Wikis: Creative Collaboration in The Classroom  A wiki is a website that allows the user to easily add, remove, or edit information  A wiki can be accessible for editing by the originator, or can be made accessible to several users  As a result, wikispaces can serve as a useful and versatile tool for student collaboration in the classroom!

How can you use Wikis to enhance your students’ learning experience? According to Vicki Davis, there are 5 main uses of a wiki in the classroom:  Lesson Summaries  Collaboration of Notes  Concept Introduction and Exploratory Projects  Dissemination of Important Classroom Information Beyond the Classroom  Individual Assessment Projects Source: “Cool Cat Teacher Blog”:

Examples of the Effective Use of Wikis in High School Classrooms Doug Belshaw’s GCSE Wiki, History Grade 10 (Ridgewood School, UK) Mrs. Garmey’s Classroom, Euclid, OH 10 th Grade American History, 12 th Grade Psychology Hunter College High School Wiki

Where Can I Find a free Wiki site? PBWorks— Wikispaces— Wikidot—

After you have successfully registered your new wiki account, you will come to an opening page such as the one shown here. It will be ready for you to edit.

In order to edit the wiki page, click on the tab labeled “Edit”. You will see that you are able to place the cursor on the page, and that you will have several formatting options available to use.

As mentioned earlier, once you click on the “Edit” tab, you will be able to change the text on the page as you see fit. If you highlight text with your cursor, you will be able to create a hyperlink that allows you to link to a website. Click on the button on the formatting bar labeled “Add Link”

Once you’ve clicked the button labeled “Add Link”, the following box will appear Here you will be able to choose what kind of link you want to create: a PBworks page, a PBworks file, a PBworks folder, an internet URL, or an address

If you wanted to link to another page on the wiki, you would choose the appropriate page the menu provided.

In this case, we want to create a hyperlink to another website on the internet. In the box labeled “Link Type”, choose “URL” Enter the URL address in this box You can choose if you want the webpage to open in a new window by clicking this box

Once you click “OK”, you will have created a hyperlink on your wiki that leads to another website. Click the “Save” button in the lower left corner of the screen to test the hyperlink.

Once the wiki page has been saved, click on the link to the other webpage to appear.

If you want to upload pictures or other files to your wiki page, look on the right side of the page and find the heading “Insert Links”. Click on the tab labeled “Images and files” Click the link labeled “Upload files”

Browse to the folder where the file you want to upload is stored. Choose the file you want to upload and click “Open”

In this case, I have uploaded an image to insert onto the wiki page. You can click on the image to resize it to the size you want.

You will probably want to edit the information location on the sidebar of the wiki. Click on the link on the right side of the page labeled “Edit the sidebar”

You will be taken to this page, where you can edit what links will appear on the sidebar of the page. Click the “Edit” tab in order to add information to this page.

Type in the different headings that you want to appear on the sidebar. Highlight each heading separately and click the “Add Link” button to make them hyperlinks.

The “Insert Link” box will appear, as it did before. Since you want these links on the sidebar to link to a different part of your wiki page, select the Link Type as “PBworks Page” and choose the name of the page you want to link to.

After you have repeated this process for each entry on the sidebar, save the page so that the links become active.

Navigate back to the front page of your wiki page You will see the active links on the sidebar of your page.

You can also embed plug-in applications such as calendars, PowerPoint files, Google gadgets, or Videos into your wiki. Click on this icon on your formatting bar. It will allow you to insert plug-in applications

In this case, we will insert a calendar from Google. You will see this notice appear…you won’t be able to see the calendar until the page is saved. Click the box labeled “Insert Plugin”

After you have saved the wiki page, you will see the calendar appear on the page. Notice that you are able to add events to the calendar!

If you want to insert a Google Gadget into your wiki, you will need to copy and paste the HTML code for that application into the “Insert Plugin” box. (Don’t worry… Google will provide The code for you!)

In this case, I have inserted a “Daily Literary Quote” Google Gadget. Click “Save” in order to view the Google Gadget in action!

Here you can see the Google Gadget that was inserted in action!