Do you love helping people? Do you have a knack for breaking things down to simple, easy-to-follow steps? Could you teach someone to cook a chicken over the phone, or give tap-dance pointers via email? And do you like working with amazing people in a super-fun, high-energy, start-up environment? If so, you might be the customer support person we’re looking for. Take a look!

You can do a lot with wikis. But before you get to the fancy stuff, you have to master the basics — and that goes for your students, as well. Now that the school year is underway, we put together a quick 15-20 minute activity, designed to get students comfortable with using wikis. All you need is this PDF handout, a wiki of your own, and a few minutes of preparation: Create your wiki and prepare accounts for your students. Prep media for your students: Upload an image to your wiki. Upload a file to your wiki. Find a video on your favorite video service (e.g., YouTube, TeacherTube). On the home page of your wiki, add a link to that video. Do not embed the video. The link should say, "Training camp video." Download the Training Camp worksheet and prep it for your class: In the field for task #1, enter the URL of your wiki. In the field for task #6, enter the name of the image file you uploaded. In the field for task #7, enter the name of the second file you uploaded. If you have any questions, or suggestions for similar materials that would make it easier for your students to use wikis, send us an email at help@wikispaces.com. If you are looking for a tool to present wikis to your peers, email us to request a copy of our PD Presenter wiki.

One of your most versatile tools for managing your wiki is on every single page — and a lot of people don’t even know it’s there! This month, I want to show off a handy-dandy little item called the Page Tab. Depending on your settings, you’ve probably got two or three tabs on each page: the History tab, the Discussion tab, and the Page tab. History, of course, lets you look back at old versions of the page, and we’ve discussed the Discussion tab before. But if you just think of the Page tab as the place you edit the page, you’re missing out. To find out what else you can do, move your cursor over that little gray arrow on the tab. You’ll get a dropdown list full of options: Details and tags gives you a box at the top of the page that tells you who last edited the page, how many revisions it’s had, and which tags have been added to that page. If you want, you can edit the tags right there on the page. Print does exactly what it says: Gives you a version of the wiki page that will print nicely. Just select Print to get a printable page, then print it out using your browser’s print command. Download PDF lets you save the wiki page as a formatted PDF. Backlinks gives you a list of all the other pages that link to this page — including pages in other wikis that also list you as a member. Source lets you see a wikitext version of the page. And if you’re an organizer of the wiki, you’ll also get these options: Delete, of course, lets you delete the page. (If you ever delete a page by accident, you can restore it within 30 days from your Recycle Bin.) Rename lets you change the name of your page. Redirect lets you send visitors to a different page automatically. Redirects can be really helpful if you’ve made a new page for something, but most people still have links to the old one. Permissions is a quick way to change the viewing and editing permissions on a single page. Lock will restrict editing of the page to organizers only. If the page has already been locked, you will see Unlock on this list instead. So get out there and take your Page tab for a spin!

Shawn Avery started the studentmathmovies wiki in March of 2011. 1. Briefly describe your group, your wiki, and what you use it to do: Our wiki is a collaborative project aimed to share some of the amazing work happening in classrooms around the world. We focus on collecting math videos made by students that can be viewed and used as a teaching tool. We’ve sorted the wiki into different math strands so that it is easy to navigate to different math concepts. 2. Besides the Edit button, which wiki feature is your favorite? My favorite wiki feature is the ability to embed. It’s so quick and easy to add any number of different tools to a wiki. For this wiki, the ease in which we can add videos made Wikispaces the perfect place to host our site. We’ve also been able to easily add other great widgets as a Clustrmap and visitor feed. 3. What is one way you’re using wikis and other web 2.0 tools in your projects? We knew we couldn’t be the only class making videos as part of our math curriculum. We wanted to find other classes that were doing the same so that we could share math videos with one another. Using a wiki has made it easy for a group of different teachers to be able to add new videos at any time. We’re really hoping that through the use of this wiki, we’ll continue to grow until we’re able to host thousands of student made math videos. 4. Tell us about a particular moment that made you say, "Aha! THIS is why I use wikis!" When trying to figure out how to best go about creating this site, we went back and forth between blogs and wikis. We thought that with a blog, we’d be able to feature a different video in each post. However, after partaking in Jonah Salsich’s Kites Around the World project, it became clear to me that the ease in which we were able to all add on to the wiki would make it the best choice for Student Math Movies. 5. If you could ask it, what do you think your wiki would say about you? I think I’d have many wikis talking to me all at once! I’ve found wikis to be such an easy way to create collaborative projects and now host quite a few of them. I think they’d all say that I’m dedicated to the field of education. Not only do I love teaching but I love the bond that educators share. We’re all always striving to be better and are always looking to share or learn new ideas. My wiki would say that it can tell there’s no other career I’d rather have!

Distance education, distributed learning, elearning, blended learning — whatever name it goes by, distance learning is on the rise all over the world. Technology has closed the gap for thousands of learners who, in the past, might have been bound by geographical location or physical limitation, or have simply had to prioritize other demands on their time. And it has given talented educators, no longer restricted to teaching a single face-to-face classroom at a time, an opportunity to reach a broader student base than ever before. It’s a thrilling time to be in the business of educational technology. Here’s a sampling of the research out there on the web: BellSouth report on the Costs and Funding of Virtual Schools U.S. National Center for Education Statistics numbers on distance learning at the postsecondary level and undergraduate enrollment in distance learning programs Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning, from the U.S. Department of Education United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) Research Center A More Connected Future: Outcomes of the Distance Education Review, New South Wales Department of Education and Training Canadian Institute of Distance Education Research (CIDER) Twitter feed of the Swiss Centre for Innovations in Learning (scil) (in German) Here are a few Wikispaces features that might help you set up or expand a distance learning program in your own school, district, or university: Projects Comments Widgets Wikispaces Private Label Site navigation Multiple authentication Guidelines around distance education vary by country, state, and/or province. Your local department of education should have information on distance learning.

Linda Yollis started the Educational-Blogging wiki in November of 2009. 1. Briefly describe your group, your wiki, and what you use it to do: I created the Educational Blogging Wiki in 2009 as a resource for teachers who are interested in having a classroom blog. The wiki includes class videos explaining the benefits of blogging, how to compose a quality comment, and the importance of the Creative Commons license. I chronicle the steps I’ve taken to teach my students how to compose quality comments and have tips to help teachers develop their own online communities. Included are links to other educational bloggers and sample posts organized by subject matter. I hope that teachers will find the wiki helpful and will open up their classrooms through educational blogging. 2. Besides the Edit button, which wiki feature is your favorite? The widget button is a great feature. PowerPoints, calendars, videos, slide shows, maps, polls, and spreadsheets can easily be embedded in the wiki. Selecting a widget and pasting in the html code makes adding web 2.0 tools a snap! 3. What is one way you’re using wikis and other web 2.0 tools in your projects? I frequently get emails from teachers looking for advice about starting a classroom blog, teaching commenting skills, or making global connections. The wiki has proved to be a useful avenue for sharing information and learning from one another. The wiki’s navigation bar makes it easy for users to find the information they are looking for no matter what their level of blogging expertise. 4. Tell us about a particular moment that made you say, "Aha! THIS is why I use wikis!" It is an exciting time in education. More and more teachers are looking to find meaningful ways to integrate technology in their classrooms. As I was formulating a presentation on educational blogging for my district, I realized how much important information there was to cover, and I only had one hour. Plus, the teachers who were attending my presentation ranged from total beginners to tech savvy pros. I thought to myself, "How can I deliver the full range of information and reach the needs of everyone?" That’s when I realized I could easily assemble all the aspects of education blogging in one space, a Wikispace! Teachers can sort through the wiki’s menu bar and access the information they need with just a click. 5. If you could ask it, what do you think your wiki would say about you? My wiki would say, "Technology is wonderful! Together, we are able to share our knowledge and help one another… 24/7!"

Think about your wiki for a minute. What’s on it? Wiki pages, images, audio files. What else? Word docs, maybe? Spreadsheets? PDFs? Wouldn’t it be great to see all of that content — all of that stuff — at one time, in one place? We certainly think so, which is why we’ve introduced a new way to view your content and manage your wiki. Instead of digging through your Manage Wiki page, the options you need most often, Pages and Files and Members, are now located on the action menu, so you can get right to them any time you need them. Managing Pages and Files When you click on the Pages and Files link in the action menu, you’ll see a full list of everything on your wiki. The list shows you who was the last person to edit the page or upload the file, and the date of the last change. If you move your cursor over the name, you’ll get management options for that file: Image preview (image files only) File Size Type Rename Redirect (pages only) Tags You can also lock/unlock pages and files, manage tags, or delete assets in bulk by checking the items you want to change and using the buttons at the top right of the list. This new section also gives you options for filtering the list, so that it’s easier to manage the content you care about. If your wiki has active Projects, Filter by Project lets you limit your search to the pages and files within a single project, or to pages and files on the wiki home. Filter by Type lets you restrict your search to just pages, just files, or just page templates. Filter by Status describes how the page or file is being used in the wiki: "All" will give you a list of all the files that have been uploaded and all the pages or templates that have been created on your wiki. "Normal" will give you a list of all the files that have been added to a page, and all the existing pages that are linked to by other wiki pages. "Wanted" will give you a list of all the pages that have been created by new links, but have never been edited. (If your wiki includes links to files that have since been deleted, you will see those on this list, as well.) "Orphaned" will give you a list of all the files that have been uploaded to the wiki but never added to a page, and all the pages that have been created and edited, but no other pages link to them. Adding Pages and Files If you’re already on the Pages and Files page, you can click the buttons on the upper left to create a page or upload files. But no matter where you are in the wiki, you can click the plus-sign button in the action menu to add new content to your wiki: To create a new page, just type in the name and hit Create. If you have templates or want to add tags, you can apply them to the page before hitting the Create button. To create a new page template, select the New Template from the menu, and give your template a name. If you want, you can base the template on an existing page in your wiki. Click Create Template, edit the page as you want, and save the page as a page template. To add files, select Upload Files from the menu. Click the Upload Files button, select the files to upload, and click Open. And of course you can always add pages and files while you’re editing a page. Just link to a new page to create it, or use the files tool in the editor toolbar to upload files and add them directly to your page. Managing and Inviting Members Now you can get to your Manage Members page directly from the action menu. Just click Members and you’ll be able to see your list of members, review pending memberships, remove old members, and promote new organizers (or demote old organizers). If you want to invite new members to your wiki, click the invite Members button on the Members page, or just use the plus-sign button next to the Members action menu link from anywhere in your wiki. Either option will give you an invitation pop-up, where you can invite up to 100 members at a time by username or email address. If you’re creating new users with the bulk user creator tool, click the plus sign for the Invite Members popup, then follow the User Creator Tool link and create your users. And there you have it! These changes should make managing your wikis clearer and simpler than ever before.

Before the New Year, we announced a change to the Wikispaces interface. Today we released that change system-wide. In our popular Tatami theme, the changes will look like this (click on each thumbnail to see a larger version): Most of you don’t need to do anything to enjoy this updated and upgraded interface. But if you have a heavily modified custom theme, especially one that made changes to the tabs, you may find that it is no longer working the way you expect. If you run into any trouble, send us an email at help@wikispaces.com. Along with the interface upgrade, we’ve also released a new premade theme called Moderna. This theme was specially designed to make Wikispaces easier to use than ever. We hope you like it!

Today we released a little feature that should lift a big burden in uploading files: Now there’s a drag-and-drop option for adding files to wikis. Here’s how you use it: Go to your wiki. Click the + button next to Pages and Files in the action menu. Switch to the Upload Files view. Grab files from your desktop or file folders and drop them into the box. And that’s it! You’ll see a green check next to each file, indicating that the upload is complete. You can manage uploaded files from the Pages and Files link in the action menu. Of course, if you are more comfortable with uploading files by searching folders, you can still click the Add Files button and grab files the way you’re used to. The maximum size for an uploaded file (and total wiki storage) vary by plan. You can check how much storage is available on your wiki by going to Manage Wiki > Space Usage. Take a look at our pricing page to see the limits of different plans.

Earlier this month we released a new user interface for Wikispaces that transformed your tabs into page buttons. But never fear: all the familiar tools are still there, they just look a little different. Global Navigation These are the elements that stay at the top of the page, no matter where you go in Wikispaces. When you’re not actively using these controls, they will collapse so that nothing shows but your unread messages and your avatar. To expand the global navigation, just roll your mouse over it. When you’re not logged in, the global navigation will identify you as a guest. You’ll get a Join button that lets you request membership in the wiki you’re currently viewing, a Help button, and a Sign In button that will let you sign in or create a new user account. If you are logged in, the global navigation will start with a number that represents how many unread messages you have in your inbox. Click on this number to review unread messages or go to your inbox. Next you’ll see your avatar and account name. Click on this to go to your user dashboard. Click on My Wikis for a linked list of all the wikis you’re a member of. And, of course, you can always click for Help or to Sign Out. Page Buttons These redesigned buttons have all the same functionality of the older tabs. Of course you already know the Edit button. If your wiki has been set to one discussion area per page, the button immediately to the right of Edit is the Discussion button. It has a double white conversation bubble and shows the number of existing discussions posts. Just click on it to go to the discussion area, where you can read, review, and reply to posts. To the right of the Discussion button you’ll find a single yellow conversation bubble that shows the number of Comments on this page. Click on it to toggle the comment view on and off. Next to that is a button with a clock icon that shows the number of revisions to this page. When you click on this button, you’ll be taken to the Page History where you can review previous versions of the page, or revert to an older version. And, finally, you have the ellipsis (dot-dot-dot). This button gives you More Page Options. These are the options that used to be accessible by hovering your mouse over the down arrow on the page tab: Tags View as Print or PDF Rename Redirect Delete Lock/Unlock Permissions Notify RSS feed Backlinks Source (the wikitext for that page)