Grants:IdeaLab/School Teachers popularising wikipedia

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School Teachers popularising wikipedia

My organization 'IT for Change' has been working with government school teachers in Karnataka and Telangana for the last 8 years, on integrating digital technologies for their own professional development.

One important agenda in our workshops for teachers is the use of Wikipedia for improving their content knowledge. We also encourage them to contribute to Wikipedia, specially in Indic languages. We also encourage them to orient their students to learning about Wikipedia.

My NGO, IT for Change has worked directly and indirectly with more than 22,000 teachers and we plan to implement our model of teacher development called the 'professional learning community - open educational resources' (PLC-OER), across the country. We want to popularise Wikipedia amongst all government school teachers in India (more than 3 million of them) and have them pass on the idea of Wikipedia to their students also. This way we will reach all school students across India.

We believe in the concept of Wikipedia/ open educational resources, and in fact have developed two state websites of OER (KOER and TROER for Karnataka and Telangana states) using the MediaWiki platform. See http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Main_Page and http://troer.telangana.gov.in/

Also see a short video on the PLC-OER model at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJYRS0X98M0& list=PLWUrlh2K8RdQL8cRmTnuj_osvNZqJtGBj&index=7

countryIndia

idea creator• Gurukasi

this project needs...

volunteer

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created on14:10, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

Audience

Who are the people you want to introduce Wikipedia to?

Try to be as specific as possible about this group.
Government school teachers across India

In what languages do they search for information, online or otherwise?

All Indic languages - currently our teachers search for information in Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and Marathi apart from English

In what ways does this group communicate with each other?

This can include services and apps in social media, mailing lists, physical spaces like conferences or lectures, or at specific institutions like at a library.
google groups. Telegram and Whatsapp groups

What are some reasons this group would use Wikipedia? How would they benefit from it, or what would they find useful?

Think about what they would be interested in reading and learning about; does Wikipedia provide better access to information this group cares about?
As teachers, they always look for content to improve their subject knowledge and for teaching students

Project idea

What language Wikipedia projects will you promote to new readers?

All Indic languages. Now Kannada, Telugu, Hindi

How will you communicate with new readers? Will you be communicating with them online, in-person, or both?

Both. in-person through our teacher development workshops (in collaboration with the governments) on-line through google groups, whatsapp and telegram groups

Describe your idea to engage new readers. How might it be implemented? What will you tell people about Wikipedia?

Think about the steps that might involved to make this idea happen, and what you might teach people about your experience or others' experiences using Wikipedia.
It is quite simple. Teachers are always keen to search for knowledge resources. They find Wikipedia extremely useful for their practice and learning

How will you know if this project is successful? What are some outcomes that you can share after the project is completed?

If you’re not certain about how to respond to this question when starting your idea, you do not need to answer it right now. Campaign participants and Wikimedia Foundation staff can help you consider some options.
The use of Wikipedia by the teachers. Contribution to Wikipedia by teachers

Do you think you can implement this idea? What support do you need?

Do you need people with specific skills or resources to complete this idea? Are there any financial needs for this project? Do you need advising from Wikimedia Foundation staff?
Collaboration with Wikipedia would be great. Financial support for workshops and on-line support would also be useful

Get Involved

About the idea creator

I have worked in the technology sector for 15 years. Last 12 years, I work in education. I am Director of IT for Change, a NGO working to use ICT for progressive social change. I lead projects on ICT integration in government schools and government school systems. - Gurumurthy Kasinathan (http://itforchange.net/guru)

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