Leadbeater (2013) asserts students will only be motivated if learning is meaningful to them. Beck and Eno (2012) and Wilson, Wright, Inman, and Matherson, (2011) conclude traditional social studies teaching practices do not engage students, and therefore a move to a student-centred pedagogy is necessary. Blogs and wikis create an environment where students are able to personalize their learning by choosing tools to inquire into curriculum (Beck & Eno, 2012).
Blogs afford for the creation of a personal learning environment where students upload and link to videos, images, and websites, while also recording their personal thoughts and learning. Blogs become a collaborative environment when multiple students share one blog and when the comment feature is enabled, inviting viewers to comment on blog content (Wilson, Wright, & Inman, Matherson 2011). Similarly, wikis can be used as a regular website, or more productively as a collaborative learning space in which users can add and edit content and media (Wilson et al., 2011). The research provided multiple examples of how wikis and blogs support personalization and twenty-first century skill development. Below is a summary of the key examples found in the research.
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