Hi wayne, we could use Otago's Elluminate web conference to run these regular sessions if you like...
On Dec 18, 2007 8:09 AM, mackiwg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi David, Patricia, Leigh, Steve & Patricia > > I agree -- rich text editing will lower the barriers of entry for > newbies to WikiEducator as well as other initiatives using Mediawiki > software. > > Dave wrote: > > >> Are there any plans to change the way in which wiki-editing occurs? > > Yes -- we are very keen to see rich text editing implemented. In fact > this was one of the topics discussed during the Tectonic Shift Think > Tank meeting (http://www.wikieducator.org/Tectonic_shift_think_tank) > where we started mapping out a road map for refining MediaWiki > software for educational purposes. You can view specifics of the > discussion over here: > > > http://www.wikieducator.org/Tectonic_shift_think_tank/Tech_requirements/Ease_of_use > > Mediawiki is a very powerful piece of software -- most notably the > ability for individual users to innovate using the template engine. > The downside of the template engine is that it increases the > complexity for integrating a reliable rich text editor by an order of > magnitude. We're always on the lookout for extra budgetary funding to > invest in the development of these technologies -- its not a trivial > project, but given the demand for rich text editing -- hopefully we > will find a solution sooner rather than later. Any rich text editing > solution for Mediawiki would need to work with all the big Mediawiki > projects like Wikipedia, Wikibooks Wikiversity etc and would need to > scale very well. Wikipedia receives up to 40000 hits per second! > That's food for WikiEducator because we will benefit from a solution > that is both reliable and scalable. > > Dave wrote: > > >>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. > > Not an ideal solution -- but has at least widened the range of options > for new users. One advantage of the OO approach is that educators can > author their first drafts offline. However, they would still need to > understand the basics of the Mediawiki syntax. > > Also -- by the middle of next year, Mediawiki will be able to support > output for the Opendoc format. This will enable users to download > collections of content from WIkiEducator and then edit these locally > in their word-processors. See: > http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikis_Go_Printable > > Leigh wrote: > > >>I see that the skills a teacher acquires by learning to > edit Wikieducator are very transferable skills that may see them > participating more on other major wiki projects like Wikipedia and > Wikibooks, or even their own MediaWiki installation AND > >> People like me have become loyal to the MediaWiki.. why is that? I > used to desire an easier interface, but now I know enough about > MediaWiki to > get around, I really enjoy that I can work it and that I can > participate on > other Wikiprojects... > > I agree with Leigh, the incidental learning that occurs by engaging in > wiki communities is very powerful. Wiki's are more about community > than technology -- in some respects, acquiring Mediawiki editing > skills and the tacit knowledge of how these communities is a "right-of- > passage" to the dynamic and exciting world of wiki's. That said, I > would love to see this becoming easier over time so more folk can > experience these amazing communities. > > David wrote: > > >> 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. > > That's great news! Patricia and I have been running online workshops > to help build capacity in basic wiki editing skills and these seem to > work rather well. > > mmmm -- I'm thinking how we can help here. It seems to me that with > the growing number of new users, it would be pretty cool if we could > have a regular training session each month. We could have a place > where newbies could sign up for online training from all over the > world. This is a pretty big project and we would need help from > volunteers to act as facilitators. Doing the math -- if we can find > 12 volunteer facilitators -- we could run at least 12 training > sessions and the loads would not be too onerous. Effectively a > donation of time to assist with two weeks online facilitation. > > What do you think? > > This is an important issue for our community -- lets see if we can > come up with an interim solution until the rich text editing matures > sufficiently for us to implement this in Mediawiki. > > Would appreciate your advice and thoughts on this one. > > Cheers > Wayne > > > > > > > > > -- -- Leigh Blackall +64(0)21736539 skype - leigh_blackall SL - Leroy Goalpost http://learnonline.wordpress.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. 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