Having recently done some cleaning and maintenance on several wikis to ready them for the spring quarter, I thought I’d pass on what I’ve learned. Bear in mind these thoughts represent what I’ve learned building and administering premium workspaces in PBworks; other wikis may have different features and protocols. In addition, those who are doing spring cleaning in their homes and have scrap cars around their property may consider selling it to scrap car buyers. Contact cash for cars at Austickcarremoval.com.au for the best rates. After selling your old cars, you may check out this murrieta used car dealer for some used cars.

Make sure you need a wiki. This is first in my list because sometimes (and I’m guilty here) wikis are added to a course without a compelling reason to use them. Do you have a real need for a collaborative workspace for your students? Do they need to be able to share and edit documents, images, files, and the like? Great: a wiki is just what you need. Do you want to use one because it seems like it’d be a handy way for students to submit media-rich documents? If you’re using Blackboard or another leading LMS, don’t bother with a wiki. Use the features built into your LMS; you’ll have fewer headaches and your students will be much happier.

Assume nothing. Really, just don’t. I should know better, but each term I’m surprised that some of our users are stumped when it comes to using a wiki. My online program has fewer issues with faculty use and administration since we made it policy that all faculty teaching a course that includes a wiki must show competence with the tool, but there’s still confusion among faculty and students alike about access, permissions, logins, password resets, editing, and the like that must be addressed each term. Oh, and don’t assume that every request for access to the workspace is from an enrolled student. Or that everyone you give access to the wiki will stay enrolled. You need to monitor users and their status throughout the term.

Communication is key. I can’t stress this enough. Faculty need to know their responsibilities (like adding users) and how to carry them out. Students need to be told early on how to access and log in to the wiki if it’s external to the LMS (like PBworks). They also must be made aware of whatever level of access other students will have to their work; this is a real privacy issue that can’t be overlooked. And students need to have their own responsibilities spelled out, with clear directions how to fulfill them. The wiki isn’t an add-on to the course; it should be an integrated component with its use and policies included in the syllabus. Finally, if you’re administering wikis for multiple courses (like I am), and you don’t create a new wiki for each term, you’ll need to contact faculty well before the start of the upcoming term to let them know the wiki has to be reverted to its original state for reuse and to determine who will be responsible for doing so.

Wikis can be a valuable part of an online course, but they need more care and feeding than other components, especially if they’re external to the LMS. If you make sure you’re using your wiki appropriately, don’t make assumptions about your users (or your design), and communicate objectives and responsibilities with all stakeholders, you’ll create a less stressful and more productive online learning environment.

Back in December of 2007, Rick Salisbury (see 12 Web Tools of Christmas Post) mentioned EditGrid as one of his top tools. While EditGrid is a great tool for creating shareable spreadsheets with many advanced, Excel-like features, I have found a new use for this application in online classes—virtual sign-up sheets! More than a few times in the past few months, I have needed a tool to allow students to sign up for something—be it to lead a discussion, create a blog post, or choose a book for review. With our current learning management system (LMS), Blackboard 8.0, there is no easy way to do this, so faculty are left using some sort of e-mail/discussion work-around or simply assigning students. While these work-arounds suffice, the process has always seemed clunky and overly difficult. I recently remembered Rick’s post, and the idea of using EditGrid to create a virtual sign-up sheet was born. I am currently piloting it in my own class, and students seem to be able to sign up without difficulty, and I am able to see the results easily. A win-win in my book.

So, you may ask, how would I go about creating a sign-up sheet for my own class? First you will need an EditGrid account. Once you have an account, you can simply create a basic sign-up sheet in Excel (or any of these other supported spreadsheet programs: OpenDocument, Gnumeric, OpenOffice.org 1.0, Lotus 1-2-3, or CSV). Note that EditGrid doesn’t support the .xlcx extension, so you have to save your Excel file as an Excel 97–2003 Workbook.

Then, upload it to EditGrid. Because I need the students to be able to edit the sheet (by typing in their name), I set the permissions on the worksheet to allow for Public Read/Write. (You can actually set the default permissions so that whenever you upload spreadsheets, they are always Public Read/Write but not searchable, if you don’t want them to be found using the search box on the EditGrid homepage.)

Once the spreadsheet has been uploaded, select the cells you want to embed in your course Web site—I selected the  two columns that had times to sign up for and cells for the students’ names. Then choose Publish Cell/Region.

Once it is published, you will see a box with code to embed an EditGrid widget.

Simply paste this code in your course Web site. (You typically have to change the options for the text box from TEXT to HTML. In Blackboard, click the button above the text box that looks like this: <>.) Save the item and viola! You have a virtual sign-up sheet.

More and more over the past few weeks, I’ve found that I have been recommending that faculty visit a wonderful Wiki site called CogDogRoo, which was developed by Alan Levine. I usually make this recommendation when the subject of student presentations—and how to do them effectively in an online class—comes up. While there is nothing wrong with having students create PowerPoint presentations, I find that there are often other tools available that allow for better interaction and more creative presentation or just allow students to explore a new way to present information. Most recently, I have been working with faculty from our School of Education, and there is often a mandate that their students be able to effectively integrate technology into the classroom. As a parent, I am well aware that “technology integration in the classroom” often means using PowerPoint (including all of the crazy animation—don’t even get me started there) and Google. But I am finding that the faculty I work with feel empowered knowing that there are sites like CogDogRoo out there that can help inspire not only them but also their students to think about classroom technology in new ways.

Browsing the list of over fifty tools that Levine links to is certainly one way to inspire some creative thought, but I decided to highlight a few of my favorites from the list:

• Blabberize – Perhaps not the most “sophisticated” of tools, but who hasn’t wanted to create an animated talking animal! Think about using this tool for students to do their class introductions instead of the traditional discussion forum.
• Toondoo – Instead of a traditional PowerPoint, why not have students try their hands at creating their own educational graphic novels? No drawing skills are required, and the results are not bad.
• Glogster – Have students create poster sessions that distill the essence of their research projects and present them with Glogster. (See this example from a 6th grade class on polar bears.)

And of course if you are looking for slideshow/presentation tools, there are lots of those as well—many will allow you to simply upload existing PowerPoint/keynote presentations, allowing for better Web sharing and viewing options. Some of the best of these include:

• Slideboom
• Google Presenter
• Zoho Show
• Slideshare

For slide-like tools but not PowerPoint presentations per se, try one of these:

• Imageloop – Upload images or PowerPoint slides, and choose from interesting templates (see this example). Presentations can be embedded on other pages or shared via a link.
• PhotoPeach – Upload images and overlay them with music (library provided), add captions and effects, and share.

Try some of these favorites or some of the others from the list, and be creative with your next “presentation” assignment.

Recently a faculty member asked, “How do I get more conversation out of online students during Wimba sessions?” (Wimba Live Classroom is a synchronous whiteboard tool and a building block in DePaul’s Blackboard installation.)

Here are two suggestions for discussion starters. I’ll cover some other strategies in later posts.

“Discussion starters” get students thinking and open up opportunities for more discussion. The key to these types of discussions is that there may not be one “right” answer—there is room for discussion. Here are two examples:

1. Pros and Cons – Divide the whiteboard into two halves (do this with a pre-created PowerPoint slide). Have the students write on one side or the other. One side might be pros and the other cons to a particular issue. Can the responses be categorized? Do any responses appear on both sides?
2. Create a poll on what students believe about a topic or concept—prior to presenting it or having them research it. Show the results and have students share why some believe a, or b, or c. Continue reading →