Hi all, I've been thinking lately, that the google discussion group may be a sort of barrier to communication, collaboration, and social networking among WE members. This may be because it is somehow difficult to discover the group, or that requesting membership is either bothersome or intimidating, or even that being elsewhere than the wiki itself dissociates it from the goings on at the wiki.
So in response to the brainstorm invite on community engagement, I have been looking at bringing the communication that the google group provides into the wiki. I am familiar with an extension called DPLForums, which is now used in all Wikia wikis, and I think it is possible to combine the functionality of this extension with the functionality of LiquidThreads, which provides members with a discussion interface that is more along the lines of other discussion interfaces that an individual may be comfortable using. It's for this reason that I think combining the two extensions and implementing them on the wiki would be extra beneficial to community engagement. While having other sorts of discussions are easily possible within the google group, I think they would be more encouraged by having a forum on the wiki. (One has to weigh the importance of her emails before choosing to clog up someone else's inbox, right?) Forums also allow for "categorisation" of discussions: wiki news in one section, world education news in another, off-topic conversation, etc. Any ideas or suggestions? Is it rubbish? <smile> Jesse http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Jesse_Groppi Skype: jesse.groppi On 28/09/2009 16:40, Wayne Mackintosh wrote: > Hi Valerie & Nellie, > > Excellent and very timely suggestions! > > As we speak, we're planning a national co-ordinated community effort > to develop reusable and portable content for New Zealand schools ( > http://wikieducator.org/OERNZ ) we think carefully through the steps > to save time in getting resource started. Teachers are busy folk. > > For example -- if a teacher wanted to donate a lesson plan -- we > should try to make this as easy as possible. > > I'm experimenting with the concept of a lesson plan template which > will preload the main headings, formating and structure. It will > automatically insert the relevant categories and provide limited > guidance and ideas for filling in the template. Recognising that there > is not an ideal or optimal template given different approaches to > teaching, unique demands of the subject area, student background etc. > We will need to have a small selection of different templates. I have > been working on two prototypes: > > 1. A standard lesson template (http://tinyurl.com/ybt4g6t ) > 2. The "St Cuthberts College" template -- which is an example of a > template used by a local school ( http://tinyurl.com/ydjgjza ) > > With thanks to Nellie for a donation of one of her lesson plans (The > Last Spin webquest) -- I'm now piloting the template (still work in > progress) to provide an example which teachers can see. With this sort > of thing its good to have an example -- plus a short help resource to > show folk how this works. > > Once we implement a WYSIWYG editor -- we will remove more barriers. I > also think that its important to form teams that focus on specific > areas and tasks in the wiki -- see for example: > http://wikieducator.org/New_Zealand_Schools_OER_Portal/Roles . These > teams form mini communities which can provide help and support to folk > who want to get started with specific tasks. > > While this project has a strong New Zealand focus -- being OER, all > the content resources, templates and approaches can easily be > replicated and refined for other countries and communities. For > example, in the last week Uganda (http://wikieducator.org/OERUG) and > Israel (http://wikieducator.org/Israel_Schools_OER_Portal) have > started their national school portals :-). Hopefully many more will > follow :-) > > Good thinking -- lets make this happen! > > Cheers > Wayne > > > > > > > > 2009/9/29 valerie <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> > > > Hi Nellie > > Thanks for suggesting a brainstorming. WE need to do this regularly > about lots of topics, including community engagement. > > Engagement through contributing - I looked through the WE community > portal to see if there was a home for this sort of thing. > > http://www.wikieducator.org/WikiEducator:Community_Portal > http://www.wikieducator.org/Wishlist > > These sort of address the idea of community participation, but most > are too complex or need too much prior knowledge to encourage newer WE > member to provide help. > > I would like to see more, easy to participate projects, so that if > someone has a couple of hours, they can contribute something > meaningful to the WE community. This might be a dynamic "job jar" with > instructions for each item, rated by WE knowledge level / skills and > time commitment. > > Perhaps some of the template gurus can come up with some "forms" that > present work, and the WE members can do some thing like categorization > through a "read, select, save" interface. > > Project Gutenberg has lots of jobs like this. The volunteers are happy > to help because they know that they are just one part of the process. > Once their small but important part is done, other more qualified > volunteers will be doing follow-on steps in some bigger process. This > generates great publicity and community engagement for the project. > > Having contribution process/forms help direct the work, making the > specific contribution more manageable form the WE community > contributor perspective as well as getting needed WE work done quickly > and reliably. Lots of small contributions from lots of WE members > turns into really great results. > > ..Valerie > > > > On Sep 26, 10:46 pm, NELLIE DEUTSCH > <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> > wrote: > > Hello Everyone, > > > > Well, since my interest lies in active learning and engaging > learners, I > > would like invite those with common interests to join me in > brainstorming to > > find ways to engage members of the community. > > > > > > -- > 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 <http://www.wikieducator.org> > Mobile +64 21 2436 380 > Skype: WGMNZ1 > Twitter: OERFoundation, Mackiwg > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. 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