Community Media/Welcome

Introductory Letter (1) - to someone who doesn't know about the WE Community Media Node
Hi David,

Great speaking with you earlier today.

Here are some links to WikiEducator - http://www.wikieducator.org (WikiEducator is to education, what Wikipedia is for information). The main purpose behind WikiEducator is to develop a free and open version of the world's education curriculum by 2015, in line with the UN's Millennium Development Goals. It is am open source project of the Commonwealth of Learning, based in Vancouver - http://www.col.org

About Community Media (on WikiEducator)
Within WikiEducator is a variety project nodes, one of them being the Community Media node - http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media

Our aim with this project node, is to provide a resource where Community Media / Community Radio practitioners and trainer-facilitators can develop and share their resources, so that they don't have to reinvent the wheel every time they work at a new or different station. There is also a growing international Community Media Community of Practice on Google - http://groups.google.com/group/community-media

Already, we have trainer-facilitators who are sharing materials openly ~ please see: http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media/IAN_PRINGLE, and the materials from a recent workshopn in Jeffrey Town: http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media/ICT4D_JAMAICA#Designing_Effective_Learning_Programs

We (Commonwealth of Learning - http://www.col.org) are interested in organisational design (including governance) and developing Effective Learning Programmes (spanning 3-5 years) with specific outcomes in mind for the Community Radio station and community. While content development is important (and we integrate good pedagogy into the actual programmes), we are also very focused on the design phase of a workshop delivery process. We are also using a facilitated process rather than a training one ~ as we believe there is considerable connection here to capacity-building and sustainability. (I've been facilitating organisational / community design for some time now, and I've seen first hand how important engagement, buy-in and ownership is).

We would be happy to list your organisation on our Community Media node, and also to teach you the wiki skills required to develop the content on WikiEducator. (It would take about 30-45 min. by Skype, or we have online courses running regularly, with facilitator support.

Please check out the links, and let me know your thoughts, ideas.....and what you think the possibilities might be.....

Cheers,

- Randy Fisher (aka Wikirandy for WikiEducator)

Introductory Letter (2) - when someone shows an interest
Hi XXXX,

I'm sending you some links from our Community Media node on WikiEducator. (WikiEducator is for education, like Wikipedia is for information.

Please take a look at the main page - www.wikieducator.org

We have a Community Media discussion group on Google - http://groups.google.com/group/community-media, and we encourage people and organisations in our Community to share information and resources with each other on this forum as well. For example, when someone produces learning materials on the wiki, we encourage them to let the rest of the community know that it exists - along with a link directly to those educational resources.

Please take a look at the main Community Media website - www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media, and the other linked 'sub-pages'.

Also, we have added organisations to the site, and they are linked to their own Organisation pages ~ I've created one for KCOMNET (see below).


 * http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media/NGOs


 * http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media/KCOMNET

We recommend that when you create learning materials, that you put them on your Organisation page (making sure to link the sub/down-level - pages to your main organisation page ~ and keep them in the Community Media space. (That way, you will be able to easily find them, and they can be found in the Community_Media Statistics page - http://www.wikieducator.org/User:JimTittsler/Sandbox/CommunityMediaStats

As is the wiki way, you are welcome to edit your Organisation's wiki pages, and others too... I would be happy to show you how, and this can be done either by taking one of our online workshops (with facilitator support; or do it by phone or Skype (please send your user name) at your convenience.

Please do let me know how I can be of service.

- Randy Fisher (aka Wikirandy)

Welcome Note (3) - Setting up the Organisation page & Wiki Skills training
Hi Gurmit,

Glad to hear from you ~ I can help you with your questions ~ and also provide skills training on the wiki.

1. http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media 2. I have set up a page for IAS on the Organisations page - http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media/NGOs 3. The IAS page is here, and I have put some opening notes - from IAS's main web page, here: http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media/NGOs/IAS 4. I have added your name to our Google Group discussion on Community Media - http://groups.google.com/group/community-media 5. We can train you in wiki skills ~ I can do it directly, in about 45 minutes, or, I can put you, and your colleagues onto online training with facilitator support.....but I think to get "buy in" of your senior folks, it makes sense to 'train' you first, and then you'll see how powerful this really is... OK?

Do you have a skype account?

- Randy aka Wikirandy

Welcome Note (4) - General Introduction to WikiEducator
Introductory Letter - to someone who doesn't know about the WE Community Media Node

Hi David,

As promised, here is some information about WikiEducator ~ (WikiEducator is to education, what Wikipedia is for information) - http://www.wikieducator.org The main purpose behind WikiEducator is to develop a free and open version of the world's education curriculum by 2015, in line with the UN's Millennium Development Goals. It is am open source project of the Commonwealth of Learning, based in Vancouver - http://www.col.org (I am a member of WikiEd's 1st elected Community Council).

Within WikiEducator is a variety project nodes, one of them the Community Media node - http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media, an integral part of our Media for Learning Programme - http://www.wikieducator.org/Media_for_Learning

Our aim here is to provide a resource where Community Media / Community Radio practitioners and trainer-facilitators can develop and share their resources, so that they don't have to reinvent the wheel every time they work at a new or different community media TV or Radio station. Already, we have trainer-facilitators who are sharing materials openly ~ please see: http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media/IAN_PRINGLE, and from a recent Caribbean workshop of Community Radio stations facilitated by ICT4DEV Jamaica - http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media/ICT4D_JAMAICA#Designing_Effective_Learning_Programs

There are many possibilities for collaborating on WikiEducator, building your community and connecting you to our Community and free infrastructure. Some examples of what's possible on the wiki:


 * developing training or curricula - entire programs, courses or modules - (i.e., medical education, conmunity education, Jewish education)
 * revising training materials and introducing better pedagogy, quality and multimedia
 * development of online training / facilitation including social networking in Web 2.0 / 3.0
 * facilitating (international) collaboration and increasing participation and engagement
 * adding new life (and value) to existing content (i.e., from roundtables, events and conferences)
 * reducing publishing and distribution costs (up to 70% less)
 * developing an employee handbook for use by HR practitioners
 * developing cross-cultural relations training for organizations
 * distributing responsibility for updating and maintaining materials / interaction
 * collaborating on funding / grant proposals
 * strengthening networks, linkage and contacts ~ and sustainability

Please take a look at the links, and let me know your thoughts, ideas and interest.....and what you think the possibilities might be.....

Cheers,

- Randy Fisher (aka Wikirandy for WikiEducator)

for Community Media node
It is really good practice to notify our growing community of new resources available on the wiki. We can do this by:


 * posting a note on this discussion group;
 * responding with feedback and alerting others to additional resources;
 * creating a link on the Content & Projects page - http://www.wikieducator.org/Community_Media/Content)
 * writing a brief news story / brief to appear on the Community Media node front page (BTW: if it is very significant news, we can get a story / link on the main page of WikiEducator

Building Your Identity & Reputation
By posting materials and responding, you can help build your identity (external to WE) and reputation (internal to WE. Also, setting the stage for collaboration.