Education Committee/Education Committee meeting 12 November 2013/Minutes
Minutes from the Wikimedia UK Education Committee meeting, 12 November 2013
Attendees
Fabian Tompsett (FT) Daria Cybulska (DC) Stevie Benton (SB) Martin Poulter (MP) Doug Taylor (DT) Toni Sant (TS)
Apologies
Charles Matthews (CM) Saad Choudri (SC)
Agenda
- Apologies
- Follow-up from EduWiki
- For discussion: potential for an education program using Wikipedia in prisons and young offenders' institutions
- Proposal for public libraries program
- Other items for Education Organiser: SpotON - we need other events like this - https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/SpotOn_London_2013_Wikipedia_editing_workshop
- Priorities for education outreach
- Jisc Ambassador report
- Virtual Learning Environment - https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Virtual_Learning_Environment
EduWiki
TS begun by saying how pleased he is with the feedback. He said this is a tribute to the community in terms of how well they warmed to up to the idea of following up the success of 2012. He thanked everyone for their input to the conference.
ACTION:
- Summary of feedback forms and demographics of attendees: Jasbir working on this
- Delegate list: TS to circulate this very soon DONE
- Actions from final session: MP to write these up on office wiki (because they include personal contact details): some depend on delegate list DONE
- Reflecting on the strengths & weaknesses of the event. ALL to contribute to SWOT analysis
- "EduWiki: the Movie" Rock Drum has this in a rough form and is finalising the edit.
- Storified tweets: MP has remixed Brian Kelly's stories. Now needs to link them from conference page DONE
- Slides from presentations: TS email will nudge presenters NUDGED
It would have been beneficial to host the event at an university/education institution. This is the plan for 2014. Martin has offered to look into a free room at University of Bristol. We also have an offer of a free room at Stirling.
For discussion: potential for an education program using Wikipedia in prisons and young offenders' institutions
Proposal for working with prisons in UK (Stevie). Working with education and reform programmes to utilise the benefits of Wikipedia for these audiences. Wikipedia could be embedded as a free education resource or them. In the future such a program would become self funding. One of the partners could be - CFBT Education Trust http://www.cfbt.com/en-GB/What-we-do/Education-outside-the-mainstream/Young-offender-institutions-and-prisons. If the idea works this could be scalled to other prison insitutions.
DT provided some comments on ths proposal. There are difficulties to work with young offenders institutions when you are an outsider. There needs to be a strong working relationship with CFBT to make this programme a success. It's a great idea with a lot of potential, but first need to sell the idea to CFBT, who will then have to sell it to the prison itself.
DT suggested to look at other institutions too - they are all varied, and one model would not work for everyone, so the efforts need to go broader than focusing on just one institution.
The other project discussed was Libraries idea. TS mentioned that GLAM volunteers, and Jonathan should be at least aware of it, and possibly engaged with the project. Jonathan is indeed aware of the project and will likely play an important role in developing and delivering any resultant project.
SpotON and similar events
TS spoke about the event, which was formerly known as Science Online. He suggested that we need to have more events in this vein which can offer workshops and presentations. He mentions is particularly because Wikipedia was mentioned several times. TS and Brian Kelly helped to create many new user accounts. Brian's reflections are at http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/facilitating-a-wikipedia-editing-session-the-solo13-experience/ with a Storify of tweets from the event
ACTION: TS to add as much detail as possible, capturing the stats and outcomes, to the event page as a way of helping us to measure the very important outcomes that would result from this effort. https://wiki.wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/SpotOn_London_2013_Wikipedia_editing_workshop
Other conferences? TS would like to capture these so WMUK can attend.
- OER in April 2014: MP and Simon Knight planning to attend and have a presence.
- Public engagement conference: in November in Bristol
- ILI (librarians) conference: Nancy from EduWiki has approached Andrew Gray about submitting a session
- MP has a science communication day job so hears about a number of these events and forwards some to email lists.
- Other communities: open access/open science
ACTION: MP to help TS identify these
Priorities for education outreach
MP wanted to discuss this but without CM or a board member it may be better as a recurring item. MP suggested that the committee needs to be more invovled in setting priorities for education. The reality is there's more we can do than the capacity we have to do them. DT asked what we may not have done? MP provided examples as developing an education program and working more with schools. MP said it is unclear about where the direction for educational activity comes from and would like the EduComm to be more involved. DT thinks we are working on the areas where the impact is. MP is unclear where the direction comes from to act in the areas we currently act. FT suggested that more ideas need to be developed on the wiki so that there is that wider involvement. There was discussion here about how the development of an education strategy may happen in a way that is led by the EduComm, with input from the members and community, leading to a set of actions and recommendations to the board.
ACTION: SB to create a wiki page that encourages community involvement in the development of education priorities. this should be circulated via water cooler and the UK mailing list. Needs to build on existing documents. DOING
Jisc Ambassador report
MP gave a brief update on this work. He has started delivering workshops in universities on ways of working with Wikimedia and running Wikipedia education assignments. Reflections and lessons learned from these workshops are written up at https://wiki.wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Expert_outreach/Jisc_Ambassador/Research_impact_and_open_education A monthly write-up will appear on the UK wiki at https://wiki.wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Expert_outreach/Jisc_Ambassador
Each workshop collects actions from attendees. Some of these are passed on to relevant colleagues (e.g. museum staff to Jonathan Cardy). The rest he will follow up himself. This is documented on the office wiki at https://office.wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Education_contacts
Virtual Learning Environment
Charles has provided a draft 12-month report to the board which can be seen here - https://wiki.wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Virtual_Learning_Environment#Draft_12_month_report_for_the_board DT gave some outline of the intentions behind the VLE, including the fact it was initially intended to support the Train the Trainers programme. He explained that Tom Morton is worried that the proposed use of the VLE, including all of the plugins, puts a great demand on the servers and from a developer's point of view thinks there could be problems. Tom is suggesting that this may need a budget of £7-10k in order to maintain the system. FT has been reviewing some content and has found some things confusing and isn't sure where the system is going. MP suggested that we should add an introductory quiz to act as a baseline assessment which can then direct students to the appropriate module as a starting point.
ACTION: ALL to review Charles' draft report to the board on the VLE and make comments on the talk page within the next week. SB: to recommend to Charles that we open up the VLE for wider community input.
ACTION: ALL - DT asked that those that haven't visited the VLE recently to log in and take a look as things have changed recently. DT can create accounts for those that need them.
Next meeting
DC noted this is likely to be after Christmas but this is likely to be discussed over email.
ACTION: SB will write up a paragraph listing agenda items and point to the minutes for the Board. DONE