Author: Florence Devouard
Institution: Wiki in Africa
Country: France
Topic: Technologies for Open Education
Sector: K-12
UNESCO Area of Focus: Building capacity
Session Format: Lightning Talk
Abstract
WikiFundi is an open-source offline editable environment that provides a similar experience to editing Wikipedia (and Vikidia) online. It typically runs on raspberry PIs.WikiFundi enables teachers, wikipedian communities and NGOs to learn and experiment collaborative editing of wiki-based texts and contributing knowledge when technology, access and electricity outages fail or are not available at all.
Since its publication, WikiFundi has been rolled out in at least 15 countries across Africa. It is being used by Wikimedia UserGroups, volunteers and educational organisations in Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Cameroun, Mali, Uganda, Tunisia etc. In addition, WikiFundi is available via the Digital Schools programme of the Orange Foundation in dozen of countries of French speaking Africa. It is also used in South Africa as part of the WikiAfrica Schools Program.
The lightning talk will provide
- an overview of WikiFundi as an OER resource, as well as
- a showcase of its use in one educational set-up (the WikiChallenge Ecoles d’Afrique, an annuel writing challenge operating in primary schools of 8 african countries since 2017)
WikiFundi was designed by Florence Devouard and Isla Haddow-Flood from Wiki in Africa, to support the WikiAfrica movement and Wikimedia volunteers across Africa. It was developed in collaboration with Wikimedia CH and Kiwix. It was funded by Orange Foundation and the Wikimedia Foundation.
Keywords
Open-source software, Offline/Non-connected environments, Wikipedia and wikis
