Edit 2017/North American and European schools also need offline Wikipedia: 2024/Main Page

Title

North American and European schools also need offline Wikipedia

Theme (optional)

Advocacy & Outreach

Type of submission

Presentation / Workshop

Author

Gabriel Thullen

E-mail address

gabriel@thullen.com

Username

GastelEtzwane

Affiliation

Wikimedia CH

Abstract

For the past three years I have been sharing Kiwix (an offline wikipedia reader ) with schools, computer training facilities and students in Senegal and other West and North African countries. I have also been contacting a few education oriented NGOs who are also working in West Africa to share this wonderful program with them. A lot of school teachers, like myself, volunteer their time with these NGOs, and I was quite surprised to find out that they plan to use Kiwix in their own school as well!

• https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Newsletter/September_2016/West_African_schools_will_test_Kiwix,_the_offline_Wikipedia_reader

Switzerland, just like the other West European countries, or Canada, or the US, has a well developed education system with computers in most classrooms. At least that is what they say. Most government officials in charge of education will say that every school is equipped with up to date computers, and a wide access to all sorts of educational resources on the Internet. The real story is somewhat different, especially when you are not in the major cities…

For the moment, I see two main reasons for using Kiwix, or another offline Wikipedia reader, in our schools:

• The school has very poor or no access to the Internet. This can be due to a variety of reasons from budgetary considerations or the physical availability of Internet connections.
• Teachers wish to give their students access to Wikipedia but do not want them to waste time on other attention grabbing web sites they usually surf on.
• Teachers may also wish to limit the communication between students while enabling them to use the encyclopedic resources in Wikipedia.

The presentation will be followed by a discussion period.

Length of presentation

45-60 min.

Special requests

computer with projection screen

Preferred room size

10-25

Wikimania submission?

No

Will you attend WikiConference North America if your submission is not accepted?

Yes

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