Hi Nellie Would always welcome another 11,000 active members :-)
Cheers Wayne 2009/9/27 NELLIE DEUTSCH <[email protected]> > Wayne, > You are very modest about the amount of work you put into making things > happen on WE. I would like to invite the over 11,000 members of WikiEducator > to become active participants. > There is a great deal each of us can do to share the load and show the > world that WE is an active community that is bringing education and learning > to everyone on the planet. > Warm wishes, > Nellie Deutsch > Sharing is Caring! > Doctoral Student > Educational Leadership > Curriculum and Instruction > Get ready for CO10: http://connecting-online.ning.com/ > Free online workshops on WikiEducator: > http://www.wikieducator.org/Workshops > > > On Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 1:08 AM, Wayne Mackintosh < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi Nellie, >> >> Thanks for the kind words :-) -- but it's not just me. >> >> We have a sterling team of volunteer techies with folk like Jim and >> Wen-Chen watching over smooth operations of our web sites and future >> technology deployments, we also have a team of WikiEDTech advisers plus the >> folk over at Athabasca University preparing for the migration of the >> servers. We have funders like the NZ Ministry of Education and Hewlett who >> are helping us spread the reach of OER across the planet. We shouldn't >> forget our committment to transparent and democractic governance models with >> a team of 25 international open education professionals who volunteer time >> ensuring the stewardship of good governance. Above all -- the thousands of >> educators who spend hours working on OER in WikiEducator. >> >> That said -- the independance we now have with the OER Foundation (see: >> http://tinyurl.com/nnqg9e) gives us greater flexibility and agility than >> was possible working under an intergovernmental agency. We still have lots >> of work to do -- but have a very solid foundation for scalable growth. >> >> Our next step is to figure out the best way to implement the embedding of >> third party media (like video, slideshows etc) and this is high on our list >> of priorities. The question of embedding third party media is not so much a >> technical barrier, but more a question of free content licensing and open >> file formats. >> >> Increasingly, video hosting sites now provide functionality to tag user >> rights -- for example Creative Commons Licenses. In an ideal world, we >> would want the capabilities for WikiEducators to have access to editable >> versions of the video files in open file formats. We're certainly a lot >> closer to achieving this goal today than we were a year ago. >> >> Watch this spaces -- pretty soon we will be able to embedd video from >> third party sites in ways which align with our community values! >> >> Cheers >> Wayne >> >> >> 2009/9/27 NELLIE DEUTSCH <[email protected]> >> >> Excellent progress, Wayne. I am very impressed by the amount of work and >>> progress you are making to "make things happen" on WikiEducator and >>> implementing WYSIWYG. I wonder if adding the editor would also allow >>> publishers to embed html codes for videos. >>> Warm wishes, >>> Nellie Deutsch >>> Sharing is Caring! >>> Doctoral Student >>> Educational Leadership >>> Curriculum and Instruction >>> Get ready for CO10: http://connecting-online.ning.com/ >>> Free online workshops on WikiEducator: >>> http://www.wikieducator.org/Workshops >>> >>> >>> >>> On Sat, Sep 26, 2009 at 7:27 PM, Wayne Mackintosh < >>> [email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Hi everyone, >>>> >>>> For sometime our Community has requested that we implement a WYSIWYG >>>> editor in WikiEducator. Many teachers and educators say that wiki text is >>>> a >>>> barrier to participation. WikiEducator is keen to respond to these >>>> requests. >>>> >>>> To date, we've been holding back on implementing rich text editing for >>>> two reasons: >>>> >>>> - Maturity of the WYSIWYG technology (Most notably issues with >>>> templates and large content pages) >>>> - A reliable funding source to implement the refinements that will >>>> be necessary for an educational wiki >>>> >>>> The MediaWiki+FCKeditor project has matured considerably over the last 2 >>>> years and we believe that it is now feasible to install WYSIWYG editing for >>>> WikiEducator. Also, with funding support from the New Zealand Ministry of >>>> Education we are now in a position to start work on the implementation of >>>> refinements that will be required for educators (for example, pull down >>>> menus for our pedagogical templates incorporating text boxes for the >>>> different parameters for these templates). >>>> >>>> We need to cater for two kinds of users: 1) Those (like myself ;-) ) >>>> who prefer wiki syntax to rich text editing and (2) those users who would >>>> prefer using a WYSIWYG environment. Fortunately -- the FCKeditor enables >>>> users to make the choice. Even within the FCKeditor -- there is an option >>>> to >>>> edit using wiki text. >>>> >>>> NOTE: Experienced WikiEducators can continue to edit in the usual way -- >>>> They will NOT be required to switch over to Rich Text Editing. >>>> >>>> I propose that we use a phased approach: >>>> >>>> >>>> - *Phase 1*: Install the FCKeditor WYSIWYG editor as an optional >>>> user preference. The editor works well for the majority of editing >>>> functions, however the implementation for templates is not ideal and >>>> could >>>> be confusing for newbies. That said, newbies do not typically start >>>> using >>>> templates until they are more experienced and experienced editor will >>>> know >>>> how to use templates should they choose to use the RTE option. >>>> Therefore, I >>>> think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages in holding back on the >>>> implementation until we get a better user interface for editing >>>> templates. >>>> There will be a few pages in WikiEducator where the rich text editor >>>> will >>>> not work effectively -- for example pages which are largely rendered >>>> through >>>> templates. On these pages we will turn-off RTE editing. These pages are >>>> maintained by experienced editors -- so there shouldn't be any issues in >>>> maintaining these pages. During Phase 1, there is a possibility that we >>>> will >>>> not have WYSIWYG capability for talk pages or the template namespace. >>>> - *Phase 2*: Continue with development work regarding the >>>> refinements we need for an educational wiki. These enhancements will be >>>> released once tested and reliable at a later stage during the project. >>>> >>>> WikiEducators can test how WYSIWYG editing works using the >>>> MediaWiki+FCKeditor project. Create an account and test the editor using >>>> the sandbox on this wiki: >>>> >>>> http://mediawiki.fckeditor.net/Sandbox >>>> >>>> Please try this out and let us know what you think. Thoughts and >>>> suggestions are welcome! >>>> >>>> I think that this is an important and valuable step for WikiEducator and >>>> that we should be bold and move forward with the suggestion. >>>> >>>> Cheers >>>> Wayne >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D. >>>> Director, >>>> International Centre for Open Education, >>>> Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. >>>> Board of Directors, OER Foundation. >>>> Founder and Community Council Member, Wikieducator, >>>> www.wikieducator.org >>>> Mobile +64 21 2436 380 >>>> Skype: WGMNZ1 >>>> Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D. >> Director, >> International Centre for Open Education, >> Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. >> Board of Directors, OER Foundation. >> Founder and Community Council Member, Wikieducator, www.wikieducator.org >> Mobile +64 21 2436 380 >> Skype: WGMNZ1 >> Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg >> >> >> > > > > -- Wayne Mackintosh, Ph.D. Director, International Centre for Open Education, Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand. 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