Technology of the Month

In the nearly two years that have passed since Wesleyan ITS launched its Web 2.0 initiative, the expression “Web 2.0″ has lost some of its former currency, but the infrequency of the phrase does not mean that the attendant technologies have fallen out of favor. On the contrary, “2.0″ tools, including blogs and wikis, have simply become familiar to the point that they are no longer “remarkable.”

Of course, even people who have heard of blogs and wikis might still be uncertain about just what they are and — more importantly — how to use them effectively. In what follows, I will touch on both of these questions and also offer some practical advice on how to get a Wesleyan blog or wiki that will suit your needs.

What are they?

Let’s start with the Wikipedia definitions, though as you read this posting, you will find that these definitions are too narrow.

Blog – “A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.”  – Wikipedia

Wiki - “A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.” – Wikipedia

Blogs and wikis, first and foremost, are web-based applications for creating and publishing content (including images, sound, and video) on the web. As such, blogs and wikis offer the usual advantages of second generation web apps; they…

• minimize the need for expensive desktop software
• facilitate working on one document from several computers
• make it easy to collaborate
• provide a platform for publishing, either to a restricted audience or to the world
• help make one’s work not only accessible to, but also discoverable by others
• include optional functionality to allow audience participation
• provide mechanisms to notify subscribers of new content

In addition, all Wesleyan blogs and wikis offer versioning, a feature by which you can track changes to your work and restore older states if desired.

What’s the difference?

Blogs and wikis differ primarily in the way they structure information. Blog “posts” are typically presented in reverse chronological order, an arrangement that emphasizes new material and lends itself to journalistic, but also to discursive or narrative projects. Wiki “pages,” by contrast, are typically organized by subject matter into a relatively stable hierarchy. Blogs grow linearly, post by post; wikis grow geometrically as each “area” is elaborated and new areas are added.

Of course, the reality is more complicated than the neat division I’ve just suggested.

Wesleyan offerings

There is no shortage of free blog and wiki services on the open web, but there are good reasons you may prefer to use a Wesleyan service:

• You can take advantage of our personalized support resources
• Our blogs and wikis tie in to the Wesleyan directory for easy user management
• We can offer Wesleyan branding where appropriate

ITS offers two blog and two wiki tools for use by the Wesleyan community. A number of factors will determine which tool is best for you. In making the decision, it is important to know what your goals are for the site.

Pedagogical uses: Blackboard blogs and wikis

Blackboard blogs and wikis, for example, are particularly suited to pedagogical projects. For an instructor who is already using a course Blackboard, it is a simple matter to add a blog or wiki to one of the content areas. The students will not need to acquaint themselves with a completely new course tool.

Blackboard blogs and wikis can enrich the classroom experience and promote meaningful student contributions to course content. Students might take it in turn, for example, to post course-related articles, images or videos to a class blog. Alternatively, groups of students might share responsibility for assigned areas of a class wiki that can then serve as a communal resource.

To get a Blackboard wiki or blog:

• Go in your Blackboard to the content area where the blog or wiki will reside
• Choose Edit View and then choose “Blog” or “Wiki” from the “Learning Unit” drop-down
• Choose “Go” (to the right of the drop-down)
• Set the options you desire in the set-up window
• Submit the form

You should feel free to contact your ACM if you have questions about the set-up.

If your goal is for the students to produce content for an audience beyond the classroom or beyond the temporal limits of a single semester, you may want to consider using WordPress instead of either the Blackboard blog or wiki.

For public consumption: WordPress sites at Wesleyan

WordPress, one of the most commonly used blogging tools on the web, is a great choice whenever your content is meant for a broad audience. We support WordPress MU (Multiuser) at Wesleyan. WordPress sites are flexible in terms of both design and information architecture. We have developed a number of Wesleyan themes which can be further individualized to suit a variety of needs and tastes. WordPress also works with a number of plug-ins that expand and enhance the functionality of your site.

We are currently using WordPress for a variety of scholarly purposes:

• Professional scholarly profiles (see the directory at faculty.wesleyan.edu )
• Small conference sites (New England Renaissance Conference 2008 , for example)
• Lab sites (Cognitive Development Lab, for example)
• (Public) Course sites (African Presences I: Class Projects , for example)
• Presenting scholarship (in development)

We also use WordPress for:

• Announcements (e.g., ITS System Announcements )
• Leadership blogs (e.g., Roth on Wesleyan )
• Administrative sites (e.g., Class of 2012 )
• Newsletters (e.g., The Wesleyan Connection )
• Technical documentation (e.g., Google Apps )

You will find detailed instructions on requesting a WordPress site at: http://blogs.wesleyan.edu/ . Currently, any faculty member, WSA student group or administrative staff can request a blog or wiki. We plan to extend the offering to all students by the middle of this coming March (2009).

Internal documentation: Confluence wiki

Wesleyan uses a Wiki software called Confluence. Our Confluence wikis lend themselves to various kinds of internal documentation:

• Project management
• Meeting minutes

You will find detailed instruction on requesting a Confluence wiki at:  http://blogs.wesleyan.edu/

Written by Kevin Wiliarty, Academic Computing Manager for the Social Sciences