VANESSA OLIVIER

“Educational technology does not possess inherent instructional value:
a teacher designs into the instruction any value that technology adds to the
teaching and learning processes” (Dexter, 2002, p. 57).

What is a blog?

1 Aug 2018, 09:33 Publicly Viewable

A blog—a shorthand term that means “Web log”—is an online, chronological collection of personal commentary and links. Easy to create and use from anywhere with an Internet connection, blogs are a form of Internet publishing that has become an established communications tool. As such, they allow writers to share ideas, links, multimedia, and other types of information, and often allow readers the opportunity to respond with comments. A blog where students write about their course readings, discussions, lectures, and other assignments is a powerful way to not only engage students in the subject matter but create an authentic community of learners. EDUCAUSE , 2007

Forums, Chat Room, Blogs and Wikis ???

Similarities:

They all provide a place to...

Publish to the web
Collaborate with a group
Post thoughts, opinions and ideas
Comment on other people's contributions

Differences:

Discussion Forums are TOPIC centred.

discussions are organised into topics by 'threads'
anyone in the community can start a thread on a topic of their choosing
all participants have an equal voice
posts require someone to reply for a discussion to take place
you can follow through a thread on a particular topic

Blogs are AUTHOR centred.

posts are made by the blog's author only (may be a group)
posts are usually opinion pieces and written in the authors voice
readers can add comments to the author's post
organised in reverse chronological order so the most recent posts show on the entry page
reflect the authors identity in the tone, look and feel and content

Wikis are content/Document centred.

wikis are for group authoring
editable website with a complete version history kept
aim is to reach a consensus or compromise on the content of the page
the focus is the content produced, not the individual authors
usually neutral and objective
discussion/comment is separated from the wiki content

How is it used:

Discussion Forum

Used to DISCUSS and DEBATE

class discussion
debate
q and a
role play
help forums
social forum
online icebreakers

Blogs

Used to REFLECT and REVIEW

learning reflections
journal writing
book reviews
resource reviews
software reviews
editorial style articles
personal publishing
travel diaries
news

Wikis

Used to COLLABORATE and SYNTHESISE

group projects
group authoring of academic papers
collaborative writing
easy to update website
knowledge base
faq
planning events and activities