Using blogs, journals and wikis: an introduction

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Using Blogs, Journals and Wikis – an introduction

Maximizing Classroom Collaboration
Using Web 2.0 Technology (Future
Technology)
Specifically, using Blogs, Journals
and Wikis

Examples of Web 2.0 Technologies
Emphasize online collaboration & sharing among users
Wikipedia’s description of Web 2.0:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
Wikis – Wikipedia, TikiWiki
Blogs – Blogger, WordPress
Social Bookmarking Sites – del.icio.us, BlinkList
Web-based applications – ThinkFree, BaseCamp
Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Session objectives
By completing this session, you will be able to:
• Describe benefits & obstacles to collaboration. Whether among
students, among faculty, or between students & faculty.
• Identify online tools that support collaborative work. Particularly
collaborative work on a shared document.
• List examples of specific uses to support collaborative teaching
& learning. Identify examples from your classes or work where a
collaborative environment such as this is useful.
• Determine how to evaluate whether or not to use Blogs, Journals
and Wikis for certain educational situations. Dependent on your
instructional goals or context and characteristics of students or
lecturers, etc…

Definition
Collaboration - the act of collaborating. Working together for a
common end.
Latin roots: “to labour together.”

What do we collaborate on?
Manuscripts
Grant proposals
Presentations
Classes
Group projects
Papers
Other things

How do we collaborate?
In the past, more slowly & at
more expense:
Postal mail documents
Telephone calls
21st century collaborators
often use:
Emailed documents
Skype or other VoiP
service

Now you!
What are some strategies that you’ve used
Collaborate with
Colleagues & Other
Professionals
Collaborate with Students

Now you!
Rate how well your collaboration strategies have worked (overall
or specifically)

Why don’t our standard collaboration strategies work well?
Multiple people
Multiple versions of material
Retaining material
Limited access to most current material

What students want in collaborative projects…
Anytime access to the most
current version
Ability to use programs they
already know
Ability to retain all versions, in
case of the need to add material
back in
Automatic saving, just in case they
forget that important step
Ability for faculty to identify
contributions of the various group
members

Now you!
What collaborative activities do you use in classes?
Papers?
Presentations?
Other things? (describe)
Consider how well these collaborative activities work – for you as lecturer in your
faculty

Programs facilitating collaboration
Skype (or others) – computer to computer calls
FolderShare – file sharing
Stickam – synchronous video
TalkAndWrite – synchronous document interaction
Tikiwiki (or others) – collaborative creation of materials
Google Docs & Spreadsheets – centralized storage of
documents for editing by multiple persons
Blogger (or others)– web log
Journal – reflective writing
Toonti (or others) – personal network

Now you!
Have you used Google Doc, Wikis, Blogs & Journals?
Yes No
I love it! I had
some
issues
with it.
I’ve heard
of it, but
didn’t think
it would be
useful.
This is
the 1st
time I’m
exploring
it.
With
colleagues
With
students

Using blogs, journals and wikis: an introduction

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