PD session on wikis, Nov, 2014
What was this PD session about?
This is the link to the PD session on wikis given on Nov 23, 2014
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ApZtnT73NtAIIw8hpG6jMM-7QLMf3MSR0KhoqCpx39Y/edit?usp=sharing
This wiki was started on Wed Aug 13, 2014 with intent to train colleagues at KBZAC in use of PBWiki.
It seeks to model how wikis can be used to guide PD and student learning
Next session was likely Thu Aug 21; the last possibly Thu Sept 18
http://www.slideshare.net/vances/fall-blogfest2014
Find audio and YouTube recordings of this September 21, 2014 Fall Blog Festival presentation
Vance Stevens, Flipping the flip: Organizing students around a wiki and training colleagues to do likewise
- http://learning2gether.net/2014/09/21/learning2gether-with-the-fall-blog-festival/ - http://sco.lt/5DRVjN
One thing I need to do is train people how to create a Table of Contents so your wiki can be effectively navigated
- I need to do this now so that I can set up this wiki with topics that people can find on this page
- (another way to do this is to create separate pages for each topic and then link to the separate pages from the Sidebar,
so you get a hyperlinked ToC in the sidebar.)
To find out how to organize your wiki around a ToC
click on How to create a Table of Contents with scaled section headings below
Beginners' LESSON ONE: Create your wiki
In our first lesson we each started a wiki at http://pbworks.com - create an account, then ..
(the hardest part here is choosing a meaningful address, such as kbzpd for this one)
We found that we had to choose a category (we chose education)
and then scroll waaaayyyy down to the bottom to create our wikis
We chose to make public wikis that anyone can view
Note, at your pbworks account you can have LOTS of wikis, so set up a sandbox here, play, and build a castle later with a new wiki
Explore the Revision History
One of the most remarkable things about wikis is that ALL SAVED EDITS are preserved
We learned how to see the Revision History and
to see, copy from, or revert files to, any previous version of the wiki
How to upload files to your wiki
We learned how to go into edit mode and upload images and files to our Pages and Files area
you can upload, for example, Word documents or sound files; e.g.
How to capture screen shots using Jing
You can get Jing at http://jingproject.com
Jing is dead simple to use, but you have to understand that you must
- Download and install it to your computer
- Once installed it places a little sunshine in the top center of your computer
- You can move that sunshine anywhere along the edges of your screen
- If you hover over it it opens into this
- These are the capture tool, your history (on this computer) and your settings
- Captures can be annotated, as most of them are on this page, and saved
- on your computer and/or
- in the cloud, where they are assigned a URL which you can paste into email, or wherever you can imagine,
to share your images with others quickly
You can find tutorials on Jing easily and learn more about this highly versatile free tool
Here is an example of a document I created with annotated Jing screenshots to explain to students how to use Survey Monkey
http://vanceposterous.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/creating-and-publishing-surveys-in-survey-mon/
at the end of this article there is a link to an article explaining how my students used Jing to capture Survey Monkey results and use them in PPT presentations
- I document what I show students how to do it starting on p.4 here: http://tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej62/int.pdf.
- You can see the screen captures in color here: http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume16/ej62/ej62int/
Insert pictures into the wiki and resize them
You do this the same way you insert any other object into the wiki,
except with pictures, you can click on the pic and get its 'handles' which you can use to resize the image
When resizing make sure you drag the CORNER handles DIAGONALLY so as to preserve ASPECT
(otherwise you get an image that is too tall or too fat)
Handle the picture by its corners to preserve proportionality (aspect)
Editing the Sidebar
One of the first questions that came up regarded visualizing navigation within the wiki, so
we each edited our sidebars, which you can see at right (we each made links to each other's wikis here)
In doing this we had to learn ...
How to create hyperlinks
How to create a Table of Contents with scaled section headings
There are two steps to this process:
Step 1: organize your wiki as an outline
- Let main topics be Heading 1,
- create subtopics under main topics Heading 2,
- on down to Heading 3, 4 etc.
The Jing screenshot below shows how to do this.
Step 2: Automatically generate the Table of Contents
These screenshots illustrate the steps
- Place the cursor where you want the ToC to appear and select Insert / Table of Contents
You will then see the plugin generator. Click on Insert Plugin
- Select the 'depth' according to how many heading levels you have; e.g. if you use Heading 4 select 4
- Click NEXT and accept the plugin
- This is what it looks like in EDIT mode. In VIEW mode it looks like the ToC at the top of this page.
The text above is part of the image depicting what is shown at the top of this page
Next lesson
We will learn how to
- format the wiki attractively
- set headings in the wiki and insert a Table of Contents that will bookmark headed parts of the page
(these are each one-click operations) - link to other pages in the same wiki (the third hyperlink option illustrated above)
(We learned in the first lesson how to hyperlink text to a URL and to a file under Images and Files)
More on Navigation: I can show you how to link TO your wiki; that is, FROM anywhere else online to
- each item in your table of contents (direct link to any part of any page with a ToC)
- to any file uploaded to the wiki, so you can open the content you store in your wiki from another application
(Bb Learn, for example)
As this wiki illustrates, screen shots of what you want learners to do can be a powerful way of explanation
So I will show you how to use the Jing screenshot tool. Download it at
http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html
If you wish to join us for a follow-on class, you can catch up using this wiki
All visitors to this wiki are welcome to the next class (let me know when you'd like to have it)
If you want you can leave comments below (e.g. tell me what you want me to show you)
(if you can't leave comments you may need to join the wiki so I can make you a 'reader')
Any questions, ask Vance Stevens
vstevens@hct.ac.ae
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This wiki was visited and altered by adding this text on May 22, 2018