WIKI step by step

(Christine of the PBWiki team, IOU)

1)    How do other educators use PBwiki?

 

http://pbwiki.com/redir.php?r=1dayeduexample&url=http%3A//pbwiki.com/content/education-firstweek

2)    Editing

 

1. Log in to your wiki 
 

 2. Click "Edit page" at the top of your wiki. Type "Hello world!" on the
 
 

page and click "Save."

Your wiki is updated!
 
 

Why blank pages = wiki death
 

Now, for a more grim topic. We know that launching a wiki in classroom or library can be tough at first. We want to help you avoid what we morbidly call "wiki death," or when 

a wiki doesn't succeed. From monitoring millions of wiki changes, we've been able to see some patterns -- and one of the major reasons for wiki death is that people are afraid of editing  

others' work. Don't be afraid to edit! And encourage your classroom / team to edit, too.
 
 

3)    Preparing wiki for student

Add student assignments and instructions on the front page. We encourage you to treat your wiki front page as a short, introductory page with links
 

to other pages. Type a few bullet points and create links to the pages (to link, edit a page, select the text, and click "Insert Link"). If you have
 

handouts, create a page called "Handouts" and upload the files there.
 

Use your sidebar for a table of contents. PBwiki educators love the Sidebar, which is the box on the right side of the page. Click "Edit this"
 

and you'll be able to use the Sidebar as a table of contents that appears on every page. Many of our best educators use their Sidebar to list their
 

project teams for easy navigation.
 

Create lots of pages to avoid Edit Collisions. On PBwiki, two people can't edit the same page at the same time. So if you're in a computer lab with 30
 

students, you don't want most of them twiddling their thumbs and waiting for the page to become editable. Instead, create lots of pages: Create a
 

page for each project. Even consider creating a page for each student where they can save all the stuff they find. (That's what we do at
 

PBwiki.) With lots of pages, your wiki becomes more usable.
 

 
4)    Safety
 

 Q: "Does PBwiki keep my students safe?"
 
 

A: Yes, we're very serious about safety and security.
 

 We deliberately hide the email addresses of your students (and anyone on your wiki) You can make your wiki public or private so even search engines can't access it
 
 

Access controls allow you to control who can access what (note: premium feature)
 

Q: "What about my information? Is it safe on a wiki?"
 

A: We host millions of pages, including sensitive information for 1/3 of the Fortune 500. We keep a backup of every page. And we allow you to take backups whenever you like with one click. 

Frankly, our bread and butter is keeping our users' data safe, so we spend lots of time on this. Best of all, you don't have to worry about data storage or security -- we do.
 

Q: "Do you show ads on educational wikis?"
 

A: No, educational wikis are ad-free (even free wikis).

 
"Q: Can I monitor what students post on the wiki?"
 
 

A: Yes, you can monitor by email and RSS. Any time a change is made to your wiki, you'll get an email.
 

Q: "Can I moderate what students write before it goes live on the wiki?""
 

A: Unfortunately, this isn't possible. Imagine that your student Jimmy makes a change to a page, which goes to your email for moderation. But before you can approve/deny it, Nancy comes along 

and edits the page. All of a sudden, things have gotten very confusing. Instead of this, PBwiki keeps things simple. Choose who can access your wiki and you'll get notified of every change.
 

5)    Setting up a library wiki
 

First, we set up a public wiki and lay out the front page and Sidebar.
 

 Next, we upload a few files to our "Handouts" page
 
 

 We want to have a private page for library staff, so we add two colleagues to the wiki.
 

 To hide the page from public view, I select the "Hide this page" setting (note: this is a Premium feature).
 

 And finally, to announce the new wiki, I send an email to my library email list. I also add the wiki URL to the signature of our outgoing emails ("Check out our new wiki!")

6)    Multimedia
 

 You can insert all kinds of multimedia applications on your wiki with just
 
 

a few clicks. Let's insert a sample photo slideshow:
 

1. Visit your wiki
 

2. Edit any page
 

3. While editing, click "Insert Plugin" and choose the "Bubbleshare
 

slideshow" plugin. Insert it and save your page.
 

Some of our most popular plugins:
 

 Â·         The Calendar plugin lets you insert a shared calendar for setting dates
 
 

and milestones for your classroom/library
 

 Â·         Chat rooms let your students or staff communicate with each other. This is
 
 

a great additional way for you and your students to collaborate
 

 Â·         The YackPack plugin lets anyone viewing your wiki page communicate with
 
 

each other by voice. Often, one person points out corrections and the
 

other edits it.
 

Note: Upload as many videos as you want! Because of a special arrangement with a third party, uploading your own videos won't use up any of your storage space. 
 

è Inserting images:
 

Inserting images is easy: While editing a page, click "Insert Image" on the toolbar (near the top of the page). Your image will show up right in your page. 

Note that your free wiki is limited to 10MB of storage space (but that's still quite a few photos).
 

Remember, all of this is free with your PBwiki.