introduction to blogs and wikis in education stephanie t.l. chu, elearning innovation centre rob...
TRANSCRIPT
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. ???