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In the wikis learning circle at the recent Teaching and Learning Symposium, we had a short discussion on the similarities and differences between wikis, blogs, and discussion boards. A previous post tackled what I think is the easier part of the answer – What’s the difference between a wiki and a blog? Now for the tough part: How are blogs and discussion boards similar and different? And, more importantly, what sorts of instructional objectives might lead you to use one tool or the other?

Quick Definitions

A blog is a website made up of a series of “posts,” organized with the newest information at the top of the page (Hourihan). Blogs often allow your readers to submit comments on each post. Blogs also usually allow subscribtion (via RSS), making it easy for readers to keep up on the latest posts on their favorite blogs.

A discussion board (also known as a “forum”), is a collection of “threaded” discussions. Each discussion begins with a post, often in the form of a question or topic to ponder. Authors reply to the initial post, with each new post appearing below previous ones.

Similarities

Like wikis, both blogs and discussion boards make web publishing easy. They both provide a platform for students to express and defend their opinions and help provide an audience for student writing beyond the teacher of the course. Both blogs and discussion boards share a key difference with wikis, in that they place ownership of the text with individual authors, rather than the authoring community.

Differences

Author-Centered vs. Topic Centered

Blogs are, by nature, author centered. You might think of a blog as an evolving set of opinion statements, in which the author states a formative opinion, and then defends and refines that position as other authors react, both in comments attached to the original post, and on their own blogs.

Discussion boards, by contrast, place the topic or question at the center of the authoring environment. The initial post defines the scope of the thread, and authors “reply” with their take on the topic.

This distinction is easy to see when visiting blogs and discussion boards. On an individual blog you see the blog author’s posts first, followed by comments from readers. Discussion boards present topics first, regardless of author.

One result of this difference is that blogs are generally individually crafted environments. Bloggers are in control of the look and feel (or the visual “theme”) of their blog. Many blogs include links to the author’s favorite websites and other blogs they like to read. Some blogs include other personalized information as well, like photo galleries, facebook profiles, and the like. None of this customization exists in the typical discussion board.

Some educators interested in academic blogging have argued that the ability to craft a personal environment for their work leads students to a greater sense of ownership and investment. Rather than taking part in someone else’s discussion, bloggers work on their own turf.

Referencing

Tom Coates, on the blog plasticbag.org, argues that another key difference between discussion boards and blogs has to do with how authors reference each others work.

Discussion board conversations are called “threaded discussions” because each post is directly tied to the posts immediately before and after. Blog posts, by contrast, even when they reference other blog posts, appear in the author’s own blog, outside of the context of any ongoing discussion (it is up to the blogger to build the context of any previous discussion into their post). While this may at first seem like a disadvantage, Coates argues that this author controlled linking between blog posts actually helps filter out less important posts while highlighting the more insightful ones. Coates explains that on a discussion board, “if the second post is entirely off-topic or contains spurious information,” it nonetheless “remains very clearly in the context of the thread.” In this respect, discussion boards make it very difficult to tell which posts are most important or influential in an ongoing discussion.

In a blogging community, however, the more insightful posts tend to be mentioned and linked to more often than those with a lesser impact. Coates argues that, as a result, “those posts which are merely ‘I agree’ or ‘I disagree’ will be filtered from the public consciousness, even as they have fulfilled a valuable function in directing people towards the next structural post in their debate.” While at the same time, the increasing number of links to the more important, or in Coates words, “structural” posts make them easier for readers to find.

Media

I’m not sure why exactly, but discussion-boards tend to be primarily text-only environments. Blogs lean toward text, but also make incorporating audio, video, pictures, and animation quite easy.

Comments

In some ways, blogs have discussion boards built into them. This is because blog comments are organized and presented much like threaded posts on a discussion board. In this respect, writers in a blogging community can choose to make a comment when they have a quick response to a post, or post a more substantial response on their own blog with a link to the original post.

Blog or discussion board?

By placing the author at the center of the writing community, blogs offer rich opportunities for students to develop a personal voice, to initiate discussions, to reflect on their learning, and to write with or for an audience. Because bloggers are writing in their “own space” blogs might be more effective than discussion boards at encouraging personal expression.

Discussion boards might be preferable if it is important for class discussion to happen within a shared, neutral environment, if the goal is to have students react primarily to teacher generated posts, or if it is important for students to see every contribution to a discussion before responding.

Just a start

As I look this over, I feel I should have opened with a bit of a disclosure: A while back, well before I’d ever heard the word “blog,” I wrote a paper for one of my teacher education classes called, “Discussion Board, or Discussion Bored” outlining some lessons I’d learned about trying to use a discussion board to facilitate more and more thoughtful discussions in one of my classes. I was a very new teacher, and the project hadn’t quite worked out the way I would have liked. It is possible that I’ve never quite recovered from that experience, and that I’ve viewed discussion boards with some suspicion ever since. So, please, let me know your thoughts on this, particularly if it seems that I’ve been unfair to discussion boards!

See also

• 7 things you should know about blogs
• Tips and Strategies: Facilitating Online Discussions

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