Tag: wiki

Styles in MS Word – A Jing Video

~ joanvinallcox ~ Leave a comment

I’m attending the PBWorks Camp for teachers, and this is my homework for my second week, a screencast made using Jing on how Styles in MS Word can help in writing long pieces such as academic papers or business reports:
2009-07-02_1211
I re-did this a number of times, dealing with –

  • fitting what I wanted to say to the time available
    • figuring out what to leave out
    • making sure my set-up worked
  • reducing the size of my Word screen so I could fit everything into a smaller frame
  • stumbling while I was recording

I really like learning from screen captures myself, so I enjoyed creating one

Three Years After my First Wiki

~ joanvinallcox ~ 3 Comments

In 2005 I taught an undergrad university course on computers and communications. I used JotSpot, then in beta, a wiki I had discovered through Stephen Downes‘s OLDaily newletters. JotSpot worked really well for the class and, as I got to use it for free, I wrote up a report on the experience, which is attached: Using JotSpot.

Frequent readers will know that I am a wiki enthusiast, favouring Wikispaces for its ease of use and cheap cost and PBWiki for its ease of use and visual attractiveness. However JotSpot was adopted by Google, and has now been released as GoogleSites, and I have to say it looks very good, at least in the videos

Google Sites, the grown-up JotSpot, looks very interesting and useful, plus it’s free! I’d love to hear what you think of it.

Learning Wikispaces With Readability

~ joanvinallcox ~ Leave a comment

People decide about what to read, on paper or on the web, before they de-code a single word. If the page looks dense and/or difficult, readers, unless they are highly motivated, will just move on. When people learn to write or to create a web page, they should, IMHO, learn about readability as the same time as they learn how to use the application. I’ve tried to combine information about the Wikispaces icons and readability in this document, aimed at the new user, especially if they are not too familiar with web layout and usability.

wikispacesicons

BTW, if you read this blog regularly, you will have noticed that the links I bookmark are now being added as a post on a daily basis. I have found many interesting and helpful links on the blogs of others who also do this, so I figured out how to for mine. Hope some of them are helpful or interesting for you.

When Failure Results in Success

~ joanvinallcox ~ Leave a comment

Last night I gave the first of two workshops on how to use a wiki to board members of a non-profit organization. I had equipment problems. I discovered I should have done some more checking ahead. I had left the Mac dongle for connecting my laptop to the projector at home. My husband (wonderful human) after a panicky phone call, brought it to me. It was from my iBook, and didn’t work with my new MacBook. So … the wikipage I’d prepared – http://wikiwhy.wikispaces.com/ – with its embedded screencasts and SlideShare links was unusable. I couldn’t use the projector. Much frustration, but “the show (or workshop) must go on!”
I had made a paper handout. I started (instead of ending) with that. Then, as my brain fog (“I messed up; what will I do? I messed up – etc. etc.”) cleared, I realized that at least half of those attending had brought their laptops. And the handout had the wiki address on it. So I was able to help them get to the URL of the explanatory wiki that I had planned to project.

You know what they say about always having backups in casse of tech problems? They are right. My paper handout and the explanatory wiki made a big difference! But they were peripheral to what actually made the workshop work. The people there, whenever I would pause, asked each other questions, or me, and figured it out themselves rather than being stuck watching my presentation. They got further along than I had planned/expected. They all joined the board wiki and many made new pages for their particular committees.

So I failed, but they (and the workshop) succeeded! Now for part 2, do I get a new dongle?

Want a Website? Try a Wiki!

~ joanvinallcox ~ Leave a comment

It seems to me that for teachers and entrepreneurs, one of the most useful, and the easiest, web2.0 applications is the wiki. Many people who are new to web2.0 aren’t sure what a wiki is. It is an interactive website that can be edited without using HTML, just by using a set of icons, much like you would find in Word or other word-processors.

I have set up a wiki explaining what a wiki is, and why they are so useful: http://wikiwhy.wikispaces.com/ I will be adding more to it over the next few weeks.

For more specific information on what kind of wikis, that is, what brand of wiki application you might want to try out, here’s a slide show I have posted on SlideShare.