Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/Announcements

Instructions for Day 1: Be bold, try an edit!
Dear Friends, Greetings.

A warm welcome to our 50th free WikiEducator Learning4Content Online training workshop, running from April 27 – May 11, 2011.

We will be sending you the instructions day-by-day and twice:

1. Through the WikiEducator Moodle platform at Moodle Platform'''

and

2. Through a dedicated Google group email address, to your email directly, to which you can reply. You do not need to go on to the Moodle platform, as the training is done directly on WikiEducator.

This is why it is important that you bookmark the workshop home page, so it is easily accessible to you.

EL4C50 Workshop Homepage

In addition, you will find all instructions directly on the eL4C50 workshop homepage (link above).

We highly recommend that you post your question(s) on our workshop page called: 'Wiki Disussions' in the appropriate place.

Wiki Discussions

Please find your name on the participants list on our workshop home page, and familiarise yourself with your user page. We recommend you bookmark it, for easy reference. Instructions on how to do this can be found on the Workshop schedule webpage

As you have already received the “Getting started instructions”, here now are the instructions for Day 1, for your convenience.

for Day 1'''

Warm wishes,

Your International Facilitator Team Ramesh and Patricia

Follow WikiEducator on Facebook as well: Join our http://www.facebook.com/pages/WikiEducator/84274419299 WikiEducator Google Groups Mailing list where many discussions are held: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator

Instructions for Day 2
Dear Friends A warm welcome to all our new participants. You still have the opportunity to invite friends to join us, as we are only getting started for the workshop. Some of you have joined us again, and we salute you for this decision. There is a lot to be learned and you are really taking advantage, which is wonderful. Your time commitment per day shouldn't take more than 15 or 20 minutes for new arrivals to catch up. WE are here to share knowledge and to collaborate in the Wiki way, so feel free to spread the word and give the gift of knowledge, and point your friends to this link: About

This email provides a copy of the instructions for Day 2 (your Thursday) of our workshop in your inbox. Note that all instructions are linked from our workshop home page:

eL4C50 Homepage (Bookmark this page in your browser). Remember: if you missed earlier instructions, you will find copies of all activities for the previous day posted in the Announcements box in the wiki. We see folk are making great progress with the activities for Day 1 ahead of time (in many parts of the world) and are experimenting. Well done!

Get to know your fellow participants and read the introductions posted so far Introduce yourself here.

Hi,everybody! We are back in the wikiworld!

Wiki's are about experimentation, so be bold and have a bash at posting your own intro. Don't worry, you can't break anything, if you do, WE can fix it (we promise). Wiki's keep a record of every edit, so it is easy to fix a mistakes.

An early heads up- there are community Kudos awards for the participants with the highest number of edits during the workshop, so get started!

Day 2 is pretty relaxed, you will learn more about the amazing world of wikis, have the opportunity to familiarize with it. Watch our short video introduction and follow the instructions posted in the wiki.

Feel free to ask us if something is unclear, we are here to help and remember, we all started like you, so you are among good friends that understand.

Assignment for Day 2

Your assignment for Day 2 is to post ideas and thoughts in the discussion on quality in open authoring systems. You'll find step-by-step instructions for Day 2 listed on the course schedule page: Workshop schedule

Warm wishes,

Your International Facilitator Team Ramesh and Patricia

Follow WikiEducator on Facebook as well: Join our http://www.facebook.com/pages/WikiEducator/84274419299 WikiEducator Google Groups Mailing list where many discussions are held: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator

Instructions for Day 3
Hello Everybody,

A special word of welcome to all participants who have just joined the workshop -- you are now part of the world's largest initiative to build wiki skills for education.

Don't worry if you haven't had the time to engage in the process yet, you will have time to catch up as the first few days are not so demanding. It's great to see folks introducing themselves in the wiki http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/Introductions

Don't be shy -- join in and get your feet wet. Don't be missed by your absence. If you get stuck -- just post your question in the wiki here: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/General_forum

INSTRUCTIONS FOR DAY 3

Today we will show you how edit your user preferences and ask you to complete our New user survey -- shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes. See: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/Workshop_schedule (Click on the link for Day 3).

Remember the best page to keep track and keep up to date with the workshop is the course homepage: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/Home

Warm wishes, Your International Facilitator Team Ramesh; Patricia; Gita Mathur and Michael Verhaart

Follow WikiEducator on Facebook as well: Join our http://www.facebook.com/pages/WikiEducator/84274419299 WikiEducator Google Groups Mailing list where many discussions are held: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator

Instructions for Day 4
Hi Everyone!

We are very pleased with the work you are doing on your user pages, the Wiki Discussion pages – great information sharing. These sharing pages are a place to connect with participants worldwide and learn about common interests and concerns – leading to possible collaboration. We hope that most of you have succeeded in adding content to your User page. It's not too difficult. This may be the first time you have published on the Web, so celebrate your achievement! Yes, that's right, all your edits can be viewed by anyone with an Internet connection.

Please let us know if you had any difficulties by posting your questions to Wiki Questions & Support page. We'll do our best to help you. We also appreciate all your valuable comments to us, it will help us to improve quality of upcoming workshops.

Instructions for Day 4

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

The idea is that you will use your new editing skills to develop your user page in WikiEducator. By the end of this week, you should have a pretty impressive User page for other WikiEducators to get to know you a little better. You will also have your own practice area (your sandbox) for the purpose of trying out your skills.

Here now are the instructions for Day 4 (your Monday):

1. If you haven't already done so, please download a copy of our cheatsheet (pdf 725KB) and keep this close at hand when working on the wiki. Refer to the workshop schedule on our workshop home to find it

http://www.wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/Home

2. Basic Text Formatting. Work through Tutorial 4. Most of you found your User pages pre-filled with several templates, headings and a link to a subpage titled "My sandbox", a sandbox is a place for playing around, a place for practicing your new wiki skills, so don't be afraid of writing wrong codes in your sandbox... only one thing would happen... you will learn from your mistakes :-). If you like you can download and print out a copy of the instructions to set up a sandbox.

Some users find it easier to work from a printed set of instructions. 3. Tell us about the content resource you are planning to develop under your learning contract by adding to Wiki Discussions page My Learning Contract Project. Looking forward to sharing ideas for content development! Keep adding to WikiDiscussion pages and please post replies to your peers. These pages are designed to host your thoughts, comments, and feedback regarding the specific topics. These provide dual benefits for you; sharing knowledge and practicing wiki skills! :-) Remember the following tip when on editing mode: take a look at the codes others are using for formatting text and images, try to replicate the codes in your editing. This suggestion applies to any WikiEducator page. As you start adding content to WikiEducator, you will notice that when you get stuck, the facilitators and other members of WikiEducator will be there to help. This is the wiki way!

Have fun!

Your international Facilitator Team

Patricia, Ramesh, Gita and Michael

Instructions for Day 5
Hello Everybody!

We have seen good progress on your user pages, keep it up. You are doing really well. We understand you may have been busy and thus if have fallen a little behind, there is nothing to worry. You are still catch up. See the daily schedule and try to complete the tasks.

As a general observation, some of you have started to share their perspective on our the discussion assignment regarding open versus a closed education and quality. There is not a right or wrong perspective, just a different one, so we encourage you to share your perspective here:

Thoughts on Quality

We will also go through the user pages again and certify according to your level of demonstrated skills. Don't forget we will have a winner of the most edits done on all user pages at the end of this course. Please note that an invitation to join our LIVE session in the WIZIQ virtual boardroom has been scheduled to take place on May 7, at 5:30 PM Pacific Standard Time. The invitation will come to your email. Just accept the invitation by clicking on the link within this email invitation and note the weblink, so you can come back at the appropriate time. Reminder will come to your email as well.

Check your local time here

This session is part of our eL4C50 training workshop and you are cordially invited to come and join us. Most participants loved the personal exchanges and information sharing, which will serve you to get a better understanding of what WikiEducator (WE) is all about and will also provide you with an opportunity to obtain some answers to questions you might have.

Here are the Instructions for Day 5, your Tuesday:

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.

Please go to New pages and links for the detailed instructions related to doing above mentioned tasks.

You can also watch the video instruction for Day 5 at this link eL4C50 Workshop Schedule

If you have questions to ask, please email them, or write on our home pages.

Have a great day!

Your International Facilitator Team

Instructions for Day 6 - Images and your 2nd wiki certification!
Dear Friends,

Time to play with images now!! Today we will:

* Understand about 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.

Very important thing we would like you to remember that:


 * 1) Unless stated otherwise, all images you source on the web default to an "all rights reserved" copyright and you cannot upload these images on WikiEducator -- it's illegal.
 * 2) Read the short summary on copyright in today's tutorial, before uploading images on WikiEdcuator.
 * 3) You will find more information on what free content means for the WikiEducator community in accordance with our values.

Lets now practice on Instructions for Day 6

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.

Please remember: You can also watch the video instruction for Day 6 at this link eL4C50 Workshop schedule

Instructions

* Screencast A: How to source and link images on Wikimedia Commons * Screencast B: Searching for free content images on Flickr * Screencast C: Uploading images sourced from Flickr
 * Important -- Read this summary on general copyright issues relating to digital images.
 * Work through Tutorial 6 on images.
 * Practice manipulating the placement, size and using captions for your images in your sandbox.
 * Work on improving your User page -- don't forget to include a photograph of yourself using your new skills on inserting images!
 * Optional: View the following screencast videos:

Remember the best page to keep track and keep up to date with the workshop is the course homepage: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/Home

Warm wishes, Your International Facilitator Team Ramesh; Patricia; Gita Mathur and Michael Verhaart

Follow WikiEducator on Facebook as well: Join our http://www.facebook.com/pages/WikiEducator/84274419299 WikiEducator Google Groups Mailing list where many discussions are held: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator

Instructions for Day 7: Collaborative Editing
Dear Friends,

Greetings!

A 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!

In Wikieducator, 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. Hence, do not hesitate to experiment with your userpages (use your sandbox to practise). Try uploading images, resizing them, add text and try different kinds of formatting, bullets or numbering etc.

Instructions for Day 7

Today, you should work through Tutorial 7 (http://wikieducator.org/Wikieducator_rich_text_editor_tutorials/Collaborative_editing) on collaborative editing where you will learn a few tricks on how to monitor activity in the wiki;

You will also learn how to revert an edit which you should practice on your user page.

We're looking forward to our 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.

Suggestion Several of the learning contract projects listed in the discussion on ideas for Learning Contract projects (http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C46/Learning_Contract_Project) are open to collaborative edits by course participants. Take a look and join in!

Video Tutorial The video tutorial for todays session is available at http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/Workshop_schedule#Instructions_for_Day_7

Enjoy your day and workshop activities,

Remember the best page to keep track and keep up to date with the workshop is the course homepage: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/Home

Warm wishes, Your International Facilitator Team Ramesh; Patricia; Gita Mathur and Michael Verhaart

Follow WikiEducator on Facebook as well: Join our http://www.facebook.com/pages/WikiEducator/84274419299 WikiEducator Google Groups Mailing list where many discussions are held: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator

Instructions for Day 8 - Communication and Interaction
Hello Everybody,

We can't believe it is Friday already. We hope you are enjoying week 2 of our training workshop.

We went through the user pages again and certified where appropriate. Congratulations, well done! Some of you have really made progress since last week. A few others are almost there, don't forget to demonstrate the skills you have learned last week on your user pages, so we will be able to certify you.

Instructions for Day 8 Today we will learn how to
 * use the 'Discussion or Talk pages' in the wiki,
 * explore some useful features like the Watchlist, and the
 * use 'My Contributions' link.

In other words, we will discuss that 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.

Video Tutorial The video tutorial for todays session is available at http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/Workshop_schedule#Instructions_for_Day_8

Instructions for Day 8 Work through Tutorial 8 on Communication and Interaction Tools (see link http://wikieducator.org/Wikieducator_rich_text_editor_tutorials/Communication_and_interaction)

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. 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 (http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/Participants#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.

This best way to keep in touch with the WikiEducator family is to join our main WikiEducator mailing list (http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator) on Google groups -- Join today to keep up to date with what's happening in our community. Have fun -- this is a great way to communicate with your fellow WikiEducators!

Remember the best page to keep track and keep up to date with the workshop is the course homepage: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/Home

Warm wishes, Your International Facilitator Team Ramesh; Patricia; Gita Mathur and Michael Verhaart

Follow WikiEducator on Facebook as well: Join our http://www.facebook.com/pages/WikiEducator/84274419299 WikiEducator Google Groups Mailing list where many discussions are held: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator

Instructions for Day 9: Working offline and converting existing documents
Dear Friends

This workshop is coming to an end and it looks like it just started yesterday. Hope you are enjoying working on your pages and adding text and images to your page. 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 FOR DAY 9

Converting an existing document

Under the toolbox on the left hand side of your screen, click on the link called OOConvertor OOoConverter

Follow the instructions on screen to upload a file from your computer, e.g .doc or .odt. (Note: that you should save Microsoft .docx files in the older .doc format.)

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.

This web service will convert the file into wiki format and create a new page as a subpage under 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.

Note that you will need to upload images separately.

It is good practice to use styles for specifying different heading levels in the source document.

Working offline 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.) Work through the tutorial demonstrating how to edit using Open Office Editing Using Open Office. Wishing you all the best Your International Facilitator Team Ramesh; Patricia; Gita Mathur and Michael Verhaart

Follow WikiEducator on Facebook as well: Join our http://www.facebook.com/pages/WikiEducator/84274419299 WikiEducator Google Groups Mailing list where many discussions are held: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator

Instructions for Day 10: Share your experiences, thoughts and suggestions
Dear Friends Greetings.

These instructions are for your Tuesday -- the last Day of our WikiEducator "Study to remember, and you will forget, but study to understand, and you will remember" workshop.

Congratulations -- You have completed the WikiEducator workshop and have now joined thousands of graduates of the Learning4Content project!

Today although we're wrapping up the workshop, we will continue looking at your userpages for some more days, so keep practicing!

You will find the instructions for Day 10 from our course home page under the Course Content section:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/Home

In summary, you should:

1) Join our main WikiEducator mailing list to keep up to date with what is happening with the WikiEducator family. 2) Invite a friend or colleague to join the next Learning4Content workshop -- spread the news! 3) Share your experiences, thoughts and suggestions by posting a reply on our wrap-up thread. 4) Consider giving the gift of knowledge by supporting our charitable gifting and organisational recruitment campaign.

We will announce the winners of the community kudos awards for the most edits within next few days -- this will give you a chance to increase your edit count! In fact, we are very happy with the progress of some of you, who have enriched their userpages so well within this short period. Congratulations once again!!

From all of us (your facilitators) -- A BIG thank you for all your contributions in making the WikiEducator "Study to remember, and you will forget, but study to understand, and you will remember" workshop a huge success.

Wishing you all the best

Your International Facilitation Team

Ramesh; Patricia; Gita Mathur and Michael Verhaart

Follow WikiEducator on Facebook as well: Join our http://www.facebook.com/pages/WikiEducator/84274419299 WikiEducator Google Groups Mailing list where many discussions are held: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator

Keep updating your Userpage
Dear Friends, Greetings.

We cannot believe that we have now reached at the end of the workshop. Time flies quickly.

We are happy to notice from the userpages that some of you have really made praiseworthy progress. In addition to this, from the feedback you have provided to all of us by various means like emails or comments on userpages, we feel encouraged that it was a successful workshop.

We are always available to you. Donot forget to contact us in case you need any assistance.

We suggest that you keep editing your pages. You can always come back in future workshops too.

We will be happy to meet you!

Once again from all of us (your facilitators) -- A BIG thank you for all your contributions in making the WikiEducator "Study to remember, and you will forget, but study to understand, and you will remember" workshop a huge success.

Wishing you all the best

Your International Facilitation Team

Ramesh; Patricia; Gita Mathur and Michael Verhaart

Follow WikiEducator on Facebook as well: Join our http://www.facebook.com/pages/WikiEducator/84274419299 WikiEducator Google Groups Mailing list where many discussions are held: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator

Thank you very much
Dear Friends

Greetings!

Its been a nice experience to interact with you. We are aware that this period must be have been very busy for you, inspite of that you have shown good progress on your userpages. Congratulations!

Although the workshop is ending officially today, but please keep continuing on your pages as we will still keep visiting your pages.

Do leave a message on our page or your own page too, we will interact back if there is any issue need to be discussed.

I will submit a report on this workshop soon after observing your userpages for few more days!

I further take this opportunity to thank my colleagues Patricia; Gita Mathur and Michael Verhaart for the wonderful support to me and other participants. Your support made all things very easy. I really enjoyed your support and inputs.

Wishing you all the best

Yours

Ramesh

Follow WikiEducator on Facebook as well: Join our http://www.facebook.com/pages/WikiEducator/84274419299 WikiEducator Google Groups Mailing list where many discussions are held: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator