Wiki Pasifika/Online training 01

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Introduction

Following the establishment of WikiPasifika at the Pacific Regional Workshop on OERs, the founder of COL's WikiEducator, Wayne Mackintosh, will facilitate the first online training and community building workshop for the Pacific region in collaboration with the founding members of WikiPasifika.

We will base our collective skills development using WikiEducator's tutorials and use a dedicated Google Groups forum for our online interaction and support.

• Participant User Names
• Brainstorm list - WikiPasifika Needs
• Specifying country page requirements

Date and time commitments

• Total time commitment: between 4 - 5 learning hours
• Number of tutorials: There are ten tutorials which you should work through during the course of the workshop.
• Estimated time per tutorial: Participants will need about 30 to 40 minutes per tutorial. (Aim for completing one tutorial each working day.)
• Technology requirements: Computer with a Browser (for example, Internet Explorer or Firefox) and an Internet connection
• ICT skills requirement: Basic browsing skills. Wiki editing is very easy and accessible – we will show you how.
• Dates: 10 Working days, commencing Tuesday, 9 October 2007 to Monday, 22 October 2007 (Canadian time - so please take the time difference into account. I may be sleeping when you are working :-) ). However, the asynchronous design of the course will allow participants to progress according to their own work schedule. You can complete the tutorials in a single sitting or spread this out over the 10 days scheduled for interaction on the online forums.

Instructions for getting started

Read these instructions before you begin your adventure into our exciting world of wikis for education.

There are four things you need to do to get started:

Step 1 - Orientation

Read through this document.

Step 2 - Registering yourself on the WikiPasifika Google Group

Register or activate your Google Groups account for our discussion forum called WikiPasifika. (We will use this technology to communicate with each other):

• Go to: http://groups.google.com/group/wikipasifika
• If you have a Google account, click on the “sign in” link on the top right hand side of this web page using your Google email address and corresponding password.
• If you don't have an account – click on the “sign in” link and then click on the Create an account now link.

You can also activate your account from the Google groups email we sent prior to this workshop.

Tip: We are using two separate technologies for this workshop:

• The WikiEducator website ( http://www.wikieducator.org ) and
• A Google Groups discussion forum ( http://groups.google.com/group/wikipasifika )

So you will need two user accounts and corresponding passwords. When setting up your accounts, you may find it easier to use the same username and password. However, remember that you need to register individually on both systems

Step 3 - Posting a personal introduction on the WikiPasifika forum

Please introduce yourself in the WikiPasifika forum. Tell us a little about yourself, for example:

• Where you are from
• What you do professionally
• What you expect to gain from this online workshop for WikiEducator
• Anything which may be of interest to our group

Guidelines for introducing yourself

1. Go to this page: http://groups.google.com/group/wikipasifika (Remember to sign in with your user account and password)
2. Click on the "Discussion" link on the top right-hand side of the page
3. Click on the link called "Please introduce yourself to the group"
4. Click on the Reply link to add your personal introduction.
5. Read the personal introductions submitted
6. Try and find someone with similar interests from another country and ask them whether they would like to join you in developing a content resource on WikiEducator.

Step 4 - Starting with the first tutorial

Find the tutorials on WikiEducator ( http://www.wikieducator.org/Help:Contents ).

1. Read the titles of the first ten tutorials
2. Start working through the first tutorial: What is a wiki?
3. When you come across a Discussion activity post your thoughts and ideas on the WikiPasifika forum ( http://groups.google.com/group/wikipasifika )

Tip: The idea is to work through one tutorial each day of the workshop. This will take approximately 30 to 40 minutes of your time.

You will find detailed instructions on navigating through the tutorials in the section called “Accessing the tutorials” below.

Required outputs

The purpose of the Wikinewbie Tutorials is to provide you the opportunity to develop basic wiki editing skills in a live wiki environment with fellow WikiEducators in the Pacific region. The tutorials will cover all the skills you will need to become an active member of our growing international community. During the WikiPasifika workshop, we will:

1. Work through the first ten tutorials (http://www.wikieducator.org/Help:Contents)
2. Complete or refine our User Pages (personal biography) on WikiEducator. This is not wasted effort because your fellow WikiEducators from around the world will have the opportunity to learn more about your interests and you will use these skills for your own educational projects. Your User page should incorporate the following formatting features which are covered in the tutorials:
   • Bold and italics text
   • A numbered or bullet list
   • Headings and sub-headings,
   • An image, and
   • At least one pedagogical template
3. To think about ideas, projects and teams for your Country page on WikiEducator.
4. To participate in the WikiPasifica discussion forum on Google Groups.
5. When working through the tutorials, if anything is unclear, or you're confused about what to do, please formulate this into a question and post this under the SUPPORT forum for this group (see: http://groups.google.com/group/wikipasifika/t/e6f1c977359c408d ).
6. The most important output is to have fun, connecting with people around the world through the power of social software.

Accessing the tutorials

You can access the list of tutorials online from the help link in navigation tool bar on the WikiEducator home page.

• Preview of the List of tutorials.

Navigating through the tutorials

Each tutorial has its own navigation which is illustrated below. Use these navigation features to access the subsections of each tutorial.

Navigation options for Newbie Tutorials. See key below

1. Use this navigation block to move to the subsections of the current tutorial.
2. This displays the name of the current tutorial
3. At the bottom of each page in the Newbie tutorials, you will find these next/previous arrows. Click on these arrows to move around in the tutorial.

Three categories of activities

The Newbie tutorials include three main types of activity:

1. Independent study activities which you complete on your own. There is no requirement to discuss these in the online forum. Examples may include reflections, self-assessment or preknowledge activities.
2. Discussion activities which are designed for interaction among participants and facilitators. You may be asked to discuss these in small groups within a classroom situation or be expected to post your thoughts in the online discussion forums. When you see a discussion icon in the tutorial, you should post a comment in the appropriate forum in the Google group.
3. Skills-based activities which require you to perform an action, but not necessarily post this in the discussion forum. For example, adding an item to your User page in Wikieducator, or practicing how to use italics in the wiki.

Naturally, you are free to post any thoughts or ideas relating to the independent study or skills-based activities in the discussion forums set up for the course. However, this is entirely optional. To avoid confusion, the activity will provide a clear instruction when you should post to the discussion forum.

We look forward to seeing you in the forums.