Recent Changes Camp 2012 Canberra Day One

Greetings from the closing session of the first day of Recent Changes Camp 2012 in Canberra. This is being held in the TEAL Teaching Room at the "INSPIRE Centre" of the University of Canberra. I learned that there is more to Wikipedia than just a collection of articles. There is an organization behind the Wikipedia, looking after the existing content and expanding its use, for the public good. There is funding to educate people on how to create new Wikipedia content and work with organizations. There is are also resources to help with educating on how to create wiki content and how to use Wikipedia in education.

The Wikimedia Strategy

The Wikimedia Movement Strategic Plan (to 2015 ) calls for "Women and other under represented groups will need to be invited/recruited, and the culture of WMF projects will need to be adjusted to accommodate them ..." (User:FloNight).

Wikipedia Outreach

The Wikipedia organizing has been successful at working with the GLAM sector (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums). I suggest that the Wikipedia organization could extend this to other knowledge workers, through their professional associations (such as IT professionals, film makers, scriptwriters and media).

Wikimedia and Education

Wikipedians would like to encourage teachers and students to create more content. At RCC2012 we discussed how this could be done. Wikipedia is seen as a problem in schools and universities with students being told not to use it. This is because Wikipedia is not a primary source, is of variable quality, is not something teachers grew up with and plagiarism by students. The way to address this, I suggest, is to provide teaching materials for teachers to incorporate responsible use of Wikipedia in their courses. A byproduct of this will be the creation of additional Wikipedia content by students and teachers.

The Wikipedia of Things

Someone else had already put up "Wikipedia Education" on the list of topics, so lacking a topic to suggest I wrote up "The Wikipedia of Things". The idea would be to use the "Internet of things" (intelligent devices connected to the Internet) to automatically update the Wikipedia, rather than having to wait for someone to enter the information.

The Inspire Centre Building

It was also to see the Inspire teaching spaces in operation. The centre is new and is still being fitted out. There is one standard size TEAL (Technology Enabled Active Learning) room where most sessions were held. All four walls of the room are painted with white-board paint. Three walls have projectors projecting directly onto the walls and one with a projection screen. The room is equipped with round tables accommodating nine people each. For increased flexibility the tables are made of two semicircular halves on wheels, with flip up tops. There is a computer equipped lectern on wheels in one corner of the room (this can be plugged into a socket in the floor in the middle of the room for "Cabaret" style presentations).

The TEAL room looks to the casual observer low tech (just a big square room with white walls), compared to other computer equipped rooms, with screens for each student bolted to the desk, stepped floors and all sorts of gizmos. But the TEAL room design has years of research behind it, on what actually improves education. Also with a flat floor and furniture which is not bolted to the floor (or tethered by cables) the room can be used very flexibly (think of it like the holodeck on the Star Ship Enterprise, which is about the same size).

Outside the TEAL room is a large common space, with a rubber floor, kitchenette and an assortment of informal group furniture. The centre is intended to introduce teachers to the use of technology in learning, so there is a slightly eclectic assortment of furniture. Most popular was a small circular pod which seats about four people. The walls are covered with cloth, providing a relatively private small group environment. There are some benches with LCD screens at the end and three stools on each side. There are bright red chairs which look like they are wooden, but are actually made from recycled plastic Coke bottles (these looked very durable but were very heavy). There are some chairs on circular wheeled bases with built in desks (these proved popular for pushing each other around on).

Recent Changes Camp 2012 Canberra This Week

Recent Changes Camp 2012 starts in Canberra on Friday (preceded by a dinner Thursday night). This is a free informal conference (an un-conference) on what Wikis can be used for (I will be discussing research and education on-line). It is being held at the University of Canberra's new high-tech teaching "INSPIRE Centre". The event runs until Sunday 22 January 2012: participants can attend any, or all, days.

Next Recent Changes Camp in New Zealand

Greetings from the last day of of Recent Changes Camp 2011: Canberra at the University of Canberra. The last topic of conversation was were the next event would be and what would be the theme. Suggested was the topic of "research" in New Zealand in mid 2011. One possible area which will be interested is the NZ Ministry of Education and Webstock.

Also what was discussed was another event for Australia. The consensus was to stick with education themed events for Canberra and new themes elsewhere, such as art in conjunction with This is Not Art in Newcastle.

What struck me was that there were people from several nations in the room discussing the use of Wikis, when the subtext was differences in culture. Perhaps that should be made the explicit discussions of scope for different cultures online.

Also there was discussion of the next Wikimedia Australia conference proposed for Adelaide. This would have formal academic double blind reviewed papers. An interesting aspect of this is how the wiki ethos can be melded with formal academic publishing practices. As an example, it is usually a condition for submitting papers for a conference that they have not previously been published and can be blind reviewed, which could preclude preparation of the paper using a public wiki. It would be interesting to see how the traditional formal review process which is built into packages such as OJS could be combined with a Wiki.

Bruce Declaration on Education

Greetings from the last day of of Recent Changes Camp 2011: Canberra at the University of Canberra. Yesterday we discussed "Wikis for Open Education", including in a podcast. Day three was to be about coming up with proposals "Bruce Declaration on Education". The idea was to produce a statement of principles on education, which could encompass how technologies such as wikis could be used, but not limited to the mechanics of how that is done.

The declaration is intended to inform current government inquiries into education and into the NBN. Policies, programs and funding could then be provided to have services directly to students, resources for teachers and for educational institutions.

There is a vigorous discussion taking place over formal and informational education, the role of teachers and institutions. As a former bureaucrat, I wanted to start from existing formal statements, such as Article 26 on the right to education of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (General Assembly of the United Nations, December 10, 1948). This is heavily loaded with decades of political baggage, but the original principles are very relevant to the application of Internet to education:

Article 26

• (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
• (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
• (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

The process used was also interesting. We sat in the open area of the UoC "Teaching Space" using a video projector and Meeting Words and Wikiversity for group preparation of a document. Each of us sitting on the leather lunge chairs could use WiFi on our netbooks and tablets. Text entered into MeetingWords by anyone was immediately avialable to everyone and displayed on the wall screen. This text was tidied up and then pasted to the Wikiversity. This worked well but was an exhausting process and we could not keep this up for more than about 20 minutes.

We started to get stuck at the point of proposing concrete projects. Here is my wish list:

• v-ALTC: In my view there is scope for putting in programs to replace the Australian Learning and Teaching Council which the Prime Minister cancelled last week. There could be a grass roots online version of ALTC, based on the approach taken by EdNA. I suggest a modest $10M over ten years.
• v-Schools: The example of upper secondary schools in the ACT aalso providing vocational education and community facilities such as libraries could be emulated. I suggest $1B over ten years to set up new and remodelled educational facilities in Australia.
  

Anyone interested is welcome to join in the process.

Wikis for Open Education

Greetings from the second day of Recent Changes Camp 2011: Canberra at the University of Canberra. This afternoon's second session on "Wikis for Open Education" is being podcast by "Talking VTE".

Wikipedia defines Open education as ".. a collective term that refers to educational organisations that seek to eliminate barriers to entry". The barriers can be formal academic admission requirements. Open University UK and Athabasca University in Canada are given as examples. E-learning is commonly used for this (a version of my Green ICT Strategies course is offered by Athabasca).

Leigh Blackall suggested using the term "open networked education" so I did a search for this and found "Workshop for Australian education policy" which is described as "An experiment in pulling the materials together to work on open networked education policy...".

Mentioned in discussion was the "Khan Academy", a not-for-profit US based educational body. Perhaps another to mention is the Lalit Kala Akademi (Kala National Academy of Arts India).

It seems to me that Montessori approach to school design can be applied across the educational school, vocational and university sectors.

The discussion then got onto the professionalism and certification of teaching. I don't see this as a bad thing. A technology based society needs competnet people to keep things working. Despite romantic notions of the apprentice learning at the feet of the master, teaching is a skill which needs to be learnt.

Wikis for Vocational Education

Greetings from the second day of Recent Changes Camp 2011: Canberra at the University of Canberra. This afternoon's session on "Wikis for Vocational Education" is being podcast by "Talking VTE". Leigh Blackall mentioned Making the Invisible Hand Visible. The Case for Dialogue About Academic Capitalism by Susan Awbrey. One institution mentioned which maintains a mix of commercially orientated and personal self development course was the Tasmanian Polytechnic.

I suggested that educators need to educate the community. In response it was mentioned that the Productivity Commission is having an inquiry into the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector (submissions close 28 February 2011). Also there is the "Higher Education Base Funding Review".

"Electronic Engagement: A Guide for Public Sector Managers" by Dr Peter Chen (2007) discusses some of how to make these views made. This in part comes from his PHD Thesis "Australia's online censorship regime" (2000). Peter interviewed me for his thesis in how I helped make a submission to a Senate inquiry.

Do your PHD through Wikiversity

In the last session of Recent Changes Camp 2011: Canberra
at the University of Canberra Leigh Blackall demonstrated how he was using Wikiversity for his PhD. I was sceptical as to the value of this and if it would be accepted by formal university processes. Leigh pointed out that there were several Examples of PhDs using Wikiversity. These ranged from a relatively traditional approach where the PDH thesis is put on the Wiki at the end of having been written, to one where the notes and work in progress is put in the wiki and publicly available from the start.

Recent Changes Camp 2011 Canberra

Greetings from Recent Changes Camp 2011: Canberra
at the University of Canberra, an informal symposium on anything to do with Wikis. There are 21 of us at the event. About a third are from the university, most of the others are from other Canberra universities. There are also some from interstate and overseas.We are in the Learning Commons, Level 2, Building 1 of UoC (just above the refectory). All are welcome to come and join in the discussion.

The event runs until Sunday afternoon. At present the first session on "WikiCulture" is under-way. We have three rooms available in the very new and very well equipped commons, so have space for three sessions. So far on the agenda are:

Friday:
Wikis for Education/Assessment/ Postgraduate/Wikipedia, Wikis for Printing/Replace WP, Wikis for Fun, Appropedia.org

Saturday:
Extended WIki Editing/why wikis don;t work/structure in wikis, Wikitravel/Gender mix (more males use wiki), Key facilitation for wikis/wikis for non-computer people, Wikis in Vocational Education and Training/Resources for Education

Sunday
Referencing and appraising scientific literature/Wikinews/More Wiki Conference, Why isn't Wiki a bigger social platform/Advanced skills/Bots

Free conference on wikis in Canberra on 11 August 2010

"Recent Changes Camp Canberra" is being held at the University of Canberra, 11 August 2010. This is free to attend, with the program determined on the day. The topic is the use wikis and other online collaboration tools.

Previously I have attended and presented at similar format "Bar Camp" events and found them very interesting and useful. But it takes a while to get used to the fluid format used. Unlike a conventional conference, such "unconferences" have less structure and at times are confusing, but fun.

It can be disconcerting when presenting, as few in the audience seem to be paying attention, instead typing on their smart phones, tablets and netbooks. But what they are doing (mostly) is listening to what you are saying and discussing it online with others in the room and elsewhere. Also the attendees can look and talk like cyberpunks, but turn out to be senior government and industry people.

Register online via the Wiki (you have to edit the wiki page, rather than fill in a form).

e-Learning Course on Green ICT Strategies: Part 14 - Wikiversity version

In Part 13 I prepared the remaining content for a new e-learning course on "Green IT Strategies", to be offered as part of the ACS Computer Professional Education Program. The Wikiversity, an educational equivalent to the Wikipedia, has an Information Technology school, so I added and entery for "Green IT" and "Introduction to Green IT" based on the material I prepared for the ACS course. I am unclear as to exacltly how the Wikiversioty functions, if it does function at all, but thought it might be worth making a contrbution.

The Wikiversity does not seem to have reached the point at which there is enough content to attract people to add more. Many of the entries are only stubs: with just a heading waiting for someone to fill in the details. Also there seems to be a lack of integration with the Wikipedia. You can use the same user-id for updating the Wikipedia and Wikiversity, but you have to add an external reference from the Wikiversity to the Wikipedia. The result is that it is difficult to use the Wikipedia content to build the Wikiversity.

Wikiversity needs more wiki and less versity

One of the interesting spinoffs of the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia is the Wikiversity learning community. This doesn't pretend to replace a university, but provides educational content which could be useful within and outside formal learning. Like the Wikipedia, the content is written by volunteers, so the coverage, style and quality can be uneven. Also the contributors may in places be trying a bit too hard to be like a traditional academics for their own good, or that of the learners. Simply translating unexciting, hard to read material from paper to electronic form is not going to work.

As an example, Lecture 2.0, is an item on how traditional lectures could be improved with Web 2.0 techniques. That is a useful idea, but the item is written in a ponderous academic style and structured in a way which makes it hard to read. Thus it exhibits the problems of the traditional academic style it is supposed to be trying to fix.

The real useful content of the item is in "Alternatives to the lecture", in the last one quarter of the article, which few readers will ever scroll down to. Most of the introductory paragraph is taken up saying what it isn't about and many people would not get past this, even to read about Lecture 1.0 and Lecture 1.5. The section on Lecture 2.0 which is about the new techniques starts off talking about what is wrong with old fashioned lectures, not what the new ones should be.

Also by pandering to the marketing Web 2.0 hype, with terms like "Lecture 2.0" the article lowers its academic credibility. The Wikicians might do better by starting with the Wikipedia entry for " Lecture" and working from there. The Wikipedia has a dry, but readable style for most of its entries. They are structured in a way which is easy to read online, but authoritative looking.

ps: One external link in the Lecture 2.0 item I was surprised by was to my own "My last lecture": Tom Worthington from the Australian National University explains why he's given up lecturing in favour of blended learning, 20 August, 2008. That shows the positive side of the Wikiversity, with new material being able to be incorporated quickly.