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Why, What, and the Role of WikiEducator
What is WikiEducator
WikiEducator is open for anyone who shares the vision of open content. It is a Website that provides free contents of e-learning for everyone. Everyone is free to edit and use these free contents and users do not need high level of technical skills. It is vastly growing and mainly used as an educational resource and make possible for educators and learners to collaborate any where in the world.
A brief introduction by Nellie Deutsch-- Video
WikiEducator Home
The Role of WikiEducator
- Developing a strong community focused collaboration
- Educational projects and initiatives with free contents
- Building an Open Education Resources (OERs) -- "The Open Education Resource Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that provides leadership, networking and support for educators and educational institutions to achieve their objectives through Open Education." The OER foundation is the organization that funds the WikiEducator projects.
- An international community for open education
Why WikiEducator is Important
The Wikieducator is significantly expanding its free learning and improving the accessibility to education projects from any where in the world. The advantages of WikiEducator are:
- The convenience and the simplicity of the Wikieducator.
- The users do not have to travel anywhere to develop their programs.
- Communicate make possible around the world without having to deal with time differences or with technologies.
- The freedom of all educators to teach with the technologies and contents of their choice.
We bring our close attention to the following areas that the WikiEducator assist in their initiatives.
Early Education
"Enhancing the quality of young children’s lives is now a national and international priority. “Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.” is number 1 goal of the Dakar Framework for Action (2000) on ‘Education for All’ Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) programs help to improve school performance as well as reduce dropout and repetition rate, which ultimately reduce cost and improve efficiency of primary education. It also has a long term impact on country’s education, health, moral and social values and children’s development as a whole." Early Childhood Care and Development
Every parent wants their own child to do well in school, whether it's preschool or at the nations top university. But most parents wait until age 5 to enroll their kids into kindergarten. So why not get them off on the right track of sucess, and enroll them in preschool. An early education benefits the child in that they are more mentally and socially prepared when it is time to enter primary school and beyond.
Early education offers little ones a variety of skills that they might otherwise miss out on such as:
Social Skills- Interacting with new and different individuals
Communication- Improving motor skills to communicate with others
Mental- Thinking for ones self rather than depending on what others say or do
Violence- Less likely to commit violent crimes later in life when older
And much more...
Early Childhood Education
Preschool Education
Note: This is Katherine's section and she did not contribute to the page. However, two of us started to complete the section but we stopped working it further per the message by Instructor.
Distance Learning and Technology in Education
What Is Distance Learning?
Distance learning and distance education have been greatly facilitated by the advent of computer technology. Distance learning is used to educate in instances where students and instructors are separated by time or geographic distance (1).
In the past, distance learning was conducted by older technologies such as radio and television, or services such as mail correspondence. With the rapid rise of modern technology, distance education is dynamically shifting in order to keep pace with the shifting social changes that computer technology enables (1).
The Impact of Technology
Computers and the internet have allowed changes in lifestyle for many people, and have greatly closed the communication gap over large distances and time. Today, distance learning can be conducted from virtually anywhere around the world, allowing the school to come to the student (1). Distance learning has opened many opportunities to people who have previously been unable to obtain education due to other commitments.
Opportunities and Challenges Posed
Digital technologies allow for great flexibility in distance learning as well. Through distance education, more varied multimedia tools such as video, simulations, and assessment tools can be applied to the learning process (2). As a result, the quality of the learning process can be enhanced, and students and teachers can play a part in identifying what tools suit their education best (1).
Although the technology required to implement a robust distance education program can be costly, the tools required by the student are becoming more ubiquitous and less expensive as technology advances (1). The infrastructure required by the educator or institution may still be cost-prohibitive, however. The United States Department of Agriculture, in its ongoing effort to improve development and the quality of life in rural communities, offers a series of competitive grants to provide distance education opportunities to rural areas of the United States (3). Additionally, The United States Department of Education funds grants for distance education programs targeted especially at adult learners (2).
WikiEducator and Distance Learning
WikiEducator has the ability to play a pivotal role in distance education. Among its numerous advantages:
- WikiEducator is a central location on the internet for students to access and learn from.
- As a free article repository, WikiEducator allows for easy and free access to educational material that both students and instructors can manipulate.
- WikiEducator is an open format hosted freely for the express purposes of education and learning.
- Educators and students can leave input and feedback on open articles under WikiEducator about what tools, technologies, and pedagogical strategies work best for specific curricula in distance learning
1. http://www.distance-learning-college-guide.com/what-is-distance-learning.html
2. http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/AdultEd/tdlearn.html
3. http://www.usda.gov/rus/telecom/dlt/dlthighlights.htm
Resources for Educators and Learners
Educator Resources
Educators can use many websites such as Smart.fm and italki to post up lectures for free, quizes, and guidelines to help students that are willing to learn. These websites are for students willing to learn, and wanting to teach themselves. It allows interaction with other people interested in the same material from around the world to interact with each other.
Educators can use almost any item to teach, a website called Teamviewer, although not primarily meant for teaching, it is a free program that allows a teacher to view exactly what is happening on a students computer, take control if needed etc, that way the student my receive direct help and see how the teacher solves the problem remotely.
For Learners
The One laptop per Child Association is a non-profit organization that promotes giving devices such as laptops, and other supplies for free to third world countries. Allowing children and students in third world countries to receive a laptop will enable them to learn some in the high tech industry. It will enable students to go online and learn many different subjects that are normally hard to without a computer.
For those in third world countries wanting to learn high tech industry, there are many websites that allow ordering of boards for wifi, usb, ethernet training, this allows students to learn, program, and setup their own circuit boards with their own program. Each board is around $150 and getting approximately two to three boards per classroom would enable students to learn the high tech industry regardless of the environment around them.
When connected to the internet, any website, even Social Networking sites such as Facebook, can be used as an educational tool, enabling students to interact with each other via Wall, or Facebook Chat, they can create groups, keep a calendar, E-mail users, create events such as a study night etc..It also allows the students, regardless of location to get to know each other better instead of working on a website with limited functionality for students.
For Both
Both learners and Educators, due to the expense of books, they can purchase something such as the Amazon Kindle, this can enable to them to purchase one device, then if books can be donated electronically the students and teachers do not have to keep purchasing books, instead have one electronic device that has all the books.
Summary
In this project we demonstrated how functional and accessible WikiEducator could be for instructors, students, and the general public. Our goal is to bring viewers attention to the most important area of our lives, which is the education. Under the sub categories we explained how WikiEducator can be constructive for instructors and students for their collaborative projects.
References
- [1] -- What is Distance Learning? (2009)
- [2] -- Technology and Distance Learning: U.S. Department of Education (December 4, 2008)
- [3] -- Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program Highlights: U.S. Department of Agriculture (2009)
Project Members
Champika
Carina
Matthew
Stephen
Katherine
Peer reviews
Group 1: WikiEducator for Education
Mechanics: 3 - A couple typos. For example: Under section "Early Education", "WikiEducator"(as it is on the name tag of the site) not "Wikieducator" and "success" not "sucess". The group seems to spend time going over their product.
Organization: 2 - Not good. Didn't arrange the sections to purposely explain the sufficiency of WikiEducator. Used headings and bullets as well as a hierarchy of ideas.
Originality: 3 - Most of ideas are from the group. Topics sound good and are worth the attention. A reference section is there to clearly credit ideas from resources.
Requirement: 2 - Brought up social issues. Attempted to explain how WikiEducator can help with the issues. Unfortunately, the explanation wasn't good enough.
Content: 2 - There are a lot of potential ideas that could have been deeper exploited. Too less information on major topics. The page doesn't look attractive which is a let down to a project of advertising WikiEducator.
Collaboration: 2 - Little contribution overall. The page doesn't look like the work of many individuals. The fact that the contents are not well- developed shows the lack of participation in the project.
Personal opinion and suggestion:
Close, but no cigar! A group of five people should do better than this. More development needed to boost up the value of the project. The presentation also requires more enhancement because the first look to a product has big impact on consumers, always. Thank you for your effort, group 1!
Group # 1 WIKIEDUCATOR FOR EDUCATION
Score: 3
- Mechanics: I didn’t find spelling errors and the citations that they used were few but well-structured.
- Organization: I think the content is logically organized, since it makes an introduction about WikiEducator, and lists the areas in which teachers can use it and also tells how WikiEducator can help with these issues.
- Originality: The group shows some original thought and then explains the issues with other online materials.
- Requirements: I think the requirements are not complete because the problems were not discussed in great depth are just mentioned, and besides striving to reveal that only a few people worked, I do not like how they state that a person in your group I do not cooperate at all, I think this is not the place to put this information, the place were the reports on individual quiz.
- Content: The topics not covered in depth because it only shows the basic knowledge about the subject, it doesn’t have many examples. Anyway the material that they placed about the topic is well developed.
For the second group review I’m going to review the group project 1 and grade it and provide feedback. I think the score of the group in my opinion would be 38/52. I think the project has a great researches and for each topic there are some useful subjects. They've supported their outcomes well.
Overall 2
professionalism demonstrated 2
summary / conclusions 1
writing / editing 2
formatting 2
client audience needs 2
main theme 2
supporting points 2
organization 2
proposed strategy 2
action plan / recommendations 1
response to scenario 2
pictures – sources 2
client support 2
collaboration / teamwork / communication 2
thoughtfulness 2
use of wiki features – linking, discussion 2
original work 2
references / citations 2
facts / assumptions 2
I think the group project is great and I read lots of good information in it. It was provided great and I think it is interesting.
I just want to add 1-2 comments on it.
1- I think the summary could be better. Although because of it is “summary” it should be brief but it could be more professional by having some information from the “Distance Learning and Technology in Education” part.
2- I think the relationship between the role of Wikieducator and the education was a little weak. I can suggest making more information about the relationship between them.
I think that’s a good job. It's great!! I also liked the pictures.
Group 1 - Wikieducator for Education
overall 2
response to scenario 2
professionalism demonstrated 3
client audience needs 2
main theme 2
supporting points 2
organization 2
summary / conclusions 2
proposed strategy 2
action plan / recommendations 1
formatting 2
pictures – sources 2
writing / editing 2
collaboration / teamwork / communication 2
thoughtfulness 2
client support 2
facts / assumptions 2
references / citations 2
original work 3
use of wiki features – linking, discussion 3
I liked the organization and photos but some catagories were missing from their report. However, the information provided on the pages were all quality blocks of text.
Perhaps Group 1 could have included more sub categories for optimal organization. Another suggestion would to be adding recommendations to the report. I didn't see any recommendations in their project.
This is a review of the Wikieducator page submitted by Group 1
overall 2
response to scenario 2
professionalism demonstrated 2
client audience needs 2
main theme 2
supporting points 2
organization 2
summary / conclusions 2
proposed strategy 1
action plan / recommendations 1
formatting 2
pictures – sources 2
writing / editing 2
collaboration / teamwork / communication 2
thoughtfulness 2
client support 2
facts / assumptions 2
references / citations 2
original work 2
use of wiki features – linking, discussion 2
Again this is a very good summary of WikiEducator, however the presentation of societal issues isn't clear. The collaboration is quite effective as it flows seamlessly. I did not oserve any recommendations to Wikieducator to improve their visibility to educators. I'm not sure how I would improve it except to add more sections which provide more information about the content of Wikieducator and links to provide examples of it's content.
Group 1: WikiEducator for Education
Overall - 2
The page is rather short, but presents the problem and solution. It focuses on one problem that computers can help with, and talks about how WikiEducator can help. However, there are no recommendations for how to promote WikiEducator and no assumptions listed. Covers "How can computers and the internet contribute to resolving societal issues? What is being done now? What can interested individuals do to help?", but does not touch on "What is planned for the future?" Overall nicely designed page, very neat and tidy.
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