WIKIS IN PHYSICAL
EDUCATION
Helena Baert
AAHPERD Conference, April, 2009

A wiki is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

Wikis in Plain English

In the classroom,
a wiki is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Wiki Forum
Blog
Create Converse
Write
Post ideas
Publish
Publish
Respond
Comment Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBwiki sites on
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”
Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Possibilities in Physical Education:
-PE Website for parents/students
-Collaborative website: e.g. creating games
-PE portfolio’s - PE Dictionary
-Brainstorming - Class Notes
-Group Work - Research
-PE teacher network - PE resource
-50 Ways to use wikis in classroom

Many types of Wikis: Examples
Free wikis for education!

Read
Wetpaint Wiki: TGfU Wiki
Write 
Wikispaces: PE Wiki
Web 
PbWiki:

 PEAC courses at U of A
 Personal Wikis
 School PE wikis

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.
How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your wiki
You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

Educator wikis
are free and
NO ADS
never display
advertisements

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”
Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

Wikis are Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin
Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

Educator wikis are free, fast and ready
to use.
Create one now at
www.pbwiki.com

Let’s get practical!
We are all going to build a wiki right

The Web as
a notebook
here, right now.
Don’t worry if you do not know how

and when you will use it as you can
delete the wiki at any time.
Also, you can create a new wiki any

time you want, for free!

Steps of creating your own
WIKI
Go to www.pbwiki.com
1.
Click on \"Try it now“
2.
Click on \"Create an Academic wiki“
3.
Select the \"free\" one
4.
Create a name for your wiki - remember, you
5.
can't change the URL once you create it but
you can always make a new one.
Follow the steps of setting up a wiki
6.

First View!

Make it your own!
Title
FrontPage =
Homepage

Title!
Title
To Change the title:
Go to Settings

Title!

Change settings
#1

Change settings
#2

Change settings
# 3: Change time and
language to meet your
needs!

Change settings
#4: Add your contact
info!

Change settings
#5: Always Click SAVE!

All 5 steps!
#1
#2
# 3: Change time and
language to meet your
needs!
#4: Add your contact
info!
#5: Always Click SAVE!

Saved!

Changing the color
Changing
The color

Changing the color
Wiki
security

Wiki Security
3 Choices!
1) Who can see the wiki
2) Who can edit?
3) Full control: only have
people on it that you
invite.
(This may not be optimal
for a class website as
you may want
parents to be able to
view the content)

Notifications & RSS
From experience, I tend
to unclick that so my
students do not receive
multiple emails when
they sign up for the wiki.
You can
change
notifications
when you go to
your personal
account.

Changing your own notifications

RSS Feeds
RSS is a method for subscribing to changes

made on your wiki so you can see what has
changed more easily. Most web browsers
include RSS readers, and generally show a
feed icon somewhere near the address bar
(the icon is orange in most browsers, but it's
blue in Safari.)
When you click this icon, you'll see a list of

available feeds. Here's what that looks like in
the Firefox browser.

RSS Feeds (2)
Your PBwiki has a few feeds you can

subscribe to:
 The Recent Changes feed includes all recent
changes on your wiki, including page edits,
comments, file uploads -- you name it.
 Each wiki page has its own feed that only
includes edits and comments on that particular
page
 Each folder has its own feed that includes edits
and comments made to any page in that folder

Getting RSS feeds to your
reader

Click on the orange notification

Subscribe using Google Reader

Every time someone edits.. I will
know!

Users

Creating a new page/ folder
Creating a folder:

 FrontPage
 “Page and Files”
 “New”
 New page or new file
Creating a new page:

 Go to front page
 Click “Create a Page”
 Give your page a name
 Put your page in a folder

Add a template
If you want your students to use the same

format.
E.g. lesson plans, creating a game, writing a

paragraph, doing a project
You can create a page and by adding the tag

“template”, you create a template that you can
copy.
Let’s have a look at an example:

Jogging project:
http://beginningjogging.pbwiki.com/Jogging-
Project-Template

Editing a page
Click Edit

Use the “WYSIWYG” editor – as easy as using

word.
Type away!

Insert pictures:

 Insert links/images and files
 Upload files (create picture folder/ file folder)
 Click on picture/file to insert where cursor is

Linking
Creating links between page makes a wiki

more interactive
How to add a link?

 Link to other wiki page
 Link to new wiki page
 Link to folder
 Link to URL
 Link to Email
Always remember to put the cursor where you

want the link to be.

Using Plug-ins

A few final tricks
Remove formatting

Source

Side bar

Page Security

New! Starred Pages, Navigator, Send a

link, Notifications
Help desk

Let’s play around!

Try this!
Edit a page

Create a new page

Create a folder

Put the page in the folder

Add a link to page/URL/email

Add a picture

Add a file

Add a gadget

Add a calendar


For more ideas check out the PBwiki
educator page. You can find
tips, suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.
http://educators.pbwiki.com

Thank you!
More info: helenabaert@hotmail.com
Email me if you have any questions or you need assistance with your wiki.