User:Kruhly/Vision

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.

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

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

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

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 ...