#17 Playing Around with Wikis

"Sandbox" is the term that wikis often use to describe the area of the website that should be used for pure play. For this discovery and exploration exercise, we’ve set up a whole OULibrariesLearn Welcome Page** that’s for nothing but play! This page is still under some onstruction, as we are still learning how to play in our new sandbox.

Your other option is to use the PLCMC Sandbox - they have set one up for Learning 2.0 users.

For their “explore-and-play-with-wikis” exercise, you are asked to add an entry or two to the PBwiki Learning 2.0 wiki. The theme of this wiki is simply “Favorites” : Favorite books, favorite vacation spots, favorite restaurants, favorite anything …all you need to do is play and add your thoughts. To mark your adventure on this site, you should add your blog to the Favorite Blogs. We have already added OULibraries Learn to the Favorite Blogs page.


Discovery Resources:

PB Wiki Tour - Find out how this collaborative tool can be used
PBWiki Video Gallery - Short videos of PBwiki features
PB Wiki Tips

These Tours & Videos appear to be using an earlier version of PBWiki. The 'concept' is the same, but the look is a little different. Remember, these are just a few resources.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Access the OULibrariesLearn WIKI and create a login account for yourself (so you can play in the sandbox).

**To play in the OULibrariesLearn WIKI Sandbox enter in the wiki's password: oulib. You will also need to enter your first name and email address.

OR

**To create your own account and WIKI page (PBWiki Identity), go to: https://my.pbwiki.com/new.php and follow the directions (simple).

2. Add your blog to the Favorite Blogs page, that's how we'll know that you've been there. It’s easy to do if you follow this simple syntax:


Example of editing OULibrariesLearn wiki (as per corrections from Runningwithscissors):


1. Click on Favorite Blogs (Sidebar)
2. Then Edit page
3. In Edit page window: click on Link located on the toolbar
4. Use the dropdown arrow and select URL for linking to your blog
5. Enter your blog web address (runs-with-scissors.blogspot.com)
6. Type your blog name (runs with scissors)
7. Click Save


and you’ve added a link - yup, it’s as easy as that!

NOTE: Apparently only one user can be logged in at any time. Once you are done in the wiki, please log out. OR try the 'mirror' wiki: OULibrariesLearnXtra (same password - oulib)


OPTIONAL: Add a favorite or two to a few other pages (Favorite books, favorite movies, books, etc). And, if you feel up to the challenge, you might even want to create a separate page for book review or short travel essay and link up to that.

3. Create a post in your blog about the experience.

* NOTE: The OULibrariesLearn Wiki was created using the free version of PBWiki, a tool that lets you create webpages that anyone can edit.