Blogs, wikis, or docs? These are three distinctly different types of online communications, which serve different purposes in the classroom. A blog is an online format that allows students to post their ideas and opinions rather easily. In many ways, it’s like a virtual classroom discussion. A teacher could post a question on her classroom blog, such as “What did you think of the ending of The Great Gatsby?” Students might then be asked to post their own ideas and comment on their classmates’ thoughts. This is a great way to get all students involved in the discussion—especially the shy ones who never raise their hands. Posts usually appear in “reverse chronological order,” so it would be easy for a teacher to see which students responded to the prompt and when (Wagner). I have found this to be a great tool for a high school classroom. It’s how I assign most homework, in fact. This way, no student is going home confused. If they are unsure about what to do, they can simply start reading other students’ responses on the blog, and it should become clear. (Just to be clear, what I use now is a blog feature which is embedded on my web page. I would like to create a separate blog, using Blogger or WordPress. That’s what I hope to do in this class.)
Other ways that teachers might use a blog is to have students create their own blogs. This seems like a great way for students to present material over the course of the entire class: students could add pictures and videos as well as written content. Ultimately, the blog would function as a portfolio. “Adding images and files is as easy as adding attachments” (Wagner). I, personally, have never used a blog in this way, but it is something that I will consider doing in the future.
While a blog is a venue for personal responses, docs and wikis are more collaborative platforms. Like blogs, wikis are easy to use. “If you can word process, you can use a wiki!” (Wagner). You can also upload images and files easily, too. There are several important differences, though, between wikis and blogs. First, a wiki is “a web page that visitors can quickly edit” (Wagner). That means, students can log on to a wiki and edit other people’s entries. With a blog, students are not permitted to do this. They can post their thoughts alongside a fellow students’ blog posting, but they can’t change what the other student wrote. Second, posts are often anonymous on wikis (Wagner). With a blog, however, the student’s name appears with every posting made. Third, a wiki generally has a “discussion forum,” which allows students to discuss disputed points, whereas a blog just allows peers or the teacher to provide comments alongside a student’s posting (Wagner). Finally (and perhaps most significantly), wikis are meant to be collaborative, multi-author ventures. Wikis are perfect for group assignments that, say, three students are creating together; blogs are more suited for individual assignments that you want students to share with one another for comments and feedback. In my own classroom, I have used a wiki when I wanted students to collaborate on a project. For example, in my English 12 class I posted a rough draft in response to five different essay prompts. I organized students in groups of 4 and assigned them the task of “fixing” the rough drafts. This was always a very effective lesson.
That was until I discovered docs. Or until my school district discovered it anyway. (My district technically does not use Google Docs, but we use Office 365, which is Microsoft’s very similar version of Google Docs.) Like wikis, Google Docs is an online venue that is especially suited for collaborative authorship. However, there are two distinct differences. A wiki is a “web page” that students visit: They read and edit a document and then they leave. Google Docs, on the other hand, is “an online office suite” (Wagner). That means, students can access their word processing and spreadsheet files, such as Microsoft Word and Excel—most of the work that they’ve produced in high school, at home, wherever—from any computer via web browser. Isn’t that the same thing? Not really. For me, a wiki is a place that students visit to do some work and then leave. I have never had them print out their wiki work. It’s simply an online place where we do some collaborative work. However, to me, Google Docs is a place where kids live. All of their work is stored there: their paper for World History class, say, and their resume as well as the collaborative piece that they’re creating for my English class. This is the stuff that, yes, they might work on collaboratively, but it’s also the material that they will print out and hand in to teachers for grading. But here’s the most important difference: a wiki only allows one person to make changes at a time. Docs, however, allows multiple people to edit the same document at the same time. For me, as a teacher, that’s a huge difference. I can now have students working in the computer lab on a project in which they can all participate at the same time. Generally, I break my class into smaller groups of 4-5 students, but the entire class could work on one project if I wanted them to. Docs can be shared with up to 50 collaborators (Wagner). For me, Docs far outweighs the benefits of wikis. Plus, as my entire school district has pushed forward with our Microsoft version of Docs, all students are using it for every class. It seems easier to use the venue that the school uses (rather than just the English Department) because students are more familiar with it and, thus, more apt to use it.
Wagner, Mark. “Blogs, Wikis, Docs: Which is right your lesson? A Comparison Table.” Adapted by Jenith Mishne. Web. 6 July 2016.
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