How to create an educational wiki.

Laurie Roberts

2010

• Go to PBworks.com• Choose “For Education” at the top of the page.• Scroll down and choose sign up now.

• Next, you are going to be taken to this page where you will choose your plan. For this lesson, we will choose free. You can upgrade at any time.

• Once you choose select, it will bring you to this page. • Choose address that will identify the purpose of your page. • Then click next to create your page.

• A confirmation email will be sent to your email address to confirm your registration. Follow the link in your email.

• This is what the email from PBworks.com will look like! Click on the link that says “Activate your PBworks account now”.

• You will now choose your security settings. Remember that since we are using this for educational purposes, we might not want just anyone to be able to see it, so you will most likely choose “only people I invite or approve”.

• Accept the terms of service and then click “take me to my workspace”.

• Congrats! Here is your wiki! You may now begin editing. This is your first page so whatever you want people to see first will go on this page. Example: If this is a class page then your announcements would go on this page to ensure that everyone sees them.

• To edit a page, click on edit, and erase the default text and begin typing. You can use the tool bar at the top of the page to change features on the page such as font size and type. Make sure that you click on “SAVE” after finishing or your information will be lost. Here is an example of an edited FrontPage that will be used as the class announcement page.

• I am a color person, so the first thing that I would change about my wiki is the color. However, it does not change the background color, just the top and sides.

• Click on settings and choose colors on the left hand side. Then choose the color that you want and click save.

• The settings page also allows you to change the security setting to who can edit and view, and it allows you to create classroom accounts. The page that you see if the classroom accounts page. This page allows you to create usernames and passwords for your students so that an email address does not have to be used. You can choose what permission level you want them to be assigned.

• Under the user’s tab, you can add or delete users.

• Under the “Pages and Files” tab, you can edit or delete a page. You can also rename pages, or rename the frontpage as I have done in the photo below.

• After you have edited your FrontPage, you can create a new page for assignments, etc… Click on “Create a page” in the upper right hand corner. This is the page that will come up. You will then name your page and either choose “Blank Template or use a template that they have already created. When you are finished, click on “Create Page”.

• If you choose “no template” then your blank page will open up ready for you to edit. This page can be edited just like the “FrontPage”.

• Once you have created all of your pages for your wiki, you will need to edit the sidebar and set up your pages for easy navigation. Go to the right hand side of the page where you see the SideBar box and click on “Edit the sidebar”.

• This is the sidebar page. Click on “Edit” and then erase the default text. Click on the pages to the right of the page and it will appear in the box. You can choose the order that you want them to be in. Then click “Save”.

• Now that you know how to edit your page, you can add information into your page. The first thing we will add is a link to another page or website. Click on “Insert” and then “Link”.

• It will bring up this box and then you will click on “browse pages and files” so that it will give you the option to open the website in another window so that you do not have to constantly hit the back arrow. Insert the web address and click on “Insert Link”. Then the link will show up in the box.

• Now, we will add a picture to our page! You will click on “Images and Files” under the “Insert Links” tab and then click on “upload files” and it will bring up this box. You will search for the file and then click on “Open”.

Once you have clicked on open, this box will show your file uploading.

When your file has finished uploading, you will have to find it under the “Insert Links” box and click on it.

This is how your picture will appear in the box. Make sure that you position your cursor so that your picture will be placed in the correct place.

The next thing that we will add to our page is a video. I chose one from teacher tube, so you go to “insert link” and then go

down to “more plugins”. Another menu will come up and you will choose “Video and Photo” and then “TeacherTube video”.

• It will bring up this box and you will insert the code into the box and click on “next”.

• It will then bring up the video to ensure it is the right one and you will click on “Insert Plugin”.

• Your video will first appear like this until you click on “Save”.

• Then, it will appear like this on your page.

I hope you have learned a lot about wikis today!!

If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at:

229-259-9409or email me at:

lashrouder@yahoo.com