User:Kruhly/Vision

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Vision

Last year my family and I moved from New Zealand to Vancouver. My formal training is in laser physics and fibre optics. For the past six months I have been working on interactive science lessons and templates on Wikieducator. I consider myself a newbie to Wikis and am looking forward to meeting everyone at the think tank.



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Reflection

When working on the wiki I often feel like a child who is too short to see over the fence that constrains me. I must climb up to peer over. Unfortunately, I'm not very strong and can only peek for short periods of time. I look over many parts of the fence and see toys, flowers, and trees, but rarely other children. The things that I see create in me a sense of wonder and hope ... some day I will be big and strong enough to improve the world outside my fence.


Wishlist

Using my newbie vocabulary, I will try to articulate my wishes below ... in hopes that they have already been fulfilled (or at least are comprehensible):

Usability

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Editing

 
  • Syntax highlighting
  • Ctrl-shift highlighting (copy/paste) -- to facilitate printing/exporting/re-contentualization of discontinuous sections
  • Dragable (and dropable) sections and templates
  • User definable editing toolbar -- the buttons above the edit text field in my monobook
  • More emphasis on categorization -- Wikiversity seems to have addressed this issue much better




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Communication

 
  • Better watchlist tool -- rarely do I find out about updates to pages on my watchlist ... is it just me?
  • Better search tool -- I often find myself using google to search for things on the wiki instead of using the wiki search -- even pages I made.
  • Welcome Template for new users



Interactivity

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Reflection

 

I wish I could create an interactive lesson that could be completed entirely online and could be printed to hard copy without an extra "worksheet" attachment. Maybe some of these would help ...

  • SVG Whiteboards -- proof of concept: Javascript Vector Drawing, Byrne Creek Walk
  • Matplotlib-like functionality (a powerful and straightforward python data visualization library).
  • asciisvg-like functionality -- creation of SVG graphs/figures on the fly asciisvg using ascii text via javascript.
  • Animated SVG -- a replacement for flash content?
  • Drag and drop objects (DIVs) -- Example of drag and drop boxes
  • Mediawiki Variables extension -- minimize template proliferation and improve functionality
  • Editable (data) Tables -- editable text box option (<inputbox> </inputbox>) is available on wikiversity) for each element in the table.
  • Straightforward Multichoice Question template or Quiz -- currently Template:MCQ is unfriendly, and wikiquiz ( ie
Point added for a correct answer:  
Points for a wrong answer:
Ignore the questions' coefficients:

Your score is 0 / 0

, see Help:Quiz) is easier to use but has some quirks ...