The Effective Use of Blogging and Wikis

Chris Chandler

“Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.”- Chinese Proverb

“Students today depend too much upon ink. They don’t know how to use a pen knife to sharpen a pencil. Pen and ink will never replace the pencil.”

- National Association of Teachers, 1907

“The Internet is not a great tool for teaching. The Internet pales in comparison to the hype surrounding it. People think that children can think of any topic and pull up a wealth of information on it, but that is not the case. The information in a library is what people seem to expect, but nobody has the time to transcribe entire libraries onto computers. There is nothing on the Internet that is incredibly beneficial to education, yet we continue to waste money on

it.”• -The Monterrey County Herald, 1999

•Definitions• Blog – a web publishing

tool that allows authors to quickly and easily self publish text, artwork, links to other blogs or websites, and a whole array of other content. They can be similar to a diary or journal and feature comments from people other than the author.

• Wiki - a Web site that allows visitors to make changes, contributions, or corrections. Wikipedia is an example of a wiki.

•Why should teachers use blogs and wikis?• To help develop 21st

century skills.• Students are comfortable

with technology.• Can promote a higher

level of engagement.• Neither blogs or wikis

take a lot of technological skill.• Video

•Why use blogs/wikis continued

•Instructional Strategies for blogging/wikis

1. Classroom management – they can be used to inform students of assignments, to post handouts, or to act as a question and answer board. (example)

2. Collaboration – students can benefit from feedback from teachers and from peers as well as collaborative learning projects.

•Instructional Strategies continued…3. Discussions – creates an opportunity for

students to discuss topics outside of the classroom. Can also be used to create a study group. (example)

4. Student Portfolios – developing skills and progress can be analyzed. Students can also be more motivated because their work will be published. (example)

•Other ways to use wikis and blogs• Pen Pals around the world• Collaborative story writing•Whole class projects•Group projects (differentiation!)• Curriculum planning

Advantages• simple technology• Promotes “real world”

collaboration skills• Pools strengths of many• Assessable (easy to

track)• Promotes higher quality

writing

Disadvantages• Security/safety issues• Work load of teacher to

monitor• Fighting “copy and

paste”• Potential inequitable

work distribution of contributors

•Where to make one?• Blogs

• www.blogger.com• www.wordpress.com• www.edublogs.com

• Wikis• www.pbworks.com• www.wikispaces.com

•Linked sites• www.rhamericanhistoryap.blogspot.com• www.europeanhistoryap.blogspot.com• www.rhhsart.blogspot.com