Blogs and Wikis and Classrooms, Oh My!

I can see a lot of value for having students write in a public space. For one thing, it insures the fact that the teacher won't be the only other person ever reading students' writing. As comp. instructors, we seem to try to make students write to different audiences, so if all their work is in a public space, it really would be read by multiple people. Depending on how private the blogs/wikis would be, they could be read by students' parents or complete strangers.

In particular, wikis seem to have a ton of value for WSU's 101 course in particular. This class is supposed to be all about revision - I mean, that's why we're not supposed to grade anything, right? But when papers are turned in, they have a sense of finality. "I've given this to my teacher. I can't see it anymore. I'm done! Woo hoo!" However, wikis are a never-ending editing space which could be used to encourage revision.

Currently, I have a half-thought-out assignment in which I'd like to use wikis. I would assign students a side in a debate, something like Student A is for the 4 Loko ban, Student B is against it, and Student C is somewhere in between (I have to give more thought to C's actual stance). Anyway, they would start out by writing their 2 page paper on wikis, and would be required to help revise other students' papers that are on the same topic. Afterward, Students A, B, and C would get together to collaboratively synthesize the three papers they "individually" wrote into one cohesive argument. Also, they would be required to respond to other groups' papers (possibly even from my other 101 section). I like the idea of this assignment because it incorporates a lot of Lundin's goals for wikis, like collaborative writing, critical interaction, and even online authority, all of which are important to get across in 101. After all, working in groups and responding to constructive feedback seems like a really practical skill that students could take into, I don't know, the workplace?

Problems I anticipate with this assignment would be the resistance of writing a paper collaboratively and maybe some flaming posts. However, I would ideally have students working with their peer editing groups, so they would already at least be used to working with each other. Also, since their original stances were assigned, it seems like a student insulting Student A's paper would be less likely.

As for technological barriers, I think it would just take me playing around with wikis a bit to learn a little more. Blogs, on the other hand (and I have barely addressed), are a lot simpler for me. I would like to use blogs in class, by the way, but as a mode for more reflective writing with encouraged commenting from others. I think it would be quite difficult to create an "academic paper" out of blog posts and comments - wikis seem a lot more tuned into actual writing assignments.