Featured contributor:Anil Prasad

WikiEducator is my second home -- an online home!

Hi, I'm Anil Prasad from Kerala in India. I am a civil servant employed by Finance Department in Kerala state.

In September 2007, I accidentally landed on the WikiEducator site while searching for an article on Governance in Wikipedia. The name of the URL itself (WikiEducator) was an "attention grabber" which enticed me to follow the link and discover this fascinating world of online Open and Distance Learning (ODL).

From WikiEducator I first heard about the Commonwealth of Learning and then visited the COL website. Reading about the development ideologies, principles and strategies that lead and direct COL's work, I decided to create an account on WikiEducator and through this I started my journey of association with the WikiEducator family.

Immediately after creating my account, I started studying the WikiEducator guidelines and learned more about the Mediawiki software. My first encounters and contributions were directed on the India country page. Subsequently I have become a WikiEducator Ambassador and I keep my promise by supporting face-to-face and online learning activities for new members of our community. I also work on the development of content during my leisure time and holidays.

I enjoy teaching. From the age of 16 (immediately after 10th standard) to the age of 27 (when I entered the service), I was actively involved with teaching at tuition centres, which start from primary-level classes to the graduate level. I have been involved at all levels at these tuition centres. Of particular importance for our WikiEducator community is that I studied through distance education for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

Since high school I experienced a growing disinterest in classroom-based study. I was an amicable student and achieved reasonably good marks, but was frustrated with "imprisoning my thoughts" for a major portion of the day as regulated by the class timetables. I guess you can figure why I love ODL and why WikiEducator has become my second home!