Thanks for visiting! This post has been migrated to the LSS Blog: Wikis and Blogs – What’s the difference?
Summary:
Over the past couple of weeks, at the T&LS, at the TASI, and in consultations and conversations with faculty and staff around campus, people have been thinking and talking a lot about wikis and blogs, and wondering what these tools can do to support effective teaching and learning. In this post, I hope to pull together several discussions addressing the two most common questions people have been asking about wikis and blogs recently: What are they? And what’s the difference?
[...] hinted in a previous post on differences between wikis and blogs, wikis aren’t always used for collaborative writing. And, as the quote above reminds us, [...]
I am just learning about wikis and blogs. I think this is all so amazing! I think from what I have read and digested that blogs would be better for students so they can have one solid idea with comments from others, but no changes. Am I right about this?
I am currently a first grade teacher and would like to know if I can utilize wikis or blogs with my students. Do you have any ideas or suggestions as to how I can do this or where else I can look to find more?
Hi Lynn,
Much of it primarily depends on the technology skill level of your students and I don’t know what policies your school has around such usage, so I would say you should have a good sense of both before you start. But a very introductory approach to blogging would be for you to be the lone author of your blog and allow public comments. Let your students pick “secret identities” that only you know (good protective measure) and have them use those identities to comment on your blog posts. Ask them easy questions that they feel comfortable answering to start and isn’t too taxing from a keyboarding perspective.
Make sure you set up your blog so that you moderate and approve comments. This will give you the ability to see what is written before it goes public and gives you spam control as well.