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The LTC Wiki and Our Work

A practical workshop on how to harness the power of the

LTC wiki

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Wiki in-service workshops series1. “The Digital Taxonomy”: General

overview of concepts and practices related to “Web 2.0” (Elaine)

2. “The LTC Wiki and Our Work”: How to make a Web 2.0 system – the LTC wiki – work for you (Tim)

3. “Managing Information in the Digital Context”: Approaches and tools to avoid information overload (Dean)

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Workshop Profile

• Prerequisites for using the LTC Wiki– Basic skills in using word processing software like Microsoft Word

– Basic skills in using a web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari)

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Workshop Overview

1. First Principles: General Introduction to Wikis (5 mins.)

2. Guided Tour: Harnessing the Power of the LTC Wiki (35-40 mins)

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Introduction to Wikis

• What’s the most well-known wiki on the Internet?

• Wikipedia

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What can I do with a wiki?

• Core wiki features:

1.Create and publish web pages2.Store and share files3.Edit documents collaboratively

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What are wikis commonly used for?Common uses:1.Collaborative construction of documents

2.Feedback and discussion over content

3.Document repository4.Web page publishing platform

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Who uses wikis?

Institutions that use wikis:• Research institutions• Teaching institutions• Corporate intranets• Company websites• Technical knowledge bases• Community group portals

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Educational applications for wikis• Staff research groups• Student projects• Administrative management

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The LTC Wiki: Harnessing its power• Overview

– Creating/Editing web pages– Sharing files– Finding your way around and locating content

• NB: Most collaboration features will be covered in a follow-up workshop

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The anatomy of a wiki page

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Organisation of the LTC Wiki• Top level categories• LTC Work• LTC Portfolio

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Wiki content types

• Quick preview of other wiki features:– Collaborative editing– Multimedia– Embedding content

• Video• Spreadsheets• Calendars• Forms• RSS Feeds• Etc!

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Creating and editing web pages• Personal pages• Creating a new page• Using the formatting toolbar to add content

• Saving a page• Adding tags to a page• Commenting on a page (collaboration feature)

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File to wiki, wiki to file

• How to share files in the wiki

• Adding files:– Attaching files to a wiki page – File versioning

• Extracting wiki page content– Print button (PDF, hardcopy)

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Finding things in the wiki

• How do I locate something efficiently?

• Task: “I am looking for this document, it was an article written by some person called Lowe, it was about the equivalence of traditional and online assessment. I think it was a PDF attachment”

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Ways to find items in the wiki• Golden Rule: “SEARCH, DON’T BROWSE” (importance of tagging pages with keywords)

• Browser bookmarks (for pages you visit regularly)

• Don’t use the left navigation menu to find content!

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Preview of Session 3: “Following” pages

• Use RSS Feeds to subscribe to people or pages

• Recent Changes page• Email notification of new content

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Discussion

• What do you think are the advantages of using a wiki?

• What do you think are the disadvantages?

• Which features do you think would be most useful for your and LTC’s work?

• What features would you like to learn about in future workshops?