Education Committee

The Education Committee of WMUK has been meeting by phone during 2013 (see Category:Education Committee meetings). It also carries on discussion and clearing-house functions on its mailing list.

Under its Charter, the Committee combines trustees, WMUK staff and volunteers. Currently its membership is: Saad Chowdri; Stevie Benton, Daria Cybulska, Toni Sant; John Cummings, Charles Matthews, Martin Poulter, and Fabian Tompsett.

Past Board discussion

From Minutes 30Jun12:

• DECISION: It was agreed that there will be GLAM and education sub-committees, the creation of which will be led by Fæ and Doug respectively. The leaders are to come back to the board at the next meeting with a charter describing the committees, initial membership, and (if appropriate) budget outlines, for formal board approval.

From Minutes 26Jul12 subsection Education Subcommittee:

• DT has set up a sub-committee. Stevie Benton, John Byrne, Joscelyn, Doug, Martin Poulter, Charles Matthews, and User:Leutha.

Mention in Minutes 8Sep12/Strategy day, under Hoped-for Outcomes, Others:

• Place education outreach in a central position in future plans

From Minutes 8Jun13b

• DECISION: SC to be board liaison for the education committee, replacing DT.

Caveat on delegation

The Education Committee is not covered by the terms of delegation in the Articles (see Articles of Association/2013 EGM revision#Delegation of Directors' powers) because it does not consist solely of Directors. Its role is advisory.

Report of late 2012

Charter

The (very rough) draft proposal and discussions about the charter are at Education Committee Charter.

Virtual Learning Environment

The VLE is nearing the end of its initial development phase - many thanks to Charles for all his hard work in managing the project. Charles has now produced a report asking us to focus on a number of issues that will arise as we complete this phase, and there is a wiki version at Virtual Learning Environment to attract input and discussion from Education Committee and any others who are interested.

Digital Literacy project with Digital Disruption and Demos

WMUK has been working with Demos and Digital Disruption on the development of a project to improve digital literacy and critical thinking skills in the UK. It will involve research to identify skills gaps, followed by the development of online and offline educational resources for all. The resources will then be made freely available under open licences. Martin and Stevie attended an event about this on 24 October, where Martin spoke about free content and Stevie spoke about Wikipedia and collaborative learning. Once the notes from Stevie, Demos and Digital Disruption are fully collated and written up a report will be shared on the UK wiki.

NIACE

WMUK has been invited to host a knowledge cafe session on the topic of using Wikimedia / open educational projects in education. This is at the NIACE conference in Manchester on 4 December 2012. The plan is for Martin and Stevie to attend. This is a further outcome from the EduWiki conference and an extension of our work into adult education. Again, more will follow on the wiki at a later date.