Introduction to Blogs and Wikis in Education

1. Introduction to Blogs and Wikis in Education Rob McTavish, Centre for Distance Education Stephanie T.L. Chu, eLearning Innovation Centre Simon Fraser University

2. Session Overview • Introduction to Blogs • Introduction to Wikis • Research Activity • Wrap-up Discussion

4. Introduction to Blogs in Education

5. Blog presentation…. • What’s a Blog • Blog vs. Webpage • Educational benefits & uses • Points to ponder with Blogs

6. 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

7. What’s a Blog cont. • RSS - Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication • Enables bloggers to “syndicate” their blogs • Users can use subscribe to their favourite blogs

8. 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

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

10. Educational benefits & uses cont. • Historical context - archives posted • Narrative evaluation of resources • Provide effective means for interactive online portfolios • Class “discussion” forum

11. 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

13. Introduction Wikis in Education

14. 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) began • 270,000+ entries (May, 2004) • Different from Blogs  organized by context rather than time

15. 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)

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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)

19. 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)

21. 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/

22. 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/

23. 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

24. 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

26. Research Activity

27. 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

29. Wrap-up Discussion

30. 12-point Framework • Encourages contacts between learners and instructors • Develops collaborative and cooperation among learners • Promotes active learning • Provides prompt feedback • Responsive to diverse talents and ways of learning • Motivates learning • Engages learner with content • Cost-effective from learner and institutional view • Promotes higher level thinking • Provides access to course events and content • Promotes reflective practice • ???