Week #7 Thing 16

At first I was confused by the difference between wikis and blogs. Blogs are more of a spot online that one can chronicle thoughts and opinions. There is an interactive element in blogs if it is set up to let people make comments or new posts. (I have a blog set up for my high school students to talk about what books they are reading this summer.)

Wikis are a bit more interactive. Wikis allow users to add, edit or remove content, if unrestricted.

I looked at:

• http://teacherlibrarianwiki.pbwiki.com/
• Sample school wiki
• Sample Literary Circle Wiki (10th Grade English)

These wikis were very deep (meaning lots of links and different avenues to explore).
I viewed all the short wiki videos in the Sample Literary Circle Wiki put together by wikispaces.com. They were very short and very good. (You can find the link to the videos by scrolling down on the home page of the wiki. Click on the link that says, " If you need help with some of the features of wikispaces, click here, to view some brief informative videos.")

Wikispaces seems easy to use. I like that sample templates are included etc.

While exploring one of the above wikis, I came across a list of opensource software. I am interested in exploring an opensource option for webpage development. I found Nvu. I downloaded it and played with it a bit. I'll need to show my technology coordinator this free alternative. They advertise this as equal to FrontPage and DreamWeaver!