Wikispaces

The find:
If you are a regular follower of this blog, you are probably begining to understand that we like tech tools that have been around a while- that have a bit of a track record.  Wikispaces is another one of those tools.  In just minutes you can "get your classroom online", giving you a platform to provide many different resources for your students and their parents.  For example, wikispaces works very well with Google meaning it's a snap to sync and display your calendar or embedd YouTube videos into your wiki.  Or perhaps, you would like to create and moderate a discussion thread.  Maybe you just need a place to keep electronic copies of assignments for students to use to catch up when they have been absent.  With the many available widgets, these are just a few of the ways you can put your wiki into action.

The test:
We have been utilizing wikispaces for the past four years in many different areas, both in and out of the classroom, teachers and students alike.  The setup is very straightforward and takes only a few minutes.  Once in the wikispaces environment, users will find it edits much like a Word document and should be able to have a basic wiki up and running in no time.  However, it takes some time to feel comfortable with the more advanced tools.  In order to effectively utilize this part of wikispaces requires regular use, collaboration with others, and even a bit of homework over the course of several weeks.  Fortunately, there are helpful tutorials built into wikispaces as well as a wealth of videos on YouTube.

The presentation:
How to set up a wikispaces account

Wikispaces basics