Introduction to Blogs and
Wikis in Education
Rob McTavish,
Centre for Distance Education
Stephanie T.L. Chu,
eLearning Innovation Centre
Simon Fraser University
Session Overview
Introduction to Blogs
 Introduction to Wikis
 Research Activity
 Wrap-up Discussion
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Introduction to Blogs in
Education
Blog presentation….
What’s a Blog
 Blog vs. Webpage
 Educational benefits & uses
 Points to ponder with Blogs
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What’s a Blog?
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Blog:
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(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.
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RSS - Rich Site Summary or Really
Simple Syndication
Enables bloggers to “syndicate” their
blogs
 Users can use subscribe to their
favourite blogs
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Blog vs. Webpage
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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
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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
Uncommercialized perspective (?)
Organized/structured
Mainly text - low bandwidth requirements
1
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1. (see
Scardamalia, 2003, http://ikit.org/SummerInstitute2003/posters/kbindicators.html)
Educational benefits & uses cont.
Historical context - archives posted
 Narrative evaluation of resources
 Provide effective means for interactive
online portfolios
 Class “discussion” forum
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Points to ponder with blogs
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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) began
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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
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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)
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Educational Uses of Wikis
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Information sources (simple websites easily created)
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Used as resources for courses
Within courses (e.g. course definitions)
As a learning tool
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Collaborative web-writing and collections
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Project or team space
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e.g. calendar, agenda serves as foundation for notes
Community building among students and learning to
collaborate
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e.g. sketch pad, brainstorming, problem-solving, lists and
links
Meeting planning and note-taking
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e.g. Romantic Audience Project
e.g. “hot lists”, common interests, projects “Hall of Fame”
Student assignment hand-in
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e.g. peer ratings and feedback
Educational Uses of Wikis (cont.)
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For the individual
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Metacognition
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Research journal and organizer
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e.g. self-reflection journal
e.g. research for papers, projects, theses
Subject areas
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Cross class/courses projects
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e.g. interdisciplinary projects
Not just for “writing” courses (e.g. Math)
Some content adapted from: TECFA and B. Lamb, UBC
Wiki Considerations
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Requires comfort with computers
Organization, keeping up, housekeeping
(instructor)
 Takes some getting used to:
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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?
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Refer to the PhPWiki Site to
http://phpwiki.sourceforge.net/phpwiki
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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
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Introduction to educational blogs
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Blog hosting services:
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http://manila.cet.middlebury.edu/weblogworkshop/
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
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http://www.bloglines.com/
http://www.feedreader.com/
http://www.usablelabs.com/
More Blog resources
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Blogging across the curriculum
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Using blogs in education
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http://www.mchron.net/site/edublog.php
Key Edu-bloggers
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http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/xml/edu_rss.cgi
Weblogs in Higher Education
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http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/emerging/default.html
Edu_RSS - service for collecting edu-blogs
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http://www.ebn.weblogger.com/
Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-line Collaboration
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http://www.weblogg-ed.com/
Educational blogger network
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http://mywebspace.quinnipiac.edu/PHastings/bac.html
http://fraser.typepad.com/edtechuk/2004/04/key_edubloggers.html
Blogs in education
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http://awd.cl.uh.edu/blog/
Wiki Resources
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Definition and Advantages of Wikis
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The Wiki Phenomenon
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http://edtech.coedit.net/WikisInTheClassroom
Wiki in Education
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http://edtech.coedit.net/EducationalWikiList
Wikis in the Classroom
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http://ssad.bowdoin.edu:8668/space/Pros+and+Cons+of+Using+a+Wiki
Educational Wiki List
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http://distance.uaf.edu/dls/resources/facdev/oi/outlines/wiki-intro.cfm
Pros and cons for using a Wiki in education
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http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?wikionwiki
Introduction to Wikis (includes educational uses)
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http://www.schwall.de/thewikiphenomenon/index.php
A WikionWiki (B. Lamb @ UBC)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiInEducation
Teaching Wikis
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http://teachingwiki.org
More Wiki Resources
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Educational Uses of Wikis
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Teaching and Learning with Wikis
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http://nearlythere.com/cgi-bin/design/wiki.cgi?WikisInEducation
Wiki Sofware and its Uses in Distance Education
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http://itp.innoved.org/wiki/wikis/
Wikis in Education
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http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiEducationalUses
http://www.tlg.ca/grouph/info.html
Quickiwiki, Swiki, Twiki, Zwiki and the Plone Wars Wiki as a PIM and
Collaborative Content Tool
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http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/apr03/mattison.shtml (see page 8)
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Emerging Technologies, Article by Godwin-Jones (2003)
 http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/emerging/
 Wikipedia: The largest wiki (and collaborative encyclopedia)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
WikiBooks Portal (find information about specific subjects like biology)
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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
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Wrap-up Discussion
12-point Framework
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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
???