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Your Wiki
Wikis can be incredibly useful. However, you must learn to use them in order for that to occur. Although they are a very simple way to create web pages, they require some up front information. Wikispaces have a set of very helpful introductory videos for beginners. [|Start here]. After just a few minutes you'll be off and running making a classroom or project wiki.

Step One

 * Look at examples of educational wikis. Start at: Wikis in Education Click on Examples of Educational Wikis and explore a few wikis for idea for how you can use wikis in your classroom.
 * Talk with a neighbor about how you might use wikis in your teaching.

Example:
 * Wikis for vocablular review - MSU graduate class
 * Wikis for social studies curriculum sharing and revision
 * Wiki for sharing resources: Slave Trade 1968 in History Cold War Emancipation
 * Third grade studying Westward expansion
 * Elementary Wiki with Amistad
 * Classroom page for math resources

Step Two
Add content your page in this wiki. Add: text in the description area (try changing size, add bullets, change alignment), add an image (one already on the site or upload your own), add a document (something already on the site or upload your own), add hyperlinks (use the hyperlink button), embed YouTube or TeacherTube video (use the embed widget and copy the embed code from site), and embed a slide presentation (use the embed widget and copy the embed code from site). For examples of the types of content which can be embedded, check out this site: Embed Examples


 * Learn about wiki management options - Look and Feel (add logo), Files, Pages, Invite People, User Creator.
 * Learn about resources from the web, such as this presentation from www.slideshare.net on Wikispaces (61 slides) and the wikispaces tutorial playlist from YouTube. You don't need to watch these now.

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Wikispaces playlist from www.youtube.com
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Step Three

 * Create your own free educational wiki. If you are already logged on - go to: http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers and create a protected (free) wiki. You must create a name that is unique - with no spaces or nonweb friendly characters. Check the box to certify that it will be used for K-12 Education. Once you click "Create" you are on your way. Newly created pages are not saved until you add or edit something on the page. The menu along the side of the screen is automatically created with pages listed in alphabetical order. These are listed in A-Z order because of a built-in widget. If you want them in another order, you can delete the widget and manually enter the links to pages. You can also use numbers in front of text to sort the pages in the correct order.
 * If you accidentally create a wiki which is not listed as a K-12 wiki, then you see advertisements. You can easily change the page to being an educational page by going to your settings section and requesting a change to being a K-12 site. It takes about 24 hours for this change to take effect.