Slide 1

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

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Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
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A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
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•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
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http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
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http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 2

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 3

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 4

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 5

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 6

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 7

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 8

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 9

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 10

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 11

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 12

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 13

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 14

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 15

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 16

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 17

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 18

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 19

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 20

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 21

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 22

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 23

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 24

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
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Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 25

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 26

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 27

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 28

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 29

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 30

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 31

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 32

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 33

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 34

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 35

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 36

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 37

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 38

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 39

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 40

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 41

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 42

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 43

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 44

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 45

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 46

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 47

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 48

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 49

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 50

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 51

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 52

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 53

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 54

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

•

•

•

•
•

•
•

•

Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

•

•

•
•

•

•

•

Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html


Slide 55

Make a free workspace easily as
Peanut butter sandwich.

Content Curated by Kathy Beck 2013

PBworks is an
easy-to-use free
web page that
multiple people
can edit, it’s
based on wiki
technology.

Wiki means Quick
in Hawaiian

In the classroom,
Pbworks is a free
tool that
empowers every
student to
participate in
group projects.

James has assigned a team research project.
What can he do to encourage the students to work
together, share resources and create high quality work?

Three great ways to communicate
with students
Blog

PBworks

Write
Publish
Comment

Create
Publish
Comment
Converse
Post Ideas
Respond
Share
Edit
Collaborate
Engage

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
•
•
•

•
•

Blogs
The term “blog” is short
for web log.
On Blogs the author
writes, readers comment
on what has been said.
They can also include
Links to web sites, other
blogs, news articles, or
even pictures.
Blogs allow students to
write, react and share
Tutorials

•
•
•
•
•

Wikis
Students can post a
lesson summary
Collaboration of notes
Concept Introduction
Sharing of Important
information beyond the
classroom
Individual assessment
projects

Resources for Blogs

Blogs
• Post a Prompt
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have
your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask them to
also comment on one of their classmates ideas, drawing
a name from a hat or rotating to be sure that all students
receive a comment from someone. Foster process
writing peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvement to content and mechanics
(editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student
responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure there
is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to
comment back to their elementary children.

The week in Review
• Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary
classroom to write that week’s blog entry,
describing the events of the week in Room XYZ.
Invite moms and dads to comment and watch
the excitement grow! Soon you will have
students begging to write the summaries.
• Bonus: Those who are at home due to illness
will not feel as disconnected from their
classroom, a great boon during flu season!

Respond to a reading
Practice good reading strategies and
check comprehension by asking students
to respond to an assigned reading,
reflecting on how it applies to their own
experience. For example, after reading a
non-fiction piece about the McCarthy Era,
students could tell about their own
experiences with labeling.

Find the facts
Post a statement with no supporting facts.
Ask students to find facts to support or
refute the opinion, using links to reliable
web sites and their own persuasive
explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or
any topic that is debatable.

Critique a web site
Post a link to a web site related to a topic
your are studying and invite students to
give their personal evaluation: Does the
site show bias? Does it seem wellresearched? Is it a reliable source?

Comment on current events
Post a link to a current events story and
ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or
their own lives. Even young students can
respond to stories from the local paper’s
online pages.

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Write a sports story (gr 3-12)
Report on a vacation or long weekend (gr 1-12)
Post from an “educational trip” (gr 1-12)
Role-play a point of view (gr 3-12)
“Meet” during snow days and unexpected days off (gr 312)
Report on a field trip or virtual field trip (gr 2-12)
Write a neighborhood or community tour with pictures
(gr 1-12)
Bounce around a hot topic (gr 6-12)
Make a “suggestion box” blog (gr 2-12)
Question blog (gr 2-12) sort of an electronic KWL Chart!
Study hint blog (gr 4-12)Give extra credit for study hints
posted before a test or quiz.
Fitness blog (gr 2-12)Encourage students to post ideas for
healthy eating and exercise.
Organization tips (gr 4-12)Invite students to share tips for
how they stay organized,

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Recipes for success (gr 5-12)
At the end of a unit, a marking period, or even school year, have students write “recipes for
success” in that unit, class, etc. These can remain for others to try in the future. Encourage actual
recipe format, including ingredients and procedure.
Recipes—for real (gr 4-12)
As you study fractions, world languages, or different cultures, nothing is more popular than using
recipes. Have your students share one on the class blog then comment if they try one that another
student posted.
Blog Ice Breaker (gr 6-12)
Use student-selected pseudonyms to register your student users (they must tell only you what
their secret identity is) and allow them to comment outside of class on hot topics from class
discussion for a few weeks. After a few weeks, ask in class if anyone thinks they know who each f
the pseudonyms REALLY is and if they can match all pseudonyms to actual classmates.
Four Images (gr 6-12) Ask each student to use four images (edited at will) to "sell" or "tell" about
himself/herself.
Lab research collaboration (gr 7-12)
In a high school science class, encourage students to share lab data they found and collaborate in
writing up lab reports on the class blog. You can require lab report format, but other lab partners
can read and comment on reports they feel are great (or lacking). This also allows students to see
the variety of data collected from the class.
Continuing Stories (gr 2-12)
Start a blog story (set up the setting, characters, and initial situation in an opening paragraph) and
let each student who visits comment by adding a sentence or two.
Continuing Vocabulary (gr 6-12)
Start a blog story at the beginning of the year as you begin vocabulary in your English class. Each
week, require students to add to the story, using a LOGICAL sentence that both fits the story and
uses one of that week’s vocab words.
Find a “Sister Community”(gr 6-12)
Just as real communities often form relationships with other towns in other states or countries,
your class blog community can set up a direct link with another class blog reading the same play
or studying the Civil War at the same time.

• What is the difference between a wiki and a blog?

A blog, or web log, shares writing and
multimedia content in the form of “posts”
(starting point entries) and “comments”
(responses to the posts). While commenting,
and even posting, are open to the members of
the blog or the general public, no one is able to
change a comment or post made by another.
The usual format is post-comment-commentcomment, and so on. For this reason, blogs are
often the vehicle of choice to express individual
opinions.
• A wiki has a far more open structure and allows
others to change what one person has written.
This openness may trump individual opinion with
group consensus.

Resources for Wikis

Wiki ideas appropriate for most subjects and grade levels:

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and
peers:
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use,
contributed by students
• The wiki as the organizational center -all assignments,
projects,collaboration,rubrics etc
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative
group projects: civil war battles, artistic movements, the
American electoral process, diseases and prevention, etc.
Remember that the products do not have to be simply
writing. They can include computer files, images, videos,
etc.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the nonschool world for anything: supply/demand, capitalism,
entrepreneurship, triangles, alliterations, vertebrates or
invertebrates, etc. Include illustrations wherever possible.
• What I Think Will Be on the Test wiki: a place to log review
information for important concepts throughout the year,
prior to taking the “high stakes” test, AP test, or final exam.
Students add to it throughout the year and even from year

• An “everything I needed to know I learned in
Ms.Teachername’s class” wiki where students add their own
observations of ways the class knowledge has spilled over
into the “real world.”
• A travelogue from a field trip or NON-field trip that the class
would have liked to take as a culmination of a unit of study:
Our (non) trip to the Capital and what we (wish) we saw.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written
about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see
to concepts learned before they left:
• An FAQ (or NSFAQ- Not So Frequently Asked Questions)
wiki on your current unit topic. Have students post KWL
entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as
the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,”
the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic.
Example: Civil War FAQ or Biomes FAQ. You may find that
the FAQ process can entirely supplant traditional classroom
activities, especially if you seed a few questions as the
teacher. This would also depend on whether you have
consistent computer access on a daily basis, a luxury many
schools do not have.

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Science Fair Projects - A wiki could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan
science fair projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up. As
they begin to flesh out the ideas that they are interested in, small groups might form to work on individual projects,
but could still contribute ideas to other projects. The teacher can act as a facilitator by offering suggestions and
asking probing questions to get students to consider particular aspects in the planning of their projects. The wiki
could also be used to record and organize data, and plan eventual papers/presentations.
Collaborative Textbooks - From Edutopia (the magazine) for September/October 2004, the article "Crack the
Books" (p. 14) describes the California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) which is an initiative to create
online textbooks using wiki software and then eventually create printed copies. The founder of the project
contends that most of the information in K-12 textbooks is in the public domain. The project aims to help California
slash its $400 million dollar textbook budget. You can visit the project online at World History Textbook
Student Portfolios - A wiki makes an easy shell for electronic portfolios where students can display and discuss
their work with others. It would also be an excellent forum for peer editing and peer feedback to help students
improve their writing skills.
WikiOrganization - I used a local wiki on my computer to organize materials for a paper. I was able to save
weblinks, documents, and quotes to the wiki and then just go to that particular page as I was writing. Finally, I
linked the final product to the wiki. Wikis are a great organizational tool especially in a time when many of our
classroom resources are digital and networked.
Collaborative Understanding - If I were to teach middle school music again, I would try to use a Wiki as part of a
music history/music study project for students to clarify their understanding of different styles of music. For
example, back in the day, I had 2 or 3 classes of "beginners" each year. As we listened to different examples of
music and of singing, I tried to help them understand how the different styles were related to each other (i.e., blues
and hip hop). Using a Wiki would allow them to also share links to examples of music to support their ideas and
opinions. I would then try to incorporate this project into one of our choir concerts to show that learning about
music is about more than just singing or playing an instrument. (And this is based on the assumption that we
would have access to computers in the school, and that the students would be able to use the computers after
school if they did not have a computer at home.)
Collaboration Between Teachers - The person I'm doing my consulting project with, after seeing our wiki and
learning how they work, suggested using them for teachers to teach collaboratively, which is a use I hadn't thought
of originally but could have a lot of potential. They could work together creating lesson plans, track how the
lessons are being implemented in their various classrooms, give suggestions - this could be a few teachers in the
same middle school doing an interdisciplinary unit, or teachers of the same subject in distant places working on
the same unit together.
Literature Circles in Elementary School - Elementary students, in our district have Lit Circles. They all read the
same book and then are required to answer questions about the material and pose questions. A Wiki would be a
perfect way to integrate technology into their Lit Circles. Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post
them to the wiki, respond to their peers thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class
to review at sometime during their exploration of the same novel. Each of our elementary classrooms has at least
two computers.

Wiki ideas for math:
• A calculus wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?)
• A geometry wiki for students to share and rewrite proofs
(a geometwiki?). What a great way to see the different
approaches to the same problem!
• Applied math wiki: students write about and illustrate
places where they actually used math to solve a
problem.
• Procedures wiki: groups explain the steps to a
mathematical procedure, such as factoring a polynomial
or converting a decimal to a fraction.
• Pure numbers wiki: student illustrate numbers in as
many ways possible: as graphics to count, as
mathematical expressions, etc. Elementary students can
show graphic illustrations of multiplication facts, for
example.

Wiki ideas for science:
• A student- made glossary of scientific terms with
illustrations and definitions added by the class (using
original digital photos or those from other online Creative
Commons sources, such as Flickr). Linking to separate
pages with detailed information would allow the main
glossary list to remain reasonably short.
• A taxonomy of living things with information about each
branch as you study Biology over a full year.
• Designs of experiments (and resulting lab reports) for a
chemistry class.
• Observations from field sites, such as water-testing in
local streams, weather observations from across your
state, or bird counts during migratory season.
Collaborate with other schools.
• Detailed and illustrated descriptions of scientific
processes: how mountains form, etc.
• A physics wiki for those wicked-long problems so the
class can collaborate on how to solve them (a “wicked
wiki”?).

Wiki ideas for social studies:
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A mock-debate between candidates, in wiki form (composed entirely based on
research students have done on the candidate positions).
A collaborative project with students in another location or all over the world: A day in
the life of an American/Japanese/French/Brazilian/Mexican family. (This one would
require finding contacts in other locations, of course).
A collection of propaganda examples during a propaganda unit.
Detailed and illustrated descriptions of governmental processes: how a bill becomes
a law, etc.
A “fan club” for your favorite president(s) or famous female(s).
A virtual tour of your school as you study “our community” in elementary grades.
A local history wiki, documenting historical buildings, events, and people within your
community. Include interviews with those who can tell about events from the World
War II era or the day the mill burned down, etc. Allow adult community members to
add their input by signing up for “membership” in the wiki. This project could continue
on for years and actually be a service to the community. Perhaps the area historical
society would provide some assistance, if you can get them to think beyond the
closed stacks of their protected collections!
A document-the-veterans wiki for those in your community who served in the military.
Interview them and photograph them, including both their accounts and your
students’ documentation and personal reflections on the interviews.
A travel brochure wiki: use wikis to “advertise” for different literary, historical, or
cultural locations and time periods: Dickens’ London, fourteenth century in Italy in
Verona and Mantua ( Romeo and Juliet), The Oklahoma Territory, The Yukon during
the Gold Rush, Ex-patriot Paris in the Twenties, etc.

Teachers often ask: Blog or Wiki?
Blogs
• Sarah Plain and Tall
• Summer Reading
Camp
• To Build a Fire

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Wikis
Fractions
Crayons Float
What is it?
Carbon Fighters
Stay Current

http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

http://sarahplai
nandtall.blogsp
ot.com/

http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/

http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/

http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/

More Resources for
Blogs and Wikis

“It's so easy to create a site
to help guide students along
with projects. I have found
that it's a good way to make
handouts available to
students - I just point them
at the web address. I post
links to my PBworks
Rockford's site so that
parents can access project
guidelines as well.”

Justin Wylie
Rockford High School

Mary wants to be sure her
students are
protected from the wider
internet.

How can she make certain
her online site is off
limits to child
predators?
How can she be sure that
her students won’t be
drawn onto the web?

YOU control who sees your workspace

You invite your students
Each student has a unique login and
password

PBworks for
Educator are free
and never display
advertisements

NO ADS

Jamie wants to make
certain her students act
appropriately on line.
Will her students write
offensive comments?
How can she monitor her
students activity?

You have a history of every
edit
You are notified of every
change

No more “dog ate my homework”

Edits are time stamped. You know who made
changes and when they were made.

PBworks is Free and Easy to set up
No IT department is needed!

Simply create a
password and
begin

Set it up and it works
just like typing in Microsoft Word

Just like
creating a
Word
document
Just click
and begin

Easily insert
Images and
Video

Post a picture or a video

Teachers can make
coursework and
homework information
easily available to both
students and parents.
With easy to use plugins
you can create a
calendar.

Quickly create new pages
Templates designed with teachers in
mind

For more ideas check out the PBworks
educator page. You can find tips,
suggestions, templates and a
community of fellow teacher users.

http://pbworks.com/education

Join the more than 400,000 teachers who
have used PBworks for their classrooms,
from elementary schools to Stanford and
Harvard.
http://cougarpedia.pbworks.com/
http://mrsangelacunningham.pbworks.com
http://missb.pbworks.com
https://andreclass.pbworks.com/

PBworks is free, fast and easy to use.
Create one now at
www.PBworks.com

Resources
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http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-students-compare-andcontrast-wikis.html
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/sites/sites079.shtml
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Wikis
http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/Resource+wikis+for+educators
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001969.shtml
http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/
http://wiki4iss.pbworks.com/
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+features
http://pbworks.com/content/edu+resources
http://pbworks.com/content/webinars
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/blog/blogideas2.cfm
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
http://carbonfighters.pbworks.com/
http://collaborative-learning.wikispaces.com/Fractions

Resources
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/
• http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/page/Wikis
+in+the+Classroom
• http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_le
adership/feb09/vol66/num05/Learning_with_Blo
gs_and_Wikis.aspx
• http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02
wiki.h01.html
• http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_re
search_citation/2/9/4/8/8/p294883_index.html

Resources
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http://jyoungblog.blogspot.com/
http://teachers.emints.org/FY04/youngj/bookclub/
http://emintswhatisit.wetpaint.com/
http://crayonsfloat.wikispaces.com/
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/ten-habitsof-bloggers-that-win.html
• http://www.myecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992
• http://secondlanguagewriting.com/explorations/Archives/
2006/Jun/HowtoUseBlogsintheClassr.html

Resources
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-usewikis-what-do-you-do.html
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Scenario+1
• http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Madness
• http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-studentscompare-and-contrast-wikis.html
• http://wikitlc.pbworks.com/What+can+you+do+with+a+wi
ki?
• http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/Wikis
• http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com/
• http://staycurrent.pbworks.com/
• http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical
/2008/05/defining-wiki-g.html