The Taming of the Wiki
I spent some time exploring the access control of PBWiki. There, the most straightforward way to protect the content of your wiki is to make it private. The site can only be viewed with a password, a magic URL or an invitation to PBWiki members. As a bonus, no ads will be placed on private wikis.
There are times when a wiki needs to be public, but have some content protected. There are also times when a wiki needs to be private, but when the invited members might not need (be able to handle) administrative control. PBWiki’s solution to both of these situations is to upgrade the account (pay) to gain finer access control.
Users are then given one of four levels of control:
An administrator can do anything, including deleting pages and files permanently. They can also change passwords, change settings, lock pages and issue invitations.
Moderators are trusted helpers. They can do things which can’t be undone, such as delete pages and files.
Contributors can add content to pages and revert pages to a previous version. They can add new pages, but can’t do anything which can’t be undone.
Readers can read content and see revision histories. For public wikis, readers don’t need passwords.
These levels of control lend themselves naturally to a class project. The lead teacher would act as the administrator and any other staff involved might be moderators. Students who author the content would be contributors. Other students and possibly parents would be given reader status.
I made up four users (admin. privileges needed) with unique passwords and tried doing some drastic things to an upcoming wiki. As an admin. or moderator, I could delete files (Image 1) and pages (Image 2). Both of these actions cannot be undone and result in a loss of data. When I tried this as a contributor or reader, I was politely denied (Image 3). Finally, I made the wiki private. I was unable to read it by simply knowing the URL (Image 4).
I hope to use access controls to help in taking small steps toward allowing students to take charge of their learning collaboratively.
posted by John Lobe @ 10:17 PM
3 Comments:
I think this is the way to go. To pay for the extra levels and assign responsibility levels. It is still a good deal for a school to be able to use this technology - if you have teacher buy-in.
Thanks for the examples. They are good ones.
John: I always look forward to visiting your blog. Your attention to detail, the overall look, the quotes even your font choices are so appealing and easy to read.
I am enjoying working with you on our wiki project and am learning so much from you.
Yes maintaining an updated wiki is a challenge I forsee. Jennifer suggested to me that perhaps parent volunteers could come in and update pages based on information given to them by the teachers. I see this as a great opportunity for dad's to be involved in volunteering in the school. Of course mom's too, but from my experience its harder to get dad's involved. If we give them a technical task, perhaps they would.
The ability to edit, and who can edit is another challenge. Great insight John.
Cheers
Val
John,
The joys of editing are numerous, as can only be experienced on a wiki!
As I move into some other projects that involve maintaining wikis, I am learning the about the challenges of being the administrator and keeping an eye on the editing. However, it has been one of the best web 2.0 tools I have learned about this term! I can't wait to use them with teachers and students.
Ronda
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