can be very useful for collecting data
  from a group of students. The wiki best suited
  for this right now is JotSpot, which has a data
  collection tool you can install with just a few
  clicks.
• Review classes teachers Students at Brown
  University started CAW - Course Advisor Wiki, a
  place for students to collaboratively write
  reviews of courses they've taken.
• Presentations Some people are using a wiki in
  place of conventional presentation software, like
  Keynote and PowerPoint.

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The Blog Assignment
Read topic introduction on my blog
Submit article by e-mail for approval
Find an article
Submit review by e-mail and post to blog
Write a review
Read reviews on two other blogs. Post comments
and a question
Respond to comments and questions
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Assignment 1 (1 of 4)

• Participation Required in class and for the blog
  assignment
• Write up a summary of the contents of one of the
  recommended readings 1.5 to 2 single-spaced
  pages.
• Post draft to a Blog 27.6
• Comment on others proposals 29.6
• Submit final version soon afterwards (03.07)

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Assignment 1 (2 of 4)

• Your review should give a brief overview of the
  article's contents,
• Your review should contextualize and articulate a
  response to the article
• You can contextualize the article reviewed in
  terms of what you have learned thus far in the
  course
• Your response to the article can be critical or
  positive, or can suggest further areas for
  research but whatever your response, please back
  it up or support it.

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Assignment 1 (3 of 4)

• This support can take the form of evidence from
  your own experience or from a quality source.
  This evidence can also take the form of the kind
  of study you are proposing for the second
  assignment.
• Post your review to your blog, and send a copy
  (in Word or HTML or plain text) to
  norm.friesen_at_gmail.com

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Assignment 1 (4 of 4)

• Read others' reviews, and comment on them (at
  least two others reviews/comments).
• Your postings can ask questions about the project
  that might be raised for you, or can draw
  connections between projects that you have
  learned about.
• Respond to any comments or questions that you
  receive on your review or blog.

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Some student blogs

• http//testedontrees.blogspot.com 
• http//earthboundbeing.blogspot.com
• http//amandasdendro.blogspot.com 
• http//karlena19.blogspot.com

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Primary Outcomes

• Students learn course material both individually
  and collaboratively
• Learning from peers is enhanced through blog
  visits
• Students improve writing skills
• Students write for a public audience
• Students learn the potential uses of blogs and
  how to manage them

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Secondary Beneficial Outcomes

• More teacher-student contact through e-mail
• Teacher learns from the students
• Forum for peer social interaction
• Students express their individuality and values
• Affords shy students the opportunity to find
  their voice

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Sources

• The street finds its own use for things (Harry
  Brighouse, 2004) http//crookedtimber.org/2003/09/
  15/the-street-finds-its-own-use-for-things
• Comparing Weblogs to Threaded Discussion Tools in
  Online Educational Contexts http//www.itdl.org/Jo
  urnal/Nov_06/article01.htm
• Using wiki in educationhttp//www.scienceofspectr
  oscopy.info/edit/index.php?titleUsing_wiki_in_edu
  cation