Your+First+Wiki

=Building Your First Wiki=

Note: The web address for your wiki will be: http://**yourwikiname**.wikispaces.com =** Before you start your wiki with your class(es), make some basic decisions: **=


 * How do you envision using the wiki? ( How will you explain it to parents and administration? Feel free to use the examples here to help.)
 * Who will be able to see the wiki? (the public? members only?)
 * Who will be able to edit the wiki? (the public? members only? vary by section?)
 * Who will be able to join the wiki? (students only? parents? invited guests? the public?)
 * What parts of the wiki will you “protect” (lock from changes)?
 * Who will moderate the wiki for appropriateness, etc?
 * Who will have the ability to reset changes?
 * Will you, as the teacher, be notified of all changes?
 * Will the wiki have Individual or global memberships? (by individual students if you want an individual record of who made changes, or with one log-in per group or class?)


 * Administrator Approval**

Once you an envision how your wiki will work and be used, it is best to get your principal or supervisor's approval if you are one of the first teachers using such a "new" web tool. Recent news stories about social networking sites have administrators on edge. Your school's Acceptable Use Policy may have some specific rules about using tools like wikis. You want to find out the following:


 * Is it permissible to post student work to web?
 * What is the policy on posting student names (initials? pseudonyms?)
 * What is the policy on posting pictures of students or class scenes?
 * What is the policy on posting any information that might identify the wiki class?
 * Can these policies be met through security settings, parent and student agreements?
 * Does the district filering prevent access to the wiki tools from school? If so, will your administrator facilitateUNblocking of the wiki's exact URL?

=Getting Started= Set up a free wiki account. All you need is an email address. Navigate to www.wikispaces.com to get started. Click "Sign In" and then choose "Make a New Account". At this point, you'll need to choose a username and password, and enter your email address. You can also select the option to "Make a Wiki" now.

Once you've completed the registration process, you'll be greeted with your "My Account" screen. From here, you can either choose to view one of your existing wikis or "+ Create a New Wiki".

When creating a wiki, you will have choices during set-up: public, protected, private, etc. Read the choices and decide who should be able to see and work on your wiki. You can always change these settings later. You will receive a confirming email. Check your junk mail folder if it is not there soon. 

Adding Content
==﻿ Adding new content to your wiki is as simple as clicking the edit button. Once you click, your wiki will change to an editable state. Editing the page is very similar to using Microsoft Work. ==

The following video provides a brief overview of editing a wikispaces page:


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Your wiki only starts out with one page but there are several methods to add new pages. The easiest methods are to either click the "New Page" button or to add a link as the tutorial shows.

When clicking the New Page button, you'll be presented with the following dialog. You simply need to type in a name for the page, and an optional tag (used for sorting pages into categories) and your new page will be created for you and added to the navigation menu automatically.

Alternatively, you can create a page by simply adding a link to your existing page. You need to type the name that you wish to give your new page, highlight it, and then click the Link button in the toolbar. You will get the following popup once you click the link button with your text highlighted:



You may notice the Page Name is in red. This is because the page does not actually exist, but clicking the Add Link button will create the page for you. After you save your work and click the link, you will be brought to a new page with the following message. As the message states, simply click the Edit button to create the new page. 

Personalizing
Wikispaces contains many different personalization options for your wiki. Start by clicking the Manage Wiki button on the toolbox. This will display several different management and personalization options. To personalize the look of your wiki, you want to select "Look and Feel" under the settings heading. From here you'll be able to customize your: theme and colours. You'll also have access to more advanced features such as stylesheet and advertisement placement.

This video offers a walkthrough of changing your wiki's layout and colour scheme:


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Files and Pictures
Your wiki can host virtually any type of file. The wiki editor is also smart enough to know whether your file is a picture, video, or something else. The main use of this option is to add pictures to your wiki, but it is also a great method of sharing handouts and other files with a class.

The following video shows an example of uploading pictures and files and adding them to your wiki.


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Widgets
Widgets are special tools and features that can be added to your wiki. Clicking on the widget button in the toolbar will give the following popup:



There are all sorts of widgets available, with more being added all the time. You can add wikispaces specific widgets such as a list of your current wiki pages, a discussion area or a page history. You can also add widgets which gather content from other sites such as youtube videos and maps.

The following video covers the basics of widgets and shows you an example of embedding a youtube video widget into your wiki.


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=**Other Resources**= This has been a brief overview of the basic features of a wiki. With these tools, you can create a fully functional and immersive wiki. There are many other tools at your disposal however. Consider reading one of the many topics on the wikispaces help page, located at: http://help.wikispaces.com/

Notes:
Adding content to a wiki is similar to typing in Microsoft Word, but not identical. Sometimes you will run into problems with copy/pasted text or text formatting looking awkward. The best way to solve this problem is to either erase the text and re-type it, or to clear all formatting from the text. To clear all formatting, start by highlighting the text you wish to fix, as well as any other text in the immediate area. Next, click the "Style Text" toolbar button and click the "Clear Styles"  button on the page that pops up. If this doesn't fix the text, try selecting a little more or a little less and repeating the process. This will fix most problems without making you re-type everything.
 * Adding content & fixing styling**

If you feel comfortable doing advanced text editing in Microsoft Word, you are able to copy/paste from Word into wikispaces. The text will retain most of its formatting, although you should only do this if you don't plan on modifying the text once you paste it in. Modifying Word text after pasting it into your wiki may cause some formatting and styling problems. If you choose to add content this way, you are best to make your changes in Word, erase everything from the wiki page, and re-paste the new version.
 * Advanced Editing**

This bit of text was copy/pasted directly out of Microsoft Word. The picture of the original word document is below. You can see that some formatting was carried over, and some wasn't. Always hit the "Save" button to see what the formatting will actually look like.

 ** The Ministry’s View **

1. Base funding to school boards on a per-student basis is done through a ___ Grant.

(a) Start-up (b) Foundation (c) Seed

2. Funding for “special education” is provided in five very distinct ways.

(a) True (b) False (c) Cannot Determine



Wikispaces also allows you to edit pages using HTML code. In order to get into HTML or "Wikitext" mode, you need to click the small downward facing arrow beside the save button and choose "Wikitext Editor".