Wiki A wiki is a type of web page which allows for online collaborative creation. Users have the power to directly edit text, images, and links on a web site with a wiki. Most wiki sites are closed to the general public and used exclusively by small groups of people working on a common project.

How to use Wikis in the Classroom A wiki could be set up for students to brainstorm ideas for and plan science fair projects. The wiki could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations. A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students improve their writing skills On many occasions elementary students all read the same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A wiki would be a perfect way to integrate technology into Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. An elementary class could write an “encyclopedia” on a special topic, such as explorers or state history – to be continued and added to each year. A wiki could act as a virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades. A travelogue could be written from a field trip or virtual field trip that the class would have liked to take as culmination of a unit of study: Our trip to the Capital and what we saw. A family Tradition wiki – elementary students share their family’s ways of preparing Thanksgiving diner or celebrating birthdays and compare them to the practices in other cultures they read and learn about. A wiki made up of a student generated glossary of scientific terms with illustrations and definitions added by the class

Free Wiki Sites and Wiki HELP Wikispaces Pbwiki A tutorial for “First Time” Wiki users from Teachers First Examples of Educational Wikis

Creating a Wiki on Wikispaces Go to wikispaces.com and click on “get started”. Fill in the required information then click “join”. Turn off the “getting started” page or read through it. If you want to see the “getting started” page later on click “Help” To edit your Home page, click the “Edit” button. The Editor tool bar will appear at the top of your window. Add/Remove and edit new content then click “Save” To add a new page, click the “new page” link on the left”. The “Make a new page” window will open up, add a page title, and tag (if necessary) then click “Create”. You will be sent to your new page, you need to type something on this page or it will not hold. Once you create your page content click “Save”. Each page you create has it’s own “Discussion” area where you can post discussion topics and others can post replies. Each page also has a “History” area where you can view recent changes to the page. The “Notify Me” area allows you to set up notifications for you page. New page links appear on the left under the search window.

Common Tasks on Wikispaces Upload a file to a page: From any page, click the “Edit” button. Click the “File” button on the Editor toolbar, the “Images and File” window will open, click on the “Insert files” tab, click the “upload file” button, find your file, highlight it, click “open”, wait for it to upload, then click it once. The Images and File” window will close and you will be sent back to your page. Your file will appear like a button (this will change after you are done editing). Drag your file to where you want it to appear. Repeat the process above as necessary. Click “Save” when finished.

More Common Tasks on Wikispaces Create a hyperlink on a page: From any page click the “Edit” button. Put your cursor where you want the link to be, click the “Link” button on the Editor toolbar. The “Insert Link” window will open, click on the “External Link” tab, in the “Link Text” window type what you want to call your link, in the “Address” window type the complete URL for the site you are linking to, put a check in the “new window” box if you want your link to open in a new window, click “Add Link”. Save your page then test your link.

Managing your Wiki To manage your wiki, click on the “Manage wiki” link on the left hand side of the page. This will bring you to the Manage wiki page. Tasks are broken up into categories like: people, settings, and tools. Click on the appropriate icon then follow the onscreen directions. – Invite People: Allows you to invite people to your wiki. You can invite people by their Wikispaces username or their address. Located in the “People” category, click on the “invite people” icon, type in the full address of those you wish to have access to your wiki in the “Send to” window. Type a message in the “message window” or leave the default message. Click “Send” Users can request membership to your public or protected wiki by going to your wiki, clicking on "Manage Wiki" and then "Members and Permissions." They will see an option to request membership on that page. If your wiki is private, non-members can request membership to your wiki when they visit your wiki. You will have the opportunity to accept or reject their membership request. As an organizer, you will receive notifications of these requests as well as notification banners when you visit your wiki. When you log in as an organizer of your wiki, you will see a banner at the top of the page informing you of any new membership requests. If you go to "Manage Wiki" and "Members and Permissions," you can also see pending memberships under "Pending Membership Requests." You will be able to approve any requests and see or withdraw any invitations that you have sent out that other users still need to accept. If you have invited people who do not yet have user accounts on Wikispaces, those invitations will not be listed here

Locking Specific Pages on your Wiki You will want to do this so that members of your wiki are only able to edit the pages that you want them to edit. From any page in your wiki, click the “Manage Wiki” link. In the “People” category click on “Permissions”, scroll down to the “Page Permissions” category, enter the title of the page that you want to lock in the “Page Name” window then click the “Go” button.

Common Wiki Management Tasks Permissions: Located in the “People” category, click on “permissions”. Adjust permissions according to your preference click “update” Delete Wiki: Located in the “Tools” category, click on “delete wiki”. Read the options, make your selections, click “Please delete this wiki now” Wiki design: Located in the “Settings” category, click on “look and feel”, make your selections, click “apply”

Wiki Etiquette for Students Be safe – Never post your personal information or information about someone else. Be honest – Write things you know to be correct using facts from research from reliable, credible sources. Get permission and give credit – Ask an artist’s permission to post their photos, pictures or pieces of writing. After you have his/her permission, then you must ask if you can post his/her name to give him/her credit. Be nice – Remember that sarcasm hurts. Be nice and polite at all times. Proofread before posting - Look everything over and use your spell check to be sure everything is accurate. When you are certain that the editing is complete, then save to publish. Be accurate – Make sure everything you post is accurate. Be brief – Get to the point quickly. Use breaks in your text and formatting elements to make the page easy to read and understand. Follow Directions - Be sure to follow the directions that are given for using a wiki in class. Do not delete the work of others deliberately, unless it is part of the editing process. Stay on topic – Don’t stray away from the topic