Your Web 2.0 Review Series #2: Wiki Software and Services
This is the second in a series of forum posts asking for feedback on the software and services around the different categories of Classroom 2.0 programs. This time it's wikis. What programs or services do you use? Wikispaces, PBWiki, Wetpaint, Jotspot, or some other?
Which are your favorites and why?
What features are important to you?
(If you're feeling verbose) What are the pros and cons of the programs you've tried?
Hopefully, these discussions will provide an unparalleled reference for new users making choices about what tools to use.
Which are your favorites and why?
What features are important to you?
(If you're feeling verbose) What are the pros and cons of the programs you've tried?
Hopefully, these discussions will provide an unparalleled reference for new users making choices about what tools to use.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Marian Thacher on
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I was going to use wikispaces, but they were having server problems when I needed to set up my wiki, so I used pbwiki. I haven't found it all that user-friendly. I've haven't been able to figure out how NOT to have my wiki password protected. I guess that could be good protection from spam and vandalism, but my site is for professional development and I want it to be as easy as possible for teachers to add resources and information.
Other than that, pbwiki has been fine for my needs. I'm mostly keeping an organized list of links that I use for presentations. They are definitely marketing to educators. They emailed me one time because they were planning to make a video about educators using their site.
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Permalink Reply by Marsha on
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I have been using pbwiki since summer of 2006 and have loved the way it solved several of my problems. I started pbwiki when they were only using what they now call "clasic editor", and now am getting used to the new way. I got around having it password protected by posting the password on the front page! I am using the wiki in my methods courses for pre-service teachers and need to have all of them edit the wiki. They are using the wiki as a repository for links and articles - assignments for the course, but then a resource to take into the classroom as they continue to their student teaching and then as beginning teachers. I demonstrate how to edit the wiki in the first class meeting, and, so far, everyone has been very receptive to it and has been able to edit with very little trouble.
I have also set up pbwikis for teacher workshops I present. I begin the wiki with information I post, demonstrate how to edit, and then let the participants add to the site. PBWiki has made their site ad-free for education and you can have as many wikis as you want/need. I've been very happy with them and appreciate the service.
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That is such a good and simple idea. Thank you! I will put the password on the page. Doh!
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Permalink Reply by TeachingSagittarian on
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We use Wikispaces for our classroom wiki. It has such an easy interface, looks sleek and tidy and of course now has a nifty embedded media tool which allows you to embed some really cool web2.0 tools such as VoiceThread, Voki, Yackpack, YouTube movies ...... the list goes on. (Anything with a embedding code really). The opportunity is there for you to use html code if you can, or not. The visual editor will do most things for your space regardless of how much html code you know. The best feature of Wikispaces is that the creators are very much behind education and educators hence the 100 000 add-free wikispaces for educators. Not only does the wikispaces team reply very quickly to any queries or concerns but they are also willing to help you out with your wikispace any way they can! When you're starting out using tools like wikis it's really important that help is not far away.
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Wikispaces is add-free for Educators K-12 (and you can have many spaces too). You can chose from 3 levels of privacy too. Check out Vicki Davis's Wikispace for a very good example as to what you can do with wikispaces.
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Wikispaces is add-free for K-12 educators and you can choose from 3 levels of privacy plus have unlimited spaces as well with unlimited pages. Check out Vicki Davis' wikispace for a great example of the possibilites with Wikispaces.
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Permalink Reply by Michele Martin on
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I'd recommend Wetpaint. I've used Wikispaces and PBWiki and I still have a bunch of things set up on wikispaces, but Wetpaint has really begun to win my heart. It has a lot of appealing design templates and can be made completely private for free (unlike Wikispaces, where it costs $50/year). You can also add multimedia easily and customize the banner with your own photos, etc. My one complaint is their interface for developing your navigation, which I find less user-friendly than the process on Wikispaces, at least in terms of how I think. But that's a minor consideration.
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Permalink Reply by SusanTsairi on
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private Wikispaces are free for k12 however you need to use the right signup page http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers100K - if you have a wiki that you would like to change to an educators free private account just write to the developers. Another plus of wikispaces is the ability to send a list of students to the developers, and they will set up usernames for them, this removes the need for student email accounts.
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Permalink Reply by Carolyn Foote on
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Michelle, I agree with you about wetpaint. It has some really cool features that get around some of the problems people might have in the classroom using wikis.
I also prefer pbwiki to wikispaces--just seems easier to edit and format things, in my humble opinion ;) though I like wikispaces as well.
What I like most?? is just the ability of wikis to allow anyone to edit a webpage. It just allows us so much freedom to build sites, have collaborative discussions or planning, and create a shared document easily and quickly. Wikis rule!
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Permalink Reply by janien on
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Some time ago (I guess in May and in July 2007) I opened two wikis on Wikispaces and I hope to 'activate' them from September 3rd 2007 when the new school year starts. I still am exploring and experimenting the wiki possiblities. But as far as I have experienced untill now, the use of Wikispaces is very simple and easy: all i want, as I am a beginner.
The creating of the wikis was easy and I've been publishing some pages. I was inspired by a wiki expert, Elke Das, and I also choose for Wikispaces. As I said, the real work still has to come and I hope my students and I - and perhaps with your help and advice - will succeed.
Our 1st wiki Het Scriptorium is planned for writing exercises and paper writing in Dutch. With the 2nd we want to activate and show of our Reading Art, original creations based on our reading and interpretation of literature (poetry, fiction , essay).
Welcome!
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Permalink Reply by nfrater on
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I am a bit of a newbie when it comes to wikis, but dipped my toe in recently. We were planning our production and different script edits were flying around via email which was getting confusing. I grabbed the latest version and put it in a wiki, it worked like a dream- one version, always the most up to date, which was edited and saved as we went: great!! see what I mean here.
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Permalink Reply by Kim Cofino on
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I have used both Wikispaces and PB Wiki. It was initially the add-free service for educators that attracted me to Wikispaces last year and I ended up having all of our middle school students register for a wikispace account early on. I like Wikispaces because its simple, easy to use, allows users to embed any kind of multimedia object they've posted online, and allows different privacy levels (open to the public, viewable by the public but editable only by members, and completely private).
I was forced to use PB Wiki for a collaborative project that our grade 8 students did with 3 other schools because the project was started by another teacher. I did like the fact that student did not have to have a username and password and that the entire site could be password protected. I don't like the interface as much as Wikispaces and I don't like default page layout because it's not as easy to navigate.
I will definitely continue using Wikispaces in the future, but I would love to see improved table editing with the Rich Text Editor...
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