Using Wikis to Facilitate Collaboration

USING WIKIS TO FACILITATE COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS Michelle Wilson~JefCoMedia Tech Thursday~April 30, 2009 [email_address]

Before we get started… Please open your Internet browser and navigate to www.nheskids.wikispaces.com Leave this window open so that you can toggle between my wiki and this PowerPoint.

What is a wiki? A FREE web 2.0 tool that allows a quick and easy way for multiple users to post, edit, and share content “ Wiki” is actually a Hawaiian term for “quick” Wikis use a basic text-editing format (no highly proficient tech-skills needed) Wikis are at the very least a wonderful alternative to having students record their research on worksheets.

What does a wiki have to do with collaborative projects? We all know that collaboration is the best way to integrate information literacy skills into the curriculum. Wikis are by nature best used when many people are contributing to their content, and allow students to add to their work over time. I use a wiki to help record web links for projects, and to provide a collective space for different groups within a class to post their research. *Go to www.nheskids.wikispaces.com and spend a few minutes looking at a few of the pages I have used with my students here. Some are unfinished, as any wiki is always a work in progress!

How can a wiki help with a project? Wikis allow many users to access and edit the same online site simultaneously As in, when working on a project with a teacher, divide your students into groups. (21 st Century Learning) Set up a page for a project, such as “5 th Grade Native American Tribes Project.” (*Go to my wiki and click on the page with this title. It is on the left side of the screen.) Set up sub-pages within the project so that each group has their own space (otherwise groups will be saving over one another’s work-  ) Students and teachers can access the wiki and work on it from any location!

Where do I go to make a wiki? www.wikispaces.com **User-friendly and teacher-friendly; this is the source we will use here. Other wiki tools (just so you know): www.wetpaint.com www.pbwiki.com www.wikidot.com

Decisions to make How do you want to use it? Who do you want to use it? Privacy settings-protect the privacy of your students without requiring an act of Congress to use it! Totally Public (anyone can view or edit) Protected (anyone can view, only members can edit; *this is my preferred setting) Totally Private (only members can view or edit)

Make sure you… Set up a separate wiki page for each collaborative unit, and then sub-pages for each class/team/group Practice with a small group of students before you go live (Mistakes WILL happen…this is a learning process for everyone!) Check out the “history” feature of your wiki. You can easily revert your page to a previous version if someone makes a mistake. Contact wikispaces for a complimentary K-12 upgrade to the ad-free version

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It…  Okay, to receive STIPD credit, you will need to do the following: Go to www.wikispaces.com and set up your wiki. Sign in to your wikispace and on the left side click “Manage Wiki.” Select your Privacy level. To do this, click on “Permissions” and choose from Public, Private, or Protected, then click “Update.” At the top right, click “Back to Manage Wiki.” Add me as a member of your site. To do this, click on “Members”and at the bottom enter my wikispace user name (mwilsonnhes) OR my email address ( [email_address] ).

Assignment, continued Change your color settings. To do this, click on “Look and Feel” and play around for a few minutes choosing colors to represent you, your kids, or your school. Now, let’s add some pages! Click “Home” on the left side column. Click “Edit Navigation,” and type the name of a sample project (which can always be edited or deleted later). Now highlight the text and click on the hyperlink button, which is the 8 th button from the left within the text editor (not including the text type pull-down box). Click Add Link to save the link to the new page. This is creating a new page to be listed under your “Home” menu.

Assignment, continued Now, make sure you click SAVE in order to save your changes! Click “Home,” and now the title of your project should appear there on the left under the word “Home.” Click on the name of your newly-created page, and you will see a page that looks like the one on the next screen.

Your new page will look like this. Click “Edit This Page” to start typing content into your page.

Click SAVE when you are done editing!

Assignment, continued Now we will add a sub-page to your page Why do this? Remember, when working with groups, you want to have a separate page for each group so that the kids can all enter their information in different locations on the same wiki. If you don’t have sub-pages, your kids can erase one another’s work! To set this up, click “Edit This Page” again, and type in the name of your group/team for your sub-page. Click the hyperlink button (as seen on the next slide), and create a new sub-page.

Click the hyperlink button to create a sub-page.

Your hyperlink window will appear, and you should choose a name for your group.

Now, click SAVE. If you click “Home,” you should see your new page, and at least one sub-page created on your wiki.

How can you use your wiki? Check out other pages on my wiki, and how students have used it to answer a set of questions and to practice citing their sources. For your next collaborative project, use your wiki as a tool to gather information from students. They will have to be taught how to access the site, edit the page to type in their content, and to consistently save their work! Promote your wiki among your teachers, and encourage them to use the wiki with students as well. The only thing better than one teacher’s wiki is a wiki shared by many!

I will verify your STIPD credit when: I have been invited to become a member of your wiki (this will let me know the name of your site as well) You have created at least one project page and one sub-page for that project, and have edited each one of those pages with at least 1 sentence of text. Complete the evaluation and email it to me. Please email me when you have completed these basic editing steps! [email_address] or [email_address] . The due date is May 7 th , 2009 (9 days from today)

I have learned that… With young children, it is best to set up their pages by pasting a list of questions for them to answer. This eliminates the formatting steps for them, which makes it easier for them to use the wiki and therefore move on to using their information to create a product. With older children who might try to mess up another group’s wiki page on purpose (which you can fix by going through the history), it is best to require them to log in (check Permissions settings…you CAN add student accounts without student email addresses!).

If (when) you have questions, please feel free to contact me! [email_address] [email_address] NHES Library: 379-4950 Thanks for participating, and have a great day! Please complete this evaluation form and email it to me.

Using Wikis to Facilitate Collaboration

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