This sounds rather interesting Charles. Please do bear in mind that Wikinews can be a good way of opening doors. If you can put together a good article on a major cultural event (Examples [1], [2]), then the relevant institutions will be more than happy to keep talking to you.
[1] http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Scotland_reopens_after_three-year_redevelopment [2] http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/A_portrait_of_Scotland:_Gallery_reopens_after_%C2%A317.6_million_renovation Brian McNeil -- Wikinews, Accredited Reporter. Personal: [email protected] "Facts don't cease to be facts, but news ceases to be news." > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [Wikimediauk-l] Distance learning project > From: Charles Matthews <[email protected]> > Date: Wed, June 13, 2012 7:46 am > To: UK Wikimedia mailing list <[email protected]> > > > I have been asked to be project leader for Wikimedia UK's distance > learning project. Early days. > > Let me try to clarify what all this is about. It is a subproject of > the training effort, which already has the actual training and > outreach calendar events, and the Training for Trainers (TfT) strand. > It is another piece in the jigsaw. The desired outcome is an online > community with a virtual learning environment (VLE) that is hosting > and developing teaching modules that will effectively teach Wikimedia > topics (in English, as of the moment). > > So far the distance learning project (VLE project for short) has three > subprojects I want to announce: > > (1) Content (i.e. topic policy and content scavenger hunt) > > To start with there will be a defined scope, divided into two unequal > sections: Core and Outreach. For example at the first TfT workshop > last weekend there were four presentations: on talk page etiquette, > dispute resolution, GLAM and Wikipedia in Education. Of these the > first two are Core and the second two Outreach. The main thrust of the > project will be to get to the point where anyone can learn all the > Core topics in decent teaching modules that are designed to common > educational principles and standards. But Outreach is not going to be > off-topic. > > This is an area where anyone can help right now. All content will be > CC-by-SA. Initially existing CC-by-SA text can be used to seed > modules. E.g. the whole Help: namespace on enWP: I'm talking to Peter > Coombe (User:The wub) about this, who is on a WMF fellowship working > over that material. > > What I really need help with is with (a) FAQ-like material (what > people tend to ask us about) and its subset (b) standard OTRS queries. > There are lists of OTRS standard answers, I know. Please write to me > offlist with suggestions: "how to start an article" and "how to reuse > material" are typical. This is pretty basic to make sure the VLE > teaches what people want to learn. > > (2) Moodle. Free-source course management system. When there is > something to discuss, moodle.org would be the place. If you have > Moodle expertise and would like to be involved, please let me know > offlist. > > (3) Community. The acronym MBWL (i.e. Moodle-based but wiki-like). and > hashtag #wikimodule now exist: that was the easy part. > > You will be glad to know that there are some policies too. There will > be "modules" and "good modules" and "featured modules". MBWL:GOOD says > that only good modules go public, and that pure lesson plans, or pure > distance learning modules without IRL notes, don't qualify as good. It > also says the procedure of grading an article good and so publishing > it will be under the control of the whole account-holding community, > and will be a box-ticking exercise. MBWL:FM states that grading a > module featured will be a threaded review process under the control of > the account holders who are also accredited via WMUK and TfT (this is > where things start to interlock). The rationale for this policy states > that the VFL regards debates on how people learn as off-topic there. > They are on-topic in other places, such as a page on uk.wikimedia.org > where anyone can debate the quality definition on the talk page, but > which is edited by trainers who have done the TfT course and so are at > least starting from common ground. > > There is an existing education email list that may prove helpful for > detailed thrashing-out. > > I shall be available at the WWI Editathon on Saturday if anyone wants > to chat about all this, or let me near a whiteboard. > > Charles > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia UK mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l > WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list [email protected] http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
