Contents Page
AN INTRODUCTION TO E-LEARNING
3: Building learning and performance solutions
PBwiki Mini Tutorial

PBwiki is an online wiki platform that is easy to use for both business and education, and which supports collaborative writing and working.

Find out how to use PBwiki

Take a look at the following video which will give you a tour of PBwiki (by Ramit Sethi of pbwiki via YourTube)

Try an existing PBwiki

You can try out the features of PBwiki by working on the 25 Tools wiki, that has already been set up. Note: it will log all activity on the wiki.

If you would like to try out the 25Tools wiki you will need the invite key. This is 2525.

Now go to 25tools.pbwiki.com

1. Use the invite key to access it.
2. Take a look at the recent activity in the wiki (shown in the Recent Activity sidebar)
3. In the wiki you will find the details of the task, which consists of 3 parts:
   • Set up a new page - and give a brief description of who you are and then add one or two of your favourite resources from the web (See below for how to do this).
   • Link it to the main page
   • Comment on one or more contributors' pages
4. Subscribe to the RSS feed (bottom right hand corner) if you want to keep up to date with recent activity at the wiki, e.g. comments on your page. [You could use Firefox or Google Reader to read the RSS feed]

PBwiki has a number of widgets to embed resources into your wiki page, which you could try out. But if you want to embed resources like presentations, video, photos, from other sources, you will need to include the relevant HTML code.

Note: when adding HTML to a PBwiki page you will need to click Source from the page editor. Once you have added the HTML, you can click Source again to return to normal.

Edit your wiki page to embed some of your favourite resources of the following types, using the instructions provided in the relevant tools pages.

• Your Google Calendar
• A presentation hosted in Slideshare
• A photo from Flickr
• A Voicethread
• An audio file/podcast (created with Audacity)
• A video hosted at YouTube
• A poll created at PollDaddy
• Your Twitter feed

View this video which explains how to sign up and get started (by teduni via YouTube).

Go to www.pbwiki.com

1. Click on the Create a wiki button
2. You will first need to create your account, give your wiki a name, and select who this wiki is for.
3. Keep the PBwiki 2.0 box checked, then click the Create this wiki button
4. Confirm your account by following the link provided in the email you will receive.
5. You will now need to decide whether your wiki is going to be public or private and agree to the terms of service.
6. Click the Next: Choose wiki features button
7. Now, decide if you want to pay for additional features or Continue trying out the free version.
8. Your wiki will now launch.
9. You will need to edit the wiki's front page to ensure it clearly explains the purpose of your wiki. You should also add in any extra pages you want.
10. Note: that two people can't edit a PBwiki page at the same time. So if you anticipate large scale use of a wiki, it is best to set up a number of different pages that people can work on simultaneously.
11. In Settings you can make a number of modifications to your wiki. Note some modifications (e.g. colour schemes, templates) need to be paid-for.

 

• use security to set access controls
• use users to invite people to your wiki
• use notifications to decide who receives notifications about changes to your wiki

PBwiki is a popular wiki tool. Find out what the learning professionals who selected it as one of their Top 10 Tools think about it:

• Top 100 Tools for Learning : PBwiki

Consider how you could use PBwiki for teaching, learning or performance support

Take a look at some examples of how PBwiki is being used in education and professional development: Example PBwikis

1. What do you think of PBwiki?
2. Please share your PBwiki with the other participants.
3. How could you PBwiki within your organisation for learning or performance support?