LinuxLingam
Fri, 11 Oct 2002 06:52:56 -0700
hi all, given the urgency of the situation, have drafted the contest rules and a few other details.
would request all to suggest improvements within 36 hours, else these will be
finalized, as beautifully imperfect as they may be, and u may have to forever
hold your peace.
:-)
***
free-ed.org project
[framework version 1.0. prepared by linuxlingam, 10oct2k2]
objective: create quality school course material: by school students, for
school students, of school students. the course material will be published
free, and with freedom.
freedom: the entire course material will be published under the gnu full
documentation license (www.gnu.org). this ensures learning is shared, and
digital technologies help bridge several types of digital and social divides
in our country. read the gnu.org fdl license, and the faq on the free-ed.org
website for more details.
logistix:
1) an independent group of volunteers primarily of the linux-delhi.org
chapter, will help set up the initial domain, servers, and most importantly,
the web-engine / content management system.
2) the project will launch as a competition event held at delhi's modern
school, vasant vihar, annual inter-school computer event called MODEM.
3) the participating schools will be given a few weeks before the actual
competition dates to start generating the content.
4) an independent jury of judges will evaluate the content based on
pre-defined guidelines, and announce the top winners.
5) like the olympics torch, the free-ed.org project will then move to another
school that holds a computer event. thus, through friendly competition and
contests, a fairly comprehensive course content will be developed over a span
of time.
6) the course material will itself be neutral to any formal school board.
this is to widen its scope and application. we hope more and more schools
from across india participate and nurture a peer-driven and constantly
evolving ocean of freely shared learning.
7) independent educationists or volunteers may also contribute and improve
the course content, as long as they register on the website, and publish
under the gpl fdl license.
8) the role of the linux-delhi.org volunteers is purely tech-support,
tech-logistics, evangelism, orientation, think-tank, and other similar
aspects of the operations. they do not necessarily have domain expertise in
education. thus, if the participating schools, independent consultants and
specialists wish, they may form an independent consortium or registered
society or group, which oversees the free-ed.org project. the free-ed project
is emphatically netural towards any school, institution, or individual. it
belongs to no one, or to everybody (!)
contest rules:
1) each participating school is responsible for the quality, veracity,
authenticity, of the course content uploaded by their students.
2) the students are free to choose whichever subject, topic, or chapter they
wish to write on, for whichever level or class. (*note: please confirm if at
the modem event, we had restricted it to initially class 5th to class 12th or
something similar*).
3) there is no limit to the amount of content being generated. but it should
be a minimum of atleast one chapter or topic which is complete in itself. no
upper limit to content creation.
4) the participating schools may initially discuss which topics they wish to
cover to avoid some amount of redundancy. this must be done in consultation
with the students, so the students have the freedom to choose topics they
wish to share with others. there should be no compulsion on students or
volunteers to *have to* write or create content on something they don't
really like. let learning happen through love of a subject, rather than thru
the fear and goading from authoritarian figures.
5) the content generated could be a *.doc file for the text. it must follow
the stylesheets so that the content may be correctly parsed automatically
into xml and other formats. the stylesheets will be provided.
6) the accompanying images etc must be in png or svg file formats.
do *not* use gif, jpeg, and any other format that is not truly open and free.
png is ideal for stills, svg gives you interactive and animated images.
7) the content must go to the moderator at every school. this could be the
teacher who has the access to the website. this person will upload the data
to the website through the access provided. please ensure the access,
passwords, etc. are kept safe and secure. avoid sharing the access directly
with students or others. the moderator ensures the content is relevant,
meaningful, and appropriate for the free-ed project. schools are free to
implement other options at this 'filtering' stage if they wish, over and
above the guidelines mentioned here.
8) the author of the content must understand that the content has to be
original, and should not be lifted, copy-and-pasted, or borrowed from some
other work that is somebody else's copyright. this has legal implications.
any content that is found to be copied thus, will be pulled off the site, and
the student's name enters a 'hall of shame' on the site. let the sharing of
knowledge be from your own experience and understanding.
9) the linux-delhi.org volunteers have no liability or responsibility towards
the content. they only enable and provide the service. the authors are
directly responsible and liable. and the schools will try to ensure no such
issues arise.
10) the content management engine at the server will automatically take the
*.doc file and the associated images, and generate the xml version of the
text, using tools such as those from wvware.com.
11) the metatags of the content are important. so at the time of the
uploading, the upload form will have the required fields where all the
metatags associated with the content will be keyed-in.
12) the evaulation of the participating students will be done on the
following criterion:
a) originality of content.
b) quality and style of text, and of images.
c) how well it conforms to the stylesheet (important).
d) how well it cross-links to relevant subjects and topics within the
free-ed.org site.
e) quality and quantity of related hyperlinks provided to other sites for
further reference and reading.
f) grammar and style: how well it suits the target readership. an automated
engine on the website will also check and rate the content based on this
criterion, as mentioned by raj mathur.
g) where applicable: the quality and coding of the svg interactive graphics
and animation to illustrate a point.
13) initially, the course content is deliberately focussed on the
non-computing topics taught at the schools, such as biology, hindi,
chemistry, physics, english, social sciences, etc. so please do not create
any computing specific courseware.
14) the students may use whichever software creates a *.doc file, including
the free staroffice suite, if they wish.
15) svg content may be generated through design applications such as adobe
illustrator, livemotion, corel, as well as through several free applications
found on the net.
16) the decision of the judges will be final.
17) if students wish to create course material for hindi, sanskrit, and other
indian languages, the text must be written in a unicode font so that it is
properly encoded. please do not use any non-unicode font such as shusha. all
platforms: win, mac, linux, unix, have unicode fonts that support indian
languages.
18) for mathematical equations, or chemistry equations, the students may use
the ready-made equation editors available in their office apps. the more
daring are encouraged to explore and use proper markup languages such as
MathML and ChemML. please do *not* use graphic files showing snapshot images
of equations, as it is no longer "intelligent" and usable data.
scope of the project:
1) the site will also have other tools developed over time (some are already
developed), such as online quiz, discussion forums, web-based chat, etc. to
further support learning.
2) participants do not create the html and the eye candy for the interface.
this will be taken care of by the engine, and ensures consistency throughout
the site. the quality of the content is more important and demands focus.
3) the engine and scripts will also allow the content to be repurposed as
pdf, sgml, and even printed in offset printed publications, so it may be
distributed and published in all formats possible.
4) though participants may wish to generate streaming audio and/or video,
this option is deliberately being avoided at the intial stage. many schools
across india still suffer from lack of access, and those who do, use slow,
pokey, dial-up connections. perhaps in the next phase of the project, a year
or two down the road, such content may be incorporated as an option.
5) all content can be rated by users and surfers, with comments. this helps
in letting the best content float to the top.
6) any person who wishes to improve an existing article may freely do so,
provided the improved version is also under the gpl fdl license, and is
republished on the site as well.
7) the site will have free access for all. there is no need to register or
any formalities, for anyone to read and surf the contents on the site.
8) those who wish to create content will have to register. a separate peer
group will evaluate the content created by independent content creators and
volunteers.
***
:-)
LinuxLingam