The Malayalam WikiCommunity proceed to discuss how this partnership could be built and how the Malayalam Wikipedia Education Programme could be designed. It was extremely useful to have teachers and students in the community as well as experienced and new editors. It was invaluable to be able to have access and constructive conversations with the Director of IT@School and other officials. The basic idea is to create articles on Malayalam Wikipedia with the collective inputs of students and teachers of a selected school in Kerala.
Aims edit
- Help share free knowledge
- Enrich Malayalam Wikipedia with quality content about local subjects
- Teach students the value and values of sharing knowledge in their mother tongue
- Encourage students to edit on Malayalam Wikipedia, and encourage them to remain as active editors beyond their school terms
- Facilitate computing in Indian languages
- Build free software culture
The school selected for this project is Government Higher Secondary School, Anchal West, Kollam. This school was selected because the students and teachers of this institution showed interest in participating with Wikiprojects during the WikiAcademy conducted in Kerala in April 2012, as a part of WikiSangamotsavam, the annual meetup of Malayalam Wikimedians. Also, a few faculty members of this school are already a part of Malayalam Wikicommunity as active editors. The project will be led by the IT Co-ordinator of the School and will be under the supervision of the Principal of the School. The Malayalam Wikipedia Education Programme started on 1st June, 2012 and is expected to run for about 6 months - ending around 15th December 2012.
Participants edit
- 50 selected students from Eight, Ninth and Tenth Standards
- Interested faculty members of will potentially be part of the Malayalam Wikipedia Education Programme
Stages edit
- Stage 1: Initiate. Identification of school, teachers and students who are interested and willing to contribute to Wikimedia projects.
- Stage 2: Design. Launch a Wikipedia Club at the school. Conduct editing classes for the selected students and teachers. Select articles for editing jointly by teachers and Wikimedians. Seek local support from interested individuals and organisations, and build working partnerships
- Stage 3: Create and expand the selected articles. Add references to the selected articles using local resources. Assess progress of the Malayalam Wikipedia Education Programme and make changes as necessary.
- Stage 4: Review & Broadcast. Evaluate and record the outcome of this Malayalam Wikipedia Education Programme. Include the contents created throught the Malayalam Wikipedia Education Programme to IT@School's School Wiki. Create an offline version of the articles shaped through the project. Advertise the success of the project
Expectations edit
- Expectations from IT@School
- Give directions to the co-ordinators of the project
- Provide assistance to students and teachers in using computers,
- Provide Internet and camera to students during free periods and extra study hours
- Expectations from Malayalam WikiCommunity
- Guide and assist participants of the program in working with Wikimedia projects
- Create user guides for helping the students to edit Wikipedia
- Assign and divide responsibilities to the people involved in the project
- Provide prizes to the participants who take part actively in the program
Conclusion edit
- This program is expected to help the students and teachers utilize their free time effectively in understanding and sharing topics of regional importance.
- The insights gained from the project are expected to be groundbreaking - and will serve as the foundation for expanding the Malayalam Wikipedia Education Programme much wider within Kerala, and to other communities across India (and indeed the world.)