About L4C60 Workshop

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L4C60 (Learning for Content) Training Workshop

Date: 25-29 May 2009
Venue: Rupantar Training Center
Khulna
Bangladesh

Opening session (25 May 2009:

  • Chief Guest:

Md. Liyakot Ali, Editor, Daily Purbanchal

  • Honorable guest:

Md. Rafiqul Islam Khokan, Director, Rupantar
Mr. Quayum, Principal, Institute of Library and Computer Science
A. K. Hiru, President, Khulna Press Club
Facilitator : Anil Prasad, Nodal Officer (Web), Finance Department, Karala, India

  • Total Participants: 16 Persons (Male-12, Female-05)

L4C60 Workshop

Main Session (25 May 2009

Mr. Anil Prasad welcomes to all and says this is informal session. If you want to anything you ask don’t hesitation. Then he requested all to choose her/his friend and talk with her two minutes, after the discussion he/she introduces each others.

The learning for content project provides free skills training in wiki technology for educators in the commonwealth in exchange for a free content lesson on Wiki Educator.

ABOUT WIKIEDUCATOR

WikiEducator is a community project of Commonwealth of Learning that works collaboratively with the Free Culture Movement towards a free version of the education curriculum by 2015. Mr. Wayne Mackintosh, Founding Director of the International Centre for Open Education based at Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand (earlier Education specialist, Commonwealth of Learning) is the founder of the WikiEducator project. Sir John Daniel, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth of Learning is the patron of WikiEducator.

The project has adopted a community governance model which is coordinated by the WikiEducator Community Council that consists of members elected through an on-line election and members nominated to the Council.

Vision
Turning the digital divide into digital dividends using free content and open networks.

Mission
Working collaboratively with the freedom culture to develop free content resources in support of national curricula, for all sectors by 2015.

Strategy
To build a thriving and sustainable community of practitioners and policy makers throughout the Commonwealth who have the capacity to work collaboratively on the international development of free content by leveraging the connections that are enabled by strategic networks and relevant digital technologies.

Values
The activities of the WikiEducator community are underpinned by a core set of values. WikiEducators believe:

  1. In the social inclusion and participation of all people in our networked society (Access to ICTs is a fundamental right of knowledge citizens - not an excuse for using old technologies).
  2. In the freedoms of all educators to teach with the technologies and contents of their choice, hence our commitment to Free/Libre and Open Source technology tools and free content.
  3. That educational content is unique - and by working together we can improve the technologies we use as well as the reusability of digital learning resources.
  4. In a forward-looking disposition working together to find appropriate and sustainable solutions for e-learning futures.

To capacitate Educators to develop on-line ODL resources on WikiEducator, COL is implementing an innovative training programme called Learning for Content (L4C). Under the programme teachers and educators around the globe are getting free training in wiki skills through a series of online and face-to-face workshops. In return, they will become WikiEducators themselves by developing and donating one free content resource back to the WikiEducator community. In other words, L4C participants will "pay" for their training by donating, for example, one lesson or teaching resource back to the project in the spirit of education as a common good for society. Prospective L4C participants are required to sign a learning contract so that we target our efforts in training educators, teachers and trainers who share our vision for free teaching materials.

This learn-by-doing project will enable teachers and educators to engage with a real community of WikiEducators!.

What is Wiki Educator?

The name Wiki was chosen by Ward Cunningham—the creator of the first Wiki. It is a shortened form of “wiki-wiki”, the Hawaiian word for quick. A wiki is a web site that is generally editable by anyone with a computer, a web browser, and an internet connection. Wikis use a quick and easy syntax to allow users to apply formatting to text and create links between pages. This simple formatting syntax means that authors no longer need to learn the complexities of HTML to create content on the web.

The main strength of a wiki is that it gives people the ability to work collaboratively on the same documents. The only software you need is an internet browser. Consequently, wikis are used for a variety of purposes. If you make a mistake, it’s easy to revert back to an earlier version of the document.

Wikiwikiweb- available at http://c2.com/wiki?Welcome Visitors is the first ever wiki, it has been around since 1995.

WikiEducator is an on-line open educational content development system running on MediaWiki software. The web address is www.Wikieducator.org

As the meaning of the word ‘wiki’ indicates you can quickly learn and operate the features of wiki and hence WikiEducator also. All you require is a PC concocted to the web and the only software required is a web browser. Well arranged tutorials and help topics are available on WE that helps the self learning process. However, in this bankbook, we provide some preliminary steps to get familiarized with WE. Definitely you will find and master other features by your self. WE is that much user friendly! OK, let us start.....

  • Content development system
  • Open for all
  • Any one edit content so it is democratic website
  • 2006 establishment Wiki Educator
  • Wikiwiki means quick


CREATING AN ACCOUNT

Everyone is welcome to read or use WikiEducator content, regardless of whether they choose to register. However, you must have a registered user name in order to edit articles, including your user page, add content etc.

The process of creating an account on WikiEducator is very similar to registering for an account on one of the free email services like Yahoo Mail or Gmail. Your first activity is to get to the right page where you can create a new account. This is accessed from WikiEducator's home page


Activity:

  • Open your browser (e.g. Firefox, Mozilla, Safari, Internet explorer).
  • Type the URL (web address): http://wikieducator.org in the address bar of your browser
  • Remember to press your <enter> key.
  • On the top right hand corner of your screen, you will see a link called "log in / create account"
  • Click on this link which will take you to the "Log in/Create account" page.
  • Click on the create an account link and
  • Follow the instructions provided on screen


EDITING BASICS

Every page that is editable will have a link along the top of the main content area that says "edit". Pages that are locked for editing will be substituted with a "View source" tab.

A wiki page has two modes:
1. The published mode - the view you are looking at right now;
2. The editing mode - which you use when editing text on the wiki.

Your user page on WikiEducator (Your first page)

The ideal choice for your first edit will be your own user page. In logged in status your name will be displayed on the top of the page. Click on your name to get your page which will be blank initially.


Activities

  • Click on your user name that appears on top of wikieducator page.
  • In the text box that appears type something about yourself – your name, your organization, and you may want to say something about your reasons for wanting to contribute to WikiEducator etc.
  • After you have entered some text notice that underneath the box in which you were entering text there is a series of buttons that look like as you see it below:
  • The Show Preview button is useful to get a quick look at what your page will look like before it is actually saved.
  • Hitting the Save page button will save your page on WikiEducator and put your page back into View mode.

Now you have to enrich your user page with all the relevant information that would help the WikiEducator community to recognize you and collaborate with you. You are encouraged to add your qualifications, work experiences, your targets, your hobbies, and the ways in which the community members can contact you etc etc. But before that you have to acquire some basic wiki skills that are very easy. Therefore the next step is opening a new page for you to practice wiki skills.

My sandbox – your practice page=

In wiki, practice pages of users are generally named as My sandbox. Now how to create a new page called My sandbox ? Try the following.

Activity:

  1. Click on the edit link on top of your page. Now you will get your page in edit mode.
  2. Now click below the content on the page and type My sandbox and save the page.
  3. Now you can see a link My sandbox in red colour on your user page. Click on the red link to get your My sandbox page on edit mode (Red colour indicates that the page is black. Once you add content on the page the link will turn blue). Add some text on the page and save to see the result.

Thus you have learnt your first wiki syntax to open a new page called My sandbox linked from youruser page. We will learn more about linking and new page creation shortly. Till then open new pages using page name syntax, that is, two opening squire brackets- one forward slash-your desired page name-one forward slash-two closing squire brackets, either from your My sandbox page or from your User page only.

More wiki syntaxes

Now, to format the text on your page to make it more meaningful and attractive, first see the basic syntaxes, given in the table below:

Description You type You get
Bold text This is bold text (three single quote marks before and after the text) This is bold text
Italics This is italics (two single quote marks before and after the text) This is italics
Bold and Italics This is bold and italics (five single quote marks before and after the text) This is bold and italics Indents This has no indent

  • This is one indent (one colon mark in the

beginning of the new line)

  • This is two indents (two colon mark in the beginning of the new line) This has no indent
  • This is one indent
  • This is two indent
  • Headings =Level 1= (One equal sign before and after the text)
  • ==Level 2== (Two equal signs before and after the text)
  • ===Level 3=== (Three equal signs before

and after the text)

  • Level 1
  • Level 2
  • Level 3

Bulleted and Numbered Lists

Description You type You get Bulleted list * one (One star in the beginning of new line and your text)

  • two (One star and text)
    • two point one (Two star and text)
  • three  one

 two  two point one  three Numbered list # one (One hash mark and description)

  1. two (One hash mark and description)
    1. two point one (Two hash marks and

description)

  1. three

1. one 2. two

  • 1. two point one

3. three

Activity:

  • Try each category of syntax as given above on your My sandbox page.
  • After practicing all the above syntaxes, write about you on My sandbox page and use the above syntaxes meaningfully at suitable places in the matter. You have to copy-paste this matter to your user page later in this workshop.

CREATION OF NEW PAGES & LINKS

To create a page, first think about where you might want your page to be linked from. You are already familiar with this procedure by creating My sandbox page linked to your user page using the wiki syntax My sandbox. The pages linked to another page is also called a sub page. There is another way to create a new page using squire brackets without the forward slashes. For eg: My sandbox . Now what is the difference in using both the syntaxes? The easy way to explain it is just to show you the url (web address) of the new pages created using both the syntax. Look the url of your user page, it will look like http://www.wikieducator.org/User:user_name/My_sandbox From the url itself will say you whose sandbox page is it.

Suppose you edit your user page and add the synatax My sandbox to create a new page. The resultant url will look like http://wikieducator.org/My_sandbox This url does not tell you whose sandbox page you are looking at. Any page created using the [[ ]] syntax will return you a page linked to the root directory that is www.wikieducator.org. We use this syntax only when we want to start a general topic page or major project page which has not been created earlier. During the training period, it is advised that, you may create new pages linked either to your user page or My sandbox page. Squire bracket syntax [[ ]] is also used to provide link to an existing wiki page from another wiki page. We will discuss it in detail when we learn about Internal and External linking

Activity:

  1. Create a new page called Useful links from your user page using the syntax Useful links
  2. Edit the new page and add some text like “See below some useful web links”



Internal & External linking

One of the ways in which we can make our web pages more interactive and informative is by linking useful web resources that are existing. Following are the two kinds of linking:

  • Internal linking: Internal linking is linking of pages from the same website. Here linking of other WikiEducator pages to your WikiEducator page. Let us see how to link the WikiEducator page with the address http://www.wikieducator.org/Help to your new page Useful links.
  • Get your page Useful links in edit mode and type the syntax Help . In internal linking system will put the main page url, that is up to http://www.wikieducator.org Therefore we need to type only the remaining part of the URL.
  1. Save the page and see the result.

Here you have also the option to get the link displayed in the way you like it. For example, if you want to read the above link as Help topics from WikiEducator you can use the pipe | ( pipe is a vertical bar normally you get by using shift and backward slash keys). The syntax will look like Help topics from WikiEducator , that is, in the syntax after the page URL put a pipe symbol and type your description . Try this also on your Useful links page and see the result.

  1. External linking: here you link valuable pages and resources from other trusted websites. Here you have to use single opening and closing squire brackets and full URL of the website you want to link. There are three ways for external linking . Let us see how to link the website http://www.rupantar.org to your Useful links page
  2. Way one : to see the URL as it is: Get your page Useful links in edit mode and just type the URL http://www.rupantar.org , save the page and see the result.
  3. Way two : to show just an indication that an external link is available. Get your page Useful links in edit mode and type the URL with in single opening and closing squire brackets, that is, [1] , save the page and see the th result.
  4. Way two : to display the external link in the way you like it to be displayed: Get your page Useful links in edit mode and type the URL http://www.rupantar.org with in single squire brackets, after the URL give a space and type your description, that is, The Website of Rupantar , save the page and see the result.

Activity:

Create Level 2 headings Internal links and External links on your Useful links page and add a few Internal and External links below respective headings.

Editing User at a glance:

  • If you want to bold the ward/text you select and write text then
  • If you want to Italic the ward/text you select and write Italic text
  • If you want to bold and italic the ward/text you select and write Bold text+Italic text
  • If your want to Title big you need to type =title text= if you write ==text== too small font showing
  • If you want to Link Title the ward/text you select and write Link title
  • If you want to number list you write # subject than enter and # again another subject and you enter a blank than # the number start again 1
  • If you want to bullets number you write * subject than enter and * again another subject
  • How to create a new page- type type the name of the page here / means my accounts mean means create new page
  • How to link another website to your user page- open your user page than edit and write name of website. If you use other web address than you type [then space then name of web address]
  • If you need to link with other user pages or information- write [User: kazimofiz] but you do not showing user name/web name than type some more details its only showing some more details etc.




'2nd Day (26.05.09)

One minutes stopped for suffering people by storm Aila


  • If your type only http://www.rupantar.org only showing this address
  • If I write more paragraph than riders are confusing so for the sort we write Rupantar is an NGO [2]. Its works in collaboration with COL [3] here showing Rupantar website [1] any one click and go to the web.
  • Rupantar is an NGO here for more details. here show click here for more details.

Sub-numbering:

  1. Main List: Type #

Sub list: Type ## Sub: Type ###

  1. Main List: Type #

Sub list: Type ## Sub: Type ###

Note: No space /blank use hare for to continue. For bullet we use * and same system.

USE OF MEDIA IN WIKIEDUCATOR

An intelligent use of images, video and audio in online open distance learning will enhance the learning efficiency. In WikiEducator you can upload images, video and audio and link them to your learning resources. One thing here you have to keep in mind is that the file types that you can upload are limited and they are specified in the file upload page.

UPLOADING AND LINKING OF IMAGES

The recommended image formats are png, gif, jpg, jpeg and the maximum size for each file is 2 MB

Uploading

Before uploading please ensure that the image you intend to upload is not a copy righted one.

  1. Now go to the title toolbox towards the bottom of the left side menu bar any opened WikiEducator window and click the File upload link.
  2. In the next screen browse the file from the computer and below in the summary column you can add a brief description and ensure that the photo do not carry copy right.
  3. Click the upload button (please note your file name with extension eg:Image:nature.jpg.

Linking image on your page

To link/display uploaded image on a WikiEducator page, we use the syntax File:Image file name with extension If your image name is nature.jpg, the syntax to be typed is
3584387977 7c31d4f429 b.jpg
|উইকি এডুকেটরের বাংলাদেশ চ্যাপ্টারের প্রথম সভা)



that is two opening squire brackets, the word Image, colon, your file name with extension, two closing squire brackets) . This will display the image in its original size.

Activity:

Identify a image in your PC/external storage device, upload it on WikiEducator site and link the image to your My sandbox page.

Adjusting the display of image

While completing the above activity you will get the image displayed in full size on your

My sandbox

page. Now you have the option to decide the position of the image (like left, center, right), display size of the image, display type for the image (like thumb or frame) , and description etc. For example the syntax
alt text
will give a 200 pixel wide rendition in a box in the left margin with 'alt text' as description. In the syntax, after the image file name put a pipe symbol and give the preferred display size (px denotes that size is measured in pixel). Put another pipe and give the type of display thumb or frame, after that you can fix the display position, and finally a short description. Here take care to give the file name exactly as you have uploaded, all other parameters except the description should be in small letters.

Activity:

Go to your My sandbox page and get your image displayed using different parameters as given above.


When adding images you may experience a "bug" in the way they are presented in the wiki environment where an image may 'float' over other text or headings you have in your wiki page. To remedy this try adding the following underneath the syntax for image display:
. This will cause and following text or content to start after the image has been embedded in the page.


UPLOADING AND LINKING OF PDF FILES

Sometimes, you may want to upload an open and free document and insert a link for users to download the same. The portable document format (PDF) is an openly documented format, therefore the WikiEducator community is comfortable with uploading the PDF file format, taking into account our commitment to the principles of free content. The disadvantage with PDF files is that users will not be able to easily edit these files, and this could be viewed as a restriction of freedom. Remember that the WikiEducator community does not prescribe which software users should use, but we are committed to providing resources in formats which must have the minimum requirement that they can be viewed and/or edited with free software alternatives. PDF files can be uploaded using the same method you have used to upload an image.

The basic syntax for inserting a PDF file on a wiki page is: Piped link text goes here

UPLOADING AND LINKING OF MP3 FILES

Now you may want to upload an MP3 audio file for user's to download or launch in their desktop media players. (There are ways to insert MP3 audio for playback directly in the browser, we will discuss it later in this handbook.). MP3 files can be uploaded using the same method you have used to upload an image and PDF documents. The basic syntax is similar to the PDF example above: Piped link text goes here There is a file limit size of 2MB on WikiEducator, to conserve bandwidth and also to ensure easy download at the users end. Therefore please keep each audio files under 2MB.

UPLOADING AND LINKING OF VIDEO FILES

You have two options to upload and link a video file to your content page.

  • Option - 1

Upload and link the video file using the same procedure you have followed in the case of MP3 files. But videos required to be in Flash video format (with the file extension .flv)

  • Option – 2 : Using Collaborative video

WikiEducator has incorporated a wonderful tool for Collaborative video editing. You will see the link to this feature as the last item under the title toolbox in the left vertical menu bar of WikiEducator main page. Click on the link Collaborative video will direct you to a Widget Tag generating page as seen below:

Steps:

  • On the above page provide a title for you video in the first column, give a summary of your video in the second column, select a size for the video below that (large/medium), select a position (left, center, right) and click the button generate tag. Suppose you have given the title Test Video, then the tag will look like <kaltura-widget kalturaid='2ihbw2limo' size='M' align='L'/>
  • Copy the tag and past it on the page where you want to display the video, and save the page.
  • Now you will get a video widget on your page as seen below.
  • Now click on the link Add to this Video and you will be directed to a page to browse video from your PC. One merit of this tool is that it will convert your movie to flash movie for uploading to WikiEducator. It means you need not worry about video converters.
  • Once adding of the video is complete users will be able to play the video by clicking Play button on the widget.

USE OF TEMPLATES

WikiEducator has a good set of pedagogical and other templates that can be used in the content pages to highlight the important parts. Let us discuss a few of them here and you will be able to find out more on the WikiEducator website. To link an existing template to a page you have to type the exact name of the template within two opening and closing curly braces.

GNERAL TEMPLATES

Work in progress template It is an ideal practice in WikiEducator to place a work in progress template when we commence the development of a page. The name of the Work in Progress template in WikiEducator is WIP. Therefore to get the WIP template displayed on your page you have to type the syntax

Road Works.svg Work in progress, expect frequent changes. Help and feedback is welcome. See discussion page. Road Works.svg
. Activity:Get your user page in edit mode and type the syntax
Road Works.svg Work in progress, expect frequent changes. Help and feedback is welcome. See discussion page. Road Works.svg
and save the page to view the result.

PEDAGOGICAL TEMPLATES

While preparing an ODL lesson we have to list the learning objectives first, then we will give and over view of the topic, add sub topics wherever necessary, list of key points, suggested learning activities, assignment, suggested web resources for further reference etc. The templates will provide a highlighting shade to the important parts of the lesson as given above along with an easily identifiable icon.

Objectives template

The syntax to link the objectives template is


Icon objectives.jpg
Objectives
{{{1}}}

. Now to list your learning objectives with in the objectives template after the name Objectives in the syntax put a pipe symbol '|' and add a bulleted or numbered list of items as given below:


Icon objectives.jpg
Objectives
  1. type objective one
  2. type objective two


In the same way as seen above you can use the following templates also;


Icon key points.gif
Key points
{{{1}}}



Icon activity.jpg
Activity
{{{1}}}




Icon assess.gif

Assignment

{{{1}}}



Activity:

  1. Go to your My sandbox page and practice the above templates.
  2. Visit http://www.wikieducator.org/Quickstart_guide/pedagogical_templates page to see more templates.


TOOLS FOR COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Now you have practiced essential basic skills to start a collaborative development of on-line Open Distance Learning Resource on WikiEducator. Creating educational content on WikiEducator is quite different from what you may be used to. WikiEducators' contributors may come from many different countries and cultures and have different views, perspectives, and backgrounds, sometimes varying widely. Treating others with respect is the key to collaborating effectively in building useful resources on WikiEducator. Remember that all resources on WikiEducator are viewable and potentially editable by anyone who creates an account. Expect your work to be edited by others and resolve any disputes or leave comments by using the Discussion pages. Let us discuss the powerful collaboration and communication tools available on WikiEducator website.

TALK/DISCUSSION

In logged in state beside your user name at the top of the WE page you will see a link to the page My talk. It is the WikiEducator page for others to communicate with you. This page provides facility to add new messages as well as to reply to an existing message as seen in the picture below:



When you are on your user page the My talk and discussion links will lead to the same page. When you want to add/reply a discussion on all other pages including the user pages of others you have to click on the discussion link.



Our work is based on a consensus model. In practice members of WikiEducator agree to work as follows:

  • Draft plans, outlines and suggestions are created on the wiki. Anyone is free to create a new wiki page in relation to any content.
  • Consensus discussions take place in the Discussion pages (i.e. the Discussion or User talk tabs you will find above the content area of each page).
  • Once consensus is achieved, please make the necessary changes on the relevant wiki page.
  • Minor edits, improvements and new additions are usually done without discussion.

Activity:

Visit a few user pages and add some friendly comments/greetings.

HISTORY

All pages on WikiEducator have an associated page history, which lists all changes made to the page in reverse-chronological order. You can access this information by clicking on the history tab that is located at the top of every page. It help you to track all the changes made to a page from the time of its creation.


Diff



On the "history" page, the radio buttons designate which versions of changes will be compared when you hit the Compare selected versions button.

The history page also allows you to compare changes between one edit of the page and others. A diff is the difference between two versions. It can be viewed by clicking the page history tab at the top of every page. For every version or change that has been made to the page there are potentially two radio buttons: the left column is for selecting the older version, the right column for selecting the newer one. Pressing "Compare selected versions" gives the difference between the two versions.

To revert a page to an earlier version:

Since Wiki websites keep the history of all changes, it also provide the facility to revert the page to any older edition. Since wiki websites are open to all for editing this tool help us to save the pages from vandalism.

Steps:

  • On the page you wish to revert, click on the History tab. Then click on the time and date of the earlier version you intend to revert to. It will not work if you click on 'cur', 'last', or
  • "Compare selected versions".
  • When the page displays, you will see text similar to this: (Revision as of 15:35, 21 December 2006;) at the top of the page below the page's title.
  • You can navigate backwards or forwards through the chronology of changes by using the '←Older revision | Current revision | Newer revision→' links.
  • Verify that you've selected the desired former version of the page, then click a link to edit the page as you would normally.
  • You'll get a prominent warning, displayed above the edit box, about editing an out-of-date revision.
  • Ignore this warning and save the page. Be sure to add the word "revert" (or "rv") to the edit summary.

MY WATCHLIST

The Recent changes tab that you see on top of the left vertical menu of WikiEducator pages provides wiki users with a broad overview of what is happening across the entire wiki, but, if there is a lot of activity happening, it can be difficult to keep track of pages that you are particularly interested in. In such cases my watchlist is the ideal solution. Logged in users have the convenient ability to "watch" pages by clicking on the watch tab along the top of the page. Clicking on this link will add the page you are currently on to your watchlist. You can track the pages on your watchlist by clicking the my watchlist tab on top of the page. The watch link will change to unwatch for any page you have added to your watchlist. You can remove the page from your list by clicking this link.

Activity:

Add a few WikiEducator page to your watchlist.


GENERAL ASSIGNEMNTS:

  1. Upload your photo to WikiEducator
  2. Add more information about you on your user page under appropriate headings and link your photo.
  3. Select a topic to try content development and create a content page as a sub page of your user page and add text, templates and images on it.

SOME MORE FEATURES

for you to explore more...

INFO BOX

Personal Info box Following syntax can be used to display your personal information within a template on your user page.

Contact-new.svg Infobox


Activity:

Type the above syntax on top of your user page and add relevant details after the equal sign on each line. You need to give only the available details. In the line for photo after replacing image-name.jpg add the exact file name with extension of your photo uploaded to WikiEducator. Now save the page and see the result.

3rd Day (27.05.09)

MATHS FORMULA

What can be done if your learning material contains some some mathematical formula that has to be incorporated on the WikiEducator page? You needn't worry, MediaWiki software with the support of LaTeX technology (LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting system; it includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation – for more details please see http://www.latexproject. org ) has provided easy methods for that. Se below a few basic scripting and find out more at www.wikieducator.org/Maths


Please note that maths formula syntaxes should start with [math] and end with [/math]

TABLE

You have the facility to arrange your text in tables on WikiEducator. Following is the syntax for a simple wiki table with three columns and three rows. The table syntax starts with the function {| class="wikitable" and ends with |}. Here ! denotes the header cells, |- denotes the start of a row, and | denotes the columns in a row. You can increase the number of columns of rows by repeatedly copy pasting the syntax for row/column.

header 1 header 2 header 3
row 1, cell 1 row 1, cell 2 row 1, cell 3
row 2, cell 1 row 2, cell 2 row 2, cell 3

Alternately you can use the tool bar Insert a table button for creating table syntax that you will see in the edit mode of wiki pages. While clicking the button you will get the syntax for a tree row three column table exactly as seen above.

Activity:

Create a table on your My sandbox page.

An easy method to create table

  • Create your table using Open Office writer, and from the file menu click the link Export.
  • An export window will appear now, in that window select a place to save the file, give a name to the file, and in the file format box select MediaWiki [.txt] option and save the file.
  • Now open the text file you have saved as above that will contain the wiki syntax for your table.
  • Copy the syntax and paste it on your wiki page and save the page. (Your color formating etc shall not be exported, it has to be done on wiki page itself.

AUDIO WIDGET

to play audio file on your WikiEducator page itself. Try the following syntax first in your My sandbox page



Icon multimedia.gif

Media

Give a title for your audio


Click on the audio link below to start the download of the audio file. Not recommended for dialup connections!


Give a title for your audio



Note: In the above syntax replace Give a title for your audio with the title of your audio file, and replace your-audio-file-name.mp3 with the file name of the mp3 file on WikiEducator that you want to play on the page.

Activity:

Record a brief greetings message in mp3 format and add the same to your user page.

How to record sound in MP3 format using open software

  • Recording of sound in MP3 format is very easy with the free software Audacity. The software can be downloaded from the websit http://audacity.sourceforge.net/.
  • Download the program from the above website and install it in your PC.
  • Ensure that a mic or headset having mic is connected to your PC. You can also make your peakers function as a mic by connecting it to the socket on your PC for connecting microphone.
  • Now open the programme and see the toolbar for recording on top.
  • One click on the red button will start the recording and stop it once completed using the stop button.
  • Now go to the File menu and click Export as MP3.
  • Now the program will direct you to the page for saving your file. Select a location of the PC to save the file and give a name to your file.
  • Now the program will direct you to a window where in you can provide a title for your sound file, name of the artist, album name, track number, year etc. You are free to provide the details or skip it by simply clicking the OK button at bottom.
  • Thus your MP3 sound file is ready.

Apart from recording in MP3 you can do a lot more with Audacity, take your time and explore more.

A.5.5 PLAYING WITH COLORS Media wiki can execute most of the HTML color commands. For example to give color to your text you can use the syntax.

Your text here

In the above syntax put the code of the required color by replacing Color Code . Please see the page http://www.wikieducator.org/Color_Codes for an array of color codes. You can also use basic color names. For example to get green color text you can use the syntax: Your text here

Filling of tables with colors Suppose you want to fill the headers of the above table with colors having codes #FFCC66 and #99FFFF then the syntax will be like the following

Your Text Here Your Text Here
row 1, cell 1 row 1, cell 2

Now go on playing with colors. The best way is to observe the colors used on various content pages and their syntax.

Develop 4 group who are already attended to ODL training they are the lead persons

Group work:

Group-1 : Disaster Management

  1. M. A. Halim, | Halim
  2. Kazi Mofizur Rahman, | Kazi Mofizur
  3. Rohima Begum, | Rohima
  4. Shafiqul | Md.Shafiqul

For that gruop work you can visit: http://wikieducator.org/L4C60/Planning/Group_1

Group-2 : Literacy

  1. Kundul Boron Mondol, | Kuntal
  2. Touhidul, | Tauhid
  3. Koushik | Koushik

For that gruop work you can visit: http://wikieducator.org/L4C60/Planning/Group_2

Group-3 : Environment

  1. Probir Biswas,| Prabir
  2. Suvo Islam,| Suvro
  3. Maqsuda| Maksuda

For that gruop work you can visit: http://wikieducator.org/L4C60/Planning/Group_3

Group-4 : Good Government

  1. Subol Ghosh, | Subol
  2. Sutapa Bedanjna, | Sutapa
  3. Rony | Rony

For that gruop work you can visit: http://wikieducator.org/L4C60/Planning/Group_4

Group Activity- development of OER on

Agenda: A. Complete the following 4 activities in 30 minutes in your group

  1. Find out a Team Leader
  2. Find out a Reporter
  3. Find out an appropriate topic for OER Development
  4. Now go to http://www.wikieducator.org /L4C60/planning page and edit your Group number and add topic name and list learning objectives.



B. Now each group will be given 10 minutes to present their topic and learning objectives online and also to take feedback from others.

C. Now group will gather again and complete the following activities in three hours.

  1. Revisit your group page and rework the Topic/Learning Objectives wherever necessary.
  2. Prepare an over view (body) of the topic (on WikiED). Use sub headings wherever required.
  3. After completing the body list out key points (use key points template)
  4. List appropriate activities that can very well engage the prospective distance learners (Use activity template)
  5. Give assignments (Use assignment template0
  6. Give the talk page link at the bottom for feedback

Day-4 (28.05.2009)

COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF OER

Objectives

  1. To get an over view of the important features of online OER development
  2. To apply the above knowledge in collaborative development of OER on WikiEducator on experimental basis



“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” -George Bernard Shaw

Probably no example other than the above words of George Bernard Shaw can fully reveal the merit of knowledge sharing. Open Educational Resources (OER) are the strongest and the most efficient system to promote knowledge sharing throughout the world.

Open educational resources are educational materials and resources offered freely and openly for anyone to use under some licenses to re-mix, improve and redistribute. Open educational resources include:

  • Learning content: full courses, course materials, content modules, learning objects, collections, and journals.
  • Tools: Software to support the creation, delivery, use and improvement of open learning content including searching and organization of content, content and learning management systems, content development tools, and on-line learning communities.
  • Implementation resources: Intellectual property licenses to promote open publishing of materials, design-principles, and localization of content.

The sharing of resources can be through print media, Internet, Institutional Intranet, and any other electronic recording and play devices.

What is OER?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials and resources offered freely and openly for any one to use under some licenses to re-mix, improve, and redistribute.

OER includes the following.....

  • Learning content: Full courses, course materials, content modules, learning objects, collections of information and journals
  • Tools: Software to support OER development, content and learning management systems, content development tools
  • Implementation Resources: Licenses that promote the use to OER, design-principles, and location of content

WHY COLLABORATION IS IMPORTANT?

We want collaboration primarily because we do not have time to waste by 'reinventing the wheel again and again'. Instead we want to use the existing resources/skills and build further on it to present our generation and future generation with best possible resources that have the strength of past experiences and direction of future outlook.

The development of Open Education Resources always require utmost care, irrespective of the fact whether on-line or off-line, because the teachers/instructors are not expected to be near the learners during the learning process. Therefore the OER developers are required to imagine a lot about the learning situations that the prospective learners are expected to go through.

The technologies that help us in collaborative works are commonly called Web 2.0 technologies. Wikies are a part of Web 2.0 technology

COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF OER – A PROTOCOL FOR INCEPTION DISCUSSIONS

For developing a very useful on-line ODL content we have to go through the following steps.

  1. First of all select an appropriate topic for learning resource development.
  2. A topic can be relevant to many target groups of learners, but most often the learning design required to be different for each group, based on pre-knowledge and living situations. Therefore decide the target group of learners for the selected topic and discuss their learning needs. Learners' prior knowledge/life experience, goals, values, attitudes and believes influence their interpretation of information, retrieval of knowledge and synthesis of information. To develop a fully learner centric OER these aspects in the learners' side required to be considered.
  3. Now clearly articulate the Objectives and expectations of the learning process.
  4. Based on the listing of the objectives, describe the content effectively.
  5. There should be a focus on activities learners will do to achieve learning goals and therefore list the activities.
  6. Activities should encourage participation and interaction with other learners and instructors.
  7. Learners are required to be pointed to the existing resources they would help them to achieve learning goals
  8. Resources that are not already available are created.
  9. Information required to be organized logically.
  10. Navigation should be logical and simple.
  11. Technology that is accessible is used to facilitate learning (Hint: use of media etc).
  12. Suggestions for support for learners is articulated (Hint: statement on how the learners can have continued learning support).
  13. Strategies for learners to get feedback about progress are built in (Hint: use the talk/discussion facility to collect feedback).
  14. All material is examined to ensure correctness of facts/information, spelling and grammar.
  15. All materials included are copyright clear.

VISUAL DESIGN CHECKLIST

Visualization is very important in OER. A careful arrangement of content and intelligent use of media will enhance the learning experience. To achieve this please ensure the following:

  1. Pages are organized into logical sections using headings and subheadings.
  2. Pages are not too cluttered and have a reasonable amount of ‘white space’
  3. Graphic and other media are included in pages because they clearly support learning

eLearning is very effective when congruent use of text and pictures/graphics (still or animated)) Learning occurs by encoding new information in the long term-memory. According to dual encoding theory, content communicated with text and graphics sends two codes, a verbal code and visual code to brain. This can increase the learning level. Similarly text and the graphics related to the text required to be placed near by for better learning.

  1. Graphic and other media complement page information.
  2. File sizes of graphics and other media are considerate of end users.
  3. Graphic and media formats are suitable.
  4. WikiEducator templates are used where appropriate.
  5. Navigation clearly provides direction.

DISTANCE EDUCATION WRITING STYLE

Simple Language: Your course materials may be well-planned and constructed, but may be ineffective if the language used is not appropriate to the learner population. This section provides some suggestions for writing in an accessible way. It is important that you consider the following guidelines:

Write in very simple language: Use vocabulary appropriate to your target group
(Remember English is a 2nd or 3rd language for most learners). Always use familiar and precise words. Use simple sentences, keep them short and limit the use of negatives. Choose strong active verbs. For example use “You may use fork” instead of “Fork may be used”.

Keep to one idea per paragraph: Eliminate unnecessarily long phrases and sentences by using one word (E.g.Use "Many" instead of a large number). Use carefully chosen relevant examples to further explain.

Learner-friendly Style (conversational)

It is important and desirable when creating ODL materials that you create a warm, learnerfriendly environment for your learners. Below are additional tips that are useful in doing this.

  • Make the materials as readable and accessible to as wide an audience as possible
  • Be consistent in writing - users become familiar with your writing style
  • Use a more informal style of writing (eg, refer to yourself as "I")
  • Speak directly to the learner and call your learner "you"
  • Use the kind of tone you might use in a one-to-one conversation (conversational tone)
  • Include humour where possible
  • Use gender sensitive language (rather use they, them instead of he/she, etc.)
  • Use bulleted lists where possible

ACCESSIBILITY

Using access devices can create a more pleasant experience for learners by making it easier for them to navigate throughout the information or content. The following list of access devices can be useful in achieving this. Before the Main Body of the Unit/Section include:

  1. Explanatory title
  2. Contents list
  3. Flow diagrams
  4. List of objectives

During the Unit/Section include:

  1. Introduction
  2. Headings and sub-headings
  3. Instructions
  4. Numbering system
  5. Verbal signposting (don't just tell your learners what you are telling them - tell them why you are telling it)
  6. Visual signposts (icons, layout and structure should be apparent where possible)
  7. Summaries

After the Unit/Section include:

  1. Keywords
  2. Motivational chat
  3. Linking statements

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF ODL MATERIALS

It is imperative that you keep your learner in mind by considering how your material will appear physically on each page. The following tips do not only enhance the appearance of your materials but it enhances readability and understanding by your learners.

  • Provide interactive features for learners (like answering questions etc)
  • Notional hours for learning ought to be included(assume the time it would take the average learner to complete a Unit/Section - this is done to avoid overloading)
  • Keywords (to explain technical terms, new concepts, difficult words - decide where to include your keywords)
  • Graphics and illustrations (to break monotony, makes materials interesting and appealing)
  • Icons (develop own set - remove the need for repeated written instructions)
  • Summaries and linking statements
  • References

OER LICENSES

THREE BASIC FORMS OF LICENSES

Objectives

  1. To acquire basic understanding on licenses.
  2. Develop ability to recognize various forms of licenses
  3. Locate the resources to build capacity to select. suitable forms of licenses through further reading.


COPY RIGHT

The concept of copyright originates with the Statute of Anne (1710) in Britain. It established the author of a work as the owner of the right to copy that work and the concept of a fixed term for that copyright. It was created as an act "for the encouragement of learning", as it had been noted at the time that publishers were reprinting the works of authors without their consent "to their very great detriment, and too often to the Ruin of them and their Families". As such, copyright was first created with the intention that authors might have some control over the printing of their work and to receive some financial recompense, so that this would encourage them to write more books and thus to aid the flow of ideas and learning. As the act itself says: "for the encouragement of learned men to compose and write useful books".

The Statute of Anne was the first real copyright act, and gave the authors rights for a fixed period, a fourteen year term for all works published the Statute, after which the copyright expired. Copyright has grown from a legal concept regulating copying rights in the publishing of books and maps to one with a significant effect on nearly every modern industry, covering such items as sound recordings, films, photographs, software, and architectural works. Subsequently the Copyright Clause of the United States Constitution (1787) authorized copyright legislation: "To promote the Progress of Science..., by securing for limited Times to Authors.... the exclusive Right to their... Writings."

Copyright gives the creator of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation; after which time the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete and fixed in a medium. Some jurisdictions also recognize "moral rights" of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work." In law, copyright is grouped under the umbrella term intellectual property along with patents and trademarks.

Copyright has been internationally standardized, lasting between fifty to a hundred years from the author's death, or a shorter period for anonymous or corporate authorship. Some jurisdictions have required formalities to establishing copyright, but most recognize copyright in any completed work, without formal registration. Generally, copyright is enforced as a civil matter, though some jurisdictions do apply criminal sanctions. Several exclusive rights typically attach to the holder of a copyright:

  • to produce copies or reproductions of the work and to sell those copies (mechanical rights; including, sometimes, electronic copies: distribution rights)
  • to import or export the work
  • to create derivative works (works that adapt the original work)
  • to perform or display the work publicly (performance rights)
  • to sell or assign these rights to others
  • to transmit or display by radio or video (broadcasting rights)

For further reference visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright


COPY LEFT

Copyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for others and requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions.

Copyleft is a form of licensing and can be used to modify copyrights for works such as computer software, documents, music and art. In general, copyright law allows an author to prohibit others from reproducing, adapting, or distributing copies of the author's work. In contrast, an author may, through a copyleft licensing scheme, give every person who receives a copy of a work permission to reproduce, adapt or distribute the work as long as any resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same copyleft licensing scheme. A widely used and originating copyleft license is the GNU General Public License. Creative Commons provides a similar license called ShareAlike.

Copyleft can also be characterized as a copyright licensing scheme in which an author surrenders some but not all rights under copyright law. Instead of allowing a work to fall completely into the public domain (where no copyright restrictions are imposed), copyleft allows an author to impose some, but not all, copyright restrictions on those who want to engage in activities that would otherwise be considered copyright infringement. Under copyleft, copyright infringement can be avoided if the would-be infringer perpetuates the same copyleft scheme. For this reason copyleft licenses are also known as "reciprocal" licenses.

While copyright law protects the rights of the creator by providing control of distribution and modification, the idea of copyleft is to grant subjective libre freedom to end users. Copyleft licenses specify clauses which explicitly remove those restrictions the creator considers to not provide libre freedom to the end user. In software, open source copyleft licenses place the primary restriction that information helpful in supporting modification of software (e.g. source code) must be made available to a user with a copy of the licensed software and allows the original author to be acknowledged.

An early example of copyleft was the Tiny BASIC project started in the newsletter of the People's Computer Company in 1975. The Tiny BASIC contents of the newsletter soon became Dr. Dobb's Journal of Tiny BASIC with a subtitle of "Calisthenics & Orthodontia, Running Light Without Overbyte." Hobbyists began writing BASIC language interpreters for their microprocessor based home computers and sending the source code to Dr. Dobb's Journal and other magazines to be published. By the middle of 1976, Tiny BASIC interpreters were available for the Intel 8080, the Motorola 6800 and MOS Technology 6502 processors. This was a shared source project before the internet allowed easy transfer of files. Computer hobbyists would exchange paper tapes, cassettes or even retype the files from the printed listings.

Common practice for using copyleft is to codify the copying terms for a work with a license. Any such license typically gives each person possessing a copy of the work the same freedoms as the author, including (from the Free Software Definition):

  • the freedom to use and study the work,
  • the freedom to copy and share the work with others,
  • the freedom to modify the work,
  • and the freedom to distribute modified and therefore derivative works.

These freedoms do not ensure that a derivative work will be distributed under the same liberal terms. In order for the work to be truly copyleft, the license has to ensure that the author of a derived work can only distribute such works under the same or equivalent license.

In addition to restrictions on copying, copyleft licenses address other possible impediments. These include ensuring the rights cannot be later revoked and requiring the work and its derivatives are provided in a form that facilitates modification. In software, this requires that the source code of the derived work is made available together with the software itself.

Copyleft licenses necessarily make creative use of relevant rules and laws. For example, when using copyright law, those who contribute to a work under copyleft usually must gain, defer or assign copyright holder status. By submitting the copyright of their contributions under a copyleft license, they deliberately give up some of the rights that normally follow from copyright, including the right to be the unique distributor of copies of the work.

Examples for the copy left license are:

  • GNU General Public License
  • Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License

Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License (CC-BY-SA)

Creative Commons is a US nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright. It was founded in 2001.

They provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof.

WikiEducator uses Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License, commonly called CC-BY-SA. Iit is a form of license applicable to free cultural works. Under this license the end users will have the following freedoms:

  1. Freedom to share: – that is, to copy, distribute and transmit the work.
  2. Freedom to Remix: that is, to adapt the work.

Above two freedoms are subject to the following conditions: Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same, similar or a compatible license.
It is also understood that:

Waiver — Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.

Other Rights — In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license:

  • Your fair dealing or fair use rights;
  • The author's moral rights;
  • Rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights.



Notice — For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to the web page http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Finding out a suitable copy left license for your work

Steps:

  • The Creative Commons web page http://creativecommons.org/license/ will help you to find out a suitable form of license for your work. Visit the above web page an furnish your options to find out a license online.
  • You can adopt the license for your work by stating that "This work is available under
  • Creative Commons.............license" and provide link/web address to the relevant license page on creative commons website. It means you are freed from the complications of writing a license terms by yourself.

For further reference visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft


PUBLIC DOMAIN

The public domain is a range of abstract materials—commonly referred to as intellectual property— which are not owned or controlled by anyone. The term indicates that these materials are therefore "public property", and available for anyone to use for any purpose. The the laws of various countries define the scope of the public domain differently.

The public domain is most often discussed in contrast to works whose use is restricted by copyright. Under modern law, most original works of art, literature, music, etc. are covered by copyright from the time of their creation for a limited period of time (which varies by country). When the copyright expires, the work enters the public domain. It is estimated that currently, of all the books found in the world's libraries, only about 15% are in the public domain.

The public domain can also be defined in contrast to trademarks. Names, logos, and other identifying marks used in commerce can be restricted as proprietary trademarks for a single business to use. Trademarks can be maintained indefinitely, but they can also lapse through disuse, negligence, or widespread misuse, and enter the public domain. It is possible, however, for a lapsed trademark to become proprietary again, leaving the public domain.

The public domain also contrasts with patents. New inventions can be registered and granted patents restricting others from using the inventions without permission from the inventor. Like copyrights, patents last for a limited period of time, after which the inventions covered by them enter the public domain and can be used by anyone.

A creative work is said to be in the public domain if there are no laws which restrict its use by the public at large. For instance, a work may be in the public domain if no laws establish proprietary rights over the work, or if the work or its subject matter are specifically excluded from existing laws.

The underlying idea that is expressed or manifested in the creation of a work generally cannot be the subject of copyright law. Mathematical formula will therefore generally form part of the public domain, to the extent that their expression in the form of software is not covered by copyright.

Works created before the existence of copyright and patent laws also form part of the public domain. The Bible and the inventions of Archimedes are in the public domain. However, copyright may exist in translations or new formulations of these works.

Although "intellectual property" laws are not designed to prevent facts from entering the public domain, collections of facts organized or presented in a creative way, such as categorized lists, may be copyrighted. Collections of data with intuitive organization, such as alphabetized directories like telephone directories, are generally not copyrightable.

For further reference visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain


Working Group for Bangladesh Chapter

A working group for facilitating the establishment of Bangladesh Chapter of WikiEducator has been constituted on 28/05/2009 at the L4C60 workshop, Khulna with the following members:

  1. Mr. M. A. Halim, Rupantar (Convener)
  2. Mr. Kuntal Baran Mondal (Co-Convener)
  3. Ms. Sutapa Bedajna (Co-Convener)
  4. Mr. Kaushik Dey, Member
  5. Mr. Prabir Biswas, Member
  6. Mr. Kazi Mofizur Rahman, Member
  7. Ms. Rahima Begum, Member
  8. Mr. Tawhidul Alam, Member
  9. Mr. Saifuddin Rony, Member
  10. Mr. Suvro Islam, Member
  11. Ms. Maksuda Akther, Member
  12. Mr. Shafiqul Shaikh, Member
  13. Mr. Subol Ghosh Tutul, Member

Advisory Board

  1. Mr. Swapan Guha
  2. Mr. Rafiqul Islam Khokan
  3. Mr. P. Anil Prasad
  4. Mr. Abdul Qayum
  5. Mr. Anwer Ul Qadir

Closing Ceremony:

At evening Rupantar arranged the closing ceremony of L4C60. It held at Rupantar Training Center. As a honorable guest of this closing ceremony are-

  • Prof. Anwarul Quadir, Executive Director, Sundarbon Academy
  • Abdul Quayum, Principal, ILACS
  • Swapan Guha, Chief Executive, Rupantar
  • Rafiqul Islam Khokan, Director, Rupantar

The programs were Certificate given to the participants of that workshop, Cultural performance by Rupantar Institute of folk theater and a Dinner.

5th Day (29.05.2009)

Field Visit:

For the participants Rupantar arranged a field visit program. Participants visit World Heritage site the Sundorbon, 60 Tomb Mosque, They also visit Khanjahan Ali’s Mazar (Greave Yard of a Saint) and father in law’s house of Nobel winner poet Rabindranath Tegor, Khulna University, Mongla Sea Port.


L4C60 Field Visit Picture Gallery

Reported by:

M. A. Halim | Halim
Subol Ghosh Tutul | Subol