Education Committee/Education Committee meeting 25 February 2014/Minutes

Present

LiAnna Davis Jami Mathewson Toni Daria Martin Leutha Doug Charles Padmini Simon

Apologies

Stevie Benton

Wikimania Fringe/Hack event planning for Future of Education track.

LiAnna explaining the track and how the Education Committe could support: Hack - 2 day event to work on the future of education run in June in London - prep for Wikimania education outreach activities, capacity building - do we want to be involved, and can we network to the right people to attend. Daria stressed that WMUK can definitely support by bringing the right people from the UK to the workshop. Padmini interested to see if we can stream the event - thinking about how the event could be connected to India.

ACTION: all to post the suggestions to Toni (if it's UK-related). https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fringe/Future_of_Education_Hack/Planning is also a page to engage with.

Minutes of previous meeting

Action carried over:

ACTION: SB to bring forward something concrete to next meeting about restarting the Digital Disruption work

Strategy discussion, see Strategic goals, 2014-15 educational priorities

https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Strategic_goals

Charles commented that "Reduce barriers to accessing Open Content" goal is not a sophisticated enough goal. It would help to explain what that goal is aiming at achieving, what there is to be done in this area. Otherwise it would be a bit underwritten. Simon explained the intentions behind that goal, and the primary outcome that is being aimed at. Goal could be tweaked to explicitly name 'soft barriers' such as information literacy.

Doug pointed out that that goal also covers Accessibility - there is a lot of work to be done to make Wikipedia accessible, and WMUK could contribute in reducing such barriers. We have discussed where within the stragetic goals accessibiliy should be based - Simon guided us through that. Simon made possible change https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Talk:Strategic_goals#Information_Literacy

ACTION: Committee to collate feedback on the strategy on the mailing list for the 28th Feb deadline.

https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/2014-15_educational_priorities Charles is happy with the strategic objectives as relating to the work of the committee.

Doug felt it provides a good framework for what we do, and stressed the need for metrics in everything of what we do. Our capacity is sufficient to deliver the goals. However, measurable outcomes are only possible if we know what the baselines are. Daria stressed that these are being worked on in the background. Priorities page needs more work.

Doug asked if the committee's remit includes the 'International chapter support' activities - it possibly overlaps in some areas, however, the focus should remain on the core education work.

ACTION: All members to look at the https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Measures_and_targets and the wiki Activity Plan https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/2014_Activity_Plan#University_and_Education_Outreach and others to see how the committee can support the plan.

There is a need for a strategy in education, in Martin's opinion, so we can link our activities.

ACTION: an recurring item on the committee's agenda to be 'Planning' to look strategically at our work.

Digital literacy, including Leicester City Council invitation to tender; Draft

Digital literacy strategy

Martin introduced the project, which aims to teach secondary school teachers about Creative Commons, ways to find free and open content, and the remixing of educational material. The committee felt it's a very good project to support and would like Stevie to proceed - Doug in particular mentioned he is keen to work on it.

ACTION: Stevie to write the tender to apply for the project, with Doug to support with delivery.

For information, Wikimedia UK is also supporting the Wikipedia-relevant section of a project proposal that will, if funded, run an event to inform teachers about Wikipedia and other social media as platforms for research and education. The outputs of the Wikipedia-related activity will be released freely under a free licence. Martin has committed volunteer time to this project, which would run in earlyl 2015.

Badges proposals (to include discussion of Duke of Edinburgh's Award and building a relationship with Mozilla)

Charles introduced the Duke of Edinburgh's Award idea, and how that could link with Wiki Loves Monuments. Committee is broadly happy with it, and Doug is particular familiar with the programme.

Training handouts (see training handouts - https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Training_handouts)

Toni feels this is a chaper-wide issue. Committee could recommend changes, but the action would need to be centrally embraced by the chapter. Training handouts page should include materials that already exist and that everyone can use.

ACTION: committee members to update the training page.

Doug remarked that a list of materials available (even links) would be very useful. There is a wide variety of links in different places, which can be confusing.

ACTION: Richard N to make the list prominent (could be linking Outreach wiki) - RN to liaise with Doug. Doug would also involve Martin in improving the documentation.

EduWiki

Toni updating on the progress - conference is included in the activity plan. Committee can be updated on progress by looking at the event page at EduWiki Conference 2014. Next step is Toni liaising with Ally in Scotland to look at possible venues.

ACTION: Toni to verbally update at the next meeting.

AOB

• Comments for the strategy pages on wiki requested by Simon
• Moodle conference that Charles could attend. Benefit would be networking with other institutions using Moodle, find out how they use the tool.
• Mozilla open badges integration into moodle. Charles alerting the committee to a potential project in this area. Toni has explained the background for the proposal.