University of Arkansas IT Services August 2010

Journals, Wikis, and Blogs—Oh my! Using communication tools to promote and enhance learning.

What? How does it work? How can it be used in a class? Where can I find out more about it?

Journals

A Journal is a personal space for students to enter written assignments and reflect on course material. Journals are intended for communication between instructor and student and aren’t usually shared between students.

One example: Students make reflective posts for a writing course. The instructor provides comments and feedback to assist the student in refining their writing over time.

The self-paced Blackboard course* has a whole unit on using Journals, Wikis and Blogs. You’ll find it in the Building Online Communities lesson.

Wikis

A collaborative space where students can contribute to multiple pages of content and course information. Think of it as a course (or topic) website that students can add to and edit as needed.

Wikis are useful as repositories of knowledge built by students and may include presentations, summaries and outlines of class readings, glossaries, or other student generated course material.

7 Things You Should Know About Wikis - http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf 10 Best Practices for Using Wikis in Education - http://itcboisestate.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/10-best-practices-for-using-wikis-in-education/

Blogs

A Blog may also be a personal space for written reflection but it is typically intended to be read by others and in most cases, readers are allow to post comments and feedback to the author of the Blog posts. A Blog may be written by one person or may have several contributors.

An example from Blackboard’s self-paced instructor course: “…in a Horticulture course, students can track the crop production in their weekly labs with each Blog entry.”

Using Blogs to Teach - http://www.blogherald.com/2006/12/21/using-blogs-to-teach/ 7 Things You Should Know About Blogs - http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7006.pdf

Discussion Boards

Discussion boards (also called bulletin boards or forums) are a way to encourage and facilitate communication, discussion, debate, or other conversation between students in a course. Topical forums provide a place for students to make posts and to react to other students’ posts with comments and feedback.

Discussion boards are a prominent feature in online courses but are also useful in traditional face-to-face courses to encourage discussion and participation among students who may normally be hesitant to participate in the traditional classroom setting.

Extending the Classroom into Cyberspace: The Discussion Board - http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/extendclass.html Examples of Discussion Board Etiquette for Online Courses - http://www.ic.sunysb.edu/Class/che326ff/discussion_board/etiquette.pdf

*A Blackboard 9.1 training course is available for self-enrollment by faculty, students and staff. 1) To enroll log into Blackboard 9.1 at http://learn.uark.edu and 2) click on the Courses tab. 3) In the Course Catalog list (on the right), click on Blackboard Training. 4) Look for the course by

Course Name column – “Bb9 training – Self Paced Bb 9 Training (UARK)” 5) In the Course ID column click on the button and click Enroll. 6) Click Submit on the resulting page. The Training Course will now show in your Course List.