OERNZ/training/OERNZ2/Workshop schedule

Day 1: Monday, Week 1
Instructions

You know what they say: You can't learn to swim without getting into the water.

On our first day we'll get our feet wet and make an edit in WikiEducator. Experiential learning is much more fun (when compared to doing the theory first and practising later). In this workshop we will be using a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor, which is also called Rich Text Editing (RTE).


 * 1) Login to WikiEducator.  If you don't have an account, you should create one now.
 * 2) Work through Tutorial 3  on the basics of rich text editing
 * 3) Go to your User page, click on the edit link. Type something in the edit window and save your text. (If you're lost for words -- try "Hallo world!")
 * 4) Please introduce yourself to the group by posting to our wiki forum. Don't be noticed by your absence!
 * 5) If you have any questions or need a little help, just ask us. Remember the WikiEducator motto: Just try it. Our community will support you!

Day 2: Tuesday, Week 1
Instructions for Day 2

Today we'll learn a little more about what wiki's are and how they work. You will also have an opportunity join our wiki discussion on the quality of open authoring approaches.


 * 1) If you are new to wikis, view this short video called Wikis in plain English hosted on YouTube.
 * 2) Read through WikiEducator's tutorial on What is a wiki?
 * 3) Post your thoughts, ideas and feedback on the quality of open authoring approaches here.
 * 4) If you didn't get a chance yesterday, please introduce yourself to the group by posting to our wiki forum. Don't be noticed by your absence!
 * 5) If you have any questions or need a little help, just ask us. Remember the WikiEducator motto: Just try it. Our community will support you!

Day 3: Wednesday, Week 1
Instructions

Day 3 is a relaxed and easy session. There are no online discussion activities for today - so you will have time to catch up on the posts for Day 1 and Day 2 if you've fallen a little behind. If you get stuck or have any questions -- feel free to post these in the wiki discussion forum.


 * 1) Work through the instructions on how to personalize your own Wikieducator preferences, especially item No. 10 on setting your email notification preferences.
 * 2) Visit the following Wikieducator portal pages:
 * 3) *OERNZ -- our national Kiwi OER collaboration. 
 * 4) *Download and a copy of the latest issues of OERNZ News and find out what we've been doing.
 * 5) *OER Foundation
 * 6) 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 4: Thursday, Week 1
Now we're going to start having fun and you could achieve your first WikiEducator certification! If you’re a little behind, don’t worry….just take it one step at a time as it's 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, WikiEducator may be 1st website where 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) 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 :-).
 * 4) Tell us about the content resource you will like to develop to fulfil your Learning Contract.
 * 5) *Format - Use Heading 2 as the format for your name
 * 6) *Use the standard Wysiwyg editor features to format your text.

Day 5: Friday, Week 1
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: Monday, Week 2
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 7: Tuesday, Week 2
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, as well as 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 next assignment next assignment where we will use one of our communication tools in the wiki. Please do your best to update your user page today 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 8, Wednesday, Week 2
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 started working on 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!

Day 9, Thursday, Week 2
In cases where you do not have a reliable or fast Internet connection you may decide to work offline. You may also have a number of lesson plans and teaching materials which you want to convert into wiki format for sharing with other teachers. Today we will test two alternatives for converting and uploading existing documents on WikiEducator.

INSTRUCTIONS


 * 1) Converting an existing document
 * 2) * Under the toolbox on the left hand side of your screen, click on the link called OOConvertor
 * 3) * Follow the instructions on screen to upload a file from your machine, eg .doc or .odt. (Note: that you should save Microsoft .docx files in the older .doc format.)
 * 4) * Select the appropriate license (for example CC-BY or CC-BY-SA) to confirm the permissions for teachers to reuse, adapt, modify and share teaching materials.
 * 5) * This web service will convert the file into wiki format and create a new page as a subpage of your Username. You will also receive an email notification when the document is converted. You will now be able to copy this text to any page in the wiki.
 * 6) * Note that you will need to upload images separately.
 * 7) * It is good practice to use styles for specifying different heading levels in the source document.
 * 8) Working offline
 * 9) * It is possible to work offline and save your work in Mediawiki text format. To do this you will need a copy of the OpenOffice word processor (Free and Open Source Software.)
 * 10) * Work through the tutorial demonstrating how to edit using Open Office.