Wk 5 Blogs, Wikis, project thoughts

I've been reading and watching and reading and reading.....I use a Course Management System, BB, in all my classes, online or onground, as a way to organize and present information, have discussion forums etc. This class was a little difficult for me to navigate at first because I am so used to the structure of a CMS. So here are some things I think about blogs vs. wikis vs. CMS's, etc.
A CMS is a fairly static thing; I am the only one in charge of adding content and managing the course. The only exceptions to this are the Discussion Boards. I use DBs for assignments and group collaboration. But still, this is fairly static and difficult to get good comments consistently from students. Postings are usually well done, but replies, not so much. I know that I will not abandon my cms for a wiki. On my cms I can post grades, have RSS feeds, upload files, give assignments, etc. I can embed videos, links, student projects and more. I also always have a "cyber cafe" forum where students can post questions about the course, set up review sessions with each other, offer random thoughts and the like. And, I can archive everything and copy the course for the next semester.
That said, I think a wiki has a many advantages and uses over a CMS. There are of course many more collaborative opportunities on a wiki. I love that we can comment on each page instead of a "remote" Discussion Board. We can all add content, links, edit, add pages, etc. However, that hasn't occurred too much in this class which is a concern I would have in my own class. It could take some doing to get students up to speed and willing to put in the time make solid contributions. The ability for students to be able to edit is a good thing and potentially not so good, it would still take oversight and management of the course and working out permissions for editing. There would be content I would not want to be edited!
I don't think there is much of an argument for choosing which better, blogs vs. wikis is. Its apples and oranges and really depends on what you want to do--a wiki is a collaborative pool of information that should grow, a blog is more of a single subject commentary. I think a blog would give a voice to many students who do not speak up in class, who are shy, or are ELLs. Many of these students write very well and can express themselves more comfortably this way. I've seen this many times in my online teaching and learning experiences. Students and colleagues that rarely offer a peep in class, or who do speak up, but have trouble articulating their ideas verbally often explode off the written page.
So, here is where I am and what I am thinking…I will keep my CMS, but I want to incorporate blogging for sure, either through BB or as a link outside, probably outside for reasons that I’ll get to in a moment. I will think more about wikis and the best use for my students. I’d like to have a wiki within BB as part of some collaborative effort, which I haven’t fully thought of yet!
I’ve gone around in circles for what I want to do with my final project and though I’m still undecided here a couple of front runners—which could actually be incorporated together. I’ve been thinking about blogging as part of a portfolio project for my students, so I was excited to see the eportfolio entries on the blogs and wikis page. I think this is a really simple way for students to reflect on content, projects, videos I may assign or that they find, share information, and on and on. Like this class, it becomes a document of the progress they make in the class. And as Brunsell and Horjsi state in Create a Classroom Blog, "Science education blogs can serve as powerful digital lab notebooks that contain text, images, and videos." This also supports the portfolio concept, even though it wouldn’t be strictly a lab project.
Today I was inspired by Dalton’s post to ask outside folks to blog in my class. I think experts in my field would be happy to comment on some topic I ask them about. I know I have colleagues who would do the same. I missed an opportunity for an expert to address my class last semester and now realize how easy it would have been to have him blog a bit about his experiences. I know that our cancer biology professor would blog about cancer and immunology, or vaccines for my micro class. I’m sure there are history folks who could blog about the historical context of the plague or the 1918 flu. You get the idea. I also want to support the compilation of Open Educational Resource development at my college so an extension of this would be to video experts and embed them into a blog or wiki, or my CMS. Time now to focus and work out some details! Suggestions anyone?