Blogs
Blog is form as journalism, which is like “our day book, our collective diary, which records our common life” said by James W. Carey. It is place where a blogger can post his or her thought or feeling, or sharing some articles or news. Which other people can view it and leave their comment on it. According to (Kathy E. Gill 2004), primary characteristics of a blog include: 1. Reverse chronological journaling (format) – which is every journal that blogger post will be regulate by time. The latest post will be appears on the bottom, and the earliest post will be appears on the top. 2. Regular, date-stamped entries (timeliness) – which is every post will shows exact date and time next to it, and those posts are regulate by time. 3. Links to related news articles, documents, blog entries within each entry (attribution) – which is in a blog, blogger can post his or her journal, and also can links some other people’s work in the blog. 4. Archived entries (old content remains accessible) – which is bloggers can save their old work. 5. Links to related blogs (blogrolling) – which is one blogger and links to other people’s blog in order to view or leave comment.
Wikis
Wiki is “a type of website that allows users to add, remove, or otherwise edit and change all content very quickly and easily, sometimes without the need for registration.” (Rob Edmonds 2006) Wiki can be edit by many different people. People can work together by update their information in same topic. The system also allows users to link information, video and picture from other resources. Many organizations are also using Wiki in their daily operation. It provides an “opportunity for organizations to improve collaborative work and knowledge sharing.” (Rob Edmonds 2006) For example employees can add any idea or strategy on wiki, at the same time people can also view other people’s works. It can be a good place for a company to gather most information from different people.
Blogs and Wikis
Blogs and Wikis both are operate online. They are easy to create, and function. They can view by public, and allow people to leave their comments (for blog) or edit more information (for wiki) on their pages. They both can link other people’s resource to their own page, such as pictures and videos. They both can be another way of communication.
Convergence in today's networked world.
Convergence means that a media can be form by combining different functions together into one, such as from old media - journalism into new media - blogs. Blogs have same function as journalism which can record daily activities and journals. But it can post and review by people in any place with internet and anytime. Convergence in today’s networked world provide more convenient to people and users can update information more quickly through network.
How can blogs be used for collaboration?
Blogs are easy to create, and everybody can create a blog account. The main function of a blog is a blogger can make a post on his or her account and allow other people to view it and leave comments. Here is one of real example from my personal experience about blog. Last semester, I took an English class and one of main tool for that class is blog. During the semester, we posted our thought and feeling about each story that we read. We also can link other sources to support our idea. After posting, we shared our posts by viewing other people’s works, and leave comments on each other’s blog. In this case, discuss of story in class is one way, but blog can be another way of discussion by sharing thought and feeling about the story from many people.
Can you think of a new use for a wiki that has not been done yet? Wiki is also a tool that people can edit information and share information. However, one of big problem about Wiki is that it is most of time it was written by non-professional people and easy for people to edit. So the information on Wiki might not be true and trustable. That is why when we doing research, our professors will always said that “do not use information from Wikipedia.” If writers can edit information base on academic research, and cite those articles or research in their writing, then the information will become more trustable.
Citation:
How Can We Measure the Influence of the Blogosphere? by Kathy E. Gill. Workshop on the Weblogging Ecosystem, May 2004.
Wikis at work: Up from the grassroots by Rob Edmonds E.learning Age; Oct 2006; p. 14-16
Yea, I agree with your ideas that wiki is still not a professional site. Lots of the information is coming from non-scholar source. Also, people can change the contents easily. My professors also prohibit the using of Wikipedia also. It will be easier for student to do research if the professional wiki comes out. However, there is a disadvantage about a professional wiki. Since all the contents in wiki are professional and we can find everything we need here, students may not want to use the source from other sites. Therefore, a professional wiki may make the meaning of a student to do research to be lost.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your idea that they should do something about wiki so students can back up their answer from wikis as well. In most cases, the multiple edits and opinions are a bit too biased to use as evidence to some researches. Therefore, people don't use wiki much. Also your idea of writing professional work with citation on wiki is pretty good.
ReplyDeleteIt is very nice to know about the English course can work with Blog. I think it is a very effective way to allow students express their opinions. I believe most shy students rather to keep their opinions than to speak out. To post the ideas is much easier than to talk in the class, so the class will get more ideas by using blog. For the new use of wiki, I have similar concern. I hope wiki will notify the sources of their contents whether they are scholar, non scholar, correct, or incorrect information. I don’t think to cite the scholar resources only is a good solution. Because it doesn’t promote creativity and participation of everyone.
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