So+You+Wanna+Make+a+Wiki

__Directions for Making Your Own Wiki__
1. You need a wiki account. Go to www.wikispaces.com and get a wiki account. Keep in mind that your students will be viewing your presence on the wiki by the username that you create when you register. Please, keep it professional.

2. Think of a name for your wiki. When you do this, attempt to keep your name out of it. A wiki requires a mindset shift by users to reach optimum efficiency. If you put your name in the title of it, students will have a mindset that it is your wiki and not a community-managed experience. Also, try to keep the name general enough so that if your teaching role changes you can use the same wiki. If you name space **shakespeareshouse.wikispaces.com** and then stop teaching Shakespeare, then you will not be able to recycle it in the future.

3. Create your wiki space. After you register your username with wikispaces, you can log in at any time and click the "Create A New Space" link towards the top left part of your screen. (When you first register your account, you will be logged in). When you do, it will ask you to register the name of the space. Under Space Visibility, you want to choose **Protected (free)**. This will only allow members that you invite to be a part of the wiki to access the site.

4. You can request the wikispaces turn off their ads. They are giving away 100,000 ad-free wikispaces to educators. Removing the ads makes more space on the page when users want to view it. At one point in time you could email them to make this request. They have gone to a new protol aroound this. To make this request, you need to fill out the form at http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers100K or go into manage space: Space Settings: Subscription and change to PLUS and click the certify this space will be used for k 12 education and they will review the site.

5. Invite people to join. This can be done in a variety of ways. The limiting reagent in doing this regardless of the method is having all of your students email addresses. To gather email addresses, you can employ a variety of methods.


 * Have all of your students write down their email address on a sheet of paper or on a 3x5 card and collect them. (__Pros__ - You get them all in one shot. __Cons__ – Poor penmanship becomes an issue. You need to them key them into your computer.)
 * Have every student email you at your school email address. When they do, save their address into your Outlook Contacts. Do this by right clicking on their address and choosing "Add to Contacts" (__Pros__ - No paper required to do this. Also, this is good if you want to make a distribution list for your class using Outlook. __Cons__ - it can slow the process down because students might take their time dropping you an email.)
 * Let students take turns at your computer typing their email address on a Word Document or Excel File. (__Pros__ - the addresses are in electronic form. __Cons__ – every student temporarily is working on your computer under your log on name)

Once you have gathered these emails, they need to be entered in a one per line fashion in the **Invite People to Join** box. Click the **Manage Space** link towards the top left of your screen. Then look for the **Invite People** link towards the bottom of that page.