Thursday 3 July 2008

WikiEducator: Platform for managing e-Learning Resourses

Wiki has become a very popular brand name. Today, one need not teach netizens the meanin of wikipedia, wikimapia, wikinews, wikiquote, wikisource, Meta-wiki, wikispecies, wikitionary, wikibooks, wikiversity etc, etc.... I dont thing people alien to this concept would ever be reading this blog. If they are, here is the answer of What is Wiki?
The name "Wiki" was chosen by Ward Cunningham -- the creator of the first Wiki. It is a shortened form of "wiki-wiki", the Hawaiian word for 'quick'.
A wiki is a web site that is generally editable by anyone with a computer, a web browser, and an internet connection. Wikis use a quick and easy syntax to allow users to apply formatting to text and create links between pages. This simple formatting syntax means that authors no longer need to learn the complexities of HTML to create content on the web.
The main strength of a wiki is that it gives people the ability to work collaboratively on the same document. The only software you need is an Internet browser. Consequently, wikis are used for a variety of purposes. If you make a mistake, it's easy to revert back to an earlier version of the document.
Wiki is in Ward's original description:
The simplest online database that could possibly work.
Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly.
Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.
Like many simple concepts, "open editing" has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.
WikiEducator is a similar kind of platform for teachers, researchers and any-who-and-what related to teaching, learning, research and education.
WikiEducator is a community resource supported by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) for the development of free educational content.COL is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge, resources and technologies.
WikiEducator's purpose, in thier own words, is to build an evolving community intended for the collaborative planning of education projects linked with the development of free content;
colloborative development of free content on Wikieducator for e-learning;
colloborative work on building open education resources (OERs) on how to create OERs.
The WikiEducator is a community which believes in:

  • The social inclusion and participation of all people in our networked society (Access to ICTs is a fundamental right of knowledge citizens - not an excuse for using old technologies).
  • In the freedoms of all educators to teach with the technologies and contents of their choice, hence our commitment to Free/Libre and Open Source technology tools and free content.
  • That educational content is unique - and by working together we can improve the technologies we use as well as the reusability of digital learning resources.
  • A forward-looking disposition working together to find appropriate and sustainable solutions for e-learning futures.

WikiEducator is a dynamic and exciting community of educators who believe passionately that learning materials should be free and open to all. Listen to Desmond Tutu on freedom in education and check out the exciting roles in our community.
If you think you believe in similar sort of values, Please join WikiEducator in developing free and open educational content for the world!
Get started today and register now for free wiki training.
http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Dilipbarad

No comments:

Post a Comment