Two professors from the Honors program recently used the same technology to meet two completely different instructional goals.

Professor Marcia Ladendorff took a group of students to the Ghanaian city of Kumasi to visit the largest open air market in West Africa, as part of the UNF Honors Program’s Ghana Project.  Prior to the trip, she visited CIRT and received assistance using Google Earth Pro to locate the market in Kumasi and save a satellite image of it. Google Earth Pro can export higher quality images than the free version of Google Earth, and that satellite image was printed onto 3’ x 3’ posters using the wide-format printer. Professor Ladendorff took the posters with her on the trip to orient students, to use for navigation, and to give as gifts to people working in the Kumasi market.

Blog and Wiki are big buzz words these days, but what do they mean, and more importantly, how can they be used to enhance teaching and learning?

Blog is simply a combination of the words ‘web’ and ‘log’, and describes a chronological online journal that is easily published through the use of an online tool or specialized software, such as Blogger.com, Wordpress.com, or Moveable Type. Many blogs are published by a single author, and others are focused on a specific topic, with multiple contributing authors. Visitors can typically submit comments responding to postings and subscribe to the blog to be notified of new posts.

The Snook is a blog from web developer Jonathon Snook and the posts focus on web development and design. Educated Nation offers news, humor, advice, and opinion on topics relating to participation in higher education, and it has three contributing writers.

So, you might be thinking, this looks pretty interesting to browse through, but what does it have to do with instruction?

Blogs offer the opportunity for student reflection about course content, their experiences, or current events. Integrating blogging into a course may provide a way for instructor and students to generate, share and connect course information and stimulate academic dialogue. It can be used to provide a forum for students to reflect on their experiences in new environments during travel or service learning.  Blogs may also help students articulate their own learning process and better approach new ideas and information.

For faculty, blogging also offers the opportunity to develop and share ideas beyond the university community.

Visit Weblogs at Harvard Law, to view recently updated blogs created by the Harvard community.

The term wiki comes from the Hawaiian wikiwiki, “fast” or “quickly” and is a website that can be easily edited by multiple authors. Wikis allow groups to collaborate on the collection and creation of knowledge without any html or programming experience. One well-known example is Wikipedia. 

Many wiki tools include versioning capability that can capture the evolution of ideas and content and allow users to step back through the process. On public wikis, open editing allows contribution by the masses, but may also indicate the need for monitoring content for appropriateness and factuality.

Seedwiki and wetpaint are two free wiki hosting services. There is also a fairly good wiki tool, Teams LX, available in Blackboard.

The flexibility of wikis provides a powerful tool for collaboration outside the classroom in both traditional and online courses.  Wikis can be used to participate in group activities, present group projects, collect comments on a project, or build a knowledge base on a topic.

The Industrial Design Clinic Wiki, part of Washington State University’s wiki project provides long-term knowledge management, file sharing and communication for students and faculty engaged in that senior capstone course. Physiki, provides wikis for Physics, Engineering, and Chemical courses at the Colorado School of Mines.

To learn more about the tools available through Blackboard, plan to attend the Blogs and Wikis in Blackboard session on September 18. If you are interested in learning more about effective instructional uses of blogs and wikis, please plan to attend our Brown Bag on October 19.

References

Blood, R. (2006). Weblogs: A History and Perspective. Rebecca's Pocket. Accessed 08/31/07: http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html.

Cunningham & Cunningham, Inc. (2006). Etymology Of Wiki. Accessed 08/28/07: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?EtymologyOfWiki.

Educause. (2005). 7 things you should know about Wikis (2005). EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. Accessed 08/30/07: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf.

Educause. (2005). 7 things you should know about Blogs (2005). EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. Accessed 08/30/07: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7006.pdf.

Reynard, R. (2007). Instructional Strategies for Blogging. Campus Technology.  Accessed 08/28/07: http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=47775.

Williams, J. B. and Jacobs, J. (2004). Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces
in the higher education sector. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(2), 232-247.