Uganda/L4C/Lesson Notes/Day One

= DAY ONE (1) = Welcome to the very first day in our bid to become WikiBuddys!!

Introduction to Web 2.0 Technologies
Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. The term became notable after the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.

Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developes and End-users use the Web. According to Tim O'Reilly:

eBay, Craigslist, Wikipedia, del.icio.us, Skype, dodgeball, Adsence, Flickr,Docs & Spreadsheets and iTunes (because of its music-store portion, MapQuest, and Maps Google Maps may all be considered as examples of Web 2.0 technologies/applications though they may have different levels.

Now relax, and lets explore the details of these objectives bellow.

What are open source technologies
Open Source does not only mean the availability and freeness of the source codes of softwares, it also means that the sofware should meet the ten critera stipulated and ardently promoted by the Open source community. Open source culture is the creative practice of appropriation and free sharing of found and created content. Examples include collage, found footage film, music, and appropriation art. Open source culture is one in which fixations, works entitled to copyright protection, are made generally available. Participants in the culture can modify those products and redistribute them back into the community or other organizations.

Champions in this community include Open Source Initiative, SourceForge, Mozilla Foundation.

The Open Source Definition is a bill of rights for the computer user. It defines certain rights that a software license must grant you to be certified as Open Source. Those who don't make their programs Open Source are finding it difficult to compete with those who do, as users gain a new appreciation of rights they always should have had. Programs like the Linux operating system and Netscape's web browser have become extremely popular, displacing other software with more restrictive licenses. Companies that use Open Source software have the advantage of its very rapid development, often by several collaborating companies, and much of it contributed by individuals who simply need an improvement to serve their own needs.

What is a Wiki
the following questions may be helpful:
 * 1) What do you understand as the general definition of a Wiki?
 * 2) What a some examples of Wikis?
 * 3) what are some uses of Wiki technology?
 * 4) what are the advantages and disadvantages of using wikis?
 * 5) Are there quality considrations is using wikis?

Introduction to WikiEducator, Moodle, etc.
Before we go further to explore all the benefits of OER, Open Softwares and collaborative content development, lets take a quick tour of the "whats" and "whys" of WikiEducator (WE).

The values of WikiEducator's community

It is important to recognize and respect the core values of the different wiki communities. The Wikieducator community believes in the following values:
 * 1) 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) The freedoms of all educators to teach with the technologies and contents of their choice, hence our committment 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.

Creating a WikiEducator Account
Join the community!! Go ahead and create your personal WikiEducator account NOW!!

Setting up your personal WE webpage
After you have registered for an account with WE, sign in. Remember that your username and password are all case sensitive.
 * 1) On which ever page you are in on WikiEducator, once you are logged in, the following "links" will show on the top-right-hand corner of the WE page your are opened to.
 * 2) Some of the "links" will be in "red" while others will be in "blue" . Take a few seconds to familiarize yourself with these
 * 3) Two "links" - your and "my talk" will be "red links" in the first instance. This is because though they are pages that have names now, there is not contents. In other words, no "editing" has been done on them.
 * 4) Click on your username. A message appears that says "There is currently no text in this page, you can search for this page title in other pages or edit this page ."
 * 5) Click on edit this page ."; start typing any text you desire and click on the ave page''' bellow the text area.--Kelvin kayombo 06:08, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Introduction to WikiMedia Editing
Gone are the times when editing could only be done by the "professional" or IT "wizard". "Anybody" can edit on WikiMedia packages (including WE) - and that is what a real wiki should be about. While some PHP and HTML codes can be used and recognised by this wiki, it is not essential to letting you have the ability (and pleasure) to edit. The knowledge in editing you gain in this tutorial should enable you to edit in WikiEducator and all other WikiMedia based platforms such as WikiNews, WikiVersity, WikiQuote, Wiktionary, WikiTravel and several others.

You can download the Cheatsheet for basic formatting syntaxes [[Media:Cheatsheat1.pdf|here]]. Check a fuller Wikipedia Quick guide; or How to Edit a Page or go through the steps bellow.

WikiMedia and “Sisters”
There are many sites hosted by the WikiMedia Foundation using the WikiMedia softwares.

Editing Basics
Note that the wiki has been designed to make editing as simple as possible. With the exception of a few protected pages, every page on WikiEducator can be edited.

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. Don't worry about this detail now - finding your way around a wiki page will become second nature.

Where are the edit links?

You will find the main edit link as a page tab, above the content area of a page. On pages that have subheadings, you will also find an "[edit]" link next to the heading to edit that particular subsection of the page. The edit links let you do exactly that: edit an entire page or single section within a page.

Basic Text Formatting
WikiEducator uses a kind of simple text markup to format particular elements of the page (e.g. bold, italics, headings, etc). This "language" is known as Wikitext (or Wiki-markup) and is designed for ease of editing. Much of this simple formatting can be added to your content by using the Editing toolbar that appears while you are in editing mode, but you can also type the syntax in by hand. Not all of the formatting options that are available to you on the wiki are accessible through the Editing toolbar so you will need to learn how to enter some of this syntax by hand. This will be useful if you wish to delve into the more sophisticated formatting devices that may be dealt with in later tutorials.

Creating your own practice area

When learning new editing skills, or testing more complicated layout features it is useful to have your own practice area on the wiki. The following activity will show you how to create your own sandbox or practice area.

WE WILL NOW CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:
 * Bold and Italics
 * Headings and Sub-Headings
 * Indenting
 * Bullets and Numbered Lists
 * Mixing list types

Lab Work: Participants will work on their own contents
Thanks you for your participation during the morning session. During this afternoon's session and early morning tomorrow, go through the following:


 * 1) Fill up you main user page (not your sandbox) with an essay about yourself
 * Use at least four different headings like


 * about myself
 * my work,
 * my passions (What i like)
 * why i joined this workshop (expectations)
 * my family, etc.

All the best. And see you tomorrow.

--Victor P. K. Mensah