Week 10: Google Sites and other Wikis

I am told that WikiWiki means quick in Hawaiian. Wikis are collaborative web sites and although that might sound a bit daunting, they are actually really easy to create and they are free. Wikis are great for creating a simple website, organizing a project or just storing online files. The idea of a wiki is that it can be set up so that several people have editing rights so you can work on project together. There are several good Wiki sites out there including PBWiki, Wikispaces and WetPaint. For this challenge, I am going to show you one of the newer ones out there. Google Sites. Google Sites is easy to use and if you already have a Google Account, you don't need to create a new account. Wikis can be public, private, or invitation only. You can set up different editing privileges as well.

I chose to do wikis this week because as we move through the challenges, you are going to want a place to share your work and create something you can actually use. If you have either a blog (Week 1 Challenge ) or a wiki (Week 10 Challenge ) you will have a convenient place to share your work and build productivity. Most of these challenges can also be added to your district web page, but those aren't quite as user friendly. You will still be able to do the challenges without a wiki or blog, but it just won't be quite as useful. If you already have a blog, try a wiki too. They work a little differently and can serve different purposes. So... don't be afraid of the scary words like Wiki and Website and just give it a try. You can create a wiki in under 5 minutes. (Of course, once it is created, you will want to spend more time developing it.)

Challenge:
1. Create a Wiki using either Google Sites or another Wiki program.
2. Follow the simple steps on slide show.
3. Share the URL to your Wiki by sending me an email at mthornburgh@mv.k12.wa.us
4. You can spend time customizing the Wiki and setting it up for what ever purpose you have planned for it, or just leave it as is for now.
5. If you have time, I suggest that you create more than one wiki using another wiki program so that you can compare which site you like better. The more wikis the better. :)


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