Wikiwijs literally translates as Wikiwise. In a nutshell: Wikiwijs is an open, internet-based platform, where teachers can find, download, (further) develop and share educational resources. The whole project is based on open source software, open content and open standards.
Wikiwijs is inspired by the idea of wikis: collaborative developing of content. Educational resources are developed by teachers, for teachers. Teachers can freely use anything they find in the Wikiwijs database in their classrooms. The scope of Wikiwijs is the whole Dutch educational system: from primary schools up to the universities.
Development
Traditional wikis are not suitable for the purpose of Wikiwijs, because of the special requirements education has for finding and arranging content. We therefore developed a special platfor for teachers.
The Wikiwijs platform was launched on 15 December 2009. after 8 months of testing we launched the 1.0 version in september 2010. During the development of the platform, we will constantly tune in to the needs and desires of its users: the teachers. Only a few subjects are covered in the trial phase: Maths and Dutch language.
History
The Dutch minister of Education, Ronald Plasterk, announced the Wikiwijs project in December 2008. The reason was a report by the Onderwijsraad: ‘Onderwijs en open leermiddelen’ (Education and open educational resources). In May 2009, the ministry of Education commissioned Open Universiteit Nederland and Kennisnet to develop a program plan. The program plan consists of five components:
Access (an adequate technical infrastructure)
Content (sufficient supply of educational resources)
Communities (enthusiastic teachers having sufficient possibilities to connect to one another)
Proficiency (proficient users who possess the knowledge and skill to deal with developing, arranging and/or using open, digital educational resources)
Research (well-founded understanding of the results established by Wikiwijs)
All documentation on Wikiwijs is in Dutch. If you have any questions, please leave a comment on this page by clicking the comment link at the bottom of this page. You can also send an e-mail to: info@wikiwijs.nl.
