Wikispaces for Educators
From Shifted Learning
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Wikispaces is a great program for teachers to be able to create free, simple websites. My goals for our time together:
- Understand there's an easier way to build websites.
- Let you play.
[edit] Wiki Basics
What is a wiki? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki)
Basic Wiki Setup: http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers
[edit] Building Your Own Wiki
[edit] Registering With Wikispaces
Image:Wikispaces Registration for Teachers.jpg
- Choose a username. It needs to be different than anybody else's.
- Choose a name for your space. This will be the first part of your new web address. http://__________.wikispaces.com. Make it count.
- No Punctuation or Spaces
- Make It Memorable and Easy to Spell
- It has to Be Unique
- Choose whether you want your wiki Public, Protected, or Private. (This can be changed at any time.)
- Check the box to certify you are using this for K12 education.
- Click "Join". Congratulations. Write a little bit about yourself. Kick the tires on the editing toolbar. Click save.
Your new website address is http://_________.wikispaces.com
[edit] Basic Editing Inside Wikispaces
Bold, Italics, Underline, Sizing
Creating Links to Other Websites
Creating Links to Other Wiki Pages Within Your Site
[edit] Adding Images and Files in Wikispaces
Grabbing a Screenshot (Mac): Apple + Shift + 4
Saving an Image (Windows): Right Click - Save As
Using Fonts as Icons
[edit] Advanced Features of Wikispaces
Editing the Navigation Bar
Printing Spaces
Tables
Setting a User Avatar
Importing Video
Discussion
History
Notify Me
Recent Changes
Manage Space
[edit] Links and Resources
Wikispaces: http://www.wikispaces.com
Firefox: http://www.getfirefox.com
Del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us
Copyright Friendly Images: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons
Discovery Education's Clipart Gallery: http://school.discovery.com/clipart/
Kids Handprint Clipart: http://www.topazdesigns.com/%7eklm/sets/hands.htm
Dafont (Great Sites for Fonts and Apple Option): http://www.dafont.com/
Button Maker: http://www.mycoolbutton.com/
[edit] Connections to Your Curriculum
Wikipedia is all free content. Use any of the Wikipedia resources to borrow content for your own classroom wiki content.
Content area specific resources for Wikispaces.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior_Dinosaurs
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:Bugs
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior_Big_Cats
[edit] Links to Other Educational Wikispaces Sites
http://del.icio.us/rss/ijohnpederson/wikispaces
[edit] Help for Teachers (From Wikispaces)
Q: How can I learn how to use Wikispaces?
A: Try video tutorials. They are a great way to get started.
Q: Is there an easy way to create accounts for all of my students?
A: If you don't want your students to have to create accounts themselves, just email help@wikispaces.com with a list of usernames, email addresses (if you have them - if you don't just leave them out), and passwords in the following format and we'll create the accounts for you.
user1,email1@address.com,password1
user2,email2@address.com,password2
user3,email3@address.com,password3
A few important notes that will help us create these accounts for you quickly:
Usernames: We have a large number of accounts on Wikispaces, so many combinations of first names, last names, and initials are already taken. It's much more likely we can make all the accounts you ask if you add a school identifier to your students' usernames. For example, if your school is called John Smith High, instead of asking us for the usernames, adam, james, and dom, we recommend jsh-adam, jsh-james, and jsh-dom.
Length of Usernames and Passwords: Please make sure that usernames are at least 3 characters long (we allow letters, numbers, underscores _, or dashes -) and that passwords are at least 6 characters long.
Which Space?: Finally, make sure to let us know which spaces we should add them to as members.
