Tag: blog

Workshop: Blogs for beginners

David Piggott /

Work your way through the following questions to start a series of short discussions. Please summarise your responses in the reply box below, making reference to the question number in the response.

(see the blog page for assistance if you get stuck)

  1. What is the difference between a blog and a normal website?
  2. In what situation might you use blogs for an assessment?
  3. If you decided to use a blog for an assessment, how would your institution be able to help?
  4. What problems can you foresee in using blogs for assessment?

Workshop: Blogs for users

David Piggott /

Your task here is to consider the following scenario and discuss how you would deal with one or more of the issues arising (numbered below). After your discussion, please summarise your response in the reply box below (remember to cite the number of the issue in your reply).

Scenario:

Your  assessment requires a class of 20 students to each create and maintain a journal of a placement experience using blogging software. The assessment is based around the demonstration of reflective practice.

Issues:

  1. The students start to complain about the assessment, claiming they don’t understand why their journals have to be written via a blog (i.e. what is the value added by the blog versus word processing?)
  2. Where would you set the privacy levels of the blogs (open to the world; open to the group only; open to the author and staff member only; allow or block comments etc.)?
  3. Some students complain they are at a disadvantage due to a lack of technical skill and experience. A small number of students are regular bloggers and well versed in embedding multimedia and graphics, making their blogs much more attractive and engaging.
  4. What criteria do you use for grading the blogs? Is quality or quantity of posts more important? What are the relative weightings for content and style?

Wikis vs. Blogs

David Piggott /

Most of my colleagues wouldn’t know the difference between a wiki and a blog if I hit them over the head with a computer running one. There’s nothing wrong with that, by the way. I suspect a normal reaction to someone ranting about ‘online collaborative software’ would be to glaze over and start edging away whilst nodding sympathetically. If you’re reading this, however, you must be one of those oddballs who is interested in learning a little more…

Wikis are effectively open websites where the user community create and edit content. They are used extensively by organisations for knowledge sharing and management and by common interest communities (e.g. computer gamers) to share and discuss ideas. Everyone knows about Wikipedia, one of the world’s most popular sites, but it’s worth looking at their sister projects to see the different ways in which wikis have been used.

Blogs (shortened from Web Log), by contrast, are typically online journals or news sites that are updated frequently with “posts”. Like wikis, blogs invite community interaction, but readers can typically only comment on content, or take part in discussion boards related to particular posts. Content is managed by placing posts into categories or by “tagging” posts with popular terms, names or phrases. Most journalists keep blogs and they’re often well integrated with social networks such as Twitter and Facebook so authors can ‘push’ content to increase its circulation.

Here’s a summary of the main differences between wikis and blogs, at least as originally used (…the latest software is increasingly blurring the lines between the two). Check out our pages for more information on each.

Wikis Blogs
Purpose Creating large, community-owned knowledge banks Quick and easy journals and brief articles and updates
Authorship User community Single author or small group
Ease of use May require some basic coding knowledge Very easy (for basic functions)
Presentation of material Grouped by subject Chronological
Advantages Free, flexible and unlimited in size and scope Quick and easy to use, encourages interaction on a given subject
Disadvantages Open to spam; rely on community effort; too technical for some More functional and attractive software can be expensive