Wiki+FAQs

=Wiki FAQs= previous page

Here are your questions from my Wiki Workshop. I answered them as best I could, but if you have any other questions or need help then please email me or ask me. NOTE: I am monitoring this page. If you have a new question you'd like me to try to answer post it at the bottom and I will do my best to help you out! ~Liz

1. Is there a way to make a calendar for the wiki? Yes, the easiest way would probably to find a widget to embed. Just google “calendar widget.” Once you find one, go to the page where you would like to place the calendar, edit the page, and click on the “widget” icon in the edit bar. I haven’t tried to use a calendar widget but I have used other widgets successfully. There’s a google calendar widget you could embed, which would already be tied to your actual google calendar (if you use one and you sync it) and would automatically be updated with anything you add to your google calendar elsewhere.

2. Are Survey Monkey surveys anonymous? Yes. Unless you add in a field where they type their name, they’re anonymous.

3. Is there a way to utilize social networking on a wiki? I don’t know. You might be able to create some sort of Facebook group page for educators and then use a Facebook widget, but I know that there’s not a social networking aspect of the wiki already built in. I think that’s a great idea, though! I’ve often wished for an educational application similar to Facebook. Maybe there is one, and we just need to seek it out.

4. Notifications on Updates to the Wiki I believe the only way to be notified of new updates to pages is to subscribe to get emails about these. Be wary of this, though, because a popular wiki could end up sending you tons of emails every day. There might be a widget we could use...

5. Anonymous posts? No posts are anonymous. You can go into the history and see who said what. If someone is malicious it can easily be tracked down and fixed. I think that the consequences of actions online should be the same as if they were done in person- If someone is mean online or if they destroy another’s work, treat it the same way you would in the classroom.

6. How can wikis be used for individual work? I agree with Mike when he said they are mostly for collaborative work. You could make “portfolio” pages and have a consequence for another student editing that page, or you could have students post individual work in the discussion tab, which can’t be edited. (Thanks, Stephanie Byrnes!) But yes, the purpose is really to collaborate, not to have individual writing.

7. How do you deal with student access to computers at home or time restraints? You really have to provide the time to work on the wiki during school. The benefit is that students from all of your classes can work together, or that students from around the world can work together. It would also be beneficial for homework IF all your students had computers at home. But they don’t. I’d say only half of mine had consistent access.

8. Loss of Individuality and Worth A Note from Bri: I think a student's voice could get lost among the crowd in a wiki. Consensus or collaborative work could lead a student to feel as if they have been overwhelmed, as if their vote was drowned out and didn't matter because the "majority" disagreed. May not be something I'd use in a creative classroom because creative work is so personal/individualistic that to edit it - without the writer's consent or counsel - can lead to injury or insult.

I agree with Bri. I saw this happen in my classroom, and not just with creative writing, but with personal choices for the pages like colors and fonts and pictures. I think if we’re going to use the wiki we need to really stress that it’s meant to be a place where everyone contributes and edits and changes things. And then we should provide a different outlet for expressing oneself and just focus on collaborative things on the wiki. ~Liz