Behind the Scenes with PBwiki
So…I think it’s really cool that Ramit Sethi, the VP of Marketing for PBwiki, has come all the way here to give us the latest on what PBwiki is all about. I think it demonstrates some commitment from them that they want to reach out to educators.
What’s a wiki? It’s a web site where you can easily collaborate and share information. The most notable example is Wikipedia. Ramit showed us a comparison between common web tools…blogs, forums, and wikis.
- Blogs…One to many. One writer to an audience of many.
- Forums…Many to many, but there may be a repetition of content.
- Wikis…Many to many, but it’s always current.
The PBwiki team spent a considerable amount of time talking with educators to determine how educators use wikis. Why are they so hot?
- They’re easy to make…no technical skills or tech savvy personnel needed.
- Links! You can connect to many other pages of your own.
- Allows students to collaborate…essays, peer editing, comments on students work, teachers can keep an eye on what’s going on.
But what are the concerns for K12 education?
- Security
In PBwiki you have to be logged in to contribute to the wiki or see any personal information. - Safety/privacy
Again, you must be logged in to view private information (and even some of that isn’t available). - Accountability
They’re working on a system to improve accountability…who is logged in and when/where are they? - $$$ Money
The access controls for PBwiki cost some money. Otherwise the cost is free!
They took the suggestions of educators and listened. Teachers hate ads, so they removed them on educational blogs. They want students to be engaged, so they continue to add features. They also want it to be easy, so they made a new WYSIWYG editor. They’re trying to listen to their hundreds of users and incorporating their suggestions.
Ramit showed us some of the little tools called Plugins that allow extra content to be added to your wiki. For example, add an online calendar or a Flickr slide show. Very cool. There is a lot of flexibility to types of content you can add.
For those of you who use PBwiki (or just wikis in general!) and tell others in workshops, PBwiki offers Presenter Packs which include
- a PDF handout with general PBwiki information
- a T-shirt of your choice
- a PowerPoint presentation to use in your workshop/session
- and three PBwiki upgrades (worth $750)
That’s awesome!…they’re really trying to support educators and their efforts to spread (PB pun!) the news.
What’s coming next?
- Videos and case studies to assist teachers in the use of wikis.
- Better sharing and linking. Ramit told us how you can make a portfolio of the content that has been published. It hasn’t been publicized well, but it could be a great tool for sharing.
- Educational Advisory Board
Again, I’m really impressed by the approachability of Ramit, and through him, PBwiki. These guys (actually five guys and a gal) are really trying to get it right and to create a useful tool for educators as well as the web community in general. Keep in mind…Ramit wasn’t down in the vendor area and wasn’t pushing his product (you get the Presenter Pack no matter what type of wiki you’re focusing on), but instead is extending a hand to teachers to help create meaningful online content and collaborative activities.
I encourage anyone who is interested in exploring wikis or who are already using wikis to explore PBwiki. For the latest PBwiki news, check out their blog, The Daily Peanut.
7 Responses to “Behind the Scenes with PBwiki”
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March 19th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
[...] Kevin Clark, who attended the talk, wrote up a great description of the talk called Behind the Scenes with PBwiki. So…I think it’s really cool that Ramit Sethi, the VP of Marketing for PBwiki, has come all the way here to give us the latest on what PBwiki is all about. I think it demonstrates some commitment from them that they want to reach out to educators. [...]
March 20th, 2007 at 1:08 am
A product that has just been released that solves some of the major problems with wikis when used by educators. The two major problems are:
1) People usually don’t feel comfortable editing what someone else has written. People feel comfortable discussing someone’s writing and suggesting edits, not directly editing the page. There is no easy way to do this in current wikis.
2) People need control over their content in order to have ownership of their work. The model of everyone editing a page is not how most people work. For example, a student edits a document while the teacher gives feedback; one or two researchers write a paper and their colleagues provide comments and suggested edits.
Coventi Pages solves both of these problems by bringing the power of instant messaging and track changes to a wiki. It turns the model around: it’s no longer about editing everyone’s work; it’s about discussing everyone’s work, a far more natural way for students and faculty to interact.
Check it out at http://www.coventi.com
March 24th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
I find the above comment interesting. I’m sure Conventi is a good service but the unoriginal way it’s presented here makes it appear to be an unsolicited advertisement.
What is another word for this?
SPAM
Thanks for the spam Mr. Sim.
March 26th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Agreed on the SPAM message by Sim about the Coventi service. Even reading his comments shows that he’s ignorant about most wiki sites. Most, if not all wiki sites, have a discussion section on each page to talk about changes, make suggestions, etc.
The model of “everyone editing a page” and the model of “my page is mine” can peacefully co-exsist, and I would expect any decent wiki-engine, like PBWiki, to provide a means to secure certain pages from the general public, or make other pages completely wide open.
In repsonse to the original post, I’m excited that PBWiki is pushing their boundaries and tools. I currently use Wikispaces because they had WYSWIG editors long before PBWiki, as well as advertisement free sites for educators. However, with all of the new features coming online at PBWiki, I’m very interested to see what’s going on. I’ve always loved PBWiki’s look and feel, so I’m glad I got to read about what’s new that’s going on.
March 26th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Hi everyone,
This is Dan from Coventi.
PBWiki has definitely set a high bar for its commitment to educators. We agree that wikis are highly valuable, and that Mr. Sethi’s service is one of the best out there.
Sim is a passionate Coventi user who has a vision of bringing our model of collaboration to wikis, and of course we see why many of you might object to the manner in which it was presented.
I apologize that Coventi has now taken up two posts on your conversation, and hope that we haven’t clouded your discussion of wikis in education.
And Ben– I haven’t yet checked out Wikispaces, thanks for the heads up!
Yours,
Dan Wilson
dan at coventi dot com
March 27th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Hi everyone,
I wanted to apologize for the tone of my past message. I was trying to point out an alternative way of thinking about group editing and in my excitement it came across as an advertisement, as Clif rightly points out.
Ben, I agree that most wikis have a discussion tab and that access controls do exist in robust wiki engines. But the idea of “everyone edits the page” is what a lot of people who are unfamiliar with wikis tend to associate with wikis. What I like about Coventi and what I was trying to express is that bringing the idea of “everyone discusses the page” to the forefront might help more people use wiki-like solutions. I can see how my original post was confusing in this regard so thank you for pointing this out.
Anyway, sorry again for the advertising speak, and hats off to Ramit and the PbWiki team for making a great service!
– Sim
March 28th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Sim:
That’s quite all right! I completely understand being highly passionate about a particular resource or tool. I just wanted to make sure that everyone had a wider picture of what most Wiki tools have to offer. I realized after the fact that you of course were not ignorant of other tools, but were merely trying to point out the flaws of many tools.
I agree with you as well, that everyone editing the page is highly frustrating and confusing at times (try explaining to two dozen 4th graders why they have to wait turns to edit a wiki page). I’ll have to look into Coventi to see how the discussion is highlighted.
Dan:
Thank you for the comments, they are greatly appreciated! The comments that both you and Sim have shared, when followed up with more inciteful remarks, actually help bring more depth to the conversation, and remind us that every tool has it’s positives and negatives. No worries about making the conversation more cloudy, as the more concerned voices that participate, the richer the conversation