Grants:Project/Rapid/marielavzla/Offline Internet Resources for Rural Schools in Peru

statusfunded

Rapid Grants

marielavzla/Offline Internet Resources for Rural Schools in Peru

Do research and present findings on Wikipedia and offline resources in rural schools across Peru to the Peruvian Education Ministry.

targetSpanish and English Wikipedia

start date17 January

end date16 May

budget (local currency)2000

budget (USD)2000

grant typeindividual

grantee• marielavzla

contact(s)• mariela.machadogmail.com

friendly space expectations

ucc

privacystatement

Create your report

Please see the sample Editathon/Training application before drafting your application.

Project Goal

Choose one or more of the following goals. You can add or delete goals as needed. The recommended goals are as follows:

1. Recruit new editors
2. Increase skills for existing editors
3. Add or improve content

Note - this project seeks to do none of the above. Its goal is to bring Wikipedia to new readers and users in rural Peru by providing it in offline format in educational settings without Internet access.

Project Plan

Activities

This is another project in the en:Wikipedia:Offline Internet Resources for Latin America campaign. This campaign advocates for educators to use Wikipedia and other open content in Latin American regions which are offline or have limited Internet connectivity. For this project, "Offline Internet Resources for Rural Schools in Peru", I have the opportunity to present Wikipedia to the Ministry of Education of the Government of Peru and to present Wikipedia to teachers at rural schools in Peru during a series of presentations from March 10-18 2018. As I do this I would be bringing Wikipedia content to new audience and establish a new collaboration in a country which has less Wikipedia participation.

My hope is that the Central Government will adopt any of the options that the Wikimedia community offers to provide offline Wikipedia access to schools, and that teachers at the schools themselves will find Wikipedia useful as an educational resource even if they do not have Internet access.

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. Be sure to answer the following questions:

1. Are you doing one editathon or training or a series of editathons or trainings?

There will be no editathons. The trainings will focus on reading and using Wikipedia. Yes, there will be at least 10 trainings at 10 schools.

2. How will you let your community know about the event? Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions.

The touring schedule of schools is established. Staff and students at the schools are already confirmed to attend.

3. Do you have experienced Wikimedia editors to lead the event?

Yes, the en:Wikipedia:Offline Internet Resources for Latin America team is presenting this. See that page for previous media coverage and Wikipedia project history.

4. Do participants have the equipment or skills needed to participate and contribute high quality content? If not, how will you support them?

This project will not seek to recruit Wikipedia editors because this community does not have access to many computers or educational equipment. This particular community needs exposure to Wikipedia for the sake of reading. No, they do not have good equipment to that, but this program will be providing them with Internet-in-a-Box devices containing Wikipedia in multiple relevant languages.

5. How will you engage participants after the event(s)?

The primary relationship here is between the en:Wikipedia:Offline Internet Resources for Latin America and the Ministry of Education in Peru. After this program there will be ongoing offers of support for the Peruvian government to accept and distribute offline devices containing Wikipedia.

6. Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?

See en:Wikipedia:Offline Internet Resources for Latin America for project history.

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets:

1. Number of events

   10

2. Number of participants

   20 teachers and some students from each, plus central government officials in the ministry of education

3. Number of new editors

   0 - this is a project about reading Wikipedia and using it in education in areas without good Internet access

4. Number of of articles created or improved

   0 - this project is doing outreach to a population which is unfamiliar with reading Wikipedia

5. Number of repeat participants (for projects that include a series of events)

   0 - This project will not seek to track repeated Wikipedia engagement from any logged in account as the users have no Internet access.

We expect to accomplish the following:

1. We will visit at least 10 rural schools in Peru
2. We have appointments scheduled to give training to at least 20 teachers
3. We already have appointments with 5 representatives of the Education Ministry of Peru, to whom we will advocate Wikipedia
4. We will recommend that the Education Ministry purchase and deploy offline Wikipedia Internet-in-a-Box devices to at least 60% of rural schools
5. We will research and write a report to the Ministry of Peru
6. We have approved consideration to publish in Foreign Affairs magazine and MIT Technology Review

Resources

What resources do you have? Include information on who is organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

This project already has a team of several graduate students, graduate school faculty, and instructors traveling to Peru from various places to present offline digital media to the education Ministry of Peru. The total cash investment in that might be US$25,000 and the in-kind value might be $25,000. Funding from the WMF would help to incorporate an additional team member to advocate especially for Wikimedia content in this tour of presentations.

What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense and include a total amount.

• airfare - $1000, NYC to Lima
• accomodation - $600, $60/night
• travel - $400, $80 per city to city trip, 5 trips

Endorsements

Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!

• Support I have assisted Mariela with this grant application as well as with other aspects of Wikipedia engagement for her and the team at Columbia University in the en:Wikipedia:Offline Internet Resources for Latin America campaign. Mariela has been a great participant of wiki events with the Wiki NYC chapter. She regularly gives public presentations of the value of Wikipedia, and to deploy it in regions without Internet access by using an Internet in a Box with Kiwix. The team has been encouraging students at Columbia University to engage with Wikimedia projects since at least 2013 with more participation since 2015. I think that the outreach she coordinates in Latin America is fantastic. I appreciate the media attention she is able to get both for Wikimedia projects and offline access to information. I appreciate her collaboration to develop medical content, give feedback on deployment, and to create documentation for what the team does. Most of this project is already funded as several people on the team already have grants to attend from other sources. When groups raise money to promote Wikimedia projects with non-WMF funding I am thrilled with that as well. The budget here is modest and out of this project we get a report from great students and a great team with a history of good outcomes. It is easy for me to endorse this. Blue Rasberry (talk) 23:13, 22 November 2017 (UTC)