Our Project Tech workshop yesterday was on blogs and wikis. What’s the difference between blogs and wikis? Simply put, blogs are more about connecting with people, while wikis are more about collecting information.
You can use a blog to share and discuss information with others. One of the main things I’m liking about blogs is that I can find other people who are working on the same things I am and learn from them. It’s a way for people across countries and time to share ideas with others. If you want to find some blogs to read, try using Bloglines or Technorati–these sites allow you to do a keyword search to find blogs on a particular topic.
If you want to create a blog to use in your classroom, try edublogs.org. You can have one for one project for student discussion, or you could create one for a group of teachers to discuss a topic. You can create an ongoing one for your class to discuss topics in your subject area. The advantage is, you get to moderate the discussion and guide the students. If you are interested in creating one, we’ll have tips on using it on the Project Technology site.
Wikis are more about collections of information. You can use a wiki to create an encyclopedia with a class, track data, post links relating to your subject area, work on a project collaboratively, etc. Anyone can edit the document who has access to it via a password if it is a private wiki. If it’s public, anyone can edit it.
Some good wiki sites if you are interested in trying one are pbwiki.com (easy as a pb sandwich), wetpaint.com, and wikispaces(which is affiliated with edublogs).
Wiki means “quick” in hawaaian, although I noticed Ebay is now using a Wiki and they define it as “What I Know Is.” Whatever the definition, they are quick and easy to create!
The library has several copies of Will Richardson’s book, Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts which is a helpful guide to learning how to use these tools if you are interested! (By the way, the library is sponsoring Will Richardson on February 6 as a guest speaker if you are interested in attending! More to come later on that.)