These are my thoughts on the experience of being principal wiki editor for some staff development courses on VLE2. I was also given the task of creating two new wikis, one for a self taught Elluminate module and one for Associate Lecturers to share ideas and good practice for Elluminate sessions in Region 02.
My aim was to, firstly, set up the necessary pages to start the wiki. As ALs may not be familiar with using wikis, I decided it was best given a clear structure from the start. It will then adapt it as it gets populated. Each page has clear instructions on how to edit it and links to the OU computing guide. There were some early issues with IE9 as I wasn't able to edit without going into html mode. A discussion with IT support identified this as a possible IE9 incompatibility. I switched to using Chrome and had no further problems. I began to populate some of the pages with contributions so that no-one would feel they were the first. To make the wiki a little more attractive each page has an image as a header. Each header follows a similar style and includes an image that reflects the page title. The one issue with Chrome is that when uploading images it doesn't offer the facility to resize in the html editor box, the size has to put in when you upload the image. I discovered by trial and error the optimum width was 11cm. Training materials developed for region 02 were uploaded here and included as attachments, a new feature of VLE2. Links and bridges were also added to other Elluminate pages on other wikis.
The wiki created for sharing good practice in region 02 was done on the old VLE style and so training materials could not be added as attachments. I therefore uploaded the materials (pdf files) to a public folder on Dropbox, and then copied the link into the wiki. The documents then opened from Dropbox. It was interesting to work a way around the shortcomings of the old VLE style wiki.
I now expect to gradually take more of a backseat role, housekeeping and tidying whilst allowing the wiki to develop in the direction determined by the crowd. The aim is that these wikis become a rich and valuable resource for all ALs using Elluminate in their teaching.
H808 Developing and editing wikis
These are my thoughts on the experience of being principal wiki editor for some staff development courses on VLE2. I was also given the task of creating two new wikis, one for a self taught Elluminate module and one for Associate Lecturers to share ideas and good practice for Elluminate sessions in Region 02.
My aim was to, firstly, set up the necessary pages to start the wiki. As ALs may not be familiar with using wikis, I decided it was best given a clear structure from the start. It will then adapt it as it gets populated. Each page has clear instructions on how to edit it and links to the OU computing guide. There were some early issues with IE9 as I wasn't able to edit without going into html mode. A discussion with IT support identified this as a possible IE9 incompatibility. I switched to using Chrome and had no further problems. I began to populate some of the pages with contributions so that no-one would feel they were the first. To make the wiki a little more attractive each page has an image as a header. Each header follows a similar style and includes an image that reflects the page title. The one issue with Chrome is that when uploading images it doesn't offer the facility to resize in the html editor box, the size has to put in when you upload the image. I discovered by trial and error the optimum width was 11cm. Training materials developed for region 02 were uploaded here and included as attachments, a new feature of VLE2. Links and bridges were also added to other Elluminate pages on other wikis.
The wiki created for sharing good practice in region 02 was done on the old VLE style and so training materials could not be added as attachments. I therefore uploaded the materials (pdf files) to a public folder on Dropbox, and then copied the link into the wiki. The documents then opened from Dropbox. It was interesting to work a way around the shortcomings of the old VLE style wiki.
I now expect to gradually take more of a backseat role, housekeeping and tidying whilst allowing the wiki to develop in the direction determined by the crowd. The aim is that these wikis become a rich and valuable resource for all ALs using Elluminate in their teaching.