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=Welcome to Introduction to Wikis and Blogs!=

Course Dates and Times: Thursday, 19 April, 2012 4pm-7pm Thursday, 26 April, 2012 4pm-7pm Thursday, 3 May, 2012 4pm-7pm

Course Roster:

Sara Cometto - Sara's Wiki Marybeth Marko - Marybeth's Wiki Bill Neidel - Bill's Wiki

Rob Currin

Items that will be covered in this class:

Day One: -[|What is a wiki]?

-Basic Wiki Use
 * Adding/Formatting Text
 * To add and format text, simply click the 'Edit' button on the page and use the editing tool bar that appears at the top of the page.


 * Uploading Documents
 * To upload a document you must first click on the 'file' tab to upload it from your computer (perhaps your H drive here at school). Once the document has been uploaded, simply double click on it and it will be placed wherever your cursor currently is on the page.


 * Uploading Images
 * Follow all the same rules for uploading a document.


 * Uploading Videos
 * In order to upload a video to your wiki, you must first click on the 'widget' tab in the edit bar and copy the embed code from the page that the video is currently on. Once you have copied the video's embed code, click 'edit', then click the 'widget' tab. Click video, and then the source, then paste the embed code. The video will now show up on your wiki page.


 * External and Internal Links (creating new pages)
 * To create a new page on your wiki, you must first decide what to call the page. Click the 'edit' button. When you have typed in the name of the new page, highlight the text and click the link button at the top of the page. Click 'add link' and the new page will be ready for you to edit. Remember, you must edit the page in order for it to exist.
 * To create an external link, highlight the desired text that you want to link, click 'link', click 'external link'.


 * Using the Discussion Function
 * Click on the 'discussion' tab. Click 'new post', label the post and start typing what you'd like to appear in the message body. You can lock and delete topics from the 'discussion' tab as well.


 * Wikispaces Messaging (In house e-mail)
 * Click on the envelope at the top right corner of the page. Follow standard e-mailing procedure. Instead of e-mail addresses, use user names. You can also send messages to entire groups.

-Advanced Wiki Use How can you use this? - Group discussion
 * Keeping Tabs (who's doing what)
 * Click the 'history' tab on any page to see who has been up to what.

-Sample Wikis
 * Starting Your Wiki
 * Public/Protected/Private
 * Public wikis can be viewed and edited by anyone
 * Protected wikis can be viewed by anyone but only members can edit content
 * Private wikis can only be viewed and edited by members


 * Look and Feel
 * Under the 'manage wiki' tab


 * Locking Pages (Very Important!!!)
 * under 'manage wikis' click 'pages' select the page(s) that you would like to lock


 * Navigation Bar and the Widget


 * Deleting and Managing Pages
 * under 'manage wikis' click 'pages' select the page(s) that you would like to lock


 * Inviting Members
 * Click 'manage wiki', click 'members', scroll to the bottom of that page and start inviting members to join by username.

**How can I create accounts for my students?**
You can create up to 100 accounts at a time with our User Creator tool. You will **not** need to provide email addresses for your students when you use the User Creator tool:
 * 1) Navigate to your wiki.
 * 2) Select **Manage Wiki**.
 * 3) Under People, select **User Creator**.
 * 4) Choose the wiki you would like to add the users to.
 * 5) Enter your list of users as text, or upload an excel or .csv file with usernames and passwords. Email addresses aren't required to create accounts. Keep in mind that every Wikispaces username must be unique. Try using numbers, or initials, or a first name-last name combination to create unique usernames.
 * 6) The User Creator will guide you through the process of setting up your accounts.

As long as your email address is confirmed, you will receive a record of your student accounts. If you don't receive this record, please check your spam/junk folder.

If you have more than 100 students, just go through the User Creator process with different lists of 100 names.

-Wiki Design and Use =Welcome to the blogoshpere!=

What do you know about blogs/blogging?

Blogging fears/Blogging hazards

Can blogs enhance professional practice?

Reading blogs: Spend some time looking at [|this blogging resource]. This is by far, the best resource available with regard to educational blogging.

Excellent site that categorizes educational blogs by discipline!

Writing blogs-why?

Students and blogs-benefits? -expanded audience & accountability -multiple perspectives

Al Turton - [] AHS Online Publishing [|AHS AP English Literature and Composition] AHS AP Literature Student Blogs

Setting Up a Blog


 * Specifics
 * Hide comments
 * Editing posts
 * Issues as they arise

The How-To's of blogging: Setting up a student account Including a picture in your blog: Save the picture to your H drive and upload it when you are editing you post by clicking on the 'add image' icon. Remember that in order to copy and paste your posts from blog to blog, you have to click 'Edit Html' in order to paste content successfully.
 * 1) Go to blogger.com
 * 2) Click 'get started'
 * 3) Fill in the required fields - e-mail, password, etc.
 * 4) Example student display name: AMSTylerA
 * 5) Once students are logged in, they should find the link to your blog and start commenting!