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 • ???