Wikispaces

Welcome to Wikispaces.
A wiki is a place on the internet where people can edit and create pages. You can set it so that //anyone// can edit the wiki; only class members who have access to it can edit it, or only you can edit it.

Similarly, you can also set it so that it can be viewed by only members of the wiki or anyone. It is a safe and secure learning environment which you have absolute control over. As the administrator of the wiki, you are also able to see who has edited what. If anything gets accidentally (or even purposely) deleted, you are able to 'roll back' the changes to how it was before the deletion.

It is possible to insert media (images and videos) as well as embed youtube videos as part of homework tasks amongst many other things. You can also set up polls to keep in touch with your audiences and they are able to directly mail you through your wikispaces email address (automatically set up) with any queries. There are many widgets available to embed as well. A widget is simply an interactive part of your website - it may be a map, a poll, slideshow, calendar..... Click on Widget when editing your wiki.

Furthermore, once group members have been created and added to the wiki (see below), you can allocate them to project groups (by clicking Projects on the wiki). You allocate specific members into groups to do Project-based worked. From here they can create their own pages and begin to build their project.

Sign up for an account: Click here to do so (this literally takes a couple of minutes, max). **Make sure that you sign up for the Educator (K-12) account. If you don't, you will not be able to bulk create users.**

Once you have signed up to wikispaces, click here for more info about using it as a teacher. Now create a Wiki and select the security settings you want for it.

To add a class, it takes no more than five minutes. This will create a unique login for each pupil in the class(es) you are setting it up for.

Do the following:

1. Go to the class you want to set it up for in SEEMIS. 2. Click on 'Print Register'. This will open up a pdf file. 3. Click on File --> Save as Text. This will open up all the pupils' names in a notebook file. 4. Copy all of the names in the class. 5. On the wikispaces page you have created for them, click on Manage Wiki. 6. Under //People//, click on User Creator. Select the wiki that you want to add members to. 7. Select //I will paste in a text list...// 8. Now paste in the names that you had copied from the class list and make sure //you put a full stop in-between first and surnames and a comma at the end of each name. Give each user its own line//.: EG - Billy.Bloggs, A.N.Other, etc. If a user's name is already taken, just add a number at the end. EG - Billy.Bloggs2, 9. Click on //Continue// once you have imputed your list. There may be errors with usernames; use instructions on website to fix. I use the following options for the next page: 10. //Should we ignore the first row?// No; //Which column contains usernames?// Column 1; //Which column contains email addresses?// These users do not have email addresses; //Which column contains passwords?// Generate passwords for me. Now click //Continue.// 11. You will now see a table showing the usernames, email addresses and passwords. If this is all ok, click //Continue//. 12. Each pupil now has their own username, email address and password. I usually show this on the Interactive Whiteboard and get them to copy the password down into their homework planner. The first thing I get them to do is to change their password asap. A list of these randomly generated passwords is also emailed to you for future reference. 13. **Done!** You have created a complete list of all users in your class! You are now ready to start using the wiki.