Qatar Academy is an International Baccalaureate school that caters for Pre 3 (3 year olds) to Grade 12, with both expat students from around the world as well as Arabic students from the Middle East. Joe Lewczuk told us how they’re using their Wikispaces Private Label site: Located in Doha, Qatar We have been using Wikispaces for some time now, and although the original purpose that we set the wikis up for has changed, they are still an essential part of our school’s digital learning environment. How have they evolved? They have evolved from a teacher-controlled collaboration and communication tool to a place where the students are in control. With their own sites, they can reflect, celebrate, and present work that expresses how they have developed their understanding of any learning experience. Then they can also publish and reflect on any action that has derived from that learning experience. Students’ online presence Most of our students already have a very strong online presence, so we are trying to use the wikis to help provide them with professional learning space to publish their work to an audience — whether it be peers, the teacher, family at home or overseas, or even another school all together, either local or international. Purpose The main use of our wikis is as eportfolios, which are used to present digital artifacts that represent a student’s digital learning journey over a period of time. We have encountered some speed humps along the way that we needed to overcome — such as how we set them up, user accounts, privacy and security — but we believe that the wikis have provided us with the perfect vehicle to manage and overcome them. Next step For now, both the students and teachers are continuing to develop their 21st century skills; and the need for us both (students and teachers) to present evidence of our abilities and achievements to potential employers, schools, and educational institutes, as well as universities, through the wiki is becoming a huge part of what we do as educators in preparing our students for life after school. So… why wikis? They provide us with a strong foundation that also allows for differentiation of students’ ability. They cater to the novas with easy-to-use tools, but also provide for the expert, who may wish to use the wiki code and HTML to personalize and develop their online professional presence in a way that better reflects them as a learner.

Ever wondered what else Wikispaces can do for education? This month, we’re holding two free webinars to show you Wikispaces Private Label — our solution for large organizations like schools, districts, and universities — and what it can do for you. We’ll show you what goes into setting up a Private Label site, how to move your existing wikis over from Wikispaces.com, some tricks for site administration, and more. On Tuesday, August 9 at 11 a.m. PDT (6 p.m. UTC), we’ll be taking a look at what Wikispaces Private Label can do in Higher Education. Then, the very next day on Wednesday, August 10 at 2 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. UTC), we’ll be looking at Private Label sites for K-12. There will be lots of great tips and examples, even for those of your who aren’t in education. Sign up today for the Wikispaces Private Label for Higher Education webinar or the Wikispaces Private Label for K-12 webinar.

You want to get your wiki just right — including the way it looks. And while we think the Wikispaces bonsai logo is pretty fantastic, it might not be right for you. That’s why we made it easy to change the logo for one that better represents you, your classroom, or your organization. All you need is an image file (.jpg, .png, or .gif) and the advice below. Use the right size image for your logo. If your logo is too large, it can push the important parts of your wiki right off the screen. If it’s too small, it can just look kind of silly. We recommend using a logo image that’s about 140 pixels wide by 48 pixels high. If your logo is too large or small, you can either select another image, or use your favorite image editing software to resize your logo. There are a lot of different programs out there, but these three are simple and free: Preview (Mac) Paint (Windows) Gimp (free image editing software) Add your wiki name to a custom logo. When you upload a custom logo, it will replace the bonsai logo and the name of your wiki. There are two simple solutions for this. The first is to make sure that the name of your wiki is part of the image you use as a logo (again, your favorite image editing software will help you do this). If you feel comfortable with HTML and CSS, and your wiki is on a Plus, Super, or Education plan, or part of a Private Label site, you can modify the theme of your wiki to add the title next to the logo. Our custom themes help page will show you how to do that. Upload your custom logo. Now that your logo is ready, it’s time to add it to the wiki: Go to Manage Wiki. Under Settings, click Look and Feel. Scroll down to Logo and hit the Browse button. Select your prepared logo file. Hit Save. Restore the original logo. Like we said, we think the bonsai logo is pretty great, so we understand if you want to bring it back. You can revert to the default logo any time you want with a few simple steps: Go to Manage Wiki. Under Settings, click Look and Feel. Scroll down to Logo and hit the Reset to Default button. Troubleshooting If the image you uploaded is too big, it might push some of the contents of your wiki off the visible screen. If that happens, don’t panic. It’s easy to fix: Go to Manage Wiki. The large logo may have pushed it off the visible screen, but it will still be there. Scroll down and to the right until you find it. Under Settings, click Look and Feel. Scroll down to Logo, where you’ll see the preview display of your logo image. Hit the Reset to Default button. No matter how big the image is, the Reset to Default button will be immediately under its lower right corner.

A wiki is an organic creation: it grows and changes over time as you and your community work on it. But, like with any organic process, you’ll get the best results in the long run if you start out with a solid foundation. This month, we’re going to walk you through a few of the most important things to do as you start a new wiki. If you’re new to Wikispaces, this will give you a head start. But even if you’re an old hand at wikis, you might find some new and valuable tips. Step 1: Master the basics It all starts with the Edit button. Type in some text. Take a look at the editor toolbar, and experiment with all the buttons on it. Play around — you won’t break anything. And don’t be afraid to use the Preview and Save buttons as much as you want. Once you’ve figured out what you can with random poking, use the link at the top of the actions menu to create a New Page and run through this checklist of things to try: Add some links. Add an image. Upload and add a file. Turn an image into a link. Add a widget. Try out the wikitext editor. Play around with formatting. Step 2: Whip your wiki into shape You can do a lot of great things with a wiki page, but that’s just the beginning. Now that you’ve mastered the pages themselves, it’s time to take a look at the whole wiki. Go to Manage Wiki and explore. Our users tell us that they get the most immediate satisfaction (and long-term results) from two things: Adjusting the wiki’s look and feel. From Manage Wiki, go to Look and Feel under Settings. Click Themes and Colors to apply one of our premade themes, set your custom wiki colors, or (if you’re comfortable with HTML and CSS) set up your custom wiki theme. If you have a Plus, Super, or Education plan wiki, and you’re comfortable with CSS, you can customize your Wiki Stylesheet. If you have an image file ready and formatted to size (we recommend 140X48 pixels), you can upload a custom Logo. Setting up your wiki navigation. Format your Navigation Bar. Build in-wiki navigation with links and subpages. Step 3: Manage your members A "member" is any Wikispaces user (or site user, if your organization uses Wikispaces Private Label) who is a listed participant in your wiki. While you could work on your wiki all by yourself, getting other members involved will help you get a lot more out of it. Add users to an Education wiki: Go to Manage Wiki. Under People, click User Creator. Follow the prompts in the tool to create accounts (with or without email addresses) or add existing users to your wiki. Add users to other wikis: Go to Manage Wiki. Under People, click Invite People. Enter up to 100 usernames or email addresses, separated by commas or line breaks. Customize the invitation message for your new members. Click Send. Promote another organizer so you can go on vacation: Navigate to your wiki. Go to Manage Wiki. Under People, select Members. Find the person (or people) you want to promote and check the box next to their name(s). Click Make Organizer. Additional resources That was just a quick rundown of some of your first steps. If you’re looking for additional help, we have a lot of resources for you: Our video tours The Wikispaces help wiki Older tips and tricks posts Wikispaces support at help@wikispaces.com

Martin Burrett started the ICTmagic wiki in December of 2010. 1. Briefly describe your group, your wiki, and what you use it to do: My wiki page began as a way of sharing useful websites with my colleagues at Mersea Island School, a large rural Primary school (k-5), near Colchester in the south-east of England. Since then the wiki has grown into a hub of teaching resources that I find or have recommended to me by the amazing educators on sites like Twitter and Diigo. 2. Besides the Edit button, which wiki feature is your favorite? Being able to embed files, links, html coding, videos and other media so easily has meant that Wikispaces has made a great home for me on the Internet. Wikis can be slowly built up and added to from humble beginnings and grow into something quite wonderful. So they are ideal for teachers who now are taking their first steps online. Also, because a number of users are able to add to a wiki through a moderator, they are perfect for showcasing the work and learning of a class in a public, but safe environment. 3. What is one way you’re using wikis and other web 2.0 tools in your Projects? I use a Wikispaces page as a class site. The children edit their own pages and add their own resources from other web tools and sites. A current favourite is a site called Glogster, which makes interactive and animated online posters. The children have used these in many ways over this year, including making eco posters to encourage green behaviour in the local area and design movie posters for their animated cartoons. Wikispaces has provided a good, easy place to embed these posters and add extra information on the same page. 4. Tell us about a particular moment that made you say, "Aha! THIS is why I use wikis!" About six months ago, during a period of heavy snow, our school had to close for two days. I posted the news to the jubilant children on our wiki page and suggested a few snow related tasks the children could do when they finally got too cold from building snowmen and throwing snow balls. What I found on our wiki page the next day was remarkable. Many of the children had made collaborative snow and winter project pages with videos, stories, blog posts, animations, scanned images and photos. It was a wonderful surprise. 5. If you could ask it, what do you think your wiki would say about you? I would like to think that my ICTmagic Wiki says that I am a dedicated teacher who enjoys sharing resources with colleagues from across the world to aid them in their teaching and help bring IT skills to more children. While that is true, there is also the enjoyment I have had creating the wiki and watching it grow during the long insomnia ridden hours of the early morning.

Since it’s the last Monday of the month, we wanted to take a look at some of the cool Wikispaces-related things that people have been talking about this month. Here are some of the highlights from August: Great stuff for the start of the year Sure, you’ve set up your room and finalized your lesson plans. But isn’t there still time to squeeze in a few new ideas? What is literacy today? The Daring Librarian explains - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post Jeff_Zoul: "Wiki of ideas for 1st days of school. Categorized by content area. Looks good; like the syllabus idea: http://bit.ly/dp84pG HT @blairteach" Erie County, Erie schools going green by saving paper and cash | GoErie.com/Erie Times-News BethEilers: "And don’t forget to scroll down to even more first day/week ideas! http://firstday.wikispaces.com/General #ntchat #edchat" Resource collections One of the great things about wikis is how easy it is to use them to pull other resources together. Here are a few of the collections you’ve built: TinaBarnhart: "Great web 2.0 resource for teachers: http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/" SenorG: "Spanish teachers: start planning your year w/this amazing categorized & alphabetized resource collection http://ow.ly/5p7HK #WLeach" TechTeach33: "Cool wiki for math sites: http://cesa5mathscience.wikispaces.com/Math+Interventions" CliveSir: "My collection of Ed blogs - 1108 of them! http://bit.ly/goCyt0 #edchat #edtech #ukedchat #eltchat" SenoritaSelchow: "Insert evil laugh here - education blogs sorted by discipline! http://movingforward.wikispaces.com/Education+Blogs+by+Discipline" Cool projects And, of course, the other great thing about wikis is how simple they make long-distance collaboration. Here are a few of the great projects out there, looking for people like you to pitch in: CYarzy: "Trying to connect with all 50 states this year! Please join my wiki to help out! http://50statechallenge.wikispaces.com/ #edchat" ewitt43: Great wiki that is made by kids for kids. http://bit.ly/gqtJvH. #5thchat" abfromz: "Greetings from the world goes Africa! - the sixth continent in our participants list http://bit.ly/nH5KQ2 #gftw" BriteEyes49: ""Pen Pals Who WRITE" project Everyone loves tech, but actual letters create a buzz in the classroom as well! Join us! penpalswhowrite.wikispaces.com" LParisi: "Still looking for participants in VirtualUSA. Children grades 4-5 from around the world are welcome. Come take a look sgp.cm/7ccfab"

Several months ago, we locked our programmers away in a secret laboratory with a single, all-consuming directive: find a better way for wiki members to do independent classroom group work. We’re calling this new feature Projects. Whenever you have a particular assignment or activity, you can create a project for it, then define teams of members, each with its own unique pages, files, and permissions. Team content (that is, pages and files) are grouped together, separate from the main area of the wiki. That way, students in teams can do their group work completely independently from other teams. As of today, projects are available on all Education-plan wikis (both K-12 and higher education), Plus- and Super-plan wikis that are categorized as Education, and all education Private Label sites. Projects have been built specifically for classroom work, so we are rolling them out to our education customers only. If you’re curious about how Projects work, check out our project  help documentation — or keep reading. Wiki organizers If you’re an organizer of your wiki, it’s up to you to create and manage projects. As long as you’re logged in as wiki organizer, you’ll see the Projects icon in your action menu. Click on it to view, manage, and create projects on your wiki. Creating a project Go to Projects in the action menu. Give your project a Name. Like page names, project names must be unique. If you expect that you’ll be creating several similar projects, consider adding numbers to your project name. For example, the August biology unit might be biology-08. Decide how your teams will be defined. Set default team permissions for this project (you’ll be able to adjust individual team permissions later). Click Create. Assigning teams When you create your project, you have four choices about how to assign teams: Name the teams now and add members later Upload a spreadsheet with usernames and team names Randomly assign members to teams of a set size Use an existing project as a template No matter how you assign teams, you can always rearrange them later. You can even rearrange team memberships while the project is active, as many times as you want: Go to Projects in the action menu. Click on the name of the project with teams you want to rearrange. Drag members into the teams you want to reassign them to. As organizer, you and any other organizers on your wiki will be considered team leaders of all teams. You will not appear on the member list for any individual team, but you will have access to all teams and team pages. Managing permissions You have several options for team-level permission settings: Public to wiki: All wiki members can view and edit pages Protected to wiki: All wiki members can view pages, but only members of this team can edit pages Private: Only members of this team can view and edit pages Custom: Define custom permissions (on available to Super-plan wikis or wikis on Private Label sites) You can change these permissions at any time. Just go to Projects, click on the project name, then click on the permissions link for the team you want to change. Remember that custom team permissions overrule wiki permissions. For example, if your wiki is set to private, but your custom team settings include "Everyone can view pages," even people without membership to your private wiki will have access to pages on that team. Custom team permissions do not overrule Private Label site settings. Wiki members If you’re a member of a wiki, you’ll only see the Projects icon if you’ve been assigned as a member of a team on an active project. Once you have been assigned to a team, you’ll see a list of the teams you belong to, and can follow those links to the home page for that team. Adding pages When your team is brand new, there’s nothing in it but a home page. As you work, though, you’ll probably want to add more pages. To add a new page, just click the New Page icon in the action menu. This will create a new page on the team (not on the main area of the wiki), so it will be protected by the same permissions as the rest of the team. To see a list of the pages on your team, just go to Manage team > Pages. Adding files Your team also has a special set of files, separate from the files for the main area of the wiki. If you upload a file while editing a team page, it’ll be added to the files for that team. To see a list of the files in your team (and upload more files), just go to Manage team > Files. We can’t wait to see what you’ll do with Projects. So be sure to send us an email at help@wikispaces.com, telling us what you think.

In 2009, Karen Hornberger, Rebecca Kelly, and Mary Schwander, three School Library Media Specialists in Bucks County, PA, started the PA Librarians wiki to share their incredible knowledge of digital resources with their peers. We asked Rebecca to tell us more about it: The field of library science is changing so rapidly. In order to stay relevant, we librarians realized that we needed to stay on the forefront of this change — adopting and forming it — in order to meet students’ needs in our schools. Two years ago, three Pennsylvania librarians decided to form a union where we shared the digital resources we were using in our libraries with others. Inspired to share our work (and learn from each other), we decided to use Wikispaces as the format to house our information. It is such a user-friendly resource that allowed us to work independently, but still house together, sharing information that we wished to showcase as part of our presentations. We’ve presented multiple times at the county, state and national level — sharing our wiki with many individuals. Since then, our resource has continued to grow (actually going international!) and we continue to encourage others to use and add to our resource at palibrarians.wikispaces.com. Wikispaces has given us the forum to share, and we have appreciated how your resource has allowed the three of us to grow professionally, while also affording us the ability to share our work with others. It has been a fantastic experience — one that will only grow as more educators take part in our work. Thank you Wikispaces for offering us such an incredible resource to teachers!

Shira Leibowitz started the No Office Day wiki in August of 2011. 1. Briefly describe your group, your wiki, and what you use it to do: International No Office Day is a day — actually several days during the week of September 12 to accommodate different schedules — on which educational leaders will close our offices and spend the entire day with teachers and students in classes. It’s not the only day we’ll leave our offices. Indeed, resources being shared on our No Office Day wiki are energizing educational leaders to consider ways of spending many no office days and daily no office hours as well as stretching our thinking on ways of making time in classrooms more meaningful. 2. Besides the Edit button, which wiki feature is your favorite? As a newbie to the wiki world, my favorite feature is among the most simple — the ability to add pages with tables on which people from anywhere in the world can easily post resources. The No Office Day wiki has provided educational leaders with an easily accessible location to collect and save ideas being shared on twitter and in educators’ blogs. 3. What is one way you’re using wikis and other web 2.0 tools in your projects? As Lower School Principal at Schechter Westchester, wikis and other web 2.0 tools have enabled me to collaborate creatively with our own faculty and educational leadership through wikis and Google Docs, our parents through our blog and web pages, and with educators throughout the world through Twitter, Nings, wikis, Linked-In and Facebook educational groups, and hangouts with educators on Google +. The ability to connect and share ideas far more readily both with individuals in our own school community and with educators throughout the world has immeasurably enriched my ability to serve students at Schechter Westchester. I am now enjoying introducing students to web 2.0 platforms such as Collaborize Classroom, Glogster, Twitter, and blogs. 4. Tell us about a particular moment that made you say, "Aha! THIS is why I use wikis!" As momentum and excitement was building among educators on Twitter about No Office Day, I was learning immeasurably from colleagues’ tweets and blog posts. But, how could we promote No Office Day more broadly and collect the resources in one easily accessible place? My "Aha! THIS is why I use wikis!" moment came when a colleague suggested we start a No Office Day wiki. I recently had begun using a wiki to share resources at Schechter Westchester and another wiki to collect resources for an instructional coaches’ chat I co-moderate on twitter. "Of course," I thought. Our conversations, taking place on twitter and in blogs could be collected and saved on a wiki. While I had never organized a wiki before, I jumped in and learned by doing. I now have many more ideas about the possibilities for sharing on wikis. 5. If you could ask it, what do you think your wiki would say about you? I’m a life-long learner energized by the possibilities educational technology tools offer to better serve my students. While I’m neither a "techie" nor a "digital native," I am passionate about creative, collaborative learning both face to face and through web 2.0 platforms.

Last month we released Projects for all our education wikis. Our intention was to give you a better tool for group work, but, as many of you have pointed out, they’re also great for project-based learning. Project-based learning, or PBL, grew out of early 20th century education reform, like the works of John Dewey. It generally involves directed, open-ended questions, real-life problem solving, and presentation to an authentic audience. And, of course, it’s a great way for students to build collaboration and 21st-century skills while mastering content. We’re really looking forward to hearing how you use PBL and the Projects feature in your classrooms. We’re so excited, in fact, that we rounded up a few resources from around the web to help you out: The Buck Institute for Education is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to 21st-century learning skills, with a focus on PBL. Their site is full of useful resources, research, and teaching materials. The George Lucas Educational Foundations’ Edutopia site has videos and real-life examples around PBL. PBL-Online is an online laboratory for developing and sharing PBL resources and project ideas. This article from Scholastic discusses "The Power of Project-Based Learning." You can also find more PBL Web sites and lesson plans at LearningReviews. In The Child and the Curriculum, John Dewey observed that, "The logically formulated material of a science or branch of learning, of a study, is no substitute for the having of individual experiences." We can’t wait to hear what those experiences look like in your classrooms.