Fwd: WikiEducator: A community effort to develop free learning materials.

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Debamitro Chakraborti

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Aug 13, 2009, 9:32:45 AM8/13/09

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From: Jan Visser <jvi...@learndev.org>
Date: Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 11:01 AM

Dear friends,

The following may be of interest to some of you.

You are likely familiar with the Wikipedia, an encyclopedia that remains under continuous construction by a huge community of contributors. Some of the contributors may be among the world’s top experts in particular fields, but many others are not. However, the process of collaboration among the many has been found to often result in high quality pieces of information. In some areas, such as in the so-called exact sciences, the quality of entries is comparable with what can be found, e.g., in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The great advantage of the Wikipedia is that access to it is free. Besides, it’s continually being updated. Moreover, those who participate in the process of its ongoing creation and updating do not only provide a service to others, they also serve themselves through the learning they derive from their engagement with the Wikipedia environment.

Well, the Wikipedia is not the only environment in which people work together to create something of high value to others. The technology on which the development of the Wikipedia is based can also serve other collaborative ventures, both small and big. One of the bigger ones I have become aware of over the past year is called WikiEducator (http://www.wikieducator.org). It was created initially by the Commonwealth of Learning, but is now an independent not-for-profit initiative. You may find it worth checking out what they are doing.

My own perception is that WikiEducator is an interesting virtual environment, connecting an active virtual community of people involved in educational activities who wish to share whatever good they produce while recognizing that the collaboration with others can potentially improve their own work. In other words, it comes close to the spirit that underlies the community of subscribers to the LearningSocietiesConference list.

So far, from what I have been able to see, WikiEducator has served mainly the world of schooling and organized education. Far less attention has gone to the development of learning opportunities for those who learn outside the school context or who learn for purposes that organized education gives little to no attention to. I discussed this with the folks behind the WikiEducator initiative and was assured that this is not intentional. It simply reflects the community that so far got attracted by the initiative. In fact, WikiEducator would welcome more diverse participation and increased attention to alternative learning opportunities. So, this prompts me to alert you to the opportunity of contributing to the WikiEducator, particularly with the aim of starting to cover the vast array of learning alternatives beyond what school systems tend to provide.

Have no wiki skills? No problem! The WikiEducator community offer free skills training for those with serious intentions to join the community and make the WikiEducator collection of Open Educational Resources (OER) grow and improve. I just participated myself with great pleasure in such a free online workshop and was advised that the next one takes place from August 24 to September 4, 2009. Find more information about that workshop at http://www.wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/Online_schedule/eL4C29, and register at http://www.wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Registration, if you are in for an exciting new experience.

If anyone has specific questions, don’t hesitate to be in touch with me personally. I’ll be happy to respond.

Jan

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Check out Learners in a Changing Learning Landscape

at http://www.learndev.org/learnland2008.html

Jan Visser, Ph.D.

President & Sr. Researcher, Learning Development Institute

E-mail: jvi...@learndev.org

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