Featured L4C Participant:Nadia El Borai

To be a good teacher you also need to learn and this is what wikieducator gives, teachers become learners.



Start
My experience on WikiEducator started as I was interested in getting my lectures on line. I joined the UNESCO discussion group and received an email from Susan d'Antoni introducing me to the WikiEducator course which I took in February of 2008. It was hard to follow because I was busy teaching, had little time to concentrate and everything was very new, so I took it a second time.

Taking the Wikieducator course
I found the help of the community very useful and I was not inhibited even to ask the simplest questions. The course teachers as well as fellow learners were helping answer questions. Then there was the competition to receive a wiki certification like 1 and 2. I looked at other peoples pages and learnt by copying and trying to improve. I am by nature not very competitive, but somehow it was my goal to become a WikiBuddy. I was so proud of it, I think even more so than when I got my Ph.D. Somehow it became very addictive. Normally looking at a computer would initiate a yawn but I could spend hours trying to get something to work.

Application after WE training
1. A scientific paper I published and an interview I gave are available on-line for a fee which I have not agreed on. I am able to make my work available for free on wikieducator.

2. After learning the skill to edit and use a wiki it was easy to edit and add material on wikipedia too.

3. In the summer of 2008, I applied and received a scholarship to help with my ticket to attend Wikimania 2008 in Alexandria in Egypt. There I talked about OER and Globalization, video of the session power point presentation I used

Personal Background
Born in Italy

Nationality: Egyptian

Elementary Education: French schools in Lebanon, one year unable to attend school due to civil war; French school in Zurich until Brevet. Boarding School in the UK.

University: B.Sc. honours in Microbiology from London University (1974), M.Sc. in Cell Science and Virology Brunel University. Moved to Japan in 1978.

Started a Ph.D. in Medicine from Tokai University School of Medicine main subject Infertility, the year my youngest child started school.

Lessons learnt from my background

 * My father used to say to me you can loose your money or belongings but no one can take what is in your head i.e. your learning.


 * Felt the need for books and libraries while doing my degree as I would spend holidays in Egypt and would have to get obtain special permission to used the NAMRU (U.S. Navy Medical Research Unit). In the early 1970's Universities in the U.K. were free. I was lucky in that we had no fees to pay and we would receive grants to purchase books, these were extremely expensive.


 * One reason that I would like to help on wikieducator is that I had free education and think everyone should have access to it.