Learning4Content/Workshops/Online schedule/eL4C28/Wiki discussions

This is our wiki cafe where participants hang out during coffee breaks. Feel free to join the discussions :-)

Hi, my name is Andre Loubser. I am based in Auckland, New Zealand. I teach at Elim Christian College. I have just stepped into a role teaching ICT to secondary students. I have two beautiful daughters and a wonderful wife. I am looking forward to learning more and hope to balance all the things on my to-do list. All of the best. André

Participant Introductions
Hi, my name is Wayne and I'll be collaborating with an amazing team of WikiEducator volunteers (Chris, Gladys, Nellie, Patricia, and Phil) who will ensure that you have an authentic WikiEducator community experience! We extend a warm welcome to all participants in the workshop and hope that you'll like our neighbourhood --- cheers --Wayne Mackintosh 02:40, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Hi, my name is Phil. I have been producing training material for community workers, their managers and trainers, to help and guide low income communities to become empowered, and not dependent upon handouts. I have organized an on line not for profit organization of about three hundred volunteers translating the material into about thirty or more languages. Around the beginning of this year, I was approached by WikiEd and, after consulting with my close colleagues, chose to partner with WikiEd and to help develop free and open teaching resources for using the training material. This is my first time to attempt WikiEd facilitation, and I am in awe of Wayne, and have seen the great facilitation of Nellie, Patricia and Gladys. I hope that I can be of some use to you and other participants in this tutorial.--Phil Bartle 04:56, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Hi, my name is Andre Loubser. I am based in Auckland, New Zealand. I have just stepped into teaching ICT to secondary students. I have two beautiful daughters and a wonderful wife. I hope to do everything on my to-do list. All of the best. Andre --Andrelo 05:24, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Hello, my name is Gladys Gahona. I am a mexican private teacher on Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics. I am currently involved in several wiki-activities: developing open educational resources, participating on workgroups, assisting and facilitating on eL4C workshops, participating on discussion groups, promoting our community outside, assisting in learning design projects, etc. I am deeply proud and honoured to collaborate with this team of so experienced and enthusiastic WikiEducators, please feel free to post your introduction and comments in the page. --Gladys Gahona 13:22, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Hi, my name is Patricia Schlicht and I have been working with and for Dr. Wayne Mackintosh as the WikiEducator Learning4Content Coordinator and Community Builder on Wikieducator.

I have gained extensive knowledge in open and distance learning (ODL) and technology-mediated learning since 2000 when I started working in the industry. I was introduced to the concept of Free/Libre Open Education in eLearning in May 2006 through Dr. Wayne Mackintosh, the founder of WikiEducator. I have since gradually increased my knowledge in this area and have been involved in promoting WikiEducator and building capacity in the global communities. I am actively facilitating our Learning4Content training workshops online, monitor and evaluate WikiEducator activities, among the many other activities I am involved in, building a sustainable global network of WikiEducators. Feel free to visit my page, to leave me comments--Patricia 18:02, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

My name is Jan Visser. I am President and Senior Researcher at the Learning Development Institute (LDI). In a previous incarnation I was UNESCO's Director for Learning Without Frontiers. Though I am a theoretical physicist by inclination and original vocation and training, I spent much of my professional life educating people, among other things about the sciences, and am currently particularly interested in finding out how we can improve the conditions of learning as well as enhance the nature of learning around the globe. WikiEducator seems to me an interesting opportunity to pursue that quest.

As indicated in my learning contract, I intend to develop documentation within WikiEducator for creating a user community of learners and facilitators for the Basic Books in Science that are freely available as part of the For the Love of Science initiative of the Learning Development Institute. --Jvisser.ldi 21:30, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Hello All, This is Dilip Barad, Ph.D. in English Literature (Thomas Hardy),recently working on research project : 'ICT in Teaching English Language and Literature'. I am with Dept. of English, Bhavnagar University (INDIA) as Senior Lecturer. I am glad with the idea of Open Authoring. I want to create study material which is useful to students and is freely available. So I have joined WikiEducator. I have user page which was selected as User Page Expo. I have created a few pages on Literary Theories and Criticism. The presentations are uploaded for sharing with fellow teachers and students. I want to learn how to prepare templates. --Dilipbarad 04:16, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Hi all, I'm Heather Bell. I work for Massey University in NZ and I'm an adviser to schools in the area of e-learning amongst other things. I have JUST completed my masters where I looked at the facilitation required when using a blended learning community to improve adviser practice (in using blc!). A wiki was the online environment used for this research and it proved fantastic. Each of the advisers in the project is now confidently using wikis to provide sustainable learning environments for their teachers as a result of the work. --Heatherbell 20:40, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Hello Everyone,

My name is Prince M. Obiri-Mainoo. I wear many hats but the three that would be relevant to our cause are as follows: I have made attempts to go through the Wiki-Educator online training sessions with little success because of my inability to find time for the course. I hope that this time around, I would be able to go through the full session and apply the knowledge gained in my training sessions and also move to the next level of wiki-educators on my way to becoming a wiki-facilitator. --Kwaaku 17:10, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I am the Executive Director of the National Africa Foundation- http://www.nationalafricafoundation.org- where I coordinate the program to promote computer literacy, e-learning and technology integration among African Diasporans in North America and in schools in sub-Sahara Africa, especially Ghana.
 * At Harvard University-http://www.aaas.fas.harvard.edu/- I am an Akan (Twi) Language Instructor with the African Language Program at the Department of African and African-American Studies.
 * And at the Pentecost Leadership Training Institute- http://www.pentecostleadership.blogspot.com, which is the educational wing of the Church of Pentecost USA, Inc., I serve as the training administrator.

Greetings!

My name is Nellie Deutsch. I am researching instructor use of blended learning in higher education and very passionate about collaborative learning and instruction.

Please feel free to contact me for help or just to say hello.

Hi all, my name is BILL (William J Carter) for those few who might find that useful! :-)

Here is a picture of my wife and I taken at the University of the West Indies gala celebration of its 60th anniversary : . In the Judaeo-Christian tradition, I am one of those who arrives at the vineyard (of registration!) at the eleventh hour but still gets the same pay!! (Hopefully the 'pay-off' will be the same!) I will certainly try to catch up. I look forward to communicating with such a diverse and experienced group of people from all over the world. I am a relatively young retiree (I chose 'optional retirement' after completing the manadatory 33 1/3 years necessary to assure one of a pension) and I hope to use the 'leisure' to get involved in things that interest me. I have a sticker on my vehicle "If it's not fun, why do it?" which may seem frivolous but can really mean a lot. I hope I will find something to contribute which others find useful. I am sure already from reading of the career experience of many of the participants that I will learn a lot from them. Looking forward to having fun and learning a great deal!

Hi everyone. I'm Jenny Smith and based in Auckland, New Zealand. I'm faculty coordinator for ICT/Computing at a secondary school and have also just completed a Master of Information Technology in Education through the University of Melbourne!! The range of what I teach is vast; from helping students master basic skills in word processing and spreadsheets etc through to computer programming and computer science topics. I have some experience with wikis, including research, although I have yet to use wikis with students; it's a longer-term plan to do so though.

PS: can't figure out how to upload an image - yet. Used to pbWiki and Wikispaces. Things are different here... --Gadgetgurl 05:36, 28 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Hi Jenny, you can try in advance tutorial 6 on Images and Media. Warm wishes.--Gladys Gahona 18:06, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Hello my name is Keri Digby-Smith and I am Head of ICT at Whangaparaoa College in New Zealand. I teach mainly Year 12 and Year 13 Information Technology and Computing but also have a Year 8 maths class. I am looking forward to learning more about developing open source resources and using wikis and I will do my best not to get behind. I did enrol for one of these courses a little while ago and found it a little more complicated to use compared to wikispaces which I use with my classes. Anyway will persevere and work harder to understand how they work. User:Keridi
 * Hello Keri. Mediawiki platform is powerful, you improve your IT competencies as you learn wiki skills. Warm wishes. --Gladys Gahona 18:17, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Hello WikiFriends,

My name is Dr. Gita Mathur. I am Associate Professor of Botany at Gargi College, University of Delhi, India.I have been a Botany teacher for more than 25 years. I am not a participant of this workshop but I am your WikiNeighbour. Click on the link of my name here Gita Mathur & visit my page for many ideas & tips for making your Userpage beautiful & colourful. Enjoy learning the Wiki skills & continue to add meaningful content to build up the OER's. Feel free to leave a note on my Userpage if you need any help. Warm wishes --Gita Mathur 18:48, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Hello everyone

My name is Violeta. My main duties by now are related to reseach and development in mobile learning and knowledge management related to educational technology. I have been teaching in the Business Management División for undergraduate studets at Technologico de Monterrey in Mexico City for 15 years. I hsve a PHD on Innovation and Education, that explains my recent activities. I am very exciting in learning from this community ways to engage my professors and myself in the open learning community, taking advantage of wiki´s develpments. I failled in post my picture :( anyway I hope to improve my wiki skills as workshop advances. Best wishes to all.
 * Hello Violeta. I am very pleased to meet another mexican WikiEducator. Please let me know if you need any help.--Gladys Gahona 21:45, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Hi, my name is Gal Springman. My topics of interest are web-based social communities of learners, multicultural learning environments, higher-order thinking and creativity. I have been busy in the last months, planning and launching an educational initiative connecting students across cultures and geographic borders. This is why I have not fully participated in the previous workshops. Another related focus of mine is a new model for Corporate Social Responsibility, to enable create open educational resources for underprivileged students. I am looking forward to a productive interaction with the other participants. Gal

Victoria Spagnolo here. I have an engineering degree and switched to early childhood after the birth of my second child. I volunteer with Playcentre, a unique early childhood service in New Zealand. It is a cooperative and we run own own early childhood centres and deliver the Playcentre Diploma in Early Childhood and Adult Education. I am involved in the adult education programme. But I am running a SPACE programme which means I get to play with children under 1 year old! More about me at my page

--10:01, 29 July 2009 (UTC)Hi, my name is Santosh Panda, a professor of distance education in most probably the largest distance teaching university in the world IGNOU, and had been a director of its staff training and research institute as also its inter-university consortium. See My Website.I have been teaching at a distance, developing a variety of staff for this system, conducting research in the area, and doing consultancies. Though we have one of the largest technology deployment including a full satellite dedicated to distence education, the open software, open education resources, and open social technologies have opened up a very new vista for all of us. I am therefore into it, and would further like to focus more on instructional design/designinmg learning resources for open distance education. --Santosh 11:35, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

You have come to the right place. Good to have you with us. Warm wishes --Patricia 23:47, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

First wiki edit attempt! My name is Jodie Hemerda. I teach adjunct online, hybrid and f2f for CSU-Global Campus and CTU-Denver. I'm working on my PhD in Higher Ed, focusing on the use of dialogue to enhance the learning experience for adult learners. I am honored to be a part of this project.--Jhemerda 16:52, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Thoughts about the content resource participants are planning to develop under their learning contract
Add your thoughts here ....
 * I'm planning to contribute to the "Culturally Versatile Culinary Education Site" with some recipes and a tutorial on how to make some traditional Chilean dishes. As a matter of fact, yesterday I started posting a recipe of Chilean Pancakes --Viovio 21:23, 29 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Dear Viovio, I see you have discovered our WikiEducator Culinary Education site. Thank you. Do send your learning contract to Wayne please. Warm wishes --Patricia 23:41, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Hi, I'm [[User:Kirstys|Kirsty Sharp from Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, where I work as Resource Development Manager for the Tasmanian Polytechnic. This year I'm working on a project that is looking at wikis as learning materials design and development platform, and also the implications for sharing and adaptability. Doesn't sound very revolutionary in this setting, but it is different to a lot of the current practice in my institution. We are starting to work with teaching teams on some pilots - Hairdressing is one area that will be looking at WikiEducator next week as a platform. --[[User:Kirstys|Kirstys]] 01:43, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Hi, my name is Camille and I'm originally from Trinidad and Tobago but I'm presently pursuing my PhD in Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri. I was a faculty member for five years before pursuing my PhD and I also work as an eTutor at the University of the West Indies Open Campus in the Social Sciences Department - course(s) Management Information Systems (I & II). I've used many learning environments and with my experience, and I'm hoping to focus my research on the evaluation of elearning/online learning for multicultural audiences. I've taught many courses to a variety of audiences all at a tertiary level and this has fueled my interest. I look forward to using the wiki more and seeing how I can use it successfully in my future courses. Cheers -- Camille--Camilledd 04:03, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Hi, I'm Mark Haines and I teach at ACG New Zealand International College. ACG is a group of schools and NZIC teaches The University of Auckland Certificate in Foundation Studies. Chemistry is my main subject area. I've taught on Niue Island for two years and had six years teaching in Brunei.

Hi, I am really at sea! That's of course of my on making! I am MC Arunan from Mumbai, India.Though I attended a face-to-face Wiki-Ed Course in New Delhi,ably conducted at the AND College in October 2008, I am none the wiser. I am not sure, whether I can give link to my user page I had started then, here. After a week of the present course, I am able to see this page today (we, the teachers of Maharashtra, India are on a state-wide strike for getting the Pay-revison which was announced by the central government in Delhi implemented) and am trying whether what I type will be saved and will serve as my introduction. I had sent an extensive introductory write up through the wikigoogle group and Patricia had most generously sent a comforting message too. Briefly: I teach Lifesciences and am into 24x7 interactive dscussion with current and past students (only of masters program)  through a yahoogroup specially made by us for that. The major spin-off from that is that any article published even in the most expensive journal like Nature or Cell is made availabe to us by some one in the group, mostly by the former students currently working in western universities. We have also started a subgroup to discuss on the Cell Signalling pathways which are crucial in understanding biology, today. This is called Wnt Siganlling Group. Mosre than 20 students have alresdy signed for this. My interest in Wiki is to see whether I can make use of this platform to host the movies and other educational contents that my students and colleagues prepare as means of our learning process,so that this method of teaching-learning program can be propagated. Another objective is to identify and network with like-minded people to work together. My interest is science, I guess, is increasing instead of abating with age!We are into celebrating the 150 Years Since Darwin from last August.I would like to call myself as a dialectical biologist. If I can learn to upload photos and movies to my user page, I will be happy.Amen!

Hi, BillyJ here. As I mentioned elsewhere, I am a tutor in a First Year Compulsory Course for all under-graduate members of the Faculty (doctors, dentists, veterinarians, nurses) called "Communications for Medical Personnel". It combines practice in writing and presentation skills with content having to do with establishing good relations with the clients involved (patients and in the case of the vets, the owners). The lecturer in charge has asked me to help her publish stuff on "Moodle" - a system the UWI uses to communicate with its students and provide on-line tuition. Previously, our section has been very passive (students just go and read the material) and I would like to introduce some interactivity. I'm not quite sure how to do this but as the days go by I hope I see some practices I might be able to adapt and adopt. The challenge is all my fellow tutors are not as open to using this kind of technology so I shall have to be careful about exactly what emerges as no group should end up more 'priviledged' than the others. I am sure I will get lots of help and support from others in the design of something suitable. Thanks in advance.--BillyJ 00:37, 6 August 2009 (UTC)