EDTK 2030 Discussion Four

Initial Discussion

Discussion Forum - Unit 4

e-tutor discussion question
by Sayyid Cato - Friday, 19 September 2014, 9:20 PM

Using the unit reading as reference, discuss how you can incorporate Blogs, Wikis,
and Social Networks as affordances in your subject areas and among your unique set
of learners.
Blogs, Wikis are Social Networks that are being used as a teaching/learning tool in the
classroom in the education system. Some teachers use it as a teaching or ICT tool to keep their
students up-to-date and well informed on a daily basis, delivering the curriculum in a creative
and innovative way. A Blog can be created for any purpose the user feels is necessary, depicting
the personality of the user/owner. A discussion of a particular topic can be started so that there is
a recorded version of a conversation in words. A Wiki on the other hand, is a piece of software
that the user can use to create and edit a web page. Sources say that you will experience a
culture shock when you visit one of those websites, since it is the norm that you are not allowed
to make changes on a website, but simply to browse and read its contents, make whatever
contribute that is required of you, or do online shopping. However, when using a wiki, you are
allowed to make changes and contribute to that website. When you visit the site, you can add,
remove or make changes to any page and content very quickly and easily. A Wiki gives groups
of people the ability to collectively edit and develop documents and it is therefore the
responsibility of all who has access to the website for making changes. The responsibility is
shared, making it an ideal forum for collaborative learning and the development of an idea or
concept.

So as we can see from what a blog or a wiki does, is collaboration among groups or
individuals in an online setting. In a normal setting we would say that we are socializing,
therefore, since we are using computers that are networked to collaborate, we can say that we are
networking socially on the computers. The proper term that we would use for this is Social
Networking. Simply put, according to Shah (2010), in a Social Network setting, each person
has a specific network of direct relationships with other users. (UWIOC, EDTK 2030 (2014).
This ICT tool can be incorporated into my subject area to share notes and ideas with my students
and among themselves whenever they have a project that they need to work in groups. Ellison,
Steinfield and Lampe (2007), made and observation that one of the main benefits of using Social
network (SN) is to accumulate social capital, drawing resources and assistance from having
personal relationships with others.

Reference
University of the West Indies Open Campus, Undergraduate Programmes Department, EDTK
2030 Information and Communication Technologies in Education (2014). Unit 4:
Learning Theories that guide ICT-Mediated Learning: http://courses.open.uwi.edu
What is a Blog?; Ward. S;
http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/blogarticles/f/blogdef.htm?utm_term=blog%20definitio
n&utm_content=p1-main-2more&utm_medium=sem&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=adid-fb5e5101-6f0c4198-9922-a995297a4491-0-ab_gsb_ocode5999&ad=semD&an=google_s&am=broad&q=blog%20definition&dqi=What%2520isa

%2520Blog%253F&o=5999&l=sem&qsrc=999&askid=fb5e5101-6f0c-4198-9922a995297a4491-0-ab_gsb
What is a Wiki?: http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki