wiki vs blog

At first look, wikis and blogs seem to be very similar, however how I plan to use them are different. I have full control over the blogs I set up in school. I can read posts and delete any that I feel are not on topic. I can control where the conversation is going by setting up questions for the students to answer. Wikis, on the other hand, are an ever changing item. I can start the topic but with every student being able to post and edit, it could end up going in lots of directions.

I plan on using blogs to get feedback and explainations on how things work. THe wiki I see more use for discussing homework problems or creating an online notebook so that students can post what they feel is the important information in each chapter/section of the book.

And we're off......

Introduced blogs to the class after their test today. They had 2 things to "talk" about when they got to the page. First was how do they feel about math. Second, how do they like the new high school. (for those not aware, we opened a new high school this semester).

http://users.kgcs.k12.va.us/mtomeo/ to see what is going on so far. The background is an option through the blog site that we are using (I didn't do it myself). Let me know what you think of the setup and any ideas on what can be improved.

Day 1 of the new semester (in the new school) went by ok. I introduced the idea of blogging and only a few students admitted to having blogged already so it looks like a challenge ahead. Things are still getting set up technology wise so I have not been able to visit our school blog and get everything set up. I really want them to blog early to get their feelings on math and why most of them think it is so hard to do. Next update will be when we actually start working on the blogs.