Using+a+Wiki+for+school+documentation+proposal

toc = = =Using a Wiki for school documentation proposal=

Goals
The policy, procedure and other document improvement process is more and the current working documents are more accessible.
 * open and transparent
 * accessible and inclusive
 * efficient
 * dynamic

Suggestion

 * 1) All of the policies, procedures and other school documents are published and maintained on a wiki.
 * 2) All staff, as part of the induction into our school, are trained in how to use the wiki so that they can fully participate in the improvement process
 * 3) That [|Wikispaces] be used to create this environment

Why

 * A wiki keeps complete historical records of all changes to documents – who made what change when
 * All documents automatically have a discussion page attached to them. The discussion page keeps a complete historical record of all discussions so the reasons and arguments behind the changes are totally accessible at all times and by all participants.
 * All staff, as part of the induction process, would be made global subscribing members of the wiki which means that they would automatically get email updates of all document creations and changes to documents and they would also get email notifications of all discussion postings. Staff could later choose to turn off global notifications for the entire site and subscribe only to individual pages of interest to them if they wanted.
 * There would be no need for clerical support with maintaining documents.
 * The person in charge of reviewing a document could email staff with a simple link to the page being reviewed and encouraging people to visit the document page and contribute to the discussion page by a certain date. This does not preclude review in other forums that might be face to face of course.
 * Individual documents can be locked from edits if needs be
 * A wiki can be made closed so that only invited persons can view the contents (eg staff), if needs be, but these contents are available globally. Alternatively, the wiki can be setup to allow everyone to view pages but only invited members of the wiki can edit pages. Note: these setting apply to the whole wiki, not individual pages
 * The entire school documentation is easily backed up
 * A wiki site keeps basic statistics of visits so we have some idea of how frequently the site is being used (symbolically how often the folder is opened)
 * Using a wiki would mean that all of these documents are in the one place and easier to navigate and so easier to find information.
 * A wiki is electronically search able
 * There is nothing stopping those that need to from printing pages and putting them into a folder (note: wiki software has limited and simple document formatting options)

Front Page
The front page is the index page with links to all current working documents. It has sections for
 * 1) policy and procedures (Column headings - policy, date to be next reviewed, procedure, date to be next reviewed
 * 2) event management - eg program for non student days at the start of the year, Presentation Night, report writing timeline, carnivals can even have a page where staff nominate for duties, etc

Document naming and handling

 * Draft documents have
 * the word draft in the document name
 * a link to the current working document
 * A suitable graphic is created to indicate a draft and this is included in a prominent place on the page
 * Current working documents have
 * the word final in the document name
 * a link to the document that it superseded
 * a link, where appropriate, to the document that will supersede it once out of draft stage
 * Superseded documents have
 * the word superseded in the document name
 * a link to the final document that superseded it
 * a suitable graphic is created to indicate that the document is an old or superseded document and this is included in a prominent place on the page

Why Wikispaces

 * free for K-12 applications
 * has required permission options
 * straight forward backup process to web pages enabling restoration in another location quick and simple if wikispaces were to fold
 * excellent spam control
 * software is always improving with new features
 * software does not have to maintained by the school's ICT support people
 * great user interface - easy to use
 * can easily be used for other school curriculum wiki projects (eg curriculum coordinators could easily set up their own wikis where all curriculum materials could be created and maintained, or a wiki can be set up for a teacher for a collaborative class project)
 * well presented site wide usage statistics