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;Announcement – QRpedia donated to Wikimedia UK
;Open Educational Resources – Some reflections on OER ’13


[[File:Bees for Development QRpedia code plaque.jpg|thumb|200px|right|A QRpedia code in situ in Monmouth, Wales]]
[[File:Communicate_OER_logo.png|thumb|200px|right|The Communicate OER project logo]]


Wikimedia UK is pleased to announce that Roger Bamkin and Terence Eden are transferring ownership of QRpedia to Wikimedia UK.
''This post was written by Dr Martin Poulter, Wikimedia UK Associate''


As a donation from Roger and Terence, the intellectual property in QRpedia and the qrpedia.org and qrwp.org domains will be transferred to Wikimedia UK, which will maintain and support the development of the QRpedia platform for the future for the benefit of the Wikimedia community. Roger and Terence will act as honorary advisors to Wikimedia UK in this, as well as retaining their moral rights of attribution, but will not receive any financial consideration for this. The transfer of the domains will take place as soon as the remaining legal details have been resolved.
[http://www.oer13.org/ OER13], a two-day international conference about Open Educational Resources, took place last week in the University of Nottingham. As well as providing a focus for new developments and findings in open education, it addressed overlapping issues such as open access to research, student perspectives and digital literacy. Wikipedia and Wikimedia had a very strong presence.


QRpedia is a web tool that uses QR codes placed on or near objects or locations to link mobile users to Wikipedia articles about those objects or locations in their language. The agreement was made as a result of negotiations at our board meeting on 8 February 2013.
I attended on behalf of Wikimedia UK, to deliver a presentation, set up a little stall, and offer the [http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_Education_Program_Case_Studies_%28WMUK_version%29.pdf How Universities are Using Wikipedia case-study brochure], which went like hot cakes. The presentation explained how Wikipedia and its sister projects can be used as educational platforms. Its main example was the Wikipedia Education Program in which students improve Wikipedia articles for course credit. According to [http://oer13.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/wikipedia-education-program-open-educational-practice-on-a-global-scale-abs70/ a blog post by Terese Bird] of the University of Leicester’s Institute of Learning Innovation, the presentation “made a compelling case” for including Wikipedia-based assignments in formal learning.


Wikimedia UK is grateful for this donation which will allow ongoing technical support for a number of Wikimedia-related outreach projects where QRpedia is already in use, including Wikimedia UK’s work with the Derby Museum and Monmouthpedia, and many others worldwide.
[http://philwane.com/ Phil Wane], a Nottingham Trent University lecturer and previous speaker at [http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/EduWiki_Conference_2012 the EduWiki Conference], gave both a paper poster and an electronic poster about the [http://philwane.com/wikibook.html Wikipedia Book Tool] and how lecturers can use it to create and customise lists of articles.


Chris Keating, Chair of Wikimedia UK, said: “I am very pleased that we have reached agreement with Roger and Terence and that Wikimedia UK will support, preserve and improve QRpedia for the benefit of the whole Wikimedia community. QRpedia is a great innovation and already plays an important role in Wikimedia outreach projects not just in the UK but worldwide. I look forward to working with Roger and Terence to develop QRpedia further in future.”
The gold star, however, must go to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:COMMOER Communicate OER project], which is bringing together Wikipedians, educators, and support staff to improve articles about open education. The project’s Pete Forsyth and Sarah Frank Bristow attended the conference, and thanks to them all delegates got a copy of the [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Welcome_to_Wikipedia_booklet,_UK_version.pdf Welcome to Wikipedia booklet]. They had a stall, a poster, and [http://oer13.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/opening-up-our-minds-to-wikipedia-at-oer13/ two sessions to introduce their project] and invite participants to School of Open’s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Communicate_OER_SOO_Course new online course on Writing Wikipedia Articles]. As if that weren’t enough, they also ran a post-conference editing session.


Roger Bamkin, co-creator of QRpedia, said: “Terence Eden and I are thrilled to see the projects in Monmouth, Johannesburg, Gibraltar, Sayada and Fremantle that have inspired volunteers to write about different towns in dozens of different languages. Who would think you could tour Monmouth in Hungarian or Gibraltar in Punjabi?” <span class="plainlinks">[http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/04/announcement-qrpedia-donated-to-wikimedia-uk/<nowiki>[</nowiki>...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>
The open education genie is well and truly out of the bottle. Open Educational Resources are not a new idea, but there was a sense at the conference that we were all part of a movement that is only just getting started. One discussion group argued that it is now within our reach to have public, open education on the model of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Service  the National Health Service]: available to everyone, life-long without charge, with both rights and responsibilities for citizens who need it. Wikipedia was mentioned not just as an example of this free global service, but as a way for citizens to contribute back to the common good.
 
We [http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/03/learning-and-teaching-in-the-age-of-wikipedia/ covered recently on this blog] how some educators are resistant to the educational potential of Wikipedia, yet our warm acceptance from the OER community shows that the shared goals between Wikimedians and formal education are impossible to ignore. <span class="plainlinks">[http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/04/announcement-qrpedia-donated-to-wikimedia-uk/<nowiki>[</nowiki>...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>


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Revision as of 16:29, 4 April 2013

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