IT initiative connects 15,000 Kerala schools on wiki platform

IT@School, a Kerala government initiative to impart IT education in schools, is bringing in 'School Wiki' on the lines of Wikipedia, with an aim to promote knowledge generation and sharing among school students and teachers in the state.
IT@School officials here said the revamped 'School Wiki' would be ready by November 1, the state formation day.
Made entirely in Malayalam, School Wiki features an unique content collection jointly undertaken by the students and teachers in 15,000 schools from class 1 to 12 in the State, besides alumni and public.
By logging into School Wiki, all schools would be able to key in and update basic elementary details as well as their historical references, a release said.

Schools can also upload details such as infrastructure data, renowned alumni, school websites, school map, blogs, various clubs and forums, class magazines, supporting images and videos in School Wiki.
The platform also hosts various educational contents prepared by students, as well as teaching materials collaboratively developed by the teacher communities.

Apart from these contents, analytical Malayalam language projects such as "School Patram - [School Newsletter]", "Nadodi Vijnanakoshan - [Local Encylcopedia] "and "Ente Nadu- [My Village]" would also feature in the portal.
The geographical details of every school locality in the State can be made available through School Wiki.
Launched on November 1, 2009, School Wiki was inactive after two years of its inception.

This prompted IT@School to revive the portal with much needed modifications, amply supported by Wikipedia members.
School Wiki has been prepared using Wikemedia Foundation's Wikemedia software.
School Wiki has been designed in such a way that schools can register into the portal using their school codes and upload contents in their respective space provided under their district.
"Awards would be given to those schools that make use of and maintain School Wiki in the most effective manner," state Education Minister Prof C Raveendranath said.
"IT@School Project has made arrangements for specific training for teachers and students for using School Wiki and identify and assign district level admins for data accuracy and modifications and provide necessary support," K Anvar Sadath, Executive Director of IT@School Project, said.

School Wiki is expected to turn out to be the largest and most comprehensive Malayalam educational database over the internet.