Set-up Tips for a Wiki

Using a wiki with students just got easier! PBWiki recently added a new feature specifically for educators that lets you create logins for students without email addresses. Much better than wasting your time creating dummy email accounts for kids :)

I created three separate wikis for the three different lit circle novels. I was responsible for the main wiki page and created a home page for each group. After students were familiar with the wiki process, they linked all their created pages to their group's home page.

If you use one wiki for multiple groups, be careful about naming pages! I made students name all pages with the title PLUS their group number to keep from overwriting another group's work.

I also had each student put their first name at the bottom of any page they created, so that I could accurately tell who was responsible for what work. Students loved that they - and not the slacker kid in their group - got credit for the extras that they did. With the new account creation features of PBWiki, the versioning capability (a.k.a. page editing history) will also let you see which kids edited which pages and how extensive their changes were.