Blogs and Wikis

1. Tim Bornholtz tim@bornholtz.com Blogs and Wikis

2. Purpose • Many new technologies are available on the internet that enable people to publish and edit content without expensive tools or extreme technical knowledge • Try to give an understanding of what they are and how they can be used in your organization

3. Digital Natives • “Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach” • “Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet”- Prensky, 2001 • Students today think of digital resources as we would think of a book or telephone or television • Vital tools for getting information

4. The Rest of Us • That leaves the rest of us as “Digital Immigrants” • We speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age) and are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.” • Why do we “dial” a number? There is no dial on a telephone • Who among us prints documents to edit them • We bring someone to our computer to show them a website instead of sending them the URL

5. Web 1.0 • Static pages • Needed a full-time “webmaster” to handle content changes • Dynamic pages were still read only • Needed a programmer to make any changes to dynamic pages • 1989 - 2005

6. Web 2.0 • People can create their own content. • Transformative tools • Allowing anyone to do at home what used to require professionals with expensive equipment. • Convergence of media – Web, audio, video and more • “Social Media” sites allow people to share opinions, experiences, and perspectives

7. Emerging Technologies • Blogs wikis and podcasts (oh my)‏

8. Blog • Web journal or online diary • Usually written by one person or a small group of people • Most blogs provide commentary or news on one topic • Articles usually link to other blogs or news items • Readers are able to leave comments • Some blogs integrate photos or video in addition to text articles

9. Blogs in Higher Ed • Opening up classroom walls • Showing the wider world what is happening • Other students in class • Parents • Students in other classes • Anyone with an internet connection • Links to relevant articles • Provide a wider audience for students

12. Facebook

13. Wikis • Site that can be written to by many of people • Content is the priority, not design • Built in revision control • Why use a wiki • online classroom pages that can be changed easily • Put student's work on the web • Examples • Wikiville – students collaborate with topics of interest • Wikipedia – online encyclopedia

14. Uses of Wikis • Classroom discussion • List assignments • Discuss curriculum • Create a community around a specific topic • Community can pool their knowledge • Developer tool • Software documentation • Maintain enhancement list • Track issues

15. Advantages of a Wiki • Good for writing down quick ideas • Instantly collaborative without emailing documents • Accessible from anywhere with a browser • Every page revision is kept • Immediate and empowering – everyone has a say

16. Disadvantages of a Wiki • People can see your half-formed, unsure, or speculative ideas • Tendency for entries to be messy without deliberate maintenance • If it is public you may be a target for spam • Need to be reasonably technical to use the wiki-specific markup • Difficult to enforce content standards and styles

17. Wiki: Helping educators educate

18. RSS Feeds • XML file for serving frequentlyupdated content • Content publishers syndicatea feed • Users subscribe to the feed • Feed Readers periodically check the syndicated feed for updates

19. Podcasts • A podcast is a media file, audio or video, delivered over the internet using syndicated feeds • Made popular by Apple with iTunes • Can be played back on portable media players or computers • Can also be integrated with text or PDFs for a richer experience

20. Podcasts in Higher Ed • Help students to connect to others • Provide many different resources for listening • Take a lesson with you and replay it as many times as you'd like

21. Podcasts in Higher Ed (cont)‏ • Teachers are starting to create lessons as podcasts • Starting to incorporate student podcasts into the lessons. • Students will take greater care in their work when there is an audience • Get in contact with like-minded teachers who are also providing podcasts

22. Video • YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video • Anyone with a camera can create, edit, and upload videos • Videos on many subjects available • Students can produce and upload their own content • Able to easliy integrate videos into blog postings

23. Web 3.0 • Virtual worlds such as Second Life • The people who “live” there create most everything in the environment

24. Second Life • Many schools are using Second Life as an environment for e-learning • Creating online tools for learning within the virtual world • Holding classes for distance learning • Second Life “allows students to experiment with architectural design, to study monetary policy, and to do sociology research -- to name just a few educational uses -- in an enclosed, relatively risk-free environment” - Chronicle of Higher Education 8/30/2006

25. Questions? Tim Bornholtz tim@bornholtz.com (540) 446-8404 • References • Graham Stanleyhttp://blog-efl.blogspot.com/2006/11/blogs-wikis-podcasts-second-life.html • Marc Prenskyhttp://marcprensky.com • Chronicle of Higher Educationhttp://chronicle.com/daily/2006/08/2006083001t.htm