What You Need to Know about the Wiki

The Course Wiki is a web of pages that include content that I've prepared for you to use in the course, as well as content that we will develop together as a class. So here are the main things you need to be able to do with this collaboration software:

1. Logon and enter text on the student practice page.

Follow the instructions on the other side of this page to logon to the wiki. Then find the Student Practice Page for your course, click on the "Edit" tab on top of the page, enter some text somewhere on the page (take a second to use the Bold and Italic buttons to modify text) and click "Save". You should see the results on the screen.

2. Learn how to use headings of different levels and notice the effect of headings on the table of contents.

One way that wiki pages stay organized is through the use of sections that can be created at different levels of organization. Edit the Student Practice Page and try entering some text surrounded by "=" signs (See the reference table below.) Surrounding text by one pair of "=" signs creates a level one heading. There are six possible levels. After several students have entered headings, you will notice that a table of contents is automatically generated by the software.

3. Learn how to create links and pages.

Enter the edit mode by clicking on the "edit" link either for a section of for the page. Surround any web address with "[ ]" and notice after saving how it creates a hyperlink. If you type "[http:alfino.org Alfino's Home Page]", you get "[http:alfino.org Alfino's Home Page]," creating a label for the link. To create a new wiki page, type the new page name between double brackets (e.g. "[[New Page Fall 2010]]) and you will see the link in red after saving. Click on the link and you will be in the edit screen for the new page.

Click on the Community Portal link at the left for a quick reminder of this information in reference form.

Some additional wiki tags:

• Type ~~~~ and you get a time and author stamp for your post.

• Type a list with and "*" or "#" at the left of the text and you get either a bulletted or numbered list.