Workshop schedule

OERNZ First Online Workshop
(Feb 24, to March 10, 2010)

A New Zealand national Learning4Content workshop

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Day 1: Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Objectives: Day 1 - What is a wiki?

Today, Wednesday 24 February, we will: Provide an overview of what wikis are, and show some examples of their different uses. discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using wikis to develop content, and introduce the main features of WikiEducator.

Instructions for Day 1

1. Read the instructions to get started (Download print version)
2. Please introduce yourself to the group by posting to our forum.
3. If you are new to wikis, view this short video called Wikis in plain English hosted on YouTube.
4. Read through WikiEducator's tutorial on What is a wiki?
5. Post your thoughts, ideas and feedback on the quality of open authoring approaches here.

Day 2: Thursday, February 25, 2010

Objectives: Day 2 - Creating an account and personalizing your preferences

Today we will: Point out the benefits and added features you get with registering a user account on WikiEducator Create an account on WikiEducator. Provide step-by-step instructions on how to personalize your user account preferences. Learn about WikiEducator and the OER Foundation.

Instructions

Day 2 is a relaxed and easy session. There are no online discussion activities for today - so you will have time to catch up on Day 1 posts if you've fallen a little behind. If you get stuck or have any questions -- feel free to post these in the discussion forum or on the wiki question and support page.

1. Read through the benefits of registering an account
2. Create an account on WikiEducator -- if you don't have one yet.
3. Submit your username now.
4. Work through the instructions on how to personalize your own Wikieducator preferences.
5. Now that you have editing rights in WikiEducator after creating an account, be brave have a bash at introducing yourself on this Wiki page -- If you're not sure how to get this right, don't worry we'll spend more time tomorrow looking at the basics of wiki editing. A tip -- wiki's are about experimentation and trying new things -- have fun! If you get stuck, we'll help you.
6. Visit following Wikieducator portal pages:
   • OERNZ -- our national Kiwi OER collaboration.
   • WikiEducator Home Page
   • OER Foundation
7. Help WikiEducator keep track of the demographics of our community by completing this short online survey. I'll post a copy of our survey stats in a few days for those who are interested.

Day 3: Friday, February 26, 2010

Objectives: Day 3 - Editing basics

Today we will: Introduce Rich Text Editing compared with standard wiki text; Learn about the published mode and editing mode in a wiki; Encourage you to start editing your user page in WikiEducator.

Instructions

Hi everyone --- thanks for your thought-provoking inputs and stimulating discussions on the quality issues! Today you will start editing your User page in WikiEducator. There are no scheduled online discussions today – so this will be an opportunity to catch up if you’re behind and an opportunity to be creative on your User page!

In this workshop we will be using the WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor, which is also called Rich Text Editing (RTE).

1. Work through Tutorial 3 - Editing Basics for rich text editing
   
2. Go to your User page, click on the edit link. Type something in the edit window and save your text.
3. If you haven't done so yet -- Please submit your username now.

Day 4: Monday, March 1, 2010

Objectives: Day 4 - Formatting text in the wiki

Today we will: Create a personal page to practice wiki editing Learn how to Bold and Italicise text, add Headings and Subheadings; Learn how to add bullets and numbered lists. Complete the skills required for your first level certification under our WikiMaster typology

Now we're going to start having fun and you could qualify for your first WikiEducator certification! If you’re a little behind, don’t worry….just take it one step at a time and its easy enough to catch up on the first 3 day's work. We know that you are busy with other competing demands -- but WE are here to help!

Editing on WikiEducator

Have you managed to complete your first edit on your User page? It’s the page that has your User Name – it’s always on the top right of your screen, with a little icon which appears after you have logged in. For some folks, this may be the 1st time that you have published on the Internet -- celebrate your achievement!

Instructions

Today we are moving onto the basics of wiki editing, that is formatting text (bold, italics, lists etc). We are also interested in hearing your thoughts and ideas for the content resource you are planning to develop under your learning contract. This will be our discussion activity for today.

1. Create a sandbox and practice your skills: Read through the activity to create your Sandbox. You can also view the screen cast movie which will show you how to do this. If you get stuck -- let us know by posting your question in the discussion forum. We are here to help.
2. Work through the Tutorial using your sandbox to practice text formatting.
3. Tell us about the content resource you will be developing to fulfil your Learning Contract.
4. Go to your User page start filling out your page. Be sure to include bold, italics, headings and lists on your page so you can qualify for your first WikiEducator community certification :-). Now that you have edited your User page, go back and see if you can introduce yourself on this Wiki page.
   
   • Format - Use Heading 2 as the format for your name
   • Use the standard Wysiwyg editor features to format your text.

Day 5: Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Objectives: Day 5 - New pages and links

Today we will: Provide an overview of the structure of a wiki; Create internal and external links; Demonstrate how to create a new page; Explain the difference between red and blue internal page links in the published view; Create and edit descriptive labels for your links.

Tip: Remember to distinguish between:

1. External links to other websites and
2. Internal links to other pages in WikiEducator. (Note, that this is also the way we create new pages in the wiki. A new page (red link in the published view) is an internal link to a page which doesn't not exist yet <smile>. Not to worry -- you'll see how this works!

Instructions

1. Work through Tutorial 5 on New pages and Links
2. Be sure to check out the requirements for community certification under our WikiMaster typology. You're on track to achieving the status of Wikibuddy in our community!

Day 6 & 7: Wednesday and Thursday, 3 & 4 March 2010

Objectives: Images

Today we will: Alert users to copyright requirements and show you how to find appropriately license free content images; Demonstrate three methods for adding images to your pages; provide an overview of more detailed image formatting options (including placement, frames, thumbs, captions, size etc); practice uploading images into our sandbox and User pages;

After completing the tutorial on images, you will have all the skills you need to develop an impressive user page as well as achieving the certification of a Level 2 WikiApprentice! You should also spend a little time refining the text and layout on your user page. Be sure to include the layout features you have learned so far. That is bold, italics, headings, lists, internal and external links with descriptive names. (Tutorials 2, 4 & 5).

Let's see who will develop the best User page over today and tomorrow. Perhaps one of the participants in this group will become a future recipient of the WikiEducator User Page Expo.

Instructions

1. Work through Tutorial 6 on images.
2. Practice manipulating the placement, size and using captions for your images in your sandbox.
3. Work on improving your User page -- don't forget to include a photograph of yourself using your new skills on inserting images!

Day 8: Friday, 5 March, 2010

Objectives: Day 8 - Collaborative Editing

Today we will: Introduce the practice of Wiki ethics, explore the Recent changes page and see how we can monitor all edits in WikiEducator, take a look at the diff & history links, and learn how to Revert a page to previous versions.

Many educators are concerned about the openness of wiki editing. However, a wiki is a powerful technology designed for mass collaboration. Every edit is recorded including any images uploaded to the site which means we can restore or revert any changes made to a page.

A side note for anyone who may have fallen a little behind, don't give up, the finishing line is in sight! Besides, today is a little more relaxed so use this time to catch up on images. To be fair, images are perhaps the most complicated aspect in the wiki because it involves uploading files to the WikiEducator server. Once you have mastered images you are well on your way to achieving success!

Instructions

1. Today, you should work through Tutorial 7 on collaborative editing where you will learn a few neat tricks on how to monitor activity in the wiki;
2. You will also learn how to revert an edit which you should practise on your user page.

We're looking forward to our assignment next week where we will use one of our communication tools in the wiki. Please do your best to update your user page as we will ask participants from this group to provide feedback and suggestions on our respective user pages in the wiki using these communication tools.

Day 9, Monday, 8 March 2009

A day assigned to catching up and opportunity to practice links and inserting images

Day 10, Tuesday, 9 March 2009

Objectives: Day 10 - Communication and Interaction

Today we will: Learn how we use the Discussion or Talk pages in the wiki, and explore some useful features like the Watchlist, and the My Contributions link.

Is there an easy way to monitor changes to pages you edit? How do we keep track of individual contributions made in the wiki? Today we will learn and experiment with a few powerful features in the wiki.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Work through Tutorial 8 on Communication and Interaction Tools (see link below)
2. Test the feature of adding a discussion item which relates to a content page in the wiki. See the discussion activity linked to the talk page of our course schedule (this page). You can also access the corresponding talk page by clicking on the "Discussion" tab you see at the top the page in your browser.
3. Leave a personal message on the User page of at least three different participants who have listed their user pages. To do this -- you need to go to the respective User Page by clicking on a blue coloured link under the surname of our participant list. Then click on the "Discussion" tab of the User page concerned (top of the page). Comment on something positive you have seen on User Page, particularly if you have some ideas for improvement. If you're do receive a message from one of the participants -- send a reply to by clicking on their User Name which is displayed in the automatic signature below the message.

Have fun -- this is a great way to communicate with your fellow WikiEducators!