Trainers notes

 

Tips

• Provide the "what is a wiki?" and "how are wikis being used" as handouts prior to the session
• Know the wiki software well ie. take a tour of PBWiki or spend time getting to know "MediaWiki". Note that different wikis have different syntax rules
• Create a wiki area and participant workshop pages prior to the session
• If you create a private wiki, make sure that you create usernames and passwords for the participants
• Use wikis to continue document the rest of the workshop (starting the workshop with wikis allows you to document the entire workshop)

 

Prerequisites:

• Online environment
• Need to know some text formatting/word processing
• Need to have experience with the internet and search functionality

 

 

Unit Content

 

ExerciseNo1 - Working Colloboratively Online

 

 

What is a wiki?

The best way to understand what a wiki is, is to try it. However, this is a brief explanation.

 

A wiki is a type of website that allows users to add, remove, or edit and change content very quickly and easily. Because a wiki is so easy to use with a group of people, it is an effective tool for collaborative writing.

 

A wiki can be an open space available for anyone to see the content, and sometimes edit, or closed to only a specific group of users. There are options to create a wiki for free, using the services of others, or you can download the software for free and install it on your own server if you have one.

 

Wiki-wiki" means "fast" in Hawaiian and is pronounced: wee-kee or wick-ey.

 

 

How are wikis used?

 

Wikis can be used to co-create documentation eg. Wikipedia or to support activities eg. documentation staff meeting minutes. Other wiki uses have come in the form of:

• Co-create manuals, cookbooks, travel guides
• Workshop or event documentation
• Project coordination across virtual teams

 

See examples for more information on how wikis are being used.

 

 

 

General attributes of a wiki

(Note to Trainer: Walk through the features of a wiki using a demo projected using an LCD)

 

Logging in: On the first page of a wiki you may be asked to log in with a password. This is done sometimes to limit the people who are allowed to edit the text, as well as limiting the amount of people who can read the text. But sometimes a wiki is completely open (public) to everyone, both to edit and read.

 

Wiki pages: A single page in a wiki is referred to as a “wiki page”, while all the pages together is “the wiki”. A wiki page usually has links which give you access to specific functionalities such as editing a page, or viewing its history.

 

Formatting Text:

• bold, italic, underline, see help page for tips
• insert a hyperlink
• crate a sub page
• advanced users: create table

 

Wiki page history:

 

 

Uploading files:

 

 

Saving: (remind them to save regularly. With poor connections you can lose your work)

 

 

Comments:

 

 

RSS feeds: (remember, especially good for low bandwidth, you can see when updates have been made. Don't have to go to wiki itself.)

 

 

ExerciseNo2 - Creating a Wiki

(Nynke to explain the syntax part of the exercise)

 

 

ExerciseNo3 - Application of wikis

 

 

 

Wiki Roles

A wiki is a very democratic tool. However, there is one general role which all wiki's have, and that is the Administrator.

 

The administrator

The administrator is usually the person who has created the wiki. S/he is the one who can manage the settings for the wiki.

General settings in a wiki are:

• public
• private
• open for editing
• open for viewing
• limited to specific group to edit
• limited to specific group to view

 

If the wiki is limited in some way, either in the editing or viewing or both, the administrator will have to manage the users who have access to editing or viewing the wiki.

 

The Gardener

There is another special role, which is not officially in the software of the wiki, but which is usually asigned to someone in the group, and this role is the Wiki Gardener.

 

When different people are writing in a single wiki together, they often use different text formatting styles or organize their content according to a different logic.

 

Getting all the text coordinated together, following a similar logic,and formatted in a similar fashion, is recommended to increase the ease of reading and understanding the text. This is the responsibility of the Wiki Gardener.

 

 

Choosing an appropriate wiki

• matrix of different wiki platforms in matrix, when to use which

 

• Costs: Both free but "MediaWiki" requires (1) a server and (2) a degree of technical capacity and time to install the software
• Ease of Navigation: "MediaWiki" seems to be easier to navigate. Tables of contents are automatically generated from higher level headings and each page comes with a sidebar navigation. In PBWiki, a sidebar can be easily created but adding the navigation tends to be a bit complicated and time consuming to
• Organising your set of wikis: In PBWiki, a user can create a PBWiki identity and add PBwikis to which s/he belongs. (Need to find out how to index wikis in MediaWiki)
• Syntax:

 

If you have a choice, go for MediaWiki. It is more user friendly (in this author's opinion) and will likely 'live on' since it is the wiki application used by Wikipedia.

 

Note: Include in this section about alternative web based text documents (optional to discuss)

 

 

Closing Session

• discussion on the challenges of wikis especially the behavioural ones ie. editing someone else's work, putting work into a public space

*

• final reflection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feedback

 

page locking on feedback page - a pbwiki problem/bug (seems to happen even when the page is not locked); add to comparison section

easy to save and print? for handouts? should point to creating pdfs from wikis

local/cd-rom version?

'just' a way to make and edit some pages together; or some larger collaboration opportunities??

linking with 'good learning' table is difficult

what are the learning objectives?

need to explain/compare how wikis links to other web2 apps (could be included in the section on Applications of Wikis)

eg why use wiki and not a blog or ....

eg does wiki generate/produce outputs for other web2 apps to incorporate or mash?

eg can show rss of npk4dev wiki resources from delicious:

 

 

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