Russell Smith's BLOGical

ECI 511--Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts

It?s fitting that I am using the forum of this weblog space to discuss three of the increasingly popular ways in which the average internet user, just like you and I, are becoming able to express our thoughts and knowledge in a quick and easy way.  The weblog, or ?blog? is one of these ways.  A blog is a type of webpage where users can enter information about any number of topics on a frequent basis, where they are free to discuss whatever topic is on their mind.  Often the composers of these blogs provide links to other webpages that are relevant to the topic, such as news articles, information websites, or perhaps other blogs on other sites.  Most blogs allow the readers to post comments relating to the blog postings, often to agree, disagree, or

provide more insight into the topic.

There are 3 types of blogs: blogs that relate to news topics or important issues; journal-type blogs that detail the daily activities of the blogger; and information-dump blogs, where the user posts data about a study or

project they are working on in order to refer to it later on. 

Blogs are being used for educational purposes in many ways.  As mentioned in an article written by Will Richardson, many teachers are having their students create blog entries that allow students to express their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills as they learn about various topics.  Many students tend to forget information unless they write it down, and providing opportunities for students to record their information in an online forum is stimulating to many students.  Students can post comments about their classmates? entries, forming an online discussion about a topic that students can refer back to later.  Students can also use blogs to correspond to authors of books that they are reading in class and gain insight into the writer?s thoughts about the book.  Some students use blogging to communicate with other students in other countries, in order to form a permanent record of the daily activities of the two groups that are thousands of miles away from each other.

Another way in which internet users are becoming more involved in the expansion of the internet is the use of collaborative content creation tools called wikis.  Wikis are websites that anyone can edit at any time.  (A popular example of a wiki is Wikipedia.com, which contains entries on more than 500,000 topics.)  Ench entry on a wiki is created by a contributor who posts information about a particular topic on the site.  This information is not verified by the creators of the wiki site; it is edited by other users of the site.  If an item of information is incorrect, it can be corrected by another contributor.  Although it can be assumed that these types of websites would invite massive amounts of fraudulent information, it is to the contrary.  Most posts on wiki websites are factually correct, because the majority of the users of these websites feel obligated to correct these inaccurate postings when they are discovered. 

The article ?The Educator?s Guide to the Read/Write Web? by Will Richardson discusses how wikis can be used to serve as an informational resource for students to create and use about various topics.  If a student posts information about a particular subject, they must provide a source for that information and cite it appropriately.  If the information is incorrect, it can be edited by other students in the class in order to regulate how reliable the information is.  This information can be accessed by other classes at a later date, and be added onto as needed.  Using wikis in the classroom allow students to create their own connections to their learning and make sure that their information is correct.  The students take part in the learning process, and retain more of the information as a result.

Podcasts are another method in which information can be transmitted from one source to another.  According to the article, ?Podcasting 101? by Esther Kreider Eash, a podcast is ?a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player.?  Basically, podcasting involves recording an event or discussion and transmitting via the internet as a way of hearing the information at a later point in time.  Most often, these sound recording are converted into the MP3 format and posted online as a file that can be downloaded and listened to at a later time.  If a podcast is transferred onto a portable MP3 player such as an iPod, the broadcast can be listened to anywhere, and can be replayed, rewound, or fastforwarded at any point without great delay.  Students can utilize podcasts to disseminate information about a number of topics, such as the reading of a poem, an oral report about the Revolutionary War, or the replaying of a performance given by a school glee club.  Students can create podcasts that allow others to hear the inflections of their words and hear a discussion in real time that would be difficult to portray in a transcript.  When recording a podcast as part of a project, students would have to learn how to edit their content for maximum efficiency so there would not be unnecessary pauses or delays.  In this way, students could learn how to format their information in a way that is succinct and to the point. 

If I were able to utilize any of these information-gathering methods in the classroom, I would be very excited about how these tools could be used to document students? learning and how it could be archived for future use and extension.  Using tools such as blogs and podcasts would serve as invaluable methods to make contact with other classes in other cultures and provide a way for students to retrieve information easily.  Podcasts could be used to record an interview with an expert in geology that could be included in a science project.  Blogs could be used to document a student?s observations when conducting long-term research for a science project.  Using collaborative content online tools such as blogs, podcasts, and wikis allow for increased student participation in the learning process as well as increased exposure to technology that will prove to be valuable in their professional careers.

Posted at 12:25PM Nov 10, 2006 by rjsmith3 in General  |  Comments[0]