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Great points, Ron, and they support the overall concept of instructional design. That is, being aware of the strengths of the tools and how they can best support learning: sometimes Blogs, sometimes Wikis.

Wikis and blogs are created by students, so their very structure innately requires the user to be a "producer of knowledge." I am more of a wiki fan than blogs, the reason being there are so many, well too many, blogs out there now and who really spends the time to read them? I know some people have their favorite blogger, which fine, but it is very similar to having a favorite editor or critic. I often find blogs to be more of a diary or in some cases a rant by an individual, which is just not interesting to me. One positive aspect of blogs is it does democratize the internet in that everyone can potential self-publish their thoughts and experiences.

Wikis, however, require students to interact and collaborate to create the content for the wiki – and there are some very excellent wikis out there. The collaboration is the important aspect of wikis as online activities used to be rather solitary in nature [web 1.0 stuff]. The fact that students authored them makes them all-the-more interesting and encouraging because of the skills students tap into while creating a wiki – collaboration, critical thinking, negotiation, project completion, etc.

Hi Glenda,
Blogs are a wonderful tool for students to publish their own voice in the learning process. This kind of reflective practice is not only good for the students but also helps the instructor gain an insight into the thinking of the students. Yes, blogs need to be monitored in the sense that comments should be made to blogs posts when the blogs are used for instruction, however, the challenge is to find the approach whereby instructors support rather than intrude on the space.

Wikis are more collaborative and only work, in my experience, when specific tasks and timelines are created.

Blogs allow for the free flow exchange of information and can create great interaction among the students. Blogs need to be monitored but an active blog should have less "formal structure" than the standard classroom discussion board. This encourages greater activity among the participants.

I am not as familar with Wikis so I can't speak with confidence on the amount of structure or control that should be imposed.

Hi Jolly,
As you mention there can be different uses for each of these tools. If a blog is used as a self reflection journal to provide students with a personal learning space, then it would need to be set up accordingly and not as much moderated as, however, supported through comments etc. If either tool is being used to support direct content of a course, then yes, the moderator should have content expertise. If either is being used as a project tool then it would again be set up differently with different expectations and with time lines. Everything, as always, depends on the outcomes...

Blogs can be very effective *if* they are structured and have a SME/moderator to ensure everyone stays on task. Otherwise, the discussions have a tendency to wander off track. Wikis, on the other hand, allow for much more flexibility in that the content can be changed, which, on the positive side can add to the discussion, but on the flip side, can be dysfunctional if the content is incorrect. Wikis should have a SME editor to ensure the content remains accurate.

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