Fringe/Future of Education Workshop/Planning

From Wikimania 2014 • London, United Kingdom
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Details we know for sure

Goals for Hack

  • Gather Wikimedians, educators and other information professionals to co-produce an effective Education strand at Wikimania, identify roles for individuals to take forward and share skills to enable participants to comfortably fulfil those roles.
  • Emerge with actionable plans in place to develop content of education-track workshops at Wikimania.
  •  Add additional goals here.

Who do we want to attend?

As leaders
  • People with significant experience in education programs worldwide.
As participants
  • 2-4 people from each target group (educators, education policymakers, instructional technologists, students, librarians, Wikimedians, etc.)
    • Total of about 10-30 people
  • People who have both interest and time to devote to helping plan the education track at Wikimania (5 hours/week between end of June and beginning of August?)
  • Background in either Wikimedia projects or education
    • Ideal group will include more people new to Wikimedia, since that's who we want to reach at Wikimania
  • People who are well-connected in their spheres and might be able to recruit others to come to Wikimania
  • Good planners/workshop leaders
  • People who will commit to coming to Wikimania

People involved in planning

  • LiAnna Davis, Wiki Education Foundation, lianna@wikiedfoundation.org, User:LiAnna (Wiki Ed)
  • Jami Mathewson, Wiki Education Foundation, jami@wikiedfoundation.org, User:Jami (Wiki Ed)
  • Leutha (talk)
  • Rod Dunican, Director Global Education Program, Wikimedia Foundation, rdunican@wikimedia.org
  • Floor Koudijs, Wikipedia Education Program Manager, fkoudijs@wikimedia.org
  • EdSaperia (talk), Wikimania Coordinator, ed@wikimanialondon.org
  • Toni Sant, Wikimedia UK Education Organiser, toni.sant@wikimedia.org.uk
  •  add yourself here!

Task List

By April 18, we will:

  • Create a draft registration form (Jami)
  • Create a list of people from our networks we'd like to have come (Toni and Floor)
  • Reach out to the Open Scholarship track to determine how OER should be covered (Leutha)
  • Create a draft agenda (LiAnna)
  • Check into space and accommodation availability (Stuart)

Timeline

February
  • Improve this page!
  • 25 Feb: LiAnna and Jami join WM-UK Education Committee call to discuss plans
March
  • Address open questions
April
  • 11 April: Conference call: Toni, Leutha, Stuart, Floor, Jami, LiAnna
    • Get a better timeline in place. :)
  • 18 April: drafts of all tasks completed
  • Week of 21 April: On-wiki/email discussions of drafts
  • Week of 28 April: start publicizing event and open registration
May
  • determine who will lead which sessions on Day 1?
June
  • early June: close registration?
  • 15 June: finalize and distribute agenda to participants
  • 21-22: Hack!

Open questions

Best layout style for room

We can use different formats on each day.

Even if we use different layouts each day, we'll still need to take into account the limit on number of people for the day that accommodates the fewest number of people (assuming everyone will attend both days). We want everyone to attend both days, right? Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:42, 1 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Limiting the event to only those who can spare two days of their lives for the occasion might be a little shortsighted considering the lack of focus for the event with only two months left to go.Leutha (talk) 22:06, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
So, we could either have parallel sessions planned ahead of registration, or organise parallel sessions once we know what people who register are interested in. Perhaps this is not really a chicken & egg situation but a matter of deciding whether we want people to come to something that's prescribed or invite people to tell us what they'd rather engage with and organise around that. --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 19:57, 10 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Theatre style
  • Has maximum amount of people per room, but no tables for laptops.
Classroom style
  • Has a 24-person capacity, but all facing forward.
  • Could be adapted for the World Café method
Boardroom
  • Too small for this event.
could this be used for a breakout session? or is it simply not available now? --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 19:57, 10 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
U-shape
  • Some reduction in capacity (20 people) but fosters more of a group discussion atmosphere -- nobody's back is to others.
I think either classroom or u-shape is ideal for day 1, where we'll introduce the many topics related to Wikipedia and education. U-shape is more collaborative and may improve participation if we can incorporate some hands-on activities throughout even the more "informative" day. Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:42, 1 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Do we want everyone to be in the same discussion group all the time across the two days? --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 19:57, 10 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How do we recruit people?

Rather than an open call, should we go in the direction of specifically reaching out to our networks? (WM-UK education committee reaches out people, WM-DE reaches out to people, Wiki Education Foundation reaches out to people?)

I think we should definitely reach out to people. Perhaps we can start a list of the people we'd like to see there (on google docs?), so we can make sure our small group of people has a good balance of educators, librarians, instructional designers, relevant government folks, etc. Are you guys ok with all of us putting together a "wish list" of the dynamic we're aiming for? Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:45, 1 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Just thought of another possibility. Perhaps we should put together a list of qualities we'd like to see in our participants (their interests, their professions, etc.) and then use that to develop a brief "application". Then we can make that public and of course ping potential attendees and ask them to complete it. This gives us the opportunity to find out more information about attendees and invite them based on maintaining a good balance. Does that feel too formal? We can still encourage the other people to attend Wikimania itself and can invite those who are most eager to participate beyond this planning hack. Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 23:01, 1 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Part of WMUK's education activities plan for 2014 includes using Wikimania (including this Fringe/Hack event) as a capacity building opportunity towards our EduWiki 2014 event in October. Two tracks on that event are certainly appropriate for recruiting people to come to this June event: (i) educators who want to train on how to use Wikipedia for university classroom assignments, and (ii) people in the Education sector who have been supported by WMUK over the past couple of years. I am willing to lead on this, of course, since it's part of my job within WMUK to do so anyway. --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 20:02, 10 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

What, if any, scholarships are available?

  • Who funds them?
  • How is it decided who gets them?
If we have any scholarships, the organisers of this event should have a say (even if not final decision) on who gets them, to ensure that the scholarships line up with the main goals of this gathering. --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 20:04, 10 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

What's the right mix of UK vs non-UK folks?

Need people who are for sure coming to Wikimania...is that people who live in London? People geographically close to London?

WMUK will consider supporting people who commit to not only coming to Wikimania but also coming to EduWiki to engage with one or both of the tracks I mentioned above. --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 20:07, 10 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How do we incorporate Open educational resources (OER) into this?

Or is that something for the Open Scholarship track?

I think this is important and a really hot topic right now, but there is an entire track focusing on this. For that reason, I'd like to see us distance ourselves from spending a lot of time on it. Instead, we can direct any folks we reach out to to the other track. Can we limit discussion about OERs into casual break-outs/meal breaks? Or perhaps we can do a workshop session where we break into round table discussions and each table covers one topic. The idea here is that you take a set period of time—let's say an hour—and have 6 different tables set up. Each table focuses on the details of one topic, and the groups rotate every 10 minutes and have to contain their discussion to that timeframe for each topic. Just an idea for one of the ways we can educate our participants on relevant topics (e.g., Moodle, OERs, etc.). Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:58, 1 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I think the idea of six different tables is good. People can write notes on paper table clothes as a way of keeping notes, then at the end everyone can circulate to see how the discussions have developed. However maybe having five people at five tables might be better see here.Leutha (talk) 22:19, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
We need to either avoid duplication or ensure direct engagement with any other track working on Open Scholarship. --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 20:09, 10 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How do we ensure the right people come?

Do we have the registration form include questions about their views of Wikipedia and education or something to encourage people who're really committed to be the ones who come? If so, what kinds of questions should we put on this form?

Whoops, just suggested something like this above. I think this is a really good idea so we can maintain a strong balance (diversity of geography and experience) and invite those who will commit to more than just this weekend. Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 23:11, 1 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I'd like to add a question about EduWiki for UK-based attendees and other who have attended previous editions of EduWiki in the UK. Would it be possible to add the date for EduWiki 2014 to the second question below? --Toni Sant (WMUK) (talk) 20:13, 10 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Suggested questions

  • Please describe your experience thus far with Wikipedia. Have you ever used it in an academic setting? How?
  • Can you attend the Future of Education Hack and Wikimania (6/21—6/22 and 8/6—8/10 in London)? Please list your availability.
  • Why are you interested in strengthening the relationship between (traditional?) education and Wikipedia? How does this fit into your role in your job or a volunteer capacity?
  • Are you interested in attending a workshop on how to adopt Wikipedia for university classroom assignments?

What topics do we want to cover on Day 1?

And who on the planning committee is confident talking about those, and who do we need to find someone else to speak to?

Preliminary list of topics (add more and put yourself down for all the ones you're comfortable talking about so we can see where our gaps are — most of them will have multiple people who could lead discussions on it, and we can figure out who the best one is once we have the list of all our options)
  • MOOCs
  • Moodle
  • Wikipedia Ambassadors
    • LiAnna
    • Jami
  • Classroom-based activities
    • LiAnna
    • Jami
    • Toni
  • Media literacy (and other learning objectives)
    • LiAnna
    • Toni
  • Government policy
  • Wikipedia Education Program
    • LiAnna
    • Jami
    • Toni
  • Collaboration with school libraries
    • Jami
  • Chapter support for Education activities
    • Toni
  •  add topics here

How can we make sure that we reach our goals during the June meeting?

  • What are our metrics?
  • Do we have/need KPIs?
  • How do we ensure buy-in and ownership from attendees
    • Make it very clear in the invitation that participation means a level of involvement during Wikimania as well

What other questions do we have still?

  • Do we have a task list? (i.e. who is handling what and when?)

 Add more!

What will the legacy for WMUK and its community be?

  • How do we harness the enthusiasm?
  • Apart from the Education Conference what else will happen in the future?
  • Who at WMUK is in charge of following up and ensuring continued contact with interested persons?
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