Your Web 2.0 Review Series #2: Wiki Software and Services

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Permalink Reply by Jane Krauss on August 31, 2007 at 11:38am

PBWiki is especially friendly with new wysiwyg editing capability added in June. Works best in Firefox, wysiwyg editor not supported in Safari, don't know about Explorer.
In reply to Marion's issue about sites being password protected anyone can view, right? It's just when they try to edit that they are asked for the pword. Since I don't care to limit editing I simply post the password on the very front page.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Poelzer on September 1, 2007 at 11:36am

I've tried wikispaces, pbwiki, and Wetpaint. I like them all. The only problem I had with Wetpaint is that it would not let me delete a wiki I created, even following the directions in their "Help" section. As someone else mentioned, I also had a "beef" with wikispaces about not allowing font style/color to be changed.

I put together a wiki of Web 2.0 tools that I've come across for a brief workshop I presented. Here's the link: Web 2.0 tools wiki

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Permalink Reply by Allon Mason on September 1, 2007 at 1:38pm

I've been using YouFig.com, which includes a wiki-like tool and other collaboration-supporting tools that aid students both to communicate with each other and with their teachers. It easily allows students to collaborate with one other in a structured, productive yet fun learning environment. Ad free, have as many collaboration workspaces as you wish, including private and invite-only.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Weidig on September 1, 2007 at 2:57pm

I have used both wikispaces and zoho wiki and like things about each. However, if I was to choose one, I would lean towards zoho. (Sorry Adam) Arvid and the Zoho team have built a tremendous integrated suite of free applications that include Zohowiki. I would highly recommend loking into Zoho Notebook. With the items below fr free... this is web and classroo 2.0 at its best

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Permalink Reply by Dean Mattson on September 3, 2007 at 11:49am

Moodle actually has a nice, very simple wiki implementation that I think I'm going to use with my elementary students. I think it does the job and I think students would easily get it. Plus students will already know how to sign in to do other assignments. If somebody has an idea that requires something more complex, I think I would lean to Wikispaces at this point. As others have pointed out, it's ad-free and free for educators. Also I think that it makes it easy to name new pages while you're creating them without having to look up any special markings. I'm also anxious to see what Google does with Jotspot.

The features that are important to me are simplicity. For beginners, it has to be easy to understand. It's also a lot easier if it's free or inexpensive, it has privacy options, it can be customized and it looks good. Those last two aren't as important which is why Moodle still is my favorite.

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Permalink Reply by Donna Hebert on September 3, 2007 at 8:42pm

I have accounts with both Wikispaces PBwiki.

I use Wikispaces for my work. This one is for collaborating with the other 8th grade language arts teachers in my building. I'm trying to warm them up to the idea of using technology to our advantage.

In addition to language arts, I also teach French. The Spanish teachers and I are planning a trip to France and Spain next year. Because it isn't a district-sponsored trip, we cannot use district resources to coordinate and plan. Consequently, I set up this wiki to communicate with parents and students. The teachers I'm working with on this wiki have really taken to it, unlike the language arts teachers. Right now, most of the activity is on the fundraising page, but I'm sure the other pages will get more use as our departure date nears.

I have two French wikis. One is a sandbox to which anyone can edit. The other one has restricted editing and is the one I direct students to.

I've also started a couple others for webquests and an exploratory languages class, but they don't amount to much yet.

At PBWiki, my brother-in-law set up this wiki to help our spread-out family deal with my mother-in-law's recovery from a stroke, which left her aphasic. This wiki is edited almost daily, and it has proven to be a Godsend. It has changed our lives for the better during a difficult time.

Of the two wiki services, which do I prefer? That depends on the day. Both are excellent and I recommend them highly.

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Permalink Reply by SusanTsairi on September 5, 2007 at 10:01am

Hi Adam, just thought I'd remind you, Hebrew interface would make wikispaces accessible for so many elementary students and their teachers in Israel.

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Permalink Reply by pete whitfield on September 6, 2007 at 11:45pm

Just checked the upload+and+embed your own media tool now in wikispaces - that's the deal maker for me!
It's currently well hidden in the editing interface - check the wikispaces blog for the how-to.

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Permalink Reply by pete whitfield on September 8, 2007 at 1:04am

...and then I tried Wetpaint. It has a snazzy look, rather ning-ish, less formal than wikispaces. I tried to embed a ning photo slideshow and got an error message (wrong code), though a video did embed no problem. I then tried uploading an mp3 and found the maximum file size is 1mb. With wikispaces I think you can now upload (and embed) upto 10mb files (audio and video). And 2 gb of space for free.

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Permalink Reply by Barry Bakin on October 3, 2007 at 8:51am

Hi Adam,
It's a bit off-topic but I put in a request for an ad-free wikispace and I got a nice note back from Sarah asking that I verify that the wiki will be used "exclusively" for k-12 education. Since I work with adult immigrant students I couldn't really do that and I didn't want to tell an untruth. Is there a particular reason that adult education providers are excluded from the ad-free wikispace program? Many of my students are parents of k-12 students, and in accord with recent trends to encourage direct parent involvement in their children's education, I encourage parents to use the computer and Internet skills they obtain in my class when they're at home with their children, but I can't say that what I do is exclusively for k-12. Since you note on your page that "We didn't set out with a grand strategy, just an interest in helping teachers with our easy to use wiki technology" I'd like to suggest that adult education teachers be included in the free wikispace program as well.

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Permalink Reply by Jason de Nys on September 24, 2007 at 3:27am

Used PBwiki as a digital submission tool for a pretty standard science project, didn't really explore the interactiveness fully other than by popping in a free forum for student questions, but it was as much a learning exercise for me. I like PBwiki for it's formatting options and for the helpful types in the forum. The WYSIWYG editor drives me nuts, cutting and pasting into it rarely works well. I upgraded for fun and the page level access is great.

I am using wikispaces for a small book club for colleagues just to try it out. I like its clean lines and the extra space you get there compared to PBwiki but it really needs more formatting options

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Barnett on October 5, 2007 at 7:40pm

I use wikispaces. It is quite plain and I really like it that way. The no advertisements for educators reduces distractions for my students. They've updated embedding features and it's easier now. Templates are nice with pbwiki and that would be great if wikispaces could offer something similar. Other great wikispaces features: discussion page on each page created, easy editing, even the messaging system built in. What bothers me: the table feature isn't very easy to manipulate.
I'm new to classroom2.0 and enjoying seeing inside so many classrooms through the forums, etc. on this ning. Thanks for the great network!
Jennifer Barnett
My class wiki

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