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This guide covers the basic use of blogs and wikis for teaching and learning.
The word "blog" is short for "web log" and is essentially an online journal. Blogs are typically written in chronological order, and are maintained by an individual. Most blogs express personal opinions and allow readers to post comments. Many blogs are open to the entire Internet, but some blog services allow private blogs for individual or group use. Blogs vary in popularity. Famous people or corporations often sponsor their own blogs which are typically screened by staff members. Other famous blogs often start out as individual blogs that develop a following on the Internet.
Wikis are web pages that can be collaboratively edited by multiple people. Wikis are typically locked down to a specific group of people or can be open to just about anyone. Wikipedia, one of the most famous wikis, is an online encyclopedia that anyone who creates an account can edit.
Blogs can be used for students to post journal entries, such as their thoughts on a reading or a field experience, to reflect on their learning, for peer review, or for arguing a point of view in a debate. Blogs are best for projects where you want each student to author their own page but to be able to comment on the pages of others. Blog comments are attached to the post but do not change the original blog content.
Wikis can be used for group authorship of research papers or multimedia projects. Most wiki tools allow students to attach files, images or links to web sites. Wikis can also be used to create a shared knowledgebase for a class to share their learning on a particular topic. Most wikis keep statistics on usage and versions. Version tracking is useful to show the development of a project, and earlier versions can be reverted to if someone accidentally deletes part of a page. Usage tracking shows who has last updated the wiki, and their frequency of postings. This can be helpful in determining student participation, but can be misleading if a group of students works at a single computer while one person types.
Blog or wiki assignments work best when there are clear expectations and ground rules set up in advance. Both are open mediums, and students can get off track easily or may feel writer's block staring at an empty web page. A best practice is to provide a template or "seed" content, which may be as simple as posting a copy of the assignment or a list of questions to answer. The escrapbooking site offers some helpful suggestions for blog starters.
With the increase in identity theft, some students may be uncomfortable posting information about themselves on the web in a public forum, so you should strongly consider a blog or wiki that only your class can see, or allow your students to choose a screen name that does not reveal his or her identity online. Public blogs or wikis that are open to the world also need to be monitored for spam and offensive postings.
Third party tools will require a separate account and login to be created, and may require some extra setup to create a group area. You may need to allow some class time or an ungraded assignment to ensure that students are able to create their accounts, and are able to access the sites they need to. If you are using a third party tool in addition to a LATTE site, post a link to your class blog or wiki site to make it easy for students to find.
Some of your students may already have a personal blog or wiki account with the service you choose. You may wish to ask your students to create a specific username for your class to keep them focused on their assignments.
Students can create personal blogs in LATTE, but they are not linked to a course. Course wikis can be created for individuals or groups. Wikis in LATTE are restricted to the students and staff members in a course and can be set to allow editing by the entire class, a group, or each student and instructor. Multiple wikis may be created in one course site.
Brandeis also supports a wiki tool called Twiki, which is more advanced than the tools offered in LATTE, but requires a higher learning curve. TWiki can be used for course or departmental wikis.
If you would like to have your students create a blog or wiki that is visible to the world, these tools are freely available and easy to use. Note that if you use an external site students will need to create their own accounts and you may need to rely on the support offered from the service that you choose.
This free wiki tool claims to be "as easy as a peanut butter sandwich" and features a special section on using PBWiki for education.
Wikispaces is another free wiki that many people find easy to use.
A free blog site sponsored by Google. Blogger sites are available to the world or can be restricted to a group. Blogger group blogs can be created so that an entire class could post to one blog but each person would have invididual entries.
LiveJournal is a blog site that is easy to use and also allows private posts to a group by creating a "friends" list or community. This makes it easier to see posts from the class on one screen, rather than clicking on individual blog links one by one.
WordPress is a popular blog tool that offers additional flexibility in formatting and layout options and allows you to link internal web pages to your blog.
