From OTAWiki

How to add your Educational Internet Resource Links to the OTA Wiki

• Information on this page will support OTA 121 participants as they create their first, contributed MediaWiki page.

• Educators don't need to be "techies" to create Wiki entries or develop wiki projects for completion by their students. Anyone with a user identity on this site can edit most pages on OTAWiki although a few pages are protected and may only be edited by sysops.

• Creating a new page is a classical "ill structured problem." There isn't only one right answer. There are many ways to create new Wiki pages. The MediaWiki Guide can help you try out some of these, but the easiest way may be to follow the step-by-step directions below.

• The "step by step" instructions below will help you create two "Educational Internet Resource" entries on OTAWiki, part of the assignment in OTA-121, Activity 2.2. Creating a New OTAWiki Educational Internet Resource Entry

• Read these Hints for Creating Useful Resource Links and MediaWiki Editing Tips before forging ahead to create Resource pages that are easy to find, clearly written, and useful to other practitioners.

Educational Internet Resource Wiki page Step-by-Step:

You may want to print off these directions before starting.

Step 1: Create a page

(1) Copy the "template" categories (below)

Template to structure your entry:

Resource Title or Name:

URL:http:

Source (Publisher):

Resource Author (as appropriate):

Resource Publication Date (as appropriate):

Entry Author:

Entry Date:

Disciplinary Content / Subject:

Grade Level:

Brief Description of Resource:

Search tags that allow the wiki search engine to locate your resource (Keywords like content areas -eg Algebra, American History, Chemistry, French- or topic markers -eg Linear Equations, World War II, Shakespeare) :

(2) Choose a name for your new OTA Wiki page. (We suggest you make it simple, short and descriptive of the resource you will share. Example: Kahn Academy Math)

(3) Type the name into the "Search" box, on the left sidebar of this page.

(4) Click Go to discover if someone else has already used your page name. If no one has already used it, you'll get an option to "create a new page." (If the name is already used, you'll need to choose a variation of the name and repeat steps 3 and 4.)

(5) Click the red link "create this page" and you are taken to a new page, empty of text, titled at the top with the name of your page (Remember this page name exactly - spaces, caps, punctuation all matter in finding the page again.)

(6) Paste the copied "template" into the editor window for your new record.

(7) Fill in the template describing your new Educational Internet Resource,

(8) Try it out by clicking the "Show Preview" button (below), and when it looks right remember to click "Save page".

Congratulations! You've added your new Educational Internet Resource to OTA Wiki.

You are now ready to go on to step 2

Step 2: Link your newly created resource page to your class gallery page

(1) Navigate back to your Class Educational Internet Resource Links page (Click on Community Portal link - left side-bar - and then click on your course in the center of the portal page)

(2) Click Edit in the Gallery section at the bottom of your class page. ([edit] is located on the far right of the Gallery title bar, making only the Gallery section editable; or alternatively, click the edit tab at the top of the page, making the whole page editable.  

(3) You can now add your page name to the list of contributions by typing the EXACT page name surrounded by double brackets - [[ ]] - , adding your name and any other information your cohort is providing. You may need to hit the enter key twice to make your entry start on a new line.)

(4) Click the preview button to see that the page looks like a link. IF IT DOESN'T LOOK RIGHT DON'T SAVE IT! Instead, make changes in your working copy which is just below the preview at the top of the page (you may have to scroll to see it) Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Preview again to see your changes. Repeat as necessary ;>}

(5) Click save.

Congratulations! You have now created a page and linked it to another page to make it easier for your classmates to view. Now do the same process again with your second Internet Educational Resource.