Websites+&+Wikis


 * Creating Classroom Websites and Wikis **

Classroom Wikis
What is a wiki? Watch this quick video for an overview:

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The purpose of our Berkmar Middle School Educational Technology Wiki is to allow you to become familiar with using a classroom wiki. During each session, we will share our work in the "Let's Practice" pages of the wiki. Through this process, we will discover how to share links on a wiki, create pages within a wiki, engage in discussions, create tables of data, and embed various educational tools onto our Educational Technology Wiki.

My hope is that you will begin to see the connections that our personal wiki can have within your personal classroom. For instance, you could post a historical photograph onto the classroom wiki and ask students to use the "Discussion" tab to answer an open-ended question about the photograph. Math teachers could post an "error analysis" problem onto the wiki and ask students to justify whether the problem is correct or incorrect. Language Arts teachers could post an expository writing prompt onto the classroom wiki and ask each student to develop an essay in response to the prompt. Students could have individual pages all linked by a table to the writing prompt. Through the process of peer collaboration, students could provide each other constructive feedback in the "Discussion" tabs. These are just a few quick examples of powerful ways a classroom wiki can begin to generate discussion and collaboration amongst your students.

Have any other ideas for how a classroom wiki could be incorporated into your classroom? **Feel free to share!**

** Method 1: **

1. Use the "Discussion" tab. This tab is located at the top of this page between "Page" and "History." 2. Once on the "Discussion page", click on the "New Post" button in the upper left corner. 3. Under "Subject" type a title for your post. 4. Under "Message" write your suggestion for classroom use. 5. Click "Post" to share.

** Method 2: **

1. In the upper right corner, select EDIT. You should now see a gray tool bar at the top of your page 2. Click on the area of the wiki that you would like to contribute text. 3. Type your response. Note: You can change the text font and size by using the Color & Style tab on the gray tool bar.

4. When finished typing, click Save in the upper right corner of the gray tool bar.

Wikispaces in particular is designed to support educational wiki sites. This is a free site for educators. Each student is assigned a specific user name and login. As the administrator, you have rights over what pages students can edit and can continuously monitor (and edit) what students are writing on the wiki.

Ready to learn about starting your classroom wiki? Check out: **The More You Know... About Classroom Wikis!**

**C****lassroom Websites**

Classroom websites can have a different purpose for your classroom. This is a great way to communicate with parents and students about homework, important upcoming dates, and classroom assignments. Google Sites and Weebly have been designed for user-friendly building of websites, particularly Weebly.

The advantage to creating your own classroom website through Weebly is that you can provide a professional resource for your clientele: parents and students. Weebly in particular has a number of various features that are appealing for a classroom website:
 * Easy, drag & drop editor
 * Ability to instantly embed audio, video, pictures, calendars, and documents
 * Contains an "Assignment Form" drop box where students can turn in assignments electronically
 * Contains polls, surveys, and contact forms that can all be edited to meet your classroom needs
 * Allows students to have personal websites that are in a managed, protected environment

This video designed by Weebly does a great job explaining the professional website features Weebly provides:

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Ready to learn about starting your classroom website? Check out:** The More You Know...About Classroom Websites! **