This week, I took the opportunity to compare and contrast Blogs and Wikis. Both are used a online communication tools. However, it seems that Blogs are used more for personal discussion forums, while wikis can be used by multiple users for group projects, homework assignments, and discussion forums. As a way to further my investigation, I decided to look at three blogs sites and three wiki sites. My findings are in the links below:
Blog Comparison Matrix
Wiki Comparison Matrix
During my investigation, I was able to find some free and purposeful blog sites. My personal favorite was blogger.com. I chose this one as my favorite because it is linked with googledocs, so I'm able to navigate through my googledocs and blogger dashboard with ease. I also like the way this blog site is so user friendly. In fact, I started my own blog a couple of months ago. Before I started my own blog, I had never used such a site. This site made it very easy for me to create my own blog without too much technical knowledge. Although I've expanded my technical abilities, I still enjoy using this blog site the best.
Despite blogger.com being my favorite, I recently found out that my school district has restricted students to using this site, so I will have to use something different for my classroom. So, for educational purposes, I plan to use edublogs.org. I, personally, believe that Edublogs is a great communication tool to use with my students. This site allows me the ability to group my classes, so I may have multiple class discussions or entire grade level discussion forums. Since this blog is designed for educational purposes only, it does provide a little more safety and protection for my students.
Along with investigating blogs, I took some time to search wiki sites as well. Out of three that I researched, I like wikispaces.com the best. I chose this site for professional reasons since it seems to be accepted by my district. To be honest, wikispaces.com provides almost too much information when trying to set up the site. I felt a little overwhelmed with all the definitions and possibilities. However, for those that need lots of direction, this site provides it! It also provides an ad-free zone, so it provides a little more protection for students.
Based on my investigation, I like wikis a little more than blogs because of the possibilities. With a wiki, I'm able to create blogs/discussion forums, but it can also be a place for students to upload group projects and communicate other assessments.
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