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Blogs, Wikis, and Other Online Paraphernalia

There’s this thing called Web 2.0. It means that the old web (1.0, or the “Read Only Web”) is now the “Read/Write Web.” It means that the kind of web-publishing that used to require some fairly complex coding skills (like knowing html) now only requires an ability to point and click. And that’s an important change in the way The Web works for us.

WHAT IS A BLOG?

A blog is an easily updated website. It primarily consists of “entries” which can be “posted” and read from any computer that has an internet connection. Readers of these posts can comment on them (or not, depending on what you as blog owner have determined).

Some places offer free blogging. One of the most popular is the Google-owned Blogger at http://www.blogger.com/ . A more educator-friendly service is James Farmer’s Edublogs at http://edublogs.org/ . This is a great service that offers teachers blogs without advertisements. Students are offered blogs at http://learnerblogs.org/ . Another very good free service is WordPress at http://wordpress.com/ .

How can blogs be used in school?

I haven’t yet used blogs for classes. I am still in love with the discussion boards at http://interversity.org/plainpublicroad/ and http://interversity.org/readings/ , but I’ve been wondering how blogs might work for classes.

Our Edline setup fulfills some of the functions that blogs might offer: posting homework assignments, making course announcements, etc. But blogs have the advantage of being much more user-friendly, interactive through the comment function, and open to multi-media (sound and video) posting.

Students could be required to have their own individual blogs, on which they could post their own written work (teacher-assigned or freely determined). This work could then be commented upon by other students and the teacher before a hard copy is printed for submission. Or the work could be evaluated as is on the blog. Students could create their own digital videos, upload them to YouTube.com at http://youtube.com/ , and then post them at their blogs. Students could upload their own photos to Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/ and then post them on their blogs.

I’ve also toyed with the notion of assignment-specific blogs. For instance, when we read The Great Gatsby, students could be assigned to create Daisy’s, Gatsby’s, or Nick’s blog … and would be expected to write their entries from that character’s point of view.

Visit my personal blogs at http://brtom.typepad.com/two/ and http://brtom.typepad.com/ .

WHAT IS A WIKI?

A wiki is a web page that can be edited by anyone (or as determined by it’s owner). The best known is probably Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page .

See the intro to Mark Wagner’s wiki movie at
Download .

In his movie, Wagner visits David Conlay, who uses wikis for his classes. To see many of the pedagogical possibilities for this technology, visit that most excellent wiki at http://aristotle-experiment.wikispaces.com/ .

Wiki service is available at Wikispaces: http://www.wikispaces.com/ and pbwiki: http://pbwiki.com/edu.html .

Wagner also has an excellent intro to many aspects of the Read/Write Web at
Download .

WHAT IS AN RSS AGGREGATOR?

It took me a long time to figure this out, but now I’m wondering how I watched the web (especially the many blogs I read regularly) without it.

An RSS aggregator pulls together updates from many different websites, so I don’t need to visit each individual site to see what’s new. I just go to Bloglines at http://www.bloglines.com/ or Netvibes at http://www.netvibes.com/ . The latter is currently my favorite … very very cool.

WHAT IS DEL.CIO.US?

You know what a BOOKMARK is, or a FAVORITE, right? It’s a function of your web browser on your own computer that stores your most frequently visited and favorite websites. Well, del.icio.us is a WEBSITE that allows you to gather and tag your favorites so that you can have access to them from any online computer AND you can share some or all of these bookmarks/favorites with others. For example, all links mentioned in this handout can also be accessed through my del.icio.us collection at http://del.icio.us/btocarm/for_carmel and you can see all of my bookmarks at http://del.icio.us/btocarm .

[To allow the links in this handout to come to life, I will email it to everyone. So all you’ll have to do is click on the links in the email … and you will be brought straight to that site.]