Do you use PB Works?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Patrick Kutkey on April 21, 2010 at 8:30am

I'm no expert, but if I were going to set up something like this, I would give a good look at the Ning network. What exactly do you intend to use it for?

Permalink Reply by Allan Foster on April 21, 2010 at 8:43am

Our IT director thinks PB Works is more secure from our standpoint than Ning. Charges are clearer at this juncture on PB than Ning. We do need a lot of control over the system. We are a Federal Government school and the DOI hates the idea of interactive and self-hosting sites and Ning is way too open for their taste.

Permalink Reply by Allan Foster on April 21, 2010 at 8:54am

Didn't really answer your question the first time.

We want it for teacher collaboration and for students to use for a variety of classroom and extracurricular purposes. We would like a platform where students can safely practice these skills for their own projects as well as classroom projects.

We would prefer for the system to be intra-school to keep our liability in check and to keep an educational boundary around the system.

Permalink Reply by Klista Lawyer-Reynolds on April 21, 2010 at 8:07pm

I use pbworks and I really like it. Here's a link to my classroom site: http://klreynolds.pbworks.com/
and here's the link to my professional site: http://eaglelearning.pbworks.com/
You can put passwords on it so not just anyone can get into it, but I don't currently have this set up for passwords. It does not take much management at all, users can even sign up to use the site themselves so that your IT director will not have to manage the teacher and student accounts.

Permalink Reply by Barry Bakin on May 11, 2010 at 11:25am

I'm a big fan of pbworks as an individual educational user, but I don't know much about the local management system for larger numbers of wikis. Everything that I have seen so far about the entire PBworks platform, indicates that you can expect an easy-to-operate and trouble free experience. Have you contacted them directly? I'm sure they'll be happy to talk with anybody on your staff. As far as I know, the entire system can be set to private so no outside viewers can view it at all.