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Introduction to Wikis
Terrie Shannon & Helen Mongan-RallisUMD Tech Fest, March 30, 2007
What Are Wikis?• Web pages that can be viewed and changed by anybody
who has a web browser and access to the Internet (likevirtual “bathroom wall”!!)
• Designed to be interactive and collaborative, rather thanstatic pages that are created and controlled by oneperson.
• Can be used asynchronously as a means of enabling twoor more people to collaborate in the creation, editing anddiscussion of the content of the web page.
• Can incorporate text, image, sound and video files (anykind of digital file can be uploaded to a wiki and can thenbe viewed or downloaded by others from the wiki page).
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Examples of Wiki Tools
• Free public wikis:– Wikispaces (http://www.wikispaces.com/)– PeanutButterWiki (http://pbwiki.com/)– WetPaint (http://www.wetpaint.com/)– Seedwiki (http://www.seedwiki.com/)
• UM Wiki: Only for UM students, faculty &Staff(https://wiki.umn.edu/twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome)
WikiSpaces
http://www.wikispaces.com/
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PeanutButter Wiki
PeanutButterWiki
WetPaint Wiki
• WetPaint (http://www.wetpaint.com/)
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Seedwiki
• Seedwiki (http://www.seedwiki.com/)
UM Wiki
UM Wiki: (https://wiki.umn.edu/twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome)
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Office Hours• Avoids problem of
people having to cometo office to sign up onmy door
• Distance educationstudents can sign up
• Whenever anyone editsmy wiki, I receive anemail, so I know thatsomeone has signed up
• Users use initials onlyto ensure confidentiality
Teaching
• Use in place ofsome course webpages when havingothers contribute tothe pages is of valuee.g. readings &resource list
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Student of Resources• Students used this wiki
to ask questions andshare resources in theiruse of technology forthe class
• Some folks listedsuggestions, othersasked questions whichothers then came in andresponded to within thewiki
Committee Development ofPlan
• Committee members use thewiki to add contributions in thedevelopment of a plan (in thiscase, our dept. DiversityImmersion ExperienceRequirement)
• Contributors list initials so weknow who has contributed ifwe have questions
• At face-to-face meeting, wethen discuss the plan that hasbeen created so far on the wiki
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Using WikiSpaces DiscussionBoard
• WikiSpaces has adiscussion board thataccompanies eachspace
• This enables you to usethe wiki for content, &the board for adiscussion about thecontent
• To link to the discussionon the wiki, click on the“discussion” link
Discussion link
Preparing for Guest Speaker• Prior to having a guest
speaker come to class,using a wiki students postedquestions they wanted thespeaker to answer
• These questions can beshared with the speaker inadvance via the wiki
• Gives students a chance tothink ahead about questionsand to build off each others’questions
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Co-Constructing Knowledge• Students share their
perspective from avariety of sourcesrelated to their fieldof study.
• They post link alongwith annotation
Upload Files e.g. Audio
• Any form of digitalfiles can beuploaded to a wikifor users todownload. E.g.audio files (so youcan podcast fromyour wiki)
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Managing Your WikiSpaceWiki
• See list of all your wikipages
• List & upload files• Import blog entry• Manage templates• Backup your pages• Change page settings• Set members &
permissions• Delete pages
Click on link tomanage your space
http://helens.wikispaces.com/space/about
Setting Account Preferences
• WikiSpaces preferences• Very useful is to set this to send you
an email when wiki is modified
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Viewing Wiki History• Clicking on the “history”
link in a wiki allows youto view all past versionsof the wiki
• If someone has made achange that you don’twant, you can revert toearlier version of thewiki (so nothing can bedestroyed on a wiki as itcan be recovered usingthe history)
History link
Making a New Space (Page)
• In WikiSpaces (as with allwikis), you can easily add apage to your wiki
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Listing of Pages (Spaces) InYour Wiki
• Once you havemore than one page(aka: space) in yourwiki, you can view alist of all of them andlink to them from thislist
Members & PermissionsYou can set
permissions so that:– anyone can view
and edit– Anyone can view,
only members youallow may edit
– Only members mayview & edit (thisoption costs $5 permonth)