OERNZ/training/OERNZ3/Introductions

Wayne Mackintosh
I had the privilege of starting the WikiEducator project in February 2006 from a small desktop server based at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Today WikiEducator is one of the world's fastest growing and most productive wikis in the formal education sector. It's great to see teachers around the world collaborating and sharing knowledge in this way. I have to say that WikiEducator has been the most rewarding project of my working life as a teacher. If you want to find out a little more about my work in WikiEducator, feel free to visit my userpage. Otago Daily Times has published a short summary of WikiEducator. It's humbling to know that this global initiative is head quartered out of little Dunedin, New Zealand. I'll CU in the wiki. --Wayne Mackintosh 22:05, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

Sandy Wyber
I am a teacher of science at Marlborough Girls' College in Blenheim. I am keen to learn more about how I can create and use resources through Wikieducator. A friend did this last year and said they learnt heaps so here goes.


 * Hi Sandy, great to meet an educator from New Zealand's warmest city ;-). You've come to the right place to learn about creating and sharing teaching materials. I'm sure you'll learn as much (if not more) than your friend. --Wayne Mackintosh 23:48, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

Leigh Hynes
I am horticulture teacher and assistant principal at Ruapehu College in Ohakune (carrot and ski country). One of my aims this year is to learn how to use wikis in school, and then pass that information on to staff. I have asked staff to join me on this online training and if they do I will be more than happy. I went to Otago university, Wayne, so am feeling proud of Dunedin and her people, too!


 * Hi Leigh, WE will support you in achieving your aim of using wikis in school -- and your most welcome to share and pass on this information to colleagues at your school. Perhaps you would like to become one of our OERNZ wiki-facilitators? Encourage friends to register -- we've only just started and there is place for everyone. Dunedin is a special place --- fast becoming a centre of excellence for OER ;-) I hope that Ohakune will be joining us! --Wayne Mackintosh 23:51, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

Well thanks for the invitation, Wayne. How did you guys upload your pictures or aren't we up to that bit yet?


 * We haven't covered uploading images yet -- but if you want to work ahead you can take a look at the tutorial on how to upload images. Anyway -- not rush, some folk like to experiment and have the advantage of preknowledge :-) --Wayne Mackintosh 11:11, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

Hillary Jenkins
Kia Ora - I work at Otago Polytechnic, School of Applied Business, managing the Diploma in Applied Travel and Tourism. We run this programme from WikiEducator which is very exciting and pretty innovative, even if I say so myself. I had the pleasure of meeting Wayne two years ago when WikiEducator sponsored my travel to the Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning - Access to Learning for Development, in London. Please take a look at our programme and feel free to contact me with any questions.


 * Hi Hillary, your work in the open education arena is inspirational and your course development work on WikiEducator has been prolific. It's amazing to see what can be done using open authoring approaches. Welcome aboard --- with your experience feel free to jump in an help with facilitating the workshop :-) --Wayne Mackintosh 21:47, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

lynda Shanks
Hi all, I am currently teaching at Alfriston College in Manurewa Sth Auckland and one of 4 D.P's. I am interested in developing the use of wikis as a PD sharing tool and in the classroom environment for learners anywhere anytime kind of learning potential. Am hoping this forum will enable me to consistently try to utilise the features of wiki rather than the haphazard use I am making of them at the moment. Fingers crossed.


 * Hi Lynda, You've certainly come to right place :-). I know that time you will become a wiki master and we are here to help and support you in achieving this objective. I too have a keen interest in using the wiki model for PD -- it would be great to see a national Kiwi initiative developing OER resources for PD in the school sector. I'd be keen to share ideas and see how we can make this happen :-) --Wayne Mackintosh 21:49, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Jonathan Riddell
Hello fellow wiki learners, I am a first year teacher at Albany Senior High School, where I teach science and chemistry. ASHS is all about education and open collaborative technologies are high on the list of how we want to go about learning. There are a few staff who are using this really well and I'd like to join them. It is exciting to be apart of these things and I look forward to learning how to use wiki educator as part of mine and my students learning. Yeeha!


 * Hi Jonathan. Welcome to our family! ASHS is fast becoming a national leader in the open content model and we look forward to sharing and learning from your experiences. We'll certainly help you in getting up to speed with other colleagues at ASHS and pretty soon you will be able to show them a few tricks yourself :-) --Wayne Mackintosh 21:51, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Ché Luke
I'm a teacher at Broadgreen Intermediate School, Nelson. While I've lived in most New Zealand city centres I am originally from Auckland. I've now spent most of my life in Dunedin which I called home until a recent shift to Nelson. I've discovered I have quite an interest in collaborative learning but my biggest interest would be in finding ways to make 'teaching' (i.e. teachers teaching in New Zealand schools, in particular, the primary sector) easier for the teacher. I believe the digital world has a lot to offer although it's often not viewed that way in the primary teaching sector. I believe that 'none of us is as smart as all of us' (Ken Robinson), so naturally I'm led to a forum such as this. I will try my best to keep up.


 * Hi Ché, Very pleased to meet you in the wiki. I was also previously based in Auckland -- a great city, and now settled in Dunedin after a stint in Vancouver Canada for a few years. Must say that I love Dunedin and don't miss the traffic of Auckland or Vancouver ;-). Yeah -- I agree and share your interests in making teaching easier through the smart (and appropriate) use of technology. My gut feel is that working together -- we can achieve more than working alone. That's why I love the WikiEducator community --- a family working, discovering and creating together! Welcome to our family :-) --Wayne Mackintosh 11:16, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

Tabitha
Hi, I live in Auckland and work for Unitec as well as HRDNZ. I volunteer for one laptop per child. I am keen to learn more about WikiEducator and to show others how to use and contribute appropriately to it. I have used wikis before but am hoping that the workshop fills in gaps in my knowledge. This is my page - User:Tabitha - I learned a lot of new things making this page as I had never made an "info box" before.

Conor Bolton


Hi, I am the ePrincipal of the Volcanics eLearning Community. I completely support the idea of open educational resources and am here wanting to find out more about Wikieducator. I am based at Tauhara College in Taupo, but work with 9 other schools in our learning community, one of which includes Ruapehu College. I teach L3 and L2 Economics through video conferencing and therefore my students are dotted all around the country. I have also taken on a group of Gifted and Talented students this year, meeting with them once a week through VC. As part of my role involves ICT PD and collaboration, it is important that I have some PD on Wikieducator so that I am in a position to share with my colleagues and also keep myself up with developments in education