Mentor teacher/Guide on how to make a wikibook

About The Project
In 2013 we will finish the open textbook project about mentoring. The goal is to develop a high-quality textbook about mentoring in different languages. The work is supported by Norway Opening universities and is part of the OER (Open Educational Resources) movement. We wish to create texts that permit flexible reuse and modification. We are also trying to create a learning community through the collaborative text production.

By developing open textbooks we think we will enhance knowledge about mentoring in education. Wikipedia articles about these topics seem to lack content and quality assurance. Through this project we will try to create a better overview over the research area. The textbooks are intended to give readers an accessible introduction to this topic. The texts are supposed to be interesting both for lay persons and professionals. By developing open textbooks on wikibooks (and other websites) we wish to create a basic foundation for further work in this area.

In a Norwegian language context people are currently working on improved versions of the books. This developmental work is intended to stimulate the development of a more transparent knowledge sharing environment at the teacher education at Østfold University College. It is therefore important to stimulate the development of sustainable communities that can continue to develop these textbooks. This requires contributions from several different stakeholders. We are therefore encouraging contributions from experienced teacher educators, student teachers (only to some degree) and teachers. In this way we are challenging traditional production of textbooks and the notion of teachers and student teachers as only being “textbook consumers”.

At the same time these resources are published openly so they can be reused in different contexts in other countries. In this regard, one goal is to maximize distribution by facilitating the translations of the textbooks into different languages. The project therefore supports the development of basic (1.0) versions and the support of the development of communities that might be interested in continuing to work with the book. The Norwegian text has therefore been translated into English and we also wish to translate the text into Turkish, Chinese and Swedish.. Our goal is to translate and modify the book into several different versions.

The textbook market is mostly dominated by commercial publishers. The intention is to create an international community that can continue to create open textbooks in this way. If you want to participate as a reviewer or contributor in this project, please contact Rolf K. Baltzersen at Østfold University College (email: rolf.k.baltzersen(at)hiof.no)