For Class Discussion and Weekly Blog Post:
- Wikis in Plain English by Lee and Sachi Lefever (under 4 minutes)
- The Power of Wikis in Higher Ed by Linda L. Briggs
Popular Tools - Course Google Site at https://sites.google.com/site/idt351class/
- Google Docs - Check out Tom Barrett’s Interesting Ways Series using Google Docs.
- Google Sites
- Wikispaces
- PBWorks
- Wetpaint
- And more tools (some can be downloaded and installed onto a server)
Further Resources
- Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Google Wave
- See Who’s Editing Wikipedia by John Borland
- Wikipedia and the New Curriculum by David Parry
You can comment on any of the
following:
- Any difference, strengths or weaknesses compared to blogging tool(s)?
- Any unique or major strengths of wiki tool?
- Anything to consider in adoption or implementation (e.g., user management)
- Or anything related to the course (material, assignment, etc) or your learning experience
For university users, allows learning in the classroom and beyond.
ReplyDeleteThe outreach is limitless. The tool provides unlimited workspaces every semester for students, faculty, and staff while maintaining one single administrator in control.
Distance Learning increases student involvement outside the classroom in a important way. Student comments, feedback and Q/A are a few features offered.
Researching is another great feature. Links to resources are easily uploaded and sharing the findings is very convenient. With unlimited workspaces, a student can create a site for each research topic.
The site itself is provides challenges for first time users. I spent around 10 minutes testing out the features and I could not my sense of organization with all the features. However, this is expected with a web tool of this size and capability.
Wikis are useful to a classroom, a business and for personal use. The difference between a wiki and a blog is that a wiki allows information to be edited, saved then shared. Blog posts are usually posted by one person and then you get feedback through comments. Depending on what you want to do, one may be better then the other. If you are collaborating with a group on a project a wiki would be ideal rather than a blog because the group can collaborate ideas on the wiki and it will allow more than one user to work on a page. A blog may be ideal though if you want the opinions and thoughts of other peers. You will get this through comments on a blog. Each tool of either a blog or wiki will help collaborative writing but knowing the benefits of both and what each can do will allow the user to get the best experience out of the sites.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.commoncraft.com/video/wikis
I would prefer to use a blog than a wiki or PBSworks. For me it is easier for one person to say something and then have feedback in comments to letting you know where you may improve on depending on your topic and give you opinions.
ReplyDeleteA lot of teachers don't agree with wikis but they don't realize how useful they can be. Just because someone can constantly edit the information doesn't mean the it is always wrong. Somebody always make sure the topic is somewhat right. They can be a good source if you are just learning on a topic.
Learning in the classrooms can be important if that is how you plan on for your students to ask questions and post comments. Student involvement goes up I have notice from my classes. I think we have a lot of ways were we can get access to the computers to work on our studies.
While enrolled in this course, I have used both Wiki and Blogs, and I would prefer to use Blogs as an individual tool, perhaps to provide information to peers, and request feedback if any.
ReplyDeleteI would prefer to use WIki for education purposes only. Wiki is a tool that allows multiple forms of interaction between the students and the professors. This is beneficial and very useful.
The information programmed in WIkis are easily editable and each and every participant is able to edit at their own pace.
Blogs and wiki's have proven to be a very powerful tool in education today. While they share a lot of similarities and can be used for many of the same functions they have different specialties that may make one tool better for certain applications.
ReplyDeleteBlogs are good for creating content and then allow that content to be posted on. Blogs allow the administrator to post some material and then for subscribers to then comment on that material in the comment section. These comments will turn into a kind of running thread. Many times these comments will not be edited and will stay up on the blog.
Wiki's can often times serve as more of a collaborate function. If a group needs to work together on some material wiki's are a great way to do this. Wiki's allow approved users to log in and create and edit content on that wiki. Multiple users can log into the wiki and continually polish and edit the material. Unlike blogs comment sections that usually stay up on the blog, wiki users may choose to edit and omit previous material and thus this old material will not be viewable on the newest saved versions. So wiki's prove to be a great tool for group collaborations.
I have used both wikis and blogs. I feel like a wiki can be very useful in classrooms and can give easy information but at the same time it can be something that's not good to use because when someone post a wiki anyone else can go and edit that information. I feel like blogs are good on that note because you only have one editor on blogs and you even though their information may not be the best you don't have to worry about having to much different information that may or may not be true because of different people who have edited it. I still feel that both are good to use depending on what it is being used for. I feel wikis are better for classroom environments because of the way it can be used between students and teachers. I feel blogs are good for giving your opinions on things.
ReplyDeleteWhile blogs may be useful to learn, Wikis seem to be a more resourceful tool when it comes to education. While a wiki allows information to be edited, a blog does not giving it a disadvantage if someone posts wrong information. In a wiki, the administrator (for educational purposes, the teacher) can look at information that has been edited or even deleted. This is a very useful feature because if a student deletes a portion of the information by accident, the administrator can retrieve and restore it. Overall I feel Wikis are more resourceful and useful for both learners and teachers.
ReplyDeleteI am still trying to learn more about Wikis. I have played around and did research on PBworks and from my understanding that is more business and education group projects. Which is king of similar to the Blogger site because we are able to do group project on that site as well. I believe that Blogger is more personal, like you are able to post your personal thought on how you feel about a certain topic or reply to a certain post. Wiki is more professional were it allow you build forms and research more topics. My previous professor advise us not to use wiki sites because the information may be alter or not true. I have not seen any incorrect information on the wiki sites, but it was very interesting to use for a few days.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI feel that wikis and blogs are both very effective tools in their own ways, they can be somewhat similar in a way but I feel like they both serve different purposes. I did not know much about wikis before watching the video given on the home screen. To me wikis seem like they are more team oriented and focuses on groups who may all have one common goal, opposed to a blog which is more personal and cannot be changed or edited by multiple people. Google has a pretty good wiki system and is the one I have used mostly throughout my college career when working on group projects. Overall blogs seem more personal and focuses more on creativity and personal opinion opposed to wikis which seem more professional and meant for a group of individuals trying to achieve a task.