Blog vs Wiki: The Educational Showdown

As a teacher, I've got to ask myself: which do I think would be more effective in the classroom: a blog or a wiki? These two ways of presenting and interacting with information on the web are very different and each have advantages and disadvantages.

Authorship

Both are media that allow multiple authors to write and present material on a web page such that others can add to that written material. Blogs often have comment boxes enabled, so that readers can comment and address the topic which the author has chosen. In a wiki, the original author swiftly becomes the co-author of all pages as readers turn co-author and edit the original page and writing done by the original author. Blogs are more conducive to single authorship and discussion of a topic, whereas wikis are better set up for collaborative work. Wikis allow authors to create new pages for new topics, which might better organize certain kinds of material, rather than the temporally updated and listed material of a blog.

Time as a Factor

With blog, teachers would be able to clearly see when students authored and submitted their work. The general set up of a blog post includes the time and/or date of the post in the header with the title of the post. Wikis are set up to be topic-based rather than chronological in their layout, so authors of the page can edit and change material anywhere on any page at any time on any topic. It is much harder to tell what was done when by whom, unless you have a system that tracks changes. A project with a particular due date for some kind of completed or substantial amount of material would be harder to monitor temporally.

Monitoring of behavior

In a classroom/educational setting, the subject of safety and behavior monitoring have to be taken into account. The natural set up of blog seems to make this easier, as a single administrator can have the power to edit or delete inappropriate posts by authors. It would also be much easier to tell which author posted inappropriate material. Wikis are naturally set up to evolve and change as the group of authors decide, with less attention paid to authorship. This would make it more difficult to monitor the behavior of individuals, again, without the close monitoring of tracked changes. Also, the nature of a wiki is to expand topically. Authors can create new pages and expand the size of a wiki site very rapidly, which is good for material organization, but also makes it easier to hide inappropriate material as a wiki rapidly grows.

Verdict

I think that choosing a blog or wiki will really come down to assessing what kind of project is being done and what kind of material is being approached. If the material involves a broad topic with many sub-topics that need to be discussed and addressed by all students, particularly in the creation of some kind of study-guide or reference website, then a wiki is probably the best choice. If the students need to turn in distinctly individual materials on a schedule (daily, weekly, monthly), then a blog is probably a better medium. When taking the behavior of a particular class into account, if a teacher needs to monitor and restrict information sharing and authorship more closely, a blogging format and set up with naturally serve better. If a teacher is leading a mature group of students in a project that is understood as a peer editing and collaborative project, then a wiki is an exciting resource to be able to use.

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This post is part of the 21st Century Learning post series.

Projects

So the first of September has come and gone. I missed posting. Oops.

Since I last posted here I have had several creative pursuits which have taken up my time. The first was a cowl shirt. I first saw one in REI, but it was $60! Crazy, I told myself. It looks sorta like this, but with a more subtle pattern. I could not get it off my mind after I saw it in the store, so I decided to make one. I bought a black t-shirt and used the body of it to make the long neck, which I attached to a black long-sleeved shirt I already owned. I will have to see about getting some photos up. There are things I would do different if I were to do it again, but isn't that always the way of projects? I'll have to see about getting some photos up.

The other project I worked on was for my Emerging Technology course. I created interactive PDFs! It was a pretty fun project in the making. I used Adobe InDesign to create PDFs that have audio and video clips built into them. While this isn't going to be your normal PDF for printing off, it is a really great tool for digital communication. Adobe InDesign allows the user to create PDFs that use several technological mediums (audio recordings, video recordings, podcasts, images) to create multi-level learning tools that appeal to learners of all kinds. Through the creation of interactive PDFs, teachers can adapt and supplement curriculum to the needs of the individual learners in their classrooms. Now, auditory and visual learners have the ability to interact with curricular material through experiences which help them form lasting memories of classroom lessons.

The content which interactive PDFs can communicate to students is infinite. Audio clips are useful for language learning, ESL, literature, literacy, social studies and music. Video clips may be equally important in all of these courses as well as science and mathematics. Through use of the available material from sources such as podcasts, iTunesU, YouTube and Khan Academy, teachers can augment their lectures and keep student interest. Another advantage of using interactive PDFs is that not only can they be used during lectures, but teachers can make the resource available to students and parents through email or classroom
websites for continued access and use of the resources that support in-class materials.

Building a Lego Bridge... without the Legos

So I wanted to post some pictures from my first assignment in my Emerging Tech class.

Lego – Building a Bridge Debriefing

When tasked with building a Lego bridge, the first problem I encountered was my lack of access to Legos. In search for an acceptable alternative, I found a local church had children’s building blocks that I could use for this assignment. I altered the pricing based on the size of the blocks I had in the following manner:

-          Small square blocks = $150

-          Large square blocks = $250

-          Rectangular prism blocks = $350

-          Large flat blocks = $450

The entire process of planning and building the bridge the first time took me approximately 10 minutes. The end result was a 6 in. tall, 14 in. long bridge, which held a heavy textbook. I used 2 flat blocks ($900), 4 small blocks ($600), 8 large blocks ($2000) and 2 rectangular blocks ($700). My total expenses added up to $4200 for the project. I did not use any resources (except my brain) in the planning of the bridge. Mostly, I focused on using at least one of each block type and making the measurements conform to the requirements provided.

Phase 1 Bridge

For my second bridge, I spent about 10 minutes looking at some of the sites suggested, but I didn’t find the Lego sites very helpful, as they referred to a different building material. I used the Ohio Department of Transportation site (http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Communications/BridgingtheGap/Pages/ BridgeTermDefinitions.aspx) to learn a little more about the terms and structures of bridges in general. I then searched sites about building bridges with blocks. I found a website in which some very young bridge builders had built a block bridge strong enough to hold their combined weight (http://earlylearningcentral.ca/?p=511). Looking at their photos, I noticed that in some cases they used multiple blocks as abutments to hold up the deck of the bridge, while other times they used single blocks. This made me rethink my design in a way that made it more cost effective. My second bridge consisted of 2 flat blocks ($900), 4 small blocks ($600), 4 large blocks ($1000) and 4 rectangular blocks ($1400). While the change in the building was not significant, the cost saved was (a total of $3000 for the second project, saved me $1200).

Phase 2 Bridge - with room for a boat or any vehicle that wants to pass under it

Planning Diagram for Phase 2

(sorry this last one is sideways - I can't for the life of me figure out why it won't turn)

I found the second phase much easier, because rather than trying to merely fulfill the requirements, I looked at what other collaborators have done, combined their ideas with my own and applied them to the materials I had. I found searching on the internet to learn the technical terms much easier than trying to find a book in a library (none of which I had access to). I think for the time-constrained learning opportunities that we have in classrooms today, the second phase, in which technology is available for research, to be more appropriate.

While I understand the purpose of this assignment, I felt I had the skills I needed to complete the activity – with or without the technology backing me up. On the other hand, it would have taken me longer than 20 minutes in the second phase if I had not had the technological resources available to me. I think the skills that students will need to learn in order to participate in activities like this are flexibility in brainstorming, critical thinking, knowing how to use the resources available to them and understanding how the creative process works. These skills are exceedingly relevant to the workforce and to problem-solving in life more generally and are 21st century skills. 

The tech... it's coming

Today I start a course called Emerging Technologies for Teaching and Learning. I'm pretty excited to see what is going to come of this new course. I've already begun to upload photos, update profiles and get back around to this blog, so that I have some place to post of the online goodies.

We've recently moved back to the US from Hong Kong and now are out in Salt Lake City. It's a new place with a new outlook. Some of that will probably make its way into the future blogging as well.

Mini Food Rant

So here I am, taking a short break from work and browsing through Pinterest when I see a picture of lasagna. This is all fine and good (and even mouth watering) until I read the comment posted under it: "Best Lasagna. As good as any restaurant. Worth the time and effort!"

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I'm good with the first and last statements in that comment. It's the middle one that kinda disturbs me. I'd like to preface this mini rant with the fact that I'm Italian. I learned to cook at home. There was good food there.

1) I believe that food at restaurants (of the normal kind - none of the 4 star ones of course), should be AS GOOD AS AT HOME. Not the other way around. Seriously - my husband pretty much won't eat pizza that isn't homemade anymore, because he considers it not good enough. I always tell people I know the best Italian place in town... it's my home.

2) If you've been to good Italian restaurants (funnily enough they're frequently owned by Greeks, if not Italians), then you know that the food is made with a care that shows in the outcome. If you've been to other Italian restaurants or restaurants that serve Italian food along with other fare, you know that much of the time your pasta comes to you mushy instead of al dente, the sauce has too much oregano in it and the sodium content is probably through the roof (which is a good reason on their part to cover it with cheese).

3) When did the standards of cooking become so low that restaurants quality is the goal? Much of what people eat out nowadays is fast food anyway.

Now I'd like to be fair - there are fabulous restaurants that are completely worth emulating, but when I think of the majority of the restaurants that I've eaten at in the past year (on a normal person's budget), I don't usually want to emulate their food.

I highly doubt the woman that posted that comment was thinking gourmet when she thought of restaurant quality lasagna. My guess is she was thinking more like Olive Garden. Their food is fine, but it's not something I run home to try to recreate. All in all, this comment makes me a little sad... I am such a food snob.

The end of my hiatus

I know this is an excuse, but work and transitions have overcome me for a while. It's a part of poor planning - a teacher shouldn't let transitions break too far into the daily plan. But then, I'm not a teacher yet, so lessons are still being learned on that front.

Unfortunately, there isn't much fun news to catch up on. I finished The Marvelous Land of Oz. I also got through Son of a Witch again, which was better this time through. I'm closing in on the end of A Lion Among Men as well, in preparation for Out of Oz, which I expect to get for Christmas. Now it's a matter of holding myself back - I know I shouldn't buy it on my kindle before I go home to get a hard copy. It'll be maddening to wait though. :)  Again, if you haven't read the series, I highly recommend it. Maguire has a way of doing all of the political satire and intrigue well folded into highly personal and delving narrative.

I've been doing making some stationary and calendars for those at home - DIY Christmas gifts. The easy way out too. It's a pain to drag gifts for people from halfway around the world - especially when you're not sure if they'll like them. Plus, we've done the normal "from Hong Kong" gifts of jade and Chinese zodiac things. You just can't do those kinds of gifts over and over. People's houses get full of stuff they don't use too much anyway.

 Instead, I take the time to make some nice designs and pay for the printing. I'll do all of the cutting and packaging myself. I think they're coming out quite nicely. I've made a gamble posting one of them to the internet early,  but I'll run the risk. :)

What are you doing to get ready for the holidays? Do you make your own handmade gifts? Leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by!