Week+7

=Week 7- Wikis (2 activities) = = = February 14 - 18 = Activity 14 - What Is A Wiki= media type="youtube" key="-dnL00TdmLY" height="405" width="500" A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content. Wikipedia , the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools. With the benefits that wikis provide the use and popularity of these tools is exploding. Plus this site that you have been working on IS A WIKI!!

Some of the benefits that make wikis so attractive are: As the use of wikis has grown over the last few years, schools all over the country have begun to use them to collaborate and share knowledge.
 * Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.
 * Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom.
 * Earlier versions of a page can be viewed and reinstated when needed.
 * And users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. In most cases simple syntax structure is used.

=** Discovery Resources: **= Use these resources to learn more about wikis:
 * [|Wikispaces Tutorial] in slideshare
 * [|Wikispaces video] tour. If your wiki is an educational one, then choose the wiki type as K-12. And to get rid of ads go to the Manage Wiki – Subscription – scroll to the bottom for the complementary upgrade.

=** Discovery Exercise: **= 1. For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at some school wikis and blog about your finding. Here’s a few examples to get you started:  i. Grade 2 Parkland Village Mother Earth project  ii. The 2nd Grade Classroom  iii. Adams Middle School  iv. The Bear Den  v. Westwood Schools  vi. Duncan's Nesting Place (High School Science)  vii. More Examples 2. Create a blog post about your findings. What did you find interesting? What types of applications of wikis do you see in the classroom?

** Activity 15 - Play In the Sandbox**

A sandbox is a term that wikis often use to describe the area of the website that should be used for pure play so for this discovery and exploration exercise that is precisely what we will do.

=**Discovery Exercise:**= 1. Visit the 23 Things Sandbox site . Add your Blog to the Favorite Blogs Page. That's how we'll know that you've been there.

OPTIONAL: Add a favorite or two to a few other pages (Favorite books, favorite vacation spot, etc). And, if you feel up to the challenge, you might even want to create a separate page for something else that is your favorite.

2. Create a post in your blog about the experience.