Educational projects
 An OlpcProject (One laptop per child) is a collection of pages devoted to the management of a specific pedagogical topic or family of topics. It is not a place to write articles directly, but a resource to help coordinate and organize article writing. The convenient forum of attached talk pages is designed for people who are interested in a particular project. It's more like a group of editors than a group of articles. Because of its social foundation, the project’s success depends on its ability to function as a cohesive group of editors working towards a common goal. The double goal of the OlpcProject is to provide tools and resources to teachers/educators and to offer a Constructivist Learning Environment for children. |
How can OlpcProject contribute to Olpc's vision ?
OlpcProject can develop resources for a particular topic (targeting both educators and children), create portals (see Portal of Astronomy in Wikipedia for example), design children's activities, and allow children to explore, express, and learn.
How Can I participate ?
Before creating a new project, check to see if a similar project already exists; see the List of OlpcProjects.
Create a New Project
If you want create an OlpcProject, ask yourself these questions:
- Is my goal to create a project for my topic rather than an article?
- Is my project interesting enough to enlist a group of editors ?
- Does my OlpcProject fit the criteria of the Learning Vision and The Goals of olpc ?
- Does my OlpcProject interest only educators or both educators and children ?
My Proposals
When you are ready to create a new OlpcProject, you must create a base page for it. The title format for OlpcProjects is "OlpcProject:Name of project". For example, if you were creating a OlpcProject about Learning Community, you would create the following page: OlpcProject:Learning community, then you would insert your OlpcProject name in the List of OlpcProjects.
Initial Setup
A possible outline for a new OlpcProject page is highlighted below. Appropriate vocabulary relating to the topic should be substituted as required.
Welcome to the ... OlpcProject! ; Goals * ... * ... ; Scope * The project... == Members == # [[User:UserName|UserName]] (interested in everything about learning communities) # [[User:UserName|UserName]] == Open tasks == * ... == Categories == * [[Category:OlpcProject]] == Templates == * ... == Related projects == * [[OlpcProject:Educational ideas]] [[Category:OlpcProject:Educational ideas]]
Recruiting
One of the most basic aspects of keeping an OlpcProject active is recruiting editors. A WikiProject must recruit new members to allow for attrition. Unfortunately, a project that fails to do so, will eventually collapse. How, then, does one recruit these invaluable participants? By far, the most effective method is through the use of a project banner template.
<center>
{| border="1" cellspacing="0"
|-
|[[Image:OlpcProject.png|45px]]
|
!<div style="background:#FF9;"> This article is within the scope of the [[OlpcProject:Learning community|Learning communities OlpcProject]],
a collaborative effort to improve learning communities.
If you would like to take part,
please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.</div>
|}
</center>
Which produces:
|
This article is within the scope of the Learning communities OlpcProject,
a collaborative effort to improve learning communities. If you would like to take part, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. |
|---|
Getting To Work
Once a project has begun to attract member editors, the challenge is to keep them busy. Hanging on to editors is harder than recruiting them. Bored editors will quickly leave.
You can create a task list (articles, open source software, pedagogical ideas, resources for educators, resources for students, etc.). You can write technical notes and/or translating your texts.
Remember that people from different cultures will utilize this resource so it is preferable to integrate a multicultural approach.