jbyers's dashboard

I think the new option of creating student accounts for students without emails is great. Before you introduced this, I had to let students all share one account, and I couldn't tell which one made a change. It's also great having the flexibility to add people three different ways in one wiki. The one additional enhancement I would like would be the option to change a password once the user is entered.

School starts in just a few weeks. Any updates? – Anne-Marie, on August 03, 2008 21:46

Hmm, thanks for asking. I see our FAQ kinda left that out. Go to Settings and then Security to find the checkbox that enables this Request Access feature. I have updated our FAQ to make this easier to find. – Clif, on August 02, 2008 19:36

Hi Irene,

Based on what you've told me, my guess is that there is actually nothing wrong. There are possible problems that you may not be aware of when you try to log in as someone else with a different Access Level. In order to help you more, I'll need private information from you. I don't want you to post it here.

Please contact us directly via email and tell us the same details you have here. Be sure to include the wiki name and the details such as the student accounts you tried to simulate.

I created myself a new gmail account and listed a couple of student names using the trick of my adress + studentname@gmail.com. A new problem I faced is: I tried to lock a page so that only the administrator (I) could change my instructions. It failed to work. Playing with my new student logins I was able to "steal the lock" or could simply edit the page while I was logged in as a student. It seemed to me that I couldn't save my option to lock the page. Can you help me out here?

Good question Irine! We use Gmail as an example because they are one of the few providers that we know allow you to use the plus symbol. Wikipedia lists a few other providers that support this sort of notation: http://tinyurl.com/oydrx

Beyond that, I suggest that you simply test with the providers that you are wondering about! – Joel Franusic, on August 01, 2008 23:07

Is it necessary to use a gmail adres, or can emailadresses by all providers be used? I mean to create a class list of similar emailadresses to use to work with wikis.

They will also see a message telling them that they can Request Access if you have enabled this.
http://newfaq20.pbwiki.com/Request-Ac...
How do I "enable" this? – Ms.H, on August 01, 2008 13:24

Hi Kellmoor, this has been mentioned above more than once. You can still create v1.0 wikis that anyone can log into using only an Invite key. It does require the teacher to have an email account, but you can simply do that from home. While you are at school, you can log in using the Invite key. You can find more details about this in the very next reply to Hillary at the very bottom. – Clif, on July 31, 2008 01:58

Hillary asked: Thanks Clif! I may sound a bit challenged...but can you tell me in detail how I go about doing that since when I tried to create another Gmail account using the ImaTeacher+ technique, it tells me that it won't accept the + symbol in the username. Thanks for your patience.

Hi Hillary. As mentioned already, you don't need to create more than one Gmail account. What you will be doing is asking the students to create their own PBwiki Account using your email address.

If your Gmail address is bluegreen@gmail.com then your students will go to http://my.pbwiki.com and click on "Sign up" as shown here.



They will use your email address with some additional text that identifies them to you. Here are some suggestions:

Mark will sign up as bluegreen+mark@gmail.com
Jenny will sign up as bluegreen+jenny@gmail.com
and so on ...

Gmail interprets all the addresses with a + sign as the same address. Therefore, all of the students will be receiving the verification emails in your Gmail account.

When you receive the verification emails, just follow the instructions to complete each student's PBwiki Account sign up.

After each student has their PBwiki Account set up, they can log into their PBwiki Accounts at my.pbwiki.com and use that specific email address to log in.

Mark will login as bluegreen+mark@gmail.com and use his password
Jenny will login as bluegreen+jenny@gmail.com and use her password
and so on ...

At this point, each student can log into their PBwiki Account and each will have their own email address (it's actually your email bluegreen@gmail.com address). They will each also have their own password that you do not know.

Once the students log in, they should each visit your wiki and they will see a message telling them that they don't have access. They will also see a message telling them that they can Request Access if you have enabled this.
http://newfaq20.pbwiki.com/Request-Ac...

The above instructions are for a classroom that needs to use our PBwiki 2.0 wikis. Please keep in mind that we will soon have an easier way to share these. I don't know the details yet but you will not need email addresses for students.

Also keep in mind that you can always create a PBwiki 1.0 wiki. It only requires an invite key to gain entrance. It does ask for an email address, but any email address will work and you can simply make up a fictional address or use the teacher's address.

To create a 1.0 wiki, just go to http://pbwiki.com and be sure to clear the 2.0 check box when it asks you what kind of wiki you want.

The ideas for creating email accounts for the students are fantastic! However, my school board (as well as many others) blocks all outside email. This means no access to gmail, gaggle, yahoo mail, etc. for staff or students. The web1 PBwiki version worked with an invite key. My question is, will there be an alternative login method for students who have NO access to an email address due to blocking decisions at the Board level?

Thanks Clif! I may sound a bit challenged...but can you tell me in detail how I go about doing that since when I tried to create another Gmail account using the ImaTeacher+ technique, it tells me that it won't accept the + symbol in the username. Thanks for your patience. – Hilary, on July 30, 2008 04:15

Susan WB asked: Is it possible for multiple people to be logged on to PBwiki at the same time with the same acccount?

I'm pretty sure that you could do this. However, you may run into occasional problems with the wiki. The best solution would be to use that single Gmail account and have the student create a new PBwiki Account using that address with the plus symbol and their name after it.

They can go to http://my.pbwiki.com to create the PBwiki Account and then they can visit your wiki to request access. See this page for more details on the request.
http://newfaq20.pbwiki.com/Request-Ac...

Hillary asked if she needed to create an email account at Gmail for each student.

The answer is no.

You only need one Gmail account. As stated above, you can use a variation of the single Gmail address for each student and all of the addresses will still belong to the single Gmail account.

You: ImATeacher@gmail.com
Student1: ImATeacher+student1@gmail.com
Student2: ImATeacher+student2@gmail.com
StudnetN: ImATeacher+studentN@gmail.com

Even though those addresses are each unique enough to qualify as different people to us, they are the same account at Gmail and any email written to those addresses will all appear in the same Inbox at Gmail.

You can create an almost infinite number of unique addresses at Gmail by simply adding the plus (+) symbol and text after it. The real account name is the text before the plus symbol.

No Hillary. Scroll down to see my answer. – Clif, on July 30, 2008 02:25

On a similar note, I work with Adult Basic Education & Adult English Language programs and these groups also have a big problem with signing students up with email. Their problem is not that students can't access email, but rather that turnover in the class is so frequent (like you might get 5 new students a week) that any teacher who wants to work on technologies like wikis, blogs, etc. is stuck teaching several new people each week how to get and use email before he/she can do the main lesson. It's a pain.

Several teachers I know use a system of creating a single "student" login with a free "student" email (e.g. susie[dot]student[at]yahoo[dot]com) and then allow every student who doesn't already have their own email to use that one account to login to the blog, wiki, etc.

I don't know anyone who's tried this with PBwiki yet. Is it possible for multiple people to be logged on to PBwiki at the same time with the same acccount? If so, this work-around could be a good solution. The only major drawback is that everyone's work is attributed to "susie student". Teachers generally just ask that students sign their work so that they know who did what.

Love the tip about gmail+name, above, tho... I'm going to have to explore that one!

So does that mean I need to sign up for a new gmail account for every student that doesn't have an address? Or is there a way to add the students to my account? This doesn't seem to make sense when I tried. Please help. – Hilary, on July 24, 2008 21:15

Hi, Val. This is a top priority for us, but I can't say it'll be ready by the end of July. We're working around a Fall start to the school year. If you need to set a wiki up for your students by end of July, I'd suggest sticking to a 1.0 wiki. – Janet Yu, on July 22, 2008 19:47

Our school board also blocks ALL email accounts, so there is no option for students to have an email account. Is there a work around this problem? If no, the benefits to having a collaborative wiki for my students have just been erased... – Kellmoor, on July 21, 2008 21:08

"with less than 1/8th of my students having access to a computer"

Where is that? Zimbabwe? Iran? Get some donated to the school if it really is that bad. Maybe Oxfam (cough..just kidding). Microsoft, Dell, any local business that might be throwing out old machines, weathier schools in nearby towns etc. Retailers sitting on worthless old stock, Libraries which might intend to upgrade. Many possibilities. Might find some of the parents whill be so shocked that they'll club together and get some for you.

Just explain to the parents that they must find the courage somehow to move forward. The 19th centruy is really not so bad. Then when that is swallowed they can try the 20th and 21st. Facebooks all round guys! – Doom, on July 21, 2008 15:36