Wikis For The Reasonably Intelligent
From NLTLWiki
Hello. If you are reading this, chances are you have encountered a Dalton wiki before (you are actually reading one right now). It is also likely that you have more than a few questions about what a wiki actually is, how it works, and why it is a useful educational tool. You may feel a little overwhelmed or confused, but you should regard that as normal. This guide will take a slow and careful approach to explaining the many ins and outs of a Dalton Wiki.
Not everyone learns new concepts in the same way, especially computer related concepts. In order to provide explanations that connect with more than one learning style, this guide is a living document that can grow and expand. Thanks to the wiki, everyone who reads this guide can also edit it. If you find a better way to explain or state something, please make some revisions. If you have a comment or clarification, please make an addition. If you are concerned because you don't know how to do those things, don't worry, just read on...
Contents |
Getting Started
The first thing that a lot of people ask about wikis is "What is a wiki?". This is not a silly or naive question. A wiki is a special kind website, one whose specialness is the subject of this guide. The next most common question is "What does wiki mean?". This is probably the source of the confusion that lead to the first questions. Wiki is a Hawaiian-language word for fast, whose common usage is the reduplication Wiki Wiki. In website terms, Wiki is best defined as: "A collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it" and "the simplest online database that could possibly work"...more
Wiki Editing
There are a lot of things that can be done with a wiki. Almost all of them involve editing a wiki page...more
Page Management
Wiki Management
The wikis at Dalton have been designed to support and facilitate collaboration amongst faculty, amongst students, and even between faculty and students...more
Wiki Programming
Deep down inside the wiki is a powerful system of organization, classification, and customization. Some of the things that a carefully curated wiki can do might surprise you and maybe even delight you...more
Wiki Extensions
Mediawiki (the wiki software the Dalton uses) has been designed to be expandable. There is large community of developers that is constantly extending what the wiki is capable of. We user a quite a few of these extension already...more
