Week 3. Wikis, Blogger and Weebly

In the beginning the great god Dot Matrix created Web 1.0 and it was good.  However, it was static and controlled by unknown owners of websites.  Dot Matrix worked with MS-DOS, a demigod with an acronym indecipherable by mortals, to maintain a passive internet full of one way communication.

After the great dotcom crash, where loosing money was easy-PC, Web 2.0 rose from the ashes and brought forth Wikipedia, YouTube, blogging and other platforms that allowed two-way, dynamic sharing of information and ideas.  Collaboration was the new buzzword.

Weebly.
I've used Weebly before to make my own websites and for a science assessment piece.  If you would like to see this amazing HD type assessment piece then click on the photo below.  The website utilised Bloom's Taxonomy.  I have hidden the CREATE tab from public view as I may like to develop the idea in the future.

The affordances of Weebly to educators are:

• the basic site allows for many themed templates
• insertion of video, photos, forums and files
• ability to hide certain pages while still maintaining the content
• the website can only be edited by password holders meaning that teachers can be confident that content will not be altered (either deliberately or accidentally) 
• password holder can see how many unique visitors are viewing the content

I would certainly used Weebly in the future for the above reasons.

 (Ahmed, 2012)

Wikis.

Wikis are considered a web 2.0 tool that allows various people co-construct and edit information on a website.  The term 'wiki' come from the Hawaiian language meaning quick.  I have used wikis several times for university, mainly as a log of meetings and to show the input of groups members for group presentations.  I am yet to be convinced that the majority of wikis are not from the stone age.  I find them clunky and lacking in intuitive technology.  

The wiki below was created purely for this course.  I asked some friends to contribute to it and someone has put One Direction as my favourite band.  Perhaps allowing anyone the chance to edit the material is one major downside of wikis.

The affordances of wikis for educators are:

• asynchronous communication
• multiple users
• don't have to wait for other user's responses before editing content
• possible to see previous drafts (paper trail)

(Clinebell, Thomas, & Sedbrook, 2012).

Blogs.

Blogs are used for people to maintain an online diary, or web-log, containing opinions, musings, links to other sites.  While we were travelling in 2011, we used a blog so that our family in Australia could keep up with our activities.  Visitors to our blog were able to leave comments and we in turn could write back to these people.  Below is a link to our travel blog of Chile in South America.  Click on the photo to read about our adventures.

The affordances of blogs to educators are:

• the adopt a connectivist approach to learning
• content can only be edited by password holders
• students can enter comments which can be hidden till the end or published immediately
• posts can be created ahead of time to come online automatically at a certain time/date
• information is automatically stored chronologically and displayed in a file
• Blogger is owned by Google and therefore linked to powerful resources
• numerous layouts and themed templates to use depending on students' interests or subject being studied
• videos can be embedded allowing for flip lectures

Garcia, Brown, & Elbeltagi, 2013).

The SAMR model.

	Wiki	Weebly	Blog
Substitutuon	Replaces synchronous conversations with asynchronous ones.	Replaces notice board, blackboard, TV monitor.	Replaces paper diary, journal, portfolio.
Augmentation	All students can edit work in progress immediately.	Includes links to other media and data.	Comments can be added from anyone.  These can be made public, deleted or remain private.
Modification	Can compare evolution of ideas by reviewing drafts.	Teacher is able to provide all necessary information to save students aimlessly searching the web	Students are able to link other blogs to their own.  Can add content from various sources
Redefinition	The final product is published for the Creative Commons as a collaborative piece	Students adopt a framework, such as De Bono’s Thinking Hats or Bloom’s Taxonomy to create their own website on a topic.	The blogger responds to the comments and provides feedback on the commenter’s blogsite.

References:

Ahmed Atta, A. (2012). Web 2.0: A Movement within the Learning Community. Information Management & Business Review, 4(12), 625-631.

Clinebell, S., Thomas, D., & Sedbrook, T. (2012). Helping Student Teams Work Collaboratively through Using Wikis. Journal Of The Academy Of Business Education, 1316-40.

Garcia, E., Brown, M., & Elbeltagi, I. (2013). Learning Within a Connectivist Educational Collective Blog Model: A Case Study of UK Higher Education. Electronic Journal Of E-Learning, 11(3), 253-262.