User:Gita Mathur/Workshop report



The concept and The Idea

 * 1) Dr. Gita Mathur joining the WikiEducator on October 3, 2008 in a F2F workshop (3-Days) conducted by Dr. Savithri Singh and Mr. Anil Prasad. I decided that this is just what I want to be involved with.
 * 2) I registered for an On-line workshop November 24 to Dec. 5,2008(10-Days), by Nellie and Patricia. I enjoyed working at night 10.00pm to 1.30am every night throughout the workshop and built up a strong learning interaction with both the facilitators and many participants.
 * 3) My receiving the WikiBuddy Certification made me decide to organize this workshop for my colleagues in Gargi College where I teach Botany.
 * 4) Then followed the idea of organising a group to help me with this task.
 * 5) After putting together my group, I took the consent of the Principal of my College.
 * 6) This was followed by my writing to COL and signing of the agreement.
 * 7) There on things started to move....there was no stopping!
 * 8) Excitement factors contributing were:
 * My User Page getting the UPE Award.
 * Launch of India-Chapter of WikiEducator by eminent scientist Dr. M.S. Swaminathan.
 * Representation of Science, Arts and Commerce faculty on the Organizing Committee.

The Start of the Process

 * 1) Designing and Display of the Poster followed.
 * 2) A Circular was sent around the college to all the teachers of all the Departments of Gargi College. The circular included a brief account on what is WikiEducator and who should participate. What basic skills are needed and a sheet was attached with headings: Name; Dept.;Email-ID to be entered by all.
 * 3) the list was later converted to a computer document and then to a mailing list.
 * 4) The participants were asked to visit the WikiEducator page, India page and my user page to become familiar with the concept.
 * 5) I created a special section on my user page to help the more enthusiastic ones to enjoy the features on my page.
 * 6) Regular meetings of the organising Committee and planning followed.
 * 7) Work started on
 * Developing the programme
 * Deciding on the Sessions and speakers
 * sending emails and telephoning the speakers.
 * sending formal Invites to Guest speakers.
 * Planning venues to be utilized.

Workshop Program Detailed Schedule
WikiEducator-Gargi 2009

January 12, 13 & 15, 2009 Workshop Schedule

Day 1 – January 12, 2009 9.30 - 10.00 am Registration and Workshop Kit

10.00 - 11.30am WORKSHOP INAUGURATION: Seminar Hall

SESSION I

Dr. B. Vaijayanthi:(Workshop coordinator) Opening, Lighting of the lamp by Guests & hosts, welcome of Guests with living plants in colourful ceramic pots. Singing of "Saraswati Vandana", a prayer for the Goddess of learning asking her to bless us in this program.

Dr. Meera Ramachandran:(Principal, Gargi College) Welcome address

Dr. Gita Mathur:Facilitator & Workshop convener) Introduction to Workshop with a presentation.

Dr. Savithri Singh: Introduction to WikiEducator

Dr. R.Sreedher: COL, CEMCA and WikiEducator

11.30 - 12.00 noon TEA BREAK

WikiEducator Session: Seminar Hall

SESSION II

12.00 - 1.00 Introductions, Assessment of Expectations

Modules I & II

Registering and creating an account in the www.wikieducator.org website; Editing and Basic Text Formatting

1.00 - 1.45 pm LUNCH

Hands-On: Computer Lab.

SESSION III

1.45 – 3.00 pm Lab work: Participants work on registering and creating their own account in the www.wikieducator.org

Text Editing within WikiEducator

3.00 - 3.15 pm TEA BREAK 3.15 - 4.30 pm Hands-On: Computer Lab.

SESSION IV

Modules III & IV Developing your profile on userpage Creating New Pages, Internal & External Links

Day 2 – January 13, 2009 9:30 - 11.00 am Hands-On: Computer Lab.

SESSION V

Modules V & VI

Uploading Images, Files and Multimedia Content Help, Tutorials, FAQ's and Sandbox

Lab work: Participants working on their own content

Hands-On: Computer Lab.

SESSION VI

Modules VII & VIII

Communication and Interaction within WikiEducator (Discussion, Email Integration, Talk Pages) Collaborative content authoring (Page History, Recent Changes, Reverting etc)

Lab work: Participants working on their own content

11.00 – 11.15am TEA BREAK

11.15 - 1.00 pm Hands-On: Computer Lab.

SESSION VII

Modules IX & X

Creating Navigational Components in WikiEducator Using Wiki Educator Pedagogical templates in your page Lab work: Participants working on their own content

1.00 - 2.00 pm LUNCH 2.00 - 3.00 pm Hands-On: Computer Lab.

SESSION VIII

Modules XI

Structure (introducing subpages and categories) Lab work: Participants working on their own content

3.00 - 3.15 pm TEA BREAK

3.15 - 4.30 pm Hands-On: Computer Lab.

SESSION IX

Modules XII

Developing a teaching resource WikiEducator Advanced Features – Font Colours and Tables

Day 3 – January 15, 2009

Seminar Hall

SESSION X 9:30 - 11:15 am

Mr. Niyam Bhushan: "Goddess Saraswati in Jail. Because of You." (Open Source Systems: FOSS, OER, Linux, Content Publishing Licensing Schemes)

11.15 – 11.30 am TEA BREAK

11.30 - 12.15 pm

Ms.V.V.Lakshmi: Digital e-Resources for College Students. NSDL – A Case Study SESSION XI 12.15 - 1.00 pm

Dr. Gita Mathur: Discussion on topics arising out of the hands-On work on WikiEducator. Participants' work opened on screen and discussed the progress.

1.00 - 2.00 pm LUNCH

2.00 - 4.30pm VALIDICTORY: Seminar Hall

SESSION XII

2.00-3.00 pm Dr. R. Sreedher: WikiEducator – India Chapter; and developments in Open Educational Resources

3.00 - 3.30 pm Feedback and Follow-up

3.30 - 4.00 pm Distribution of Certificates by Dr. R. Sreedher

Vote of Thanks by the Coordinator Dr. B. Vaijayanthi 4.00 - 4.30 pm TEA BREAK

Memorable Moments
Mr. Anil Prasad is a good online watch for my participants. I talked to him on phone to spare a few minutes on the workshop days for adding his notes to the participants' pages. His first note was to Dr. Sheela..she read it out aloud & everyone clapped :-)  I sent this mail to Patricia today: Dear Patricia Thanks for encouraging my workshop participants. It created a lot of excitement among the newbies. As they opened their pages in the morning, they got your lovely ,kind words. Each one read out the messages on her page by both of us :-)

The workshop is going great....even more than my expectations. As soon as the first participant got registered she called out in excitement..."I am a WikiEducator"....this was followed by lots of others saying "Me Too"...

Then all the participants started learning editing skills on the first day, bold, italics, bullets; some people put bullets before the heading; it wouldnt accept - a logic was developed -why would a heading need a bullet since it is already in a particular format, big and bold? This was followed by everyone uploading the image of the college in their page; Dr Mathur had made the picture available in the wikieducator itself and it was fun copying such a beautiful picture. Photographs were clicked by three people during the workshop and these were again loaded on the desktop of the server of the computer lab so that everyone could upload the image of her choice. Patricia had put a box in everyones page asking for photograph. Lo! and behold! what is this everyones page contains the photo of Supreeti Das! We all made fun of each other that you are so impressed with her photograph that you want to look like her??? Then one of the participants discovered that she could edit the box containing the image syntax by her own image name, Dr Mathur also came to the rescue; Everyone happily put their own image.

All Learning contracts are signed. Check the table on this page.

 =Achievements of this Workshop=


 * Addition of THIRTY ONE NEW WikiEducators, all Faculty at Gargi College, University of Delhi, India.
 * All new Userpages with good progress of the Newbies.
 * Participants are from science, arts/humanities and commerce streams.
 * Compilation of a Workbook like manual/book on the pattern of Modules to work out Hands-on. This was given to every participant with the Workshop kit.
 * Establishment of a WikiEducator-Gargi College Multi-Disciplinary Academic Advancement Hub. All the contributions by Gargi Academia will be linked to this Hub, which in turn will be linked to WikiEducator-India page.
 * Formation of Gargi College Linux User's Group

=Talk by Dr. B. Vaijayanthi to Patricia=

Wikieducator workshop L4C34 at Gargi College, New Dehi India, conducted by Dr. Gita Mathur (2)

* History * Move * Watch

Hi Patricia I was the coordinator of the workshop on L4C34 held at Gargi College, New Delhi, facilitator being Dr Gita Mathur. Apart from the two of us, our organising committee consisted of Dr Sheela Kumari (Physical education), Ms. Arshmeet Kaur(Mathematics) and Ms. Romita Popli(Commerce). It was a very memorable experience. As soon as the participants logged in they got message from Mr Anil Prasad and you. Thanks for the constant encouragement. Soon after registering they could see what collaborative content development meant. Your box was also appreciated by everyone. The workshop was very successful from all aspects. Though some of the participants (very few) had an idea about wikieducator detailed information could be obtained only through this workshop. Hats off to the wikieducator developers and our dear Dr Gita Mathur for arranging such a wonderful inhouse workshop. Since the group was of our own colleagues it was full of fun working with them. I also had signed in and learnt some syntax before the starting of the workshop and could help the participants on the first day. The second day of the workshop was only on hands on session and all our participants really enjoyed it. Everyone liked the concept - having your own web page (though a bit of apprehension about somebody meddling with their page). And most of us being college teachers soon thought of using it for the benefit of our students. It is directly relevant to us. The speakers were wonderful. Everyone had something different to share. Dr. Savitri Singh very nicely exposed us to the concept of wikieducator and the free software linux. It was a nice gesture of hers to have spent time with us inspite of her busy schedule. Dr Sreedher enlightened about CEMCA, its functioning and the easy now which of course warrants a separate workshop. Dr Sreedher was there on two days and this boosted the morale of the organising committee. It was really an honour for us. Mr Bhushan's interactive session was highly absorbing, very thought provoking and of course highly interactive. He made us realise the importance of Linux and we all soon agreed to form a LInux users group at our college. Ms Lakshmi (NISCAIR) gave us a very important piece of information - that on important websites which were of complete relevance to the science departments. She also spent the whole day with us. Dr. Gita Mathur was full of excitement giving very well planned, well organised talks and helping in hands on sessions. I am thankful to her for roping me into the committee. In fact this gave me a very good experience in organising and conducting a workshop. The apprehensions of the participants slowly started fading as the speakers presented their talks and answered their queries. Our own principal madam Dr Meera Ramachandran aptly summarised the wikieducator concept; she is very enthusiastic about it and alwasy supports such causes which lead to academic development of the faculty. After the workshop all our participants are willing to continue with wikieducator content development. Thanks again for all your support.

* Bvaijayanthi (Talk | contribs) * 02:15, January 17, 2009 * Edit * History * Permalink * Reply