How to Troubleshoot Apps for the Modern Connected Worker
Why wait start using wikis & blogs now!
1. Christchurch New Zealand October 2009
Integrating new technologies to empower learning and transform leadership
Why Wait?
Start Using Wikis and Blogs Now!
Kelly Faulkner
Napier Boys’ High School
kelly.m.faulkner@gmail.com
@kiwispouse
2. What is a Wiki?
●A webpage with an Edit button
●Easy to use
●Perfect for collaborative
learning
3. Why Bring It To The
Classroom?
●Great motivator for students
●Easy to monitor
●Allows for creativity and innovation
●Encourages participation of all students
●Promotes communication between students,
teachers, and parents
●A new, interesting way to learn
4. How Can I Use it in a
Classroom?
●Simple websites
●Peer-reviewed projects
●Group projects
●Manage school and classroom documents
●Classroom discussion and debate
●Teacher collaboration
●Post classroom assignments
5. Why would I want one?
●Show images to prompt writing or
discussion
●To supply resources & activities
●make a glossary
●For collaborative essays
●To publish marking rubrics – have them
mark their own work or others
●Students can make their own quizzes &
59. Christchurch New Zealand October 2009
Integrating new technologies to empower learning and transform leadership
Thank you.
Now, Start Using Your
Wikis and Blogs!
Kelly Faulkner
kelly.m.faulkner@gmail.com
@kiwispouse
Editor's Notes
Please have your email account open and ready to use. We will need it several times.
Key points for this slide:
A wiki is a web page with an edit button.
It’s easy to use because it’s easy to work with and easy to get started with.
It has many uses in education due to its simple collaborative nature.
Wikispaces isn’t limited to text. It can hold many pages, each of which can have pictures, videos, discussion forums, documents, spreadsheets, and more. This means you can work on essays or other text-based projects, but you can also upload classroom handouts and homework assignments or have your students create visually interesting multimedia classroom projects.
Overview:
This slide is to help your audience see what value can come from bringing a wiki to the classroom.
Wikis are an easy way for students to learn collaboratively and track their progress. With the history tab, individual member usernames, and Wikispaces Usage Statistics, it is easy for students and teachers to follow their work over time.
Wikispaces is very easy to edit, allowing you and your students to create your own website, containing photos, documents, videos, calendars, and more. Teachers have told us that their kids who do not normally engage in class, participate much more when using the wiki.
Teachers can also use their Wikispaces to post homework assignments and inform the parents about what the children are doing in their classes.
Key Points:
Wikispaces is a fun and easy way to bring collaborative learning into the classroom.
Teachers can easily monitor all the work on the wiki.
The wiki has increased the engagement between teachers, students, and parents in the learning process.
Overview:
This slide is to give teachers some ideas about how they can use Wikispaces in their classroom. This is a good moment to let your audience know about how you have used Wikispaces and to have them talk about what they have done. Below is a short list about how some of our educators are using Wikispaces.
Simple websites: Build a class website where you share information about your class and your projects with parents, your school or larger community
Peer-reviewed projects: Have your students peer-review each other’s work in an environment you can monitor.
Group projects: Do your class projects online, having your students research their topic and place it on a shared wiki.
Manage school and classroom documents: Store all your handouts, homework assignments, school policies, or other documents on the site.
Classroom discussion and debate: Use the wiki and discussion pages for everything from discussing class material to mock trials.
Teacher collaboration: Use a wiki with your colleagues as a way to share resources and easily collaborate within your tight schedules.
Post classroom assignments: Post classroom assignments on the wiki for everyone, including absent students and parents, to see.
Collaborate with an international classroom: Wikis can be used anywhere, making it easy to collaborate with classrooms across the globe.
Key Points:
Teachers are using wikis in many different ways due to the simplicity and flexibility of the tool.
Share examples of what you have done with Wikispaces and invite members to share their projects as well.
Why would you want a wiki? Because of the variety of items you can have ready to use next week, integrating tech into your classroom.
I used a wiki this year so my Year 9 students could make their own film study guide. I divided the class into groups and each group was responsible for a page and all its content.
Here is a sample page. All work was created by the students – the only thing I did was upload the skeleton or template of a study guide so they knew what they had to work with.
Here is another. I provided the terms in a ppt show on shots and angles. The students created the page and uploaded the pictures. While I did provide a folder with about 150 stills that I had taken, you can get stills very easily right off the net.
As tempting as it is to go on about my wonderful boys, our purpose today is to get you going so that you have a wiki ready to use when you’re back at school. So let’s get you started with wikispaces. First, go to wikispaces.com
Type in a username you would like (mine is just kfaulkner), a password you’ll remember, your email address, and then click “get started”.
You will need to confirm your email address, but it is not needed right this second. Instead, please click on “dashboard”.
This is your dashboard. Once you create a wiki, it will show in your Favorite Wikis list below. For now, let’s go to “settings”.
Everything here should be ok, but just have a wee check and make sure your time zone is correct.
Let’s scroll to “your profile” and create a profile page. If you keep your pictures online, you can add one here, or just copy and paste your avatar from twitter or another website. If you’re still using your own HDD to store your photos, you’ll have to wait until you get home.
This is where it might seem scary, but don’t worry: you are in edit mode in a wiki page! Above is an easy button bar to use for your text, pix, videos, or music. For now, let’s type in the description of your wiki.
Once your wiki is up and running, you may want to view changes at a glance. It is important to get your students using this wiki etiquette as quickly as possible to make life easier for you. All you have to do is put a couple of words describing your changes so that edits can be viewed in a list. You can preview your edits, or you can go straight to save. Let’s save now.
Once you have saved, the wiki will return you to your dashboard, and you can view your profile if you wish.
Now, let’s take some time and work on your new wiki! You can start here at “create a new wiki”.
Think carefully about your wiki name. Then choose “protected” so that only you and your student members can make edits. Then click on the pulldown button at “wiki type”.
Choose K-12 Education so you can apply for ad-free. Then click “create”.
We can turn off “getting started” because I’m going to walk you through.
At the top you can access your account and also any other wikis you have made or have joined. “My Wikis” will take you to a list of wikis you have joined. “My Account” is self-explanatory. “Manage Wiki” will be your best friend – you will use this often. Let’s click on Manage Wiki now.
It is important to realise that everything you do in a wiki is online – on the internet, and anyone can use it, copy it, modify it and use it themselves. That’s what a Creative Commons License is. Now we are going to Upgrade to an ad-free plan, so click here.
We are going to scroll down…
to the bottom and click on “request yours now” for a complimentary ad-free upgrade.
You will need to certify your wiki is for education, then click on the request button on your right.
Great! Once you see this message, click on Manage Wiki again.
I am going to let you have time to play in here, but want to show you a couple things first. Under “settings” we can change the look of your wiki.
You can browse through the themes for a moment. Don’t worry, you can leave it like it is or change your theme at any time. Once you have chosen a theme, click on “new page”.
Give your page a name (don’t worry, you can always edit it later if it doesn’t “fit”). Then, add tags if you wish and click “create”.
It’s important to notice the page is in grayscale, and an editing button has appeared. This is so we can add new information/edit the wiki. Don’t forget to press “save” when you are finished! But first, don’t forget to add comment for page history. Take some time now for a play.
Before we leave wikis, there’s just one or two more wiki resources I want to show you. Here is my dashboard. As you can see, my wiki is at the top, and I am the organiser. The other wikis are those I am members of. You will want to join other wikis as well.
An important feature of wikis is the discussion feature on each page.
In discussion, students can ask you and each other questions or simply have a collaborative conversation about what they are creating.
Here are some good resources for teachers on wikispaces. Bookmark them for your use. Getting tricky with wikis is a how-to for using wikis. The others have many, many resources for teachers.
Learningweb2 is a great resource, as you can see!
I highly recommend doing the 10 day free wiki course at wikied. Just click on “free skills training”.
You’ll get to this page, where you can choose the dates you’d like to participate.
And you’ll create your own profile page as your project.
Let’s move on to blogging. You’ll have more time at the end to play and add to your pages.
These are some common (and free) blog sites.
I use Google’s blogger for my teaching blog where I write about my experiences with using tech at school.
I use Wordpress for my personal blog about living overseas.
And I use 21 classes for my classroom blogs!
Here is a sample student blog page. He made this page in about 5 minutes!
We’ve done poetry work…
Book reviews (published!)
And published our prize-winning creative writing.
I use classroom blogs for my students to reflect on their learning. I book the lab about 1-2 days a unit for them to have time not only to reflect, but to create their own understanding of their learning.
21classes, the site I used this year, recently changed their free student allowance to 10. As you know, teachers are all about the “FREE”, so I am going to get you going with edublogs, which is the service I am going to use next year.
Once you have filled in your info, you need to tick the “I Agree” box and click “next”.
You may have to experiment with domain names like I did!
You must click the first email to get the 2nd email, when you can then start working on your account. Let’s take a moment to do that now.
Once you’ve clicked on the email link, you should get to this page.
Or, you may get to your dashboard. Either way, you can go ahead now and start working on building your blog. I’ll come round and help you out, but feel free to explore the site and develop your skills.
It’s getting close to the end, so let me show you about users. You cannot batch add users unless you become an edublogs supporter. But you can add users one by one. Take time now to edit your site.
You can find a list of all the sites I’ve talked about today here. If you don’t have a diigo account – sign up! Then you can join networks with other teachers and share bookmarks.
There will be a film version of my presentation here, and also on my blog: http://www.neoblog-teachersadventure.blogspot.com for you to follow along if you forgot something or need help.
Please do contact me if you need any assistance once you get home or have questions.