Wisconsin Union Blend

Michael Reese & Richard Shingles‘ presentation - Digital Field Assignments: Course Projects for the Net Generation - provided several excellent examples of instructors integrating research and instruction. Many of the projects also had a clear “service” element involved, though the courses did not seem to be connected to any official university service learning initiative. For me, this was a welcome reminder that service learning need not be its own distinct, separate area of coursework, but can be (should be, I think) an integrated expectation across the curriculum.

One of the early challenges of the project we now call LessonShare was finding a name. Among the most prevalent of the working names we used in the early stages of development was the “lesson plan repository.” We weren’t really fond of calling it a repository, but we were having trouble coming up with anything better.

I was reminded of this search for a name, and the vague discomfort I had about the word “repository” in the “Hot Topics Discussion” Institutional Repositories. Much of the debate in this session was around the tension between our emerging ideas of collaborative, social space and the need for persistent and organized document preservation and archiving. Everyone, it seemed, agreed that both these areas were essential, and that clear paths must be made for content creators to move their work from collaborative areas to areas for storage, preservation, and distribution. The disagreement came, however, as to how connected or integrated these spaces should be. More than a few attendees made the case for a dynamic repository - an area for collaboration, improvement, and discussion as well as preservation - that sounded similar to our efforts with LessonShare.

A couple of the participants in the discussion brought up the question - is there really such a thing as a finished product? Since many documents evolve over time, should we dismiss the idea of a repository as a storage mechanism for “finished documents frozen forever in their final state.” Another participant conceded that there are certainly things that do reach a “finished state” (an image of a Matisse painting, for example, would need to be preserved without modification) but that “a finished project doesn’t mean that the conversation is finished” (the archival Matisse image could be connected to remixes, responses, and reinterpretations).

While LessonShare does perform some of the functions of a repository, the very nature of teaching and learning objects is that they will change and evolve over time. I’ve always hoped that LessonShare would encourage creativity and innovation, rather than facilitate the recycling of the same materials and approaches year after year. In that respect, the hope is that LessonShare is more about collaboration than storage. And in that sense it is both a database and a social space.

The Horizon Report “charts the landscape of emerging technologies for teaching, learning and creative expression and produces the NMC’s annual Horizon Report.” If you’d like to get involved in the process, add your exciting new instructional technology links to your del.icio.us account with the tag hz08.

Want to see what the Horizon Report community has been bookmarking lately? Just visit - http://del.icio.us/tag/hz08

Thanks to Cyprien P. Lomas for sharing this tag in the Social Software in Higher Education session.

On his Learning and Innovation blog, Cole Camplese has put together a compelling picture of the growing campus Eco-System for Digital Expression at Penn State University. Camplese shows how academic blogging, podcasting, digital media creation, and other emerging communication and collaboration tools are made possible by a healthy mix of campus IT infrastructure, physical spaces on campus, support resources, and numerous opportunities for instructors, students, and support staff to get to together and talk about instructional technology.

Wikipedia is the product not of collectivism but of unending argumentation; the corpus grows not from harmonious thought but from constant scrutiny and emendation. (Many to Many)

As hinted in a previous post on differences between wikis and blogs, wikis aren’t always used for collaborative writing. And, as the quote above reminds us, “collaboration” might not be cooperative collaboration in every wiki project.

The various ways in which “collaboration” works (or doesn’t), in different wiki projects is possible because wikis are so inherently flexible, and so initially blank, that creative folks come up with an endless supply of new ideas on how to put them to use. Even with the wide range of potential applications, most academic wiki projects seem to fall somewhere on a spectrum between two approaches to wiki collaboration:

the compilation approach: multiple authors contribute their part to a growing collection of knowledge
the consensus approach: authors work together (or perhaps against each other) to write an evolving document that reflects the perspectives of multiple contributors

The compilation approach (aka the knowledge base)

The majority of academic wiki projects I’ve seen use wikis primarily as an efficient way for a group of people to pool knowledge. Each author adds their 2 cents to the wiki, and, as a reward, benefits from the contributions of the group as a whole. In these projects, the tendency is to not edit the work of others.

An interdisciplinary project at UW-Parkside, created by Wendy Leeds Hurwitz and Shi Hae Kim is a good example:

At UW-Parkside in fall 2006, COMM 310: Communication in Everyday Life linked with TEDU 210: Teaching, Learning and Development. We put the students into groups across courses, and gave them a wiki designed to permit easy sharing of information. The Education students observed K-12 classrooms and posted fieldnotes to the wiki. The Communication students made videotapes of interaction in the same classrooms, and posted the videos, as well as transcriptions, to the wiki. All students were asked to read 10 sources and post their notes to the wiki. We created FAQ, a glossary of specialized vocabulary, and a “water cooler” where anyone could ask a question and anyone else could answer. Each student and group had their own pages, linked to those of others. Then each drew on the information collected in the wiki to write an individual paper (which was not posted to the wiki). - adapted from WiscWiki’s list of UW wiki projects

In this project, the wiki acts as an efficient clearinghouse for the data students are collecting on their classroom visits, rather than as a collaborative writing platform. Students read and draw on each others contributions, and work together to keep the resource organized, but don’t actually edit each others work.

The consensus approach

Less common, in the academic wiki projects I’ve seen, is to use the wiki as a central point for collaboration, argumentation, and consensus building.

One example is the Choose your Own Adventure mystery novel project from an intermediate French class at UW-Madison.

For this project, students worked together in groups to write a “Choose Your Own Adventure” mystery novel in French. Each group collaborated on a chapter of the story and decided on the choices the main character would make at the end of the chapter. Other groups joined in and wrote chapters corresponding to each choice. All in all, each class wrote a story with eight possible endings. - adapted from Wiki Ideas Galore!

Like many wiki projects, this one involves both the compilation and consensus approaches. The story as a whole is a compilation of the chapters submitted by each group. Each chapter is a result of collaboration and consensus among group members. (It is interesting to note however that this project was structured such that much of the consensus building and decision making happened verbally in class rather than on the wiki.)

How does your wiki work?

When I first got started working with wikis, I expected to see many more projects focused on argumentation, debate, and consensus building. I’ve been happy to see the many compilation oriented projects succeed, and it has been fascinating to see how powerful wikis can be for efficient information sharing.

But, I’m beginning to wonder - How well do wikis work for consensus oriented collaborative writing projects in academia? Are there models out there to follow? What makes these wiki projects work? Do wikis need a richer set of collaboration oriented features?

So far at Union Blend we’ve developed, or perhaps stumbled our way into, three general formats for our blog posts

• short tips like this one
• links to interesting online tools and resources (like this post on the RSS toolbox), and
• longer articles on things like the differences between wikis and blogs.

These are just three examples of the 7 basic posting formats listed by Amy Gahran on her excellent blog Contentious:

1. Link-only
2. Link blurb
3. Brief remark
4. List
5. Short article
6. Long article
7. Series postings

Wait a minute? Formats? Isn’t blogging supposed to be totally free-from?

Well, it can be, of course, but while we would never argue that you should develop and stick by blogging formats at the expense of creativity, thinking about post formats for your blog can be useful for you, your readers, and for your students if you’re introducing them to blogging.

For blog writers, having a few post formats at your disposal can help you set the scope of your post as you sit down to write. If your blog usually has a mix of short and long posts, for example, it is easier to break up a lengthy, difficult to write post into a series of shorter, more manageable ones. Developing a new format can also spark creativity. This was certainly true for me when Ron posted the first podcasting tip, because it helped me realize that we could use Union Blend to gradually develop a big library of little, but very useful instructional technology tips without trying to write them all down in one sitting.

For your readers, a set of post formats can help develop a set of expectations about your blog. Also, when tied to categories (or tags), post formats can be a great way to provide your readers with an organizational structure that makes your blog easy to navigate. And, at least one blogger has argued that breaking up the rhythm of your blog with a few different formats can make your blog a more interesting read.

For your students, developing, modeling, and perhaps explicitly discussing a few types of blogging formats will help your students understand what you’re hoping to find in their blog writing, and may make it easier for them to hop in and get started when faced with the big empty text box of their first blog post.

See also:

• Doug’s blogging links - a growing list of blogging resources.

A characteristic intro sequence that includes your show’s “theme-song” can really improve the overall sound of your podcast. Short music segments can also provide effective transitions between different parts of your show.

But how can you use music without getting sued? Your safest bet is to use “podsafe” music, or music that has been pre-licensed for use in podcasts. Luckily there are a number of great resources out there that make finding podsafe music very easy. I keep a growing list of podsafe music resources here. You’ll also find extensive information on podsafe music and other “sharable” media at creativecommons.org.

Want to see how easy it is? This short tutorial walks you through the process of finding podsafe music at magnatune.com, one of the largest collections of pre-licensed music.

In the wikis learning circle at the recent Teaching and Learning Symposium, we had a short discussion on the similarities and differences between wikis, blogs, and discussion boards. A previous post tackled what I think is the easier part of the answer - What’s the difference between a wiki and a blog? Now for the tough part: How are blogs and discussion boards similar and different? And, more importantly, what sorts of instructional objectives might lead you to use one tool or the other?

Quick Definitions

A blog is a website made up of a series of “posts,” organized with the newest information at the top of the page (Hourihan). Blogs often allow your readers to submit comments on each post. Blogs also usually allow subscribtion (via RSS), making it easy for readers to keep up on the latest posts on their favorite blogs.

A discussion board (also known as a “forum”), is a collection of “threaded” discussions. Each discussion begins with a post, often in the form of a question or topic to ponder. Authors reply to the initial post, with each new post appearing below previous ones.

Similarities

Like wikis, both blogs and discussion boards make web publishing easy. They both provide a platform for students to express and defend their opinions and help provide an audience for student writing beyond the teacher of the course. Both blogs and discussion boards share a key difference with wikis, in that they place ownership of the text with individual authors, rather than the authoring community.

Differences

Author-Centered vs. Topic Centered

Blogs are, by nature, author centered. You might think of a blog as an evolving set of opinion statements, in which the author states a formative opinion, and then defends and refines that position as other authors react, both in comments attached to the original post, and on their own blogs.

Discussion boards, by contrast, place the topic or question at the center of the authoring environment. The initial post defines the scope of the thread, and authors “reply” with their take on the topic.

This distinction is easy to see when visiting blogs and discussion boards. On an individual blog you see the blog author’s posts first, followed by comments from readers. Discussion boards present topics first, regardless of author.

One result of this difference is that blogs are generally individually crafted environments. Bloggers are in control of the look and feel (or the visual “theme”) of their blog. Many blogs include links to the author’s favorite websites and other blogs they like to read. Some blogs include other personalized information as well, like photo galleries, facebook profiles, and the like. None of this customization exists in the typical discussion board.

Some educators interested in academic blogging have argued that the ability to craft a personal environment for their work leads students to a greater sense of ownership and investment. Rather than taking part in someone else’s discussion, bloggers work on their own turf.

Referencing

Tom Coates, on the blog plasticbag.org, argues that another key difference between discussion boards and blogs has to do with how authors reference each others work.

Discussion board conversations are called “threaded discussions” because each post is directly tied to the posts immediately before and after. Blog posts, by contrast, even when they reference other blog posts, appear in the author’s own blog, outside of the context of any ongoing discussion (it is up to the blogger to build the context of any previous discussion into their post). While this may at first seem like a disadvantage, Coates argues that this author controlled linking between blog posts actually helps filter out less important posts while highlighting the more insightful ones. Coates explains that on a discussion board, “if the second post is entirely off-topic or contains spurious information,” it nonetheless “remains very clearly in the context of the thread.” In this respect, discussion boards make it very difficult to tell which posts are most important or influential in an ongoing discussion.

In a blogging community, however, the more insightful posts tend to be mentioned and linked to more often than those with a lesser impact. Coates argues that, as a result, “those posts which are merely ‘I agree’ or ‘I disagree’ will be filtered from the public consciousness, even as they have fulfilled a valuable function in directing people towards the next structural post in their debate.” While at the same time, the increasing number of links to the more important, or in Coates words, “structural” posts make them easier for readers to find.

Media

I’m not sure why exactly, but discussion-boards tend to be primarily text-only environments. Blogs lean toward text, but also make incorporating audio, video, pictures, and animation quite easy.

Comments

In some ways, blogs have discussion boards built into them. This is because blog comments are organized and presented much like threaded posts on a discussion board. In this respect, writers in a blogging community can choose to make a comment when they have a quick response to a post, or post a more substantial response on their own blog with a link to the original post.

Blog or discussion board?

By placing the author at the center of the writing community, blogs offer rich opportunities for students to develop a personal voice, to initiate discussions, to reflect on their learning, and to write with or for an audience. Because bloggers are writing in their “own space” blogs might be more effective than discussion boards at encouraging personal expression.

Discussion boards might be preferable if it is important for class discussion to happen within a shared, neutral environment, if the goal is to have students react primarily to teacher generated posts, or if it is important for students to see every contribution to a discussion before responding.

Just a start

As I look this over, I feel I should have opened with a bit of a disclosure: A while back, well before I’d ever heard the word “blog,” I wrote a paper for one of my teacher education classes called, “Discussion Board, or Discussion Bored” outlining some lessons I’d learned about trying to use a discussion board to facilitate more and more thoughtful discussions in one of my classes. I was a very new teacher, and the project hadn’t quite worked out the way I would have liked. It is possible that I’ve never quite recovered from that experience, and that I’ve viewed discussion boards with some suspicion ever since. So, please, let me know your thoughts on this, particularly if it seems that I’ve been unfair to discussion boards!

See also

• 7 things you should know about blogs
• Tips and Strategies: Facilitating Online Discussions

Over the past couple of weeks, at the T&LS, at the TASI, and in consultations and conversations with faculty and staff around campus, people have been thinking and talking a lot about wikis and blogs, and wondering what these tools can do to support effective teaching and learning. In this post, I hope to pull together several discussions addressing the two most common questions people have been asking about wikis and blogs recently: What are they? And what’s the difference?

Quick definitions

A wiki is a website with an edit button on it (Frey). Most of the time, when you visit a website, your only option is to read it. On a wiki, however, you can edit both the content and the organization of the site directly, right from your web browser.

A blog is a website made up of a series of “posts,” organized with the newest information at the top of the page (Hourihan). Blogs often allow your readers to submit comments on each post.

Similarities

Wikis and blogs are often discussed in the same breath, and in some respects, they are similar. Both make web publishing fast and easy. Both are often associated with written text, but also facilitate easy publishing of pictures, movies, and animation as well. And from an educational perspective, both wikis and blogs are often used as platforms for authors to interact, negotiate, and hopefully, form communities that learn and build knowledge together.

Differences

There are many differences between these two tools, but the most salient for educators is that wikis and blogs each place authors in very different relationships with each other and with the text(s) they create.

In a wiki, the document is at the center of the authoring community. Since all of the authors can edit any of the other authors’ work, the text is owned by the community, rather than particular individuals. When used for collaborative writing, the success or failure of a wiki project often hinges on the ability of the authors to negotiate with each other and reach a consensus.

Blogs, by contrast, place authors at the center of their writing community. Authors contribute posts and get commentary and responses from other authors. Individual authors own their contributions. Other authors can make comments, but no one can edit anyone else’s work. In a blogging community, authors formulate opinions in their posts, and then defend and refine their positions as other authors post comments. Blogging projects succeed when students post formative ideas and then interact with other authors through comments and subsequent posts.

Another way to look at this difference is to think about the types of interactions you’re hoping your students will have. If you want your students to collaborate on a document, negotiate and form consensus, or build a shared collection of information, wikis might be the way to go.

On the other hand, if you’re hoping your students will formulate and defend their opinions, read and react to the writing of their peers, write outside the academic register, reflect on their learning, or write with or for an audience, you might look into a blogging project.

Just a start

My hope with this post is to put forth the beginnings of an answer, rather than a comprehensive one. For example, my discussion of wikis looks exclusively at collaborative writing and largely ignores the use of wikis for knowledge or research repositories. Currently, this is my “quick answer” to these questions, formed out of a number of interesting discussions over the past couple weeks. Hopefully, the discussions will continue here in comments and future posts!