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 Blogs Introduction to Wikis Research Activity Wrap-up Discussion

Introduction to Blogs in Education

Blog presentation…. What’s a Blog Blog vs. Webpage Educational benefits & uses Points 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. ( 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 Syndication Enables 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 Building 1 Uncommercialized perspective (?) Organized/structured Mainly text - low bandwidth requirements 1. (see Scardamalia, 2003,

Educational benefits & uses cont. Historical context - archives posted Narrative evaluation of resources Provide effective means for interactive online portfolios Class “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 ( beganhttp://wikipedia.org 270,000+ 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)course definitions As a learning tool Collaborative web-writing and collections e.g. Romantic Audience ProjectRomantic 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 notescalendar 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)Math) Some content adapted from: TECFA and B. Lamb, UBC TECFA

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 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 Blog hosting services: Blogger: Groksoup: Nucleus: MoveableType: TypePad: Radio: Drupal: Manila: RSS Blog subscription services

More Blog resources Blogging across the curriculum Using blogs in education Educational blogger network Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-line Collaboration Edu_RSS - service for collecting edu-blogs Weblogs in Higher Education Key Edu-bloggers Blogs in education

Wiki Resources Definition and Advantages of Wikis The Wiki Phenomenon A WikionWiki (B. UBC) Introduction to Wikis (includes educational uses) Pros and cons for using a Wiki in education Educational Wiki List Wikis in the Classroom Wiki in Education Teaching Wikis

More Wiki Resources Educational Uses of Wikis Teaching and Learning with Wikis Wikis in Education Wiki Sofware and its Uses in Distance Education Quickiwiki, Swiki, Twiki, Zwiki and the Plone Wars Wiki as a PIM and Collaborative Content Tool (see page 8) Emerging Technologies, Article by Godwin-Jones (2003) / / Wikipedia: The largest wiki (and collaborative encyclopedia) WikiBooks Portal (find information about specific subjects like biology)

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 learners 3. Promotes active learning 4. Provides prompt feedback 5. Responsive to diverse talents and ways of learning 6. Motivates learning 7. Engages learner with content 8. Cost-effective from learner and institutional view 9. Promotes higher level thinking 10. Provides access to course events and content 11. Promotes reflective practice 12. ???