GuidelinesForEffectiveWiki

Here are some notes to students and teachers for the most common questions about wikis.
If I have typos, please feel free to fix them.
 * If you find a mistake:**

We (the teachers) write the instructions in italics and ask them (the students) to delete it.
 * How editing works:**

This FORCES the students to learn how to use history -- just go to the history tab and look at the 1st copy of the page - the instructions are THERE. This forces them to learn about instructions and the power of the wiki.
 * If you delete it, how can everyone see the instructions?**

The wiki page should always be in **FINAL form** - so discussions go on the discussion tab - talking about the page. I use Wikipedia to show how this works. They should look for their expert advisors here as well.
 * What goes on the wiki and what in the discussion tab?**

We use iGoogle and they subscribe to the discussions and wiki edits for their main page and sub wiki - to find it, go to the notify me tab of the page. This helps them keep up with things.
 * How do they keep up with their wiki edits and discussions?**

now!
 * When can they start?**

When students edit simultaneously they will delete one another's work. There is a warning that let's them know when someone else is editing, but sometimes it will happen erroneously if another person clicked "edit" and then left the page by clicking cancel. The wiki editor saves the unedited page in the "cache" and tells others that someone is editing when they aren't.
 * What are wiki wars?**

No problem! If someone deletes your work, go in the history and copy your work out (just turn off change highlighting when you do) and paste it back into the current document. Try not just to revert back -- as that perpetuates the wiki war. Feel free to leave a kindly worded message to the person who has not discarded the previous draft. Do not let things escalate -- sometimes others just don't' know and they are learning!!!
 * How do I get back my work?**