CIS-A2K/Events/Wikipedia Orientation session in Digital school in Kupwad

Plan of working with digital schools has emerged from the needs assessment survey. CIS-A2K has selected schools with digital infrastructure as partners in this activity. First orientation session in the series was conducted in Kupwad on 15 October on the occasion of 'Reading Day'. About 200 girls and 20 teachers attended this programme. The interactive demonstrations and feedback session received well by the students.

Background

In the need assessment it was realised that CIS-A2K should reach to students. It is a necessary activity because rural students are still not aware about Marathi Wikipedia though they are learning in Marathi medium schools. Wikipedia has good readership among students of all ages. The needs of this community could be assessed well by themselves. The integration of academic skills with encyclopedic content generation would be mutually beneficial for students and Wikimedia projects. In Marathi Wikipedia, there is a large gap in content related to basic science concepts, biographies, major historic events and places, social science issues etc. Due to inclusion of e-learning facilities in the schools, infrastructure is available to initiate Wiki projects. The students are expected to learn through digital platforms and multimedia.

Objectives

• To introduce Wikimedia projects to students and faculty
• To collect feedback about present Wikipedia readership
• To assess the needs and interest areas

Event details

Date : 15 October 2018
Time : 1pm to 5pm
Place : Kupwad, District Sangli
Venue : Ashalata Annaso Upadhye High School

Participants

• Students - 200
• Teachers - 20

Agenda

• 1-2.30pm - Introduction to Wikimedia projects
• 2.30 to 5pm - Feedback session, meeting with teachers

Report

The event was planned after the meeting with District Education Officer of Sangli. He suggested this school because of computer & internet facilities and active staff. The introduction to Wikipedia, Wikisource and Commons projects was given through demonstration of various topics. The topics were selected after the interaction with students & teachers. The topics of interest were science, history, tourist places, notable personalities and local area articles. The navigation through internal wiki links, categories, general search methods, reading books on Wikisource, learning through visual media on Commons and integration of Wiki projects were demonstrated and discussed. The teachers came up with various ideas about the application of all these things in regular academics. After the break, the hands-on session was conducted with small group of students in the computer lab. They learnt how to read article, explore the categories, images etc. The meeting with teachers was held to collect the feedback and next steps. They found the session very useful for all. They expressed their willingness to learn more about the resources available in Marathi on web. It was realised that some yearly plan is to be chalked out with educational authorities.

Gallery

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  Upadhye Highscool, Kupwad
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  Reading day program on 15Oct2018