School Wiki getting ready for launch

An attempt to foster collaborative learning in schools

It will be ready for launch on January 1 next year

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The IT@School programme is getting ready to launch ‘School Wiki’ — on the lines of Wikipedia — as part of its attempt to foster a culture of collaborative learning in Kerala’s schools.

From November 1, schools can register at ‘ www.schoolwiki.in’ and enter on it a variety of details including their location, number of students, facilities, academic achievements, clubs, school magazines, details of alumni and an unlimited number of photographs, videos and even Google maps. School Wiki — which will be in Malayalam —will be ready for launch on January 1, 2010. This, however, will be just the first part of this new venture.

As School Wiki matures, the IT@School expects students to start posting learning resources, including the findings of school projects. “School Wiki can be used by students, teachers, the alumni and by the public at large as a repository of resources. We would have ‘corners’ for each subject,” executive director of the IT@School programme Anvar Sadath told The Hindu. The importance of fostering the culture of collaborative learning was repeatedly pointed out by free-software guru Richard Stallman when he last visited the State, Mr. Sadath said.

Hyperlink

Given the Wikipedia-like nature of this portal, resources can be hyperlinked to words on the page giving details of the school. If, for example, a school is located in a historically important place, the history of that place can be hyperlinked to the place name. Thus a short description of a school can actually end up generating a large body of information about that locality and related personalities.

School Wiki will give special focus on generating a body of knowledge relating to the study of Malayalam. Students of classes eight, nine and ten will be encouraged to take up projects such as ‘Pradeshika Pathram,’ ‘Nadodi Vignana Kosham’ and ‘Ente Naadu’ under the guidance of Malayalam language teachers.

As with the Wikipedia, the contents of School Wiki can be freely edited and updated by anyone. ‘Though we do not want to give any official stamp to this venture, the IT@School would constantly monitor what is being posted or corrected so that nothing objectionable or defamatory finds its way inside School Wiki,” Mr. Sadath said.

All IT coordinators in schools will be given special training in November so that School Wiki is ready for launch in 2010.

By January 26 next year, the IT@School plans to launch web sites — in English and in Malayalam — for all government schools in the State.