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.
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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[1]. There I talked about OER and Globalization, video of the session [2] power point presentation I used [3]
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)[4]. 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.
