Announcement

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Getting started - pre-workshop orientation

Hi everyone

Welcome to the WikiEducator Inspiring to becoming an Agent of Change Workshop which starts this Wednesday, 25 August 2010. Participants from 17 countries have registered for this workshop. Registration is still open if you would like to invite a friend to join us for this exciting learning opportunity. Everyone is welcome to join us.)

This is a friendly a reminder that our workshop starts on Wednesday. We are posting instructiosn early and details are provided below, should you want to post to this forum -- however, as a wiki workshop we encourage all participants to post their questions directly in the wiki smile.

Two things you need to do today -- shouldn't take you more than a few minutes to complete the orientation:

  1. Bookmark the course homepage: Go to the workshop homepage (http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home), and bookmark this in your browser. (If you're not sure how to bookmark a page in your browser -- see below).
  2. Read the getting started instructions: We have listed a few points to help you get started -- take a few minutes to read these, particularly if you are new to wiki courses and / or OER

WE look forward to meeting you in the Wiki!

Be bold and experiment, most of all have fun!

Cheers,
Your Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Facilitators (Take a look at our introductory videos)

How to bookmark a browser page:

Posting to the Moodle Forum (shouldn't be necessary)

We don't anticipate any need to post to the forum (which is hosted on Moodle) because we encourage participants to use the wiki. However, you have been registered under the same username as the one you used to registered your WikiEducator account with two differences:

  • Your registered Moodle username for this course is all lowercase -- whereas WikiEducator is case sensitive. If your WikiEducator username is PatriciaSchlicht -- use patriciaschlicht on for the Moodle forums
  • If your WikiEducator username has a space, for example Patricia Schlicht - use patriciaschlicht.
  • Your initial password for the Moodle forum is changeme and you will be prompted to change your password. (Note this password is not the same as your WikiEducator password.)
  • If this doesn't work -- create a new account
  • If this doesn't work - -don't stress -- all the instructions are posted in the wiki smile


Day 1 Instructions: Be bold, try an edit!

We are posting these instructions early for the benefit of participants who live in those parts of the world who have already seen the future happen insofar as time zones are concerned ;-). (If you're not sure -- these instructions are for your Wednesday.)

This is a wiki workshop, so all our instructions and activities will be conducted in WikiEducator. Each day, we will send you an email with the instructions for the day's activities which you are free to complete at your own pace and at a time which suites your personal schedule. (Or you can just visit the course homepage on the wiki). You should be able to complete the activities assigned for each day within 15 to 20 minutes -- so this is not too onerous. If you get stuck - just ask -- our motto is: Just try it -- our community will support you!

Day 1 is pretty relaxed, and you will find the instructions and assignment for the first day of the workshop from the course homepage in the wiki:

  1. Day 1, Be bold try an edit. See: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home (see under the course materials box)
  2. Alternatively you can go to the course schedule page in the wiki, See: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Workshop_schedule .
  3. You have one easy assignment today -- that is to introduce yourself in the wiki (instructions provided under the course materials for Day 1)

Wiki's come with a health warning -- they can be addictive, but we're going to have lots of fun. Let's make OER futures happen for the world!

Cheers
From your Your Facilitators

Day 2 Instructions: So what about quality in open wiki authoring?


Dear Friends,

A warm welcome to all our new participants. You still have the opportunity to invite friends to join us, as we are only getting started today, the first day of the workshop. Some of you have joined us again, and we salute you for this decision. There is a lot to be learned and you are really taking advantage, which is wonderful. Your time commitment per day shouldn't take more than 15 or 20 minutes for new arrivals to catch up. WE are here to share knowledge and to collaborate in the Wiki way, so feel free to spread the word and give the gift of knowledge, and point your friends to this link:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/About

This email provides a copy of the instructions for Day 2 (your Thursday) of our workshop in your inbox. Note that all instructions are linked from our workshop home page:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home (Bookmark this page in your browser).

Remember: if you missed earlier instructions, you will find copies of all activities for the previous day posted in the Announcements box in the wiki.

We see folk are making great progress with the activities for Day 1 ahead of time (in many parts of the world) and are experimenting . Well done!

Get to know your fellow participants and read the introductions posted so far (see: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Introductions). Wiki's are about experimentation , so be bold and have a bash at posting your own intro. Don't worry, you can't break anything, if you do, WE can fix it (we promise). Wiki's keep a record of every edit, so it is easy to fix a mistakes.

An early heads up,- there are community Kudos awards for the participants with the highest number of edits during the workshop , so get started!

Day 2 is pretty relaxed , you will learn more about the amazing world of wikis, have the opportunity to familiarize with it. Watch our short video introduction and follow the instructions posted in the wiki.

Assignment for Day 2

Your assignment for Day 2 is to post ideas and thoughts in the discussion on quality in open authoring systems. You'll find step-by-step instructions for Day 2 listed on the course schedule page:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Workshop_schedule


Don't forget to sign up for the live session we are offering on September 1, 2010 at 7:00 Pacific Standard Time.

Register and Launch the class here

Check your local time here



Remember, you can also access the course materials directly from the home page for this workshop:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home

WE will see you in the wiki

Your facilitatator team: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Facilitators


Instructions for Day 3: Customising your Preferences

Hallo everyone.

A few more participants have joined us in the last two days, so a special word of welcome to all of you who have just joined the workshop, you are now part of the world's largest initiative, to build wiki skills for education.

Friday's activities are purposefully designed to create a gap for those who may need a little time to catch up on the first two days work. If you have fallen a little behind, you have the advantage of the weekend to catch up. All you will need is about an hour to work through the activities for the first three days.

It's great to see folk introducing themselves in the wiki, do take a look. Here is the link:

Introductions


I see that that our Introduction page has recorded almost 450 page views! This means colleagues are reading the wiki pages and meeting new friends from 50 different countries . Don't be shy, and jump right in. Don't be missed by your absence. It is also nice to meet your fellow participants .

If you get stuck -- just post your question in the wiki here:

General Forum


INSTRUCTIONS FOR DAY 3

Today we will show you how edit your user preferences and ask you to complete our New user survey, shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes. See:

Workshop Schedule

(Click on the link for Day 3).

Remember the best page to keep track and keep up to date with the workshop is the course homepage:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home

Cheers,

Patricia, Ramesh, and Nellie

Patricia Schlicht
R C Sharma
Nellie Deutsch

Instructions for Day 4: Achieving your first certification

Dear Friends

We trust that you had a good weekend. We saw that a number of participants used the opportunity to catch up after a busy week.

Today we'll start experimenting with basic wiki editing on your user page. You will learn how to format text using using bold, italics, lists headings and subheadings. The idea is that you will demonstrate these skills on your user page or sandbox and qualify for your first community certification in WikiEducator .

It's quite easy using the rich text editor. After today's session you will have covered the skills for your first wiki certification.

You will find a link to the instructions for Day 4 in the course material box of our home page:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home

The best way to practice your wiki skills is to find a task or wiki project relating to your real working life. We've posted a few ideas for you to think about and encourage you to sign the optional learning contract. Look forward to hearing your thoughts in the wiki!

Do take a look at the participant introductions to meet your fellow participants and if you haven't had a chance to post your introduction -- there is no better time than now!

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Participants

Start working on increasing your edit count in WikiEducator. we have a community kudos prize for the participant (and facilitator) with the highest edit count during the workshop.

Have a great day!
Your facilitators team

http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Pschlicht
http://wwww.wikieducator.org/User:Rcsharma
http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Nelliemuller

Instructions for Day 5: New Pages and Links

Dear Friends,

These instructions are for Tuesday, Day No. 5. We see that you are making excellent progress, congratulations, you are beginning to wrap your head around wiki editing.

Congratulations in advance to those participants who will shortly have the WikiEducator community kudos and status of a Level 1 Wiki Apprentice (http://www.wikieducator.org/WikiMaster). Do you have a wiki certification yet? -- (There may be a short time lag depending on your time zone for the facilitation team to complete our review of the certifications -- we're a large group, be patient we're working as we speak ).

  • Visit our participant list to see who is leading the edit count for this workshop

You should use the skills you learn each day to add information to your user pages. Visit the participant list page and click on the user page links to see what your classmates are doing. What is your edit count so far?

See: http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Participants

Day 5 of our workshop will help you to create internal and external links and show you how to create a new page in the wiki. You'll find a link to the instructions for Day 5 on our course home page:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home

We all have busy schedules, and if you have fallen a little behind, don't worry. It is pretty easy to catch up and Day 5 (Tues) is not as onerous as Day 4 (Mon) - so ample time to catch up. If you have any questions feel free to post these in the wiki. WE are here to help.

CU in the wiki

Cheers Your facilitator team Patricia, Ramesh and Nellie

Instructions for Day 6: Images and 2nd Wiki Certification

Hi Everyone,

These instructions are for Day 6 (your Wednesday) a little earlier than I posted the instructions for Day 5. We are all in different timezones, so some will get this earlier than others. If, for example you live on the West coast of America, Hawaii or Samoa -- you receive these instructions typically one day in advance -- count yourselves lucky --. If you live in parts of the world that have seen the future that has already happened (e.g. New Zealand) you get these instructions in your inbox on the appropriate morning.

Today you will learn how to upload and manipulate images in WikiEducator. After completing today's activities you can qualify for your 2nd community wiki certification. Please refer to the course contents box from your home page for Day 6:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home

If you have missed out on a day or two's activities, not to worry. This is a flexible workshop and all the activities and course materials are accessible from the course page. If you can find an hour or two, you should quite easily be able to catch up and join the leader's board for the highest number of edits during the workshop

As you know, WikiEducator is a free content project, therefore we can only use images which use open content licenses. (You can read more about free content here: http://wikieducator.org/Wikieducator_tutorial/What_is_free_content)

We recommend that when you are practising to upload of images, choose a photograph which you took. This means you can legally license the content under an open content license. You will be asked to choose a license and select a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) or Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license (CC-BY-SA). We don't have enough time in the workshop to cover all the detail on licensing, that's for an intermediate level course.

In the beginning images may be a little confusing, remember when uploading images, in most cases the image resides on your local machine and there is a process required to upload this to the WikiEducator servers before they can be viewed by other internet users. It will make sense when you give this a try. If you get stuck just ask us in the wiki discussion area, we are here to help.

Have fun and we look forward to awarding your next WikiEducator certification! (In a day or three depending on where you reside .

Warm wishes,

Your team of facilitators Patricia, Ramesh and Nellie

Instructions for Day 7 (Collaborative Editing)

Dear Friends,

Many educators are concerned about the openness of wiki editing. However, a wiki is a powerful technology designed for mass collaboration. Every edit is recorded, as well as any images uploaded to the site which means we can restore or revert any changes made to a page.

Instructions for Day 7:

1.Today's introductory video provides a brief overview of selected wiki features we use to monitor editing in the wiki. 2.We demonstrate how to revert an edit. 3.Before proceeding, we recommend that you read the instructions in Tutorial 7 Instructions for Day 7

1.Today, you should work through Tutorial 7 on collaborative editing where you will learn a few neat tricks on how to monitor activity in the wiki; 2.You will also learn how to revert an edit which you should practise on your user page. We're looking forward to our next assignment where we will use one of our communication tools in the wiki. Please do your best to update your user page today as we will ask participants from this group to provide feedback and suggestions on our respective user pages in the wiki using these communication tools.

Suggestion

Several of the learning contract projects listed in the discussion on ideas for Learning Contract projects are open to collaborative edits by course participants. Take a look and join in!

Your Facilitators

Patricia, Ramesh and Nellie

PS: For those of you who missed the recording, it will be posted shortly in the workshop schedule in the appropriate place


Instructions for Day 8: Communication and Interaction

Hi Everyone,

I can’t believe how fast our workshop is running along. Today’s instructions for Day 8 are the last one before the weekend, so should you have run behind, you will have time to catch up.

We see quite a few User pages taking shape in the wiki and we are impressed. Some participants still need to practice their images

In the near future I suspect we may see a growing number of our members receiving the global Userpage Expo (UPE) award from eL4C42: Userpage Excellence Award

We're in the process of reviewing your user pages to see who has achieved their 2nd wiki certification -- celebrate your achievements.

Today we'll have a look at how you can leave a message on the talk page in the wiki (that is the real discussion page associated with every wiki page). Have a bash and leave a message for one of the course participants. You will find the instructions under the course contents box on our homepage:

eL4C42 Homepage

Next week we'll take things easy and we will show you a cool feature to convert existing lesson plans or resources in standard word processing format into wiki syntax for sharing among educators around the world.

They say that sharing is caring and have a great weekend. If you can find an hour or so to catch up over the weekend -- that would be great. We're very flexible and do our best to live out our motto: Just try it, our community will support you.

Cheers,
Your international team of facilitators

Instructions for Day 9: Working offline and uploading teaching materials

Hi Everyone,

Hope you had a great weekend! The activity and levels of commitment from participants (& facilitators) in this workshop is nothing short of inspirational. There has been a hive of activity from many participants over the weekend catching up and polishing their user pages -- well done!

These instructions are for Monday. We'll demonstrate a unique feature of the WikiEducator website. WikiEducator provides a web service to convert documents into wiki text -- a great feature if you want to prepare texts offline or have existing teaching resources you would like to donate to our project.

You will find a link to the instructions for Day 9 under the Course Content section on our home page:

http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C42/Home

Have a great day!

Cheers,
Your international facilitation team

Instructions for Day 10: Wrapping up

Hi Everyone,

These instructions are for your Tuesday -- the last Day of our WikiEducator workshop.

Congratulations , you have completed the WikiEducator "Inspiring to become an Agent of Change" workshop and have now joined thousands of graduates of the Learning4Content project!

Today we are wrapping up the workshop. You will find the instructions for Day 10 from our course home page under the Course Content section:

eL4C42 Home page

In summary, you should:

1) Join our main WikiEducator mailing list to keep up to date with what is happening with the WikiEducator family. (see at the bottom of the WikiEducator Home page at WikiEducator Main Page 2) Invite a friend or colleague to join the next Learning4Content workshop, spread the news! The course starts on September 22, to October 5, 2010. You can register here: Learning4Content Workshop Registration 3) Share your experiences, thoughts and suggestions by posting a reply on our wrap-up thread under Wiki Discussions of our workshop home page (link above). 4) Consider giving the gift of knowledge by supporting our charitable gifting and organisational recruitment campaign Invitation to give the gift of knowledge

The winners of the community kudos awards for the most edits during the workshop are:

  1. Zan Iqbal from New Zealand with 109 edits
  2. Brendan Smith from Vietan with 78 edits
  3. Satendra Singh with 68 edits

Well done and congratulations.

A warm thank you all your facilitators for all your contributions in making the WikiEducator Inspiring to becoming an Agent of Change workshop a success.

Cheers,
Your international facilitation team

Patricia, Ramesh and Nellie

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