Gerrard,I agree with you whole-heartedly that it can be used to broaden students' minds. But you are missing one very important aspect: that History student in Kamukunji is more interested cramming in Colonization in Kenya (which is not found in offline Wikipedia) than reading (for leisure) a history topic such as The British Empire (which is found in the version we installed). IMO, high school students want to read content for the sake of passing exams. Period. And the SOS version fails at delivering such goals.Now we have to choices: either to use the current version of Wikipedia and distribute it (hoping against hope that we'll receive positive results contrary to the feedback we got at the pilot), or incorporate the feedback, create a custom-made version for Kenyan students and hope that this time round, we'll be able to increase Wikipedia readership in Kenya. I'd personally vouch for the latter, since I think that it's morally wrong for us to _not_ use the learnings from the past in our future projects, especially when it involves donor funds.Abbas.
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:48:45 +0300
From: gerrardkosgei@gmail.com
To: wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Wikipedia for Kamukunji Schools
David,
Just a quick question.What was the discussion? I thought it was about assisting students in Kamukunji. Sorry if i deviated from that. I do hope you have a good party though.
Abbas
I know it is under development but considering the non-digital encyclopedias i had in my former school, the offline wikipedia is far more useful than you would know. It may be irrelevant to curricula but usefull to broaden the students minds.
On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 10:27 AM, David Mugo <raidarmax@gmail.com> wrote:Abbas,
Thanks for pointing out that Gerrald's view was not relative to the discussion. I would like to suggest something for all new members, please take time to study the activities we have undertaken before making contributions.
I will only be able to host a maximum of 12 people at my place so again I will chose to go for old members due to oblivious reasons. The weekend after Easter on Saturday I have a high school get together so I will not be available.
Maybe we can take a quick survey to see who would be available on the Easter Sunday evening... Monday is is holiday. If we make 10 people +, we are good to go. People who have not at all been involved with the Wikipedia for Schools project will get the least consideration for this one.
David.On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 10:18 AM, Abbas Mahmood <abbasjnr@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:34:37 +0300
> From: gerrardkosgei@gmail.com
> To: wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Wikipedia for Kamukunji Schools
>> Hi guys
>
> The nairobi skuls idea is great. Lets just give them what is available
> now, we can always upgrade it when the kenyan version is out. I am
> sure it will help them lotz.
>
> GerrardHi Gerrard,Your assumption is flawed: we've called a number of schools that we had installed the offline Wikipedia and the feedback that we got was that the content wasn't relevant. This is why we are working on a Kenyan version, because we don't want to repeat past mistakes.David,I agree with Stephen and think that you should consider hosting us after the Berlin meeting (probably on the weekend after Easter?). It could also act as a get-together for us to hear Stephen's and Alex's experience at the Chapters Meeting. Thanks for the offer :-)--Abbas._______________________________________________
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