WikiEducator:First Community Council Elections/Savithri Singh

''' I WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL THOSE WHO REPOSED THEIR FAITH IN ME AND VOTED FOR ME. THANKS AGAIN.'''

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''' Welcome!! I'm glad that you are here on my campaign page. Hope you enjoy knowing more about me - I would definitely want you to vote for me!!'''

Who I am



 * [mailto:singh.savithri@gmail.com Savithri Singh ],Principal, Acharya Narendra Dev College,University of Delhi, INDIA
 * B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Botany.
 * Have been involved with curriculum and syllabi development for school and University since several years. Have also done a lot of material creation at school level- all done through collaborative writing.
 * I am passionate about making a difference in education (in whatever little way I can), particularly science education in the country - towards that end participate in all workshops/trainings/seminars/conferences etc. wherever I can contribute or learn.
 * Have over thirty years of experience teaching - Love interacting with students and teachers - have been involved in conducting several teachers training courses
 * Am a passionate learner, am open to new ideas and tools - love exploring the e-world.
 * Strongly believe in equality and in the 'open philosophy'- believe education should be accessible to all. Will do my share to make it so!
 * I am capable of working very hard for my convictions - am often referred to as a workaholic - but this work is my passion!!!
 * Hey, this does not mean I cannot have fun - love trekking, music, travel, reading, sports - all kinds, but particularly cricket, tennis, football, basketball (was a state and University player as a student!!)

'Talking about my college - 'Here students are taught not just facts, they are exposed to attitudes, approaches, values and a vocabulary that teach them to think independently. The effort is to nurture them as 'autonomous learners'.'  '

How I became a Wikieducator: It was accidental – and an accident I loved!!!
It was in July 2006 that I stumbled on to the WE. Due to my fairly large experience of working in large collaborative groups during Environmental studies and Biology textbook development for schools in Delhi and at the National level, I was invited the by International Network for Bamboo and Rattan INBAR to help in collaborative writing to develop 'Certificate courses for entrepreneurship in Bamboo and rattan cultivation, using the e-mode. I had been planning on using the email or at the most the googlegroups for collaboration. But luckily for me COL was also a partner in the project – and as part of a workshop for planning on material development Andrew from COL introduced the group to WE. I took to it like fish to water – maybe this what I was searching for – an open forum to share educational resources. Anyway, I was a convert – not only to e-learning but also to open learning and to WE. Within months of exposure to WE I became a strong and verbal ambassador of open source and WE. I strongly believe in a hierarchy-less society and democratic functioning and WE is just that!!!

Further connect with WE
Six months later I was glad to meet Wayne – I actually was in the audience at a talk he gave in Delhi University about WE. After his talk he was bombarded with questions about the 'open' writing and about 'vandalism' and ownership etc. Wayne I'm sure was mighty surprised when he got unexpected support from a lone hand raised in the audience – it was me standing up to defend my WE.

One thing led to the next and soon I was co-opted as a member of the Interim International Advisory Board – maybe more so as a gender balancer than anything else. Deserving or not I have been a faithful ambassador of WE – talking about it whatever forum I could with full conviction and great persuasion.

An opportunity provided by Wayne - that of attending Wikimania 07 - helped to re-affirm my faith in the free culture. I met Wayne again, also Jimmy Wales, Ward Cunnigham, Erik, Maco, Kim Tucker and so many other believers of the free culture - I was proud of being one of them. I mentally declared myself an Ambassador of WE and of free culture.

Recently I was able to attend the PCF5 due to support from the COL. I met several WEducators at the forum. Lead by Wayne, we wikieducators were able to make an impact (thats what we would like believe ). We definitely generated a lot of interest - the attendance at the WE workshop was proof enough!! The Forum used the WE to upload session reports - several rapporteurs were led into learning how to wiki!!

Due to my administrative responsibilities as Principal of an undergraduate college I am often unable to add much content on the WE, yet I do find my place in the top 50. Network speed is sometimes a limitation. Due to my own exposure to FOSS, OER and WE my colleagues and students in college are also getting exposure and hope many will come into the fold and – soon there should be lots of materials from my college on WE. I have set in motion several moves to conduct large number of WE trainings - L4C workshops reaching out across the University - to students and teachers of Bachelor of Elementary Education, English Honours besides all the Honours and programme courses in Science in my college.

Why support me -

 * Member, National Focus Group on Teaching of Science, Position paper
 * Member, National Knowledge Commission – Working group on Science and Maths
 * Member, CEMCA (Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia) Core Team (India) on Quality Assurance in Multimedia Learning Materials
 * Strong belief in OPEN SOURCE and OPEN LEARNING – WE
 * Conviction that I can make a difference – can convince more and more people to go open source – my college is already all on Linux (Report on Linux Worshop ), and let me assure you it was not easy.
 * Have proved an excellent (even if I am the one to say so ) Ambassador for WE
 * Representation from Asia
 * To contribute to the Council as a non-technical person - I am basically a botanist with limited knowledge of technical aspects - I often know what I want, and also that it can be done  but not how it can be done !!!  Somebody has to tell me that!!
 * Use all available fora to promote WE eg. PCF5, DU South Campus, Commerce teachers' refresher course, at Delhi University

Presentation

 * Experiences with Wikieducatormade at the Conference on 'eLearning in Teacher Education' held at University of Delhi, February 2007

Some pics I'd like to share
I love photography - its become so easy in this digital world to go all out and shoot - thanks to technology. As a botanist I have good collection of pictures of plants.

Click here and  here for some that I have clicked. I'll soon upload many more.

For a slideshow for deepawali click deepawali

Lots more pics are uploaded at picasa

See also:</FONT>
My Page My College Bamboo and Rattan Course Proposal Rattan Course PCF5 Paper Biology Protocols The teachers of Acharya Narendra Dev College have recently started a project wherein we intend uploading protocols for the practicals in Biology at the undergraduate level on the WE as Open Resource. We have just initiated the project and loaded in the first few protocols.

F2F L4C Workshops I have also applied for bounty for conducting two F2F L4C workshops in college to coincide with the birthday celebrations of the great freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi - October 2. We think its apt to hold a workshop that promotes 'free culture' be held on this day. We are planning for more such workshops through the country.

Confirmation of Nomination</FONT>

 * --Pankaj 09:40, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
 * --SteveFoerster 13:40, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
 * --Peter Rawsthorne 03:21, 22 July 2008 (UTC)
 * --Wayne Mackintosh 02:21, 24 July 2008 (UTC)
 * --Anil Prasad 08:21, 24 July 2008 (UTC)
 * --Vivek Sharma--Viv 05:59, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * --Dr.Ummed Singh--10:35, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
 * --Patricia Schlicht 11:43 20 August 2008 (UTC)