Advanced Workshop - Using a Classroom Wiki for Collaboration and Communication
Workshop Outcome: Participants will demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which a wiki can support collaborative instructional activities, the implications of BCPS rules and policies in using online collaborative tools, and the PBworks Campus Edition features to provide a safe, collaborative, online environment with students.
Prerequisite Skills: Experience using a wiki, Fundamental Skills: Fundamentals of PC, Telecommunications – Email, Telecommunications – World Wide Web, and Word Processing
Materials: All materials are accessible to the instructor only through https://bcpswikiworkshop.pbworks.com. Do not invite participants to this wiki.
Email Attachments: Protocols for Online Collaborative Tools BCPS Rule 4006 BCPS Rule 6202 Form 6202E BCPS Rule 1110.1 Handout: Advanced Workshop Agenda
Preparation 1. Send participants the following email with attachments at least 1 week before the beginning of the workshop and again 24 hours before the beginning of the class.
Welcome to Using a Classroom Wiki for Communication and Collaboration- Advanced My name is ___ and I am your instructor for this workshop. This Advanced workshop is scheduled for ____; however, I am attaching information to assist you in creating a PBworks account. Please make sure that you are able to log into http://my.pbworks.com before the class begins. I have also attached important handouts for the session. Please make sure you have access to these files at the workshop or bring a printed copy if necessary. If you have any questions at any time, please e-mail (____) and I would be happy to help!
Your Name
2. Make copies of the Advanced Workshop Agenda (Note Taker) for participants.
Baltimore County Public Schools 1 Office of Instructional Technology: Advanced Workshop: Using a Classroom Wiki January, 2011 Procedures:
What is a wiki?- 5 min Have participants introduce themselves and state what they think a wiki is and what they would like to get out of this workshop. Remind participants that this is an advanced workshop that requires participants to have experience using a wiki.
Accessing your PBworks Account- 5 min Have participants log onto, http://my.pbworks.com . Point out that: o Teachers and staff who join PBworks with their email accounts will access all of their workspaces through http://my.pbworks.com . o Students are assigned PBworks classroom accounts for each workspace and must go directly to the URL to access each workspace separately.
Managing your PBworks Account-5 min Explain notification Preferences and that they can be overwritten by workspace specific notifications. This will be explained later. Have participants edit their personal information in the Profile tab. o Use First and Last Name or Mr., Mrs., Ms. Last name in the Name box. This is who you will be seen as in the wiki. o Put your school or office name in the Location box. Have participants use the Join a Workspace tool at the bottom of their Home page to join http://bcpswikisandbox.pbworks.com/. Show participants how you grant access to the workspace and give them Administrator permission level.
Why Use a Wiki?-10 min BCPS and Wikis- Explain the different purposes for wikis and show examples. Make sure examples you show highlight the collaborative uses of a wiki. Teacher Wikis are used with students to collaborate and communicate. You may want to request access to the following but check before the class to make sure they are still good examples. o http://wardsworld.pbworks.com o http://tbycomputers.pbworks.com/ o http://msburtonisonline.pbworks.com/ o http://omstech.pbworks.com/ School/Office wikis used with school/office staff to collaborate and communicate Baltimore County Public Schools 2 Office of Instructional Technology: Advanced Workshop: Using a Classroom Wiki January, 2011 o Show your school wiki Specific Purpose wiki- like this wiki Sections of any wiki can be used to Increase parent involvement Have participants access https://bcpswikisandbox.pbworks.com by going to http://my.pbworks.com. Explain that this is the home base with all of their workspaces. Demonstrate how you need to change your personal preferences for this workspace by clicking on your name in the top right corner. Have participants comment on why they would like to use a wiki on the FrontPage of https://bcpswikisandbox.pbworks.com.
BCPS Policies and Rules- 15 min Handout the Protocols for Online Collaborative Tools. Give participants time to review the document and then explain that Principals have the ultimate responsibility for using these tools in the school. Point out responsibilities of teachers under Level 3. Principals should have attended a webinar to understand their responsibilities. The list of principals who have attended the training is on the instructor wiki https://bcpswikiworkshop.pbworks.com in the instructor folder. It is the teacher’s responsibility to obtain permission from the principal to use the wiki. We will notify principals who did not see the training. Handout BCPS Rules 4006, 6202, and 1110 to each participant. Have participants review 6202 to identify rules that will apply to the use of wikis. Use the highlighted Instructor copy to point out things that were missed and connections to 4006 and 1110.
Pages and Files Manager- Go through this as quickly as possible. Highlighted topics may be new to users – 10 min Have participants download the Permission Levels document (located in the Downloads folder in the sandbox wiki) to a location they will remember and rename it YourLastName_PermissionLevels. o Make note of the new feature to comment on files.
Folders Describe the difference between a page and a file. A page is a “webpage” that can be viewed and edited by any designated member of the wiki. A file can be any file type that can be downloaded by designated members of a wiki to their local computer and used or changed in any way they wish. Examine: o Pages and Files o All Pages o All Files o Unfiled items Baltimore County Public Schools 3 Office of Instructional Technology: Advanced Workshop: Using a Classroom Wiki January, 2011 o Folders o Page and file count Have participants create a folder called YourLastName Have participants create a YourLastName_Activities folder inside of the YourLastName folder by selecting the YourLastName folder first then click on New and Folder. Explain that folders can be moved through Drag and drop by Administrators.
Pages Have participants return to the FrontPage using the Wiki tab and attempt to edit it. They should notice that only one person can edit the page at a time. Explain that the Steal the Lock will result in the current editor losing his/her changes but the protocol would be to steal the lock after 5 minutes of inactivity. Have participants create a page using the Create a Page link. They should name the page LastName_BestPractices and save it to the YourLastName folder. Then have participants Edit their page by adding a few sentences about how you might manage multiple people trying to edit a page at the same time. Explain the WYSIWIG Editor basics and have participants create a table and add an image. Have participants Save the page and then go into Edit again. Have participants compose a few more sentences on how they could use the page editing feature to facilitate collaboration. Make note of collaboration tool to record changes made to a page. Have participants save the page again. Demonstrate the Page History Demonstrate Tags. Have participants tag one of their pages with the name of their school and then demonstrate Searching for a tag. Have participants create a page. They should name the page LastName_PermissionLevels, choose to Import a document, browse to where they saved the Permission levels document and save it to the YourLastName folder. Explain that unlike other folder structure, wiki files and pages must have unique names throughout the entire wiki, not just the folder. Open the YourLastName_PermissionLevels page and tag the page "template." Use the Create Page link to create a page. o Name: YourFirstname_PermissionLevelsGroup1 o Page Content: Use Template FirstName_PermissionLevels o Put this page in a folder: YourLastName_Activities Have participants search for the page you created with your last name using the Search this workspace tool.
Uploading Files- 10 min Baltimore County Public Schools 4 Office of Instructional Technology: Advanced Workshop: Using a Classroom Wiki January, 2011 Have participants use the Pages and Files Manager to upload any MS Word file from their H: drive into their YourLastname_Activities folder. First upload it as a file Then upload it as a page. Have participants: o Download the file they just uploaded. o Make some clearly visible changes to the file o Save the file again (Make sure they do not change the name) o Upload the file again and choose to upload a new revision Navigate to the file and click on the number in the rev column. This shows all of the different versions of the same document that were uploaded to the wiki.
Creating Links- 5 min Have participants open one of their pages and practice Linking to: o an existing workspace folder, page, file o email address o Website o Edit a link o Force link to open in a new window
Users- 10 min Revisit Permission Levels Document o Demonstrate Assigning roles Adding Users o BCPS Employees- BCPS email address o BCPS Students- classroom accounts- writer access 1. Do not user BCPS AD username and password. Some teachers may have already used these credentials. Please have those teachers contact sgallagher4@bcps for immediate assistance. 2. Use BCPS Usernames and create school wide "External” passwords. (http://www.random.org/integers/) By the beginning of next year, BCPS will generate in either STARS or EASI both an “Internal” (only used for logon to BCPS network. Must remain private) and an “external” (used for all outside BCPS network online applications where a student username and password is required.) o Non-BCPS staff or students are not bound by the BCPS Policies and Rules. The wiki administrator must make informed decisions about who is invited to the wiki and what role they will have on the wiki. Security settings allow the Baltimore County Public Schools 5 Office of Instructional Technology: Advanced Workshop: Using a Classroom Wiki January, 2011 administrator to create “public” pages (within the private wiki) of information to be shared with any stakeholder. (No need to add parents to the wiki.) Security settings also allow the wiki administrator to apply security settings to folders and pages. This makes it possible to have a private wiki and also provide for collaboration opportunities with people outside of BCPS in a defined folder and/or page on the wiki (Page level access.) o Have participants add 1 classroom account. Demonstrate creating groups o Creating a group o Deleting a group o Managing users o Using Groups to filter users o Using groups to set page and folder security
Security Settings- 10 min Demonstrate Security Settings o Workspace . Only people I invite or approve can view the workspace . Disable commenting for readers (On public pages, viewers have the Reader role. Disabling commenting for readers prevents inappropriate or unsafe comments that cannot be supported with the BCPS Policies and Rules. Encourage readers of public pages to email the teacher with concerns or comments by including an email link on the public pages.) o Folder security . Folders inherit workspace security unless the folder security is changed. . Changing a folder’s security also changes the security of all of the Pages and files in a folder. . If there are numerous pages and files that you would like to make available to a certain individual, group, or to the public; it is easier to assign the security to the folder. . Default, custom or public o Page Security . Pages inherit folder securities unless the page security is changed . Default, lock, hide, custom, public o Who has access to this page or folder
Plugins- 30 min Embed vs. upload- Define embed (v)- to be or become fixed or incorporated, as into a surrounding mass: Glass embeds in the soft tar of the road.
PBworks Plugins o Calendar Baltimore County Public Schools 6 Office of Instructional Technology: Advanced Workshop: Using a Classroom Wiki January, 2011 o Recent Visitors o Number of Visitors Student Tools to embed o Voki o Calendar o Dabbleboard o SchoolTube – Available within BCPS network without a log in o Fliqz- PBworks video plugin Teacher Tools to embed (require email) o Wallwisher o Google Docs (Forms, presentations) o Slideshare (presentations) o Teacher Tube- User must be logged in to Teacher\Tube in order to bypass the BCPS filter
Quiz and Upgrade- 5 min Have participants complete and submit the form on the FrontPage of https://bcpswikisandbox.pbworks.com.
Baltimore County Public Schools 7 Office of Instructional Technology: Advanced Workshop: Using a Classroom Wiki January, 2011