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Blogs and Wikis 101
a presentation by
Patrick Douglas Crispen
California State University, Fullerton
Part One: Blogs
What they are, how they work, and how you can
use them in your
classroom.
What is a blog?
• A weblog, or simply a blog, is a web application which contains periodic, reverse chronologically ordered posts on a common
webpage.
Source: Wikipedia• Blogs can be used as a
– Personal journal or diary.
– Class project page.
– Bookmarks or links page.
– Etc.
Why blogs are cool
• They’re web-based.
– There’s no client software to download and learn.
– You can update your blog from any Internet- connected computer.
• They’re absurdly easy to use.
– You DON’T have to know or use HTML.
– You DON’T have to know or use FTP.
• They’re not solitary.
– The community of blogs and bloggers make up a vast social network.
Example: Blogger
http://www.blogger.com/
Definitions
• Blog : A web log.
• Blogger: Someone who creates and maintains a blog.
• Blogging: The process of creating and maintaining a web log.
• Blogsphere: The totality of blogs; a
community or social network of blogs.
• Blogroll: A list of a blogger’s favorite
blogs, usually placed on the side of that blogger’s blog.
Common blog features
• Headlines
• Time stamps
• Permanent links [or
“permalinks”]
• Categories
• Searches
• RSS feeds
• COMMENTS
Some popular blog hosts
• I recommend Blogger [http://
blogger.com/] as good starting point.
• Other popular blog hosts include:
– TypePad [http://www.typepad.com/]
– LiveJournal [http://www.livejournal.com/
]
– AOL Hometown [http://
hometown.aol.com/]
• For a canonical list of blog hosts, check out http://tinyurl.com/6mfc3
Blogging server software
The 800 pound gorilla in the server- side blog software market is
MovableType [http://
www.movabletype.org/]
– Teacher/Single classroom: $39.95 – 300 enrolled students: $299.95 – 1,000 enrolled students: $699.95 – >1,000 enrolled students: $999.95
– Multi-school and district licenses are available.
For more information
• Check out Darlene Fichter’s “Blogging Basics” PowerPoint presentation at
http://tinyurl.com/2c7q6
• For even more information, check out
Molly Holzschlag’s three-and-a-half hour
“Learning Blogger” video tutorial at http://lynda.com/
– $29.95 on CD
– $25 a month to access all of Lynda.com’s 100+ tutorials, including mine.
• Also visit http://www.technorati.com/ and http://blogpulse.com/ for what’s
currently popular in the blog world.
Part Two: Wikis
What they are, how they work, and how you can
use them in your
classroom.
The problem in a nutshell
• The web was supposed to
liberate the content creation process.
• But, the barriers to entry are still way too high for most educators:
– You need special training.
– You need special software.
– You need special permission.
The problem in a nutshell
The current editing process is:
– Download a page.
– Edit large chunks of the page in your WYSIWYG web editor like
Dreamweaver or FrontPage [ICK!]
– Put the page back up on the server.
The editing process
• And that’s only if your district
trusts you with making changes to their website.
– Usually, you’re so well insulated from the webmaster that it takes weeks to make minor changes to a single page.
• That’s where wikis come in.
What is a wiki
• A wiki is website (or other hypertext
document collection) that allows a user to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows that content to be edited by any other user. Source: Wikipedia
– You can create a web page without knowing how to create a web page.
– Other people can edit or add to your pages’
contents.
• Wiki—short for wiki wiki—comes from the
Hawaiian term for “quickly” or “super fast.”
Source: Wikipedia
The benefits
• Web-based: No client software to purchase and install.
– Requires either a wiki host service or server-side software.
• Easy-to-learn: The learning curve is relatively flat.
• EASY-TO-USE: Anyone can create or edit a page in a few minutes.
• Community-based: Contributors and editors feel a sense of ownership.
Example: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/
Blogs v. wikis
• Objective
– Blogs are a way to share personal
information, a way for the owner(s) to
express themselves to their target audience.
– Wikis are a means of sharing and editing data [ideas, text, photographs] for the
creation of collaborative knowledge.
• Content creation and control
– Blog content creation and control falls to the owner.
– Wiki content creation and control falls to the audience [although there is an administrator.]
Wikis in education
• “Wiki collaboration systems encourage student-centered learning environments because they encourage students to be co-creators of course content.” (Wang and Turner, 2004)
• BUT
– All content is modifiable by any user.
– All content is public.
– Simultaneous edits are allowed but not successful.
– The Wiki is forever evolving.
The good news
You can overcome all of these obstacles with some simple
settings changes.
– See: C. Wang and D. Turner.
Extending the Wiki Paradigm for
use in Classroom. In proceedings of the International Conference on
Information Technology (ITCC 2004), 2004.
Wiki hosts
• Riters [Free]
http://riters.com/
• SeedWiki [Free/Pay]
http://seedwiki.c om/
• Swiki [Free]
http://swiki.net/
• MyOO.de [Pay]
http://myoo.de/
• EditMe[Pay]
http://editme.co m/
To learn more
• To learn more about wikis in general, check out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
• To learn how to start your own wiki, check out
http://tinyurl.com/3ju33
• For a list of wiki engines, check out http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?
WikiEngines
That’s all, folks!
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Blogs and Wikis 101
a presentation by
Patrick Douglas Crispen
California State University, Fullerton
