Goodbye PBWiki - Hello PBWorks

PBWiki has announced a name change to PBWorks.


If you created a wiki in PBWiki, it has a new name and address. See the FAQs. Yes, your old address should work, but you might want to make note of the change--especially if you are linking to it from your portfolio.

I'm glad they waited until your final project was due and graded!

PBWiki Enhancements

PBWiki announced some enhancements to their wiki software today:

• Starred Pages- Bookmark all important wiki pages and create a personal list of information that is important to you.
• Send a Link- Tell other members of your team that you’ve updated the workspace, or to call them to review, comment, or edit the page.
• Navigator- Quickly navigate to any folder, and browse all pages on your wiki. Also a quick way to view your Starred Pages.
• Threaded Comments (Premium Feature)- Now you can reply to comments!

Enjoy!

Wikispaces Plans Some Enhancements

Wikispaces is celebrating its 4th birthday and announcing some changes. If you used Wikispaces for your teacher wiki, you'll probably want to use it for your final project, too. This announcement doesn't say WHEN they changes will happen, but I wanted you to be aware that there will be changes! It looks like they will be major improvements, but the directions in your course pages may not be as helpful. You did a good job with your teacher wiki, but if you run into questions, let me know. I'll be happy to help.

Free Home Page Builder for Teachers

You've created your teacher wiki, so you are beginning to see both the possibilities and limitations of a wiki for your professional use. There are many alternatives to help give you a web presence. For example, The Scholastic Class Homepage Builder provides teachers who have never made a blog or website with an easy-to-use tool to get started creating an online presence for students and parents to visit. The themes, layouts, and pre-made activities that can be included in the homepage are designed for students in grades K-8. The tool is free, but the page does include ads from Scholastic.

Here's my front page:


Give it a try!

Podcasting and Wiki Assignments

This caught my eye this morning:

Podcasting Yields Higher Scores than Attending the Lecture

Although the research was conducted with university students, the finding are interesting to K-12 teachers, too. From the article: "...when students can pause, rewind, and rewatch a lecture they learn the material better. Podcasting lecture material has the added benefit of changing what can be accomplished during class time."

Since this week's assignment is on podcasting, I wanted to share that with you.

There was a second article, too. In two weeks, Project 3 is due. You'll be creating a Teacher Wiki, the beginning of a way you can connect with students and their parents. The author, Tony Vincent, says,"Many teachers have a class homepage because it is a place where they can share information, assignments, and web links." That's what you'll be doing in the Teacher Wiki. This blog article takes it a step beyond--to an ipod touch!

You can take your Teacher Wiki a couple steps beyond, too, by adding your Powerpoint (or a Powerpoint you design for your page) and/or your podcast (or a podcast you design for your page).

If you uploaded your Powerpoint assignment to Slideshare you're on your way. If not, you can do it or create a new one and upload it. See the directions here.

If you created a podcast using gCast for your assignment, you can use that. If not, you can create one using the directions in the podcast assignment.

Once you have your wiki page created, you can find directions for adding (embedding) your presentation and/or podcast using the directions I created for you. You might also be able to create and embed some media for your final project, so keep these in mind!