Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Announcements

Getting started - pre-workshop orientation
Hi everyone

Welcome to the WikiEducator Inspiring to becoming an Agent of Change Workshop which starts this Wednesday, 25 August 2010. Participants from 17 countries have registered for this workshop. Registration is still open if you would like to invite a friend to join us for this exciting learning opportunity. Everyone is welcome to join us.)

This is a friendly a reminder that our workshop starts on Wednesday. We are posting instructiosn early and details are provided below, should you want to post to this forum -- however, as a wiki workshop we encourage all participants to post their questions directly in the wiki smile.

Two things you need to do today -- shouldn't take you more than a few minutes to complete the orientation:


 * 1) Bookmark the course homepage: Go to the workshop homepage (http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home), and bookmark this in your browser. (If you're not sure how to bookmark a page in your browser -- see below).
 * 2) Read the getting started instructions: We have listed a few points to help you get started -- take a few minutes to read these, particularly if you are new to wiki courses and / or OER

WE look forward to meeting you in the Wiki!

Be bold and experiment, most of all have fun!

Cheers, Your Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Facilitators (Take a look at our introductory videos)

How to bookmark a browser page:


 * Mozilla Firefox 
 * Safari
 * Internet Explorer
 * Chrome

Posting to the Moodle Forum (shouldn't be necessary)

We don't anticipate any need to post to the forum (which is hosted on Moodle) because we encourage participants to use the wiki. However, you have been registered under the same username as the one you used to registered your WikiEducator account with two differences:


 * Your registered Moodle username for this course is all lowercase -- whereas WikiEducator is case sensitive. If your WikiEducator username is PatriciaSchlicht -- use patriciaschlicht on for the Moodle forums


 * If your WikiEducator username has a space, for example Patricia Schlicht - use patriciaschlicht.


 * Your initial password for the Moodle forum is changeme and you will be prompted to change your password. (Note this password is not the same as your WikiEducator password.)


 * If this doesn't work -- create a new account
 * If this doesn't work - -don't stress -- all the instructions are posted in the wiki smile

Day 1 Instructions: Be bold, try an edit!
We are posting these instructions early for the benefit of participants who live in those parts of the world who have already seen the future happen insofar as time zones are concerned ;-). (If you're not sure -- these instructions are for your Wednesday.)

This is a wiki workshop, so all our instructions and activities will be conducted in WikiEducator. Each day, we will send you an email with the instructions for the day's activities which you are free to complete at your own pace and at a time which suites your personal schedule. (Or you can just visit the course homepage on the wiki). You should be able to complete the activities assigned for each day within 15 to 20 minutes -- so this is not too onerous. If you get stuck - just ask -- our motto is: Just try it -- our community will support you!

Day 1 is pretty relaxed, and you will find the instructions and assignment for the first day of the workshop from the course homepage in the wiki:


 * 1) Day 1, Be bold try an edit. See: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home (see under the course materials box)
 * 2) Alternatively you can go to the course schedule page in the wiki, See: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Workshop_schedule.
 * 3) You have one easy assignment today -- that is to introduce yourself in the wiki (instructions provided under the course materials for Day 1)

Wiki's come with a health warning -- they can be addictive, but we're going to have lots of fun. Let's make OER futures happen for the world!

Cheers From your Your Facilitators

Day 2 Instructions: So what about quality in open wiki authoring?
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 today, the first day of 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:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/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:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home (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 (see: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Introductions). 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.

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:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Workshop_schedule

Don't forget to sign up for the live session we are offering on September 1, 2010 at 7:00 Pacific Standard Time.

Register and Launch the class here

Check your local time here

Remember, you can also access the course materials directly from the home page for this workshop:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home

WE will see you in the wiki

Your facilitatator team: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Facilitators

Instructions for Day 3: Customising your Preferences
Hallo everyone.

A few more participants have joined us in the last two days, so a special word of welcome to all of you who have just joined the workshop, you are now part of the world's largest initiative, to build wiki skills for education.

Friday's activities are purposefully designed to create a gap for those who may need a little time to catch up on the first two days work. If you have fallen a little behind, you have the advantage of the weekend to catch up. All you will need is about an hour to work through the activities for the first three days.

It's great to see folk introducing themselves in the wiki, do take a look. Here is the link:

Introductions

I see that that our Introduction page has recorded almost 450 page views! This means colleagues are reading the wiki pages and meeting new friends from 50 different countries. Don't be shy, and jump right in. Don't be missed by your absence. It is also nice to meet your fellow participants.

If you get stuck -- just post your question in the wiki here:

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:

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/eL4C42/Home

Cheers,

Patricia, Ramesh, and Nellie

Patricia Schlicht R C Sharma Nellie Deutsch

Instructions for Day 4: Achieving your first certification
Dear Friends

We trust that you had a good weekend. We saw that a number of participants used the opportunity to catch up after a busy week.

Today we'll start experimenting with basic wiki editing on your user page. You will learn how to format text using using bold, italics, lists headings and subheadings. The idea is that you will demonstrate these skills on your user page or sandbox and qualify for your first community certification in WikiEducator.

It's quite easy using the rich text editor. After today's session you will have covered the skills for your first wiki certification.

You will find a link to the instructions for Day 4 in the course material box of our home page:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home

The best way to practice your wiki skills is to find a task or wiki project relating to your real working life. We've posted a few ideas for you to think about and encourage you to sign the optional learning contract. Look forward to hearing your thoughts in the wiki!

Do take a look at the participant introductions to meet your fellow participants and if you haven't had a chance to post your introduction -- there is no better time than now!

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Participants

Start working on increasing your edit count in WikiEducator. we have a community kudos prize for the participant (and facilitator) with the highest edit count during the workshop.

Have a great day! Your facilitators team

http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Pschlicht http://wwww.wikieducator.org/User:Rcsharma http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Nelliemuller

Instructions for Day 5: New Pages and Links
Dear Friends,

These instructions are for Tuesday, Day No. 5. We see that you are making excellent progress, congratulations, you are beginning to wrap your head around wiki editing.

Congratulations in advance to those participants who will shortly have the WikiEducator community kudos and status of a Level 1 Wiki Apprentice (http://www.wikieducator.org/WikiMaster). Do you have a wiki certification yet? -- (There may be a short time lag depending on your time zone for the facilitation team to complete our review of the certifications -- we're a large group, be patient we're working as we speak ).
 * Visit our participant list to see who is leading the edit count for this workshop

You should use the skills you learn each day to add information to your user pages. Visit the participant list page and click on the user page links to see what your classmates are doing. What is your edit count so far?

See: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Participants

Day 5 of our workshop will help you to create internal and external links and show you how to create a new page in the wiki. You'll find a link to the instructions for Day 5 on our course home page:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home

We all have busy schedules, and if you have fallen a little behind, don't worry. It is pretty easy to catch up and Day 5 (Tues) is not as onerous as Day 4 (Mon) - so ample time to catch up. If you have any questions feel free to post these in the wiki. WE are here to help.

CU in the wiki

Cheers Your facilitator team Patricia, Ramesh and Nellie