Blogs and Wikispace: differences
Computer-Supported Collaborative System (CSCL) tends to imply several technologies such as blogs or wikispace. In this respect, it should be claimed that people have difficulties to explain the differences between these two systems.
To begin, it can be asserted that both blogs and wikis belong to Web 2.0, i.e. the second generation of the web history which is based on distinct users' communities and a wide range of online applications and services. In addition, it would be interesting to mention that the name 'Web 2.0' was chosen by Tim O'Reilly in 2004.
Nevertheless, blogs and wikis have some distinct characteristics. On the one hand, with respect to blogs, it may be pointed out that users utilise them more and more since they found it easy to create and update them. Also, blogs allow users to write comments in posts and upload photographs and videos. As for the educational context, learners can employ blogs in order to improve their second language by reading posts written in different languages, for instance. In this sense, there are three types of blogs: the one employed by the teacher to provide students with different general ideas about the course and, hence, the students can only write comments; the one which belongs to the whole class and, therefore, everybody can publish posts related to the topics studied in class; and the one of the learner, which is created by each student so as to express his/her interests. On the other hand, in relation to wiki, created by Ward Cunningham, is a tool based on some pages written by different users. In addition, the users can create, modify and delete some pages after their creation. Nowadays, the most famous and well-known wiki is Wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia built thanks to the collaboration of many people. Wiki, in a similar way to blogs, can be applied to the learning process. In this respect, teachers would create the home page to welcome learners as well as to explain the activities that should be carried out. One of the most relevant problems wiki has is related to the fact that learners work collaboratively and they have to decide the final product, i.e. the final version of the wiki, and sometimes they may not come to an agreement. Finally, If you are interested in the similarities and differences between blogs and wikis, it could be a good idea to see the following picture:
Personally speaking, I should admit that I have utilised blogs rather than wikis. In fact, I wrote a blog -called Une croisière sur la Méditerranée- for learning purposes since I had to do a presentation in the French course at university. In this respect, I believe it is easy to create a blog since including pictures and videos is not a difficult task. As regards wikis, even though I have employed Wikipedia from time to time, I did not know this online encyclopaedia was a wiki. Currently, I am creating a wiki with three classmates called 'Learningenglishisfun3'. After using these services, I feel blogs are easier to employ than wikis since my classmates and I have had several difficulties when logging in our wiki, for example. However, from my point of view, wiki is more interesting than blogs due to the fact that users can share impressions and exchange ideas.
I don't know if you can see that if you click on the words 'blog' and 'wiki, you can have access to the blog I wrote for the French course and to our wiki, respectively.
ResponderEliminarYes, Azu, don't worry :):)
EliminarThis is Roberto, I'm still having some issues with my account, I don't seem to be able to log into the blog properly...
ResponderEliminarBlogs are more common, that's right, probably because they look easier to create, maintain and update, but I believe that, in a context of collaborative learning as the one we're experimenting with, as there are four people working together, thefact that wikis are more flexible and allow several people to publish new entries is a very important point.
Well, I think everybody knows what a blog is but few people know what a wiki is. So, maybe, that's why blogs are used more frequently than wikis.
EliminarYes, of course! Until we took the TIC course I had no idea what a wiki actually was! And, on the contrary, I once had a blog in which I wrote reflections and these typical things, so in my opinion, there are more people with blogs than wikis.
ResponderEliminarDid you really have a blog? I didn't know. And, what do you mean by 'reflections'?
EliminarYes, well, you know, when I was young (:P) I created a blog in which I uploaded several entries with my thoughts and ideas on different topics. This is what I meant by 'reflections'. Maybe one day I wrote about love, another about friendship and so on. You know me, so you know I am very creative in this aspect and I like writing very much :)
EliminarDo you mean when you were younger, don't you? :P
EliminarReally? If it already exists, you could show it to us. It could be fun! :)
Yes, I know you like writing and it could be a good idea to read your thoughts about 'friendship' (If you decide to write a blog about it, please, let me know!)
Yes, when I was younger haha
EliminarSorry, but I don't even know where my blog is or what is was called! :( It's a pity, actually...
What a pity! :(
EliminarYes, indeed :(
EliminarWhy don't you have a look at this video?
ResponderEliminarhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrfxKCb2OHQ
It talks about blogs and wikis :)
I personally believe this video is both explanatory and useful since it gives a brief summary of both wikis and blogs used in higher education so it perfectly fits in our blog. Thank you, Sara!
EliminarYou're welcome! I think all the materials we find are good to get a clear and perfect idea of what blogs and wikis are (as well as CSCL in general).
EliminarYes, I would say that sometimes a video is more useful than a written document so as to have a visual idea of what something is. Don't you think so?
EliminarI've been thinking about the blog you wrote for your French class and I feel that, as you mentioned, blogs can be a great tool to help students improve their L2 level. If teachers told them to write a blog in which they had to write in their second language and upload several entries each week, it would be very useful and funny at the same time, because it is not what it is traditionally done in class. This reminds me of the 'diary' Paul Rollinson asked us to write in the first year. The only difference is that diary was printed and a blog would be online, which is even more attractive for students.
ResponderEliminarYes! When I was reading your post it also reminds me of Paul and the diary. Maybe, in the following years, Paul asks people to write their diaries in blogger (for instance) and, then, other students may give feedback to the writer by means of writing comments.
EliminarSara! Didn't you write a blog to the French class? I think we all did it. You may find the link and we could see it even if it's in French.
EliminarWith respect to what you said about writing blogs so as to improve your L2's level, it's true since I remember writing the blog entry and I really learnt many new terms since it should be fun for my classmate as well as for the teacher. Then, I presented it in class. Can you remember? I think it's something similar to what we have to do in TIC class.
No, I didn't write a blog for our French class. I think it was optional and I finally did a word presentation. It was for our oral presentations, do you remember? Or maybe I am mistaken haha Perhaps I did a blog and I don't remember!
EliminarWell, I think we all should have created a blog since the teacher has the main blog where all the links to the student's entries were. However, most of the people finally didn't create a blog. I can't remember if you did so :S
EliminarWith Loren, Isabel or Caroline?
EliminarWith Caroline :)
Eliminar