Using a wiki to create an online interactive work

space for education

The Problem

• Two courses, two sections• Key-boreding

PBworks is an easy-to-

use free web page that multiple

people can edit, it’s

based on wiki technology.

Wiki means Quick in Hawaiian

In the classroom,

Pbworks is a free tool that

empowers every student to participate

in group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.

What can he do to encourage the students to work together, share resources and create high

quality work?

ConversePost ideas

Respond

Forum

WritePublish

Comment

CreatePublish

CommentConversePost IdeasRespond

ShareEdit

CollaborateEngage

Blog PBworks

Three great ways to communicate with students

“It's so easy to create a site to help guide

students along with projects. I have found that

it's a good way to make handouts available to students - I just point

them at the web address. I post links to my PBworks

Rockford's site so that parents can access

project guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie Rockford High School

How can she make certain her online site is off limits to child

predators?

How can she be sure that her students won’t be drawn onto the web?

Mary wants to be sure her students are

protected from the wider internet.

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your studentsEach student has a unique login and

password

PBworks for Educator are

free and never display

advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make certain her students act appropriately on

line.

Will her students write offensive

comments?

How can she monitor her students activity?

You have a history of every edit

You are notified of every change

Who did the work?

Edits are time stamped. You know who made changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up

No IT department is needed!

Simply create a password and begin

Set it up and it worksjust like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like creating a

Word document

Easily insert

Images and Video

Just click and begin

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make coursework and

homework information easily available to both students and

parents.

With easy to use plugins you can create

a calendar.

Quickly create new pages Templates designed with teachers

in mind

Here’s one I made earlier . . .

Pbworks v BBV

• Complete autonomy and control• Students can access the work space using any

email address and from any location• Easy to set up and administrate – no HTML!• Lots of free tools to make the work space attractive

and lively• Students can upload materials and create their own

pages• Email notifications so that teachers know when the

space has been used by students• It can become a completely shared work space for

students and teachers

It’s not perfect . . .

• Looks difficult on first sight• Too many template pages• Images difficult to manage• Internet connection can be slow• Sometimes things don’t work – but what’s

new?• Payment needed for better features

Would you like to know more?You can find training videos, templates and a community of

fellow teacher users.http://educators.pbworks.com

There’s more . . .

• Each summer 1,500 educators have the chance to become PBWorks Certified educators on a free summer camp. 

• PBWorks has a mobile phone version, with limited functions.

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.

Thank you for participating

Diane Evans

IT FacultyAl Ain Women’s College