David, Hi
I would like to make one more comment, coming back to what I was saying earlier. You mentioned that it is a bit of a problem, as no-one that you have talked to so far has edited a wiki before. In fact, most people I talk to, never edited a wiki before. These learners are from the developing world, course developers in all of the global regions and we held training for exactly the same purpose you are mentioned. Ghana, for instance: After the initial training on the Wiki editing skills, we had a second follow up workshop, to start developing course materials, which they are doing with great successes. Yes, it will take a little bit of time, between 30-40 minutes a day, to complete the initial course, but it is worth spending the time. I myself just went through the process of converting a print-based course into a Wiki online version in collaboration with the author of the course I was converting who was a newcomer to Wiki. It was a great collaborative effort and benefited both of us in the process, so I do personally not consider this a barrier to collaboration, rather an opportunity, if this makes any sense to you. You were saying that the people you are referring to are busy people, many are not highly computer literate. Let me say that opening the platform for those who want to learn, to provide them with the opportunity to learn through guided and free training, if they are interested, has led to great successes in the many regions we established Wiki chapters. Cheers, Patricia -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Patricia Schlicht Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 7:26 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [WikiEducator] Re: Wiki interface HI David, It is always hard to know how much knowledge is behind somebody's comments, so apology if my assessment and understanding - reading an email - was incorrect. Leigh also commented, and once Wayne had a chance to see this, he might have some suggestions for you Cheers, Patricia -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David McQuillan Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 6:09 PM To: WikiEducator Subject: [WikiEducator] Re: Wiki interface Hi Patricia, Thanks for your comments. I don't personally feel any need for Wiki-training. I've gotten used to wiki-editing, and don't have any major problems with adding and structuring content. I've done some programming in the past, and I see wiki-editing as a simplified type of coding. I have two other reasons for raising this issue. 1) I have decided to use WikiEducator as the main platform for building our course. This means that all of my academic staff will need to get familiar with the platform. This is achievable, as I plan to train them on the use of open office --> wiki-media text, but just adds workload, and reduces the time that they can spend on course development 2) I have set up a project on WikiEd and have invited my colleagues in the field of massage education to collaborate on the development of educational resources (NZ & USA so far). This is much more of a problem, as no-one that I've talked to so far has edited a wiki before. Sure I can encourage them to go through the process of training so that they can participate, and I will, but I'm sure that this will be a significant barrier to collaboration. These are all busy people, and many are not highly computer literate. Kind regards, David On Dec 17, 1:39 pm, "Patricia Schlicht" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dear David, > > Many thanks for your great comments! You are right, wiki editing is > significantly dfferent from the type of text-editing that most people > do. When I personally got start quite some time ago, I initially felt > the same and was thinking how can I manage this process, I am not a > programmer or coder but as it turned out, the tasks were not as > difficult to master as I had envisioned. > > Dr. Wayne Mackintosh, the founder of Wikieducator, and I have been > facilitating free Wiki Editing online training on a frequent basis. I > encourage you to express your interest and I am sure to include you in > the next round of trainings, mostly likely at the end of January/early > February 2008. > > You could of course also start on your own. I encourage you to go ahead > as many have done already before you and you will see how much more > potential you will discover. It is a great tool to have. > > Please refer to the Wiki Newbie Tutorials athttp://www.wikieducator.org/Help:Contents > > Please may also listen to the presentation on the Wikieducator given by > Dr. Mackintosh athttp://www.wikieducator.org/WikiEducator:Multimedia/Our_project > > Looking forward to receiving your comments. > > Warm regards, > Patricia (Schlicht) > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David McQuillan > Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 5:06 PM > To: WikiEducator > Subject: [WikiEducator] Wiki interface > > Hi all, > > I've been lurking on the periphery of the WikiEd conversation for a > while, but haven't really had much to contribute so far. I'll start > with a query. > > Are there any plans to change the way in which wiki-editing occurs? > > It seems to me that the major barrier to wiki-editing is the need to > learn how to write using media-wiki text. Writing in media-wiki text > is is significantly different from the type of text-editing that most > people are used to. If the interface was changed to something more > akin to the google-docs interface I imagine that the participation > would go through the roof. > > I realise that the open-office media-wiki text add-on has made this > process significantly easier, but it's still a jump for the general > populace. > > Kind regards, > > David McQuillan --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
