Shilpa Sayura Technical Support Forum

11/19/2007

Dear Friends

Shilpa Sayura Support forum was setup on google. Please join to this group for all support and communication requests.


http://groups.google.lk/group/ShilpaSayura

or
ශිල්ප සයුර අධ්‍යාපන තොරතුරු ව්‍යාපෘතිය Shilpa Sayura

This support forum will be used to post important announcements and providing technical support.

Getting Shilpa Sayura to Your Nenasala

11/19/2007

To Nenasala Operators,

Shilpa Sayura is a Project Assisted by ICTA e Society Sub Programme of e Sri Lanka Project. We subitted a proposal in 2005 sep and it was selected over 300 proposals for a grant of Rs. 5 million.

What the project will do
Shipa Sayura is a Software and Content Base with e Learning facility for self and group. Its intended to be setup at Nenasala to strengthen Nenasala as a edicational center. We provide implementing Nenasala with software, content and technical services at no cost to Nenasala. Project also intend to identify and develop students using shilpa Sayura.

The content baseGCE O/L 8 Subjects including Math, Science, History, Geography, Citizen Traing, Sinhala, Art, Dance, Music in Sinhala Unicode (about 5GB expected at completion)

Current Status
The project is on course with time and delivery milestones, 20 teachers, 8 developers, and several other professionals and office staff has been working tirelessly to complete the initial phases of the project.

We have succesfully completed the e Learning software and can be experienced at www.shilpasayura.org with sample content.

user id = demo, password demo1

The software has many features
1. Student Registration & Group Management
2. Access to content Base in 8 Subjects for Grade 6 - 11
3. Testing and Exam preparation
4. Home work and content creation and sharing
5. Messaging and group communications
etc.

1. TestingWe would like you to test it out and make comments through this group, sinhala unicode group or from our web www.sinharaja.com. Please show it to students, people visiting nenasala, if you need support call 0115 525533 Niranjan or Chamara.

2. Currently Selected

2. We have already communicated with some Nenasala's Devinuwara, Pasgama, Suriyawewa etc. In the pilot phase we will implement it upto 20 locations in Hambantota, Monaragagala and Matara districts.

3. Selection of Nenasala & SchoolsWe select Nenasala and Schools on demand and capacity to implement basis. We like to start the project with champians, If you have been doing a good job with nenasala, here is a reward for you.

What we look for
1. Does more than 10 active students visiting Nenasala regulary ?
2. Does Nenasala has a good rapo with community around it
3. Nenasala can appoint two A/L passed persons to be tranined in Shilpa Sayura local management

Why 10 Students ?
We want to create future top class professionals at the entrance, we need them to be keen, entering university and become a professionals in any area even a professional farmer, ICT , engineering, media, marketing what so ever, we need good seeds to grow

Why Shipa Sayura Center Manager ?Nenasala Operators are usually busy, we need an upcoming young person with A/L to develop them as e Tutors, ICT experts, Once trained they will manage Shipa Sayura System and help students to use it, They will be like daham pasal techers, mostly volunteers to help their own community. We will communicate with SSCM and arrange vairious programes for their developent (programming, Open Source, IT Teacing in government etc)

Why you need rapo with community ?
We need community useful nenasala, we need those who help community, comminuty involvement in Shilpa Sayura will make it sustainable. We need community to help Nenasala grow,

Os there a cost of Running Shilpa Sayura ?Their is no actual cost for Nenasala, software, content, training, marketing assistance is free. We also dont mind Nenasala charging use of its services, computers to access Shilpa Sayura System. Since the SSCM is a volunteer we would like them to get an allowance, either paid by Nenasala from it's revenue or paid though a community funding (this is why we need community rapo)

What do you need to run Shipa Sayura ?One Exsisting computer - 5 GB Space - Windows XP or higher with 128 MB Ram is minimum. On the higher side Dedicated Server with 1 GB RAM is better. A seperare HDD is recommended if you have any. But we would be happy with what Nenasala has right now, we will start from their, People are the most important in Shilpa Sayura

The insight
We hope this model give an insight what we intend to do, use Nenasala Network as infrastructure, build a local e Learning network to complement the infrastructure. Add content and transfer control to local operator and Manager. The 10 students registred will be our key focus, to make them reach success in exams and life to help rural community in return when they become professionals.

Right Now we have funding for 20 locations Nenasala and Schools
As we finish this 20 we will expand to others on demand. Our fisrt trial implementation will take place in mid november and continue.

As we are quite aware of failures and problems faced by rural project implementations and taking as much as precautions and measures to make it a success. We would like to invite all Nenasala Champians to take part in our project, implement it in your community and expand to other localtions in your area.

Actually we plan this project to give something back to society for the great gift free education. We have started developing community relationships to do it

Does above sense good to you, and if you wish to take part,
write to us www.sinharaja.com

Call us on  0112 802820 Niranjan Meegammana or Rajinda Dharmapala

- See more at: http://shilpasayura.org/uniportal/news/info.asp?xi=391#sthash.VeJJtNeA.dpuf

Shilpa Sayura Content Map Reviewed by Tea

11/19/2007

A content map was created by us analysing Grade 6- 11 NIE (National Institute of Education) Syllabus. 8 core teachers and project team worked on each subjct to prepare over 200 page content map covering 8 Subjects

Science, Math, Social Studies (History, Geography and Citizen Training), Sinhala, Art, Dance, Music and Envioronment Subjects.

The content map was reviewed by 20 Teachers of Swarnamalee Collage, and professionals in education.

The content map was prepared are future road map to Shilpa Sayura. As a continuing project Shilpa Sayura plan to align its content and self learning system to meet National Educational Syllabus.

The content Map was first mile stone for the first grant payment of Rs 500,000/=. Althogh the Content Map creation took a major effort, we belive that it was a worthwile effort as it made us a good plan and gave a good direction to the project.

We should appreciate the role of Process Consultant who actually included the content map which was not in the original project proposal.

Math – 752 Units
The content cover from the basics of Mathematics to Advanced topics, including areas of number, shapes, solids, equations, patterns and other math concepts as a gradually deepening content with each grade. Provides content supported with diagrams, photos, animations, interactive java applets to increase understanding of Math theory and techniques.

Environment – 309 Units
The environment content covers Grade 6 and deepens the sections in geography in social Studies and Science subjects. Additional content provided to educated rural communities on the value of environment resources of water, animal, bird and plant life. The content includes text, photos, audios as well as video clips to enhance learning experience.

Sinhala - 991 Units
Sinhala content include reading texts, picture, audio and video clip Resources. The content also include recommended reading material extracts, Specified folk poems and songs which will improve language skills and its use in Art and Literature.

Social Studies - 995 Units
2006 New Syllabus divides Social Studies into 3 subjects as Citizen Training, History and Geography. The History and Citizen Training expands to more depth than previous social studies content. The content map provides all three subjects as one which is ‘Social Studies.’
The content will include Text, Images, Diagrams, Audio and Video related to the topic.

Art - 700 Units
Provides Study Text, Photos of Ancient and Modern Art, Photos for recommended drawings and paintings was included as object references. Provides Training Material for improving painting and drawing techniques with pastel, color pencil and water color Mediums.

Dancing - 1543 Units (Kandyan, Sabaragamu and Southern)
The NIE Syllabus covers all the three styles with option for the student to select.
Content Includes Theory and Dancing Music, notations and Song Audio Samples. The content map provides all three in an integrated form to understand variations in theory in other two forms too.

Music- 995 Units
Covers basics of Music Theory in text, diagrams and audio resources coving local folk music, Ragadahari Music and western music. Include learning resources and sound samples for specified musical instruments. Photo, Audio, Video Samples included for leaning and practice. Vocal training audio tracks included to improve music skills.

O/L Exam Testing Facility
This is a multiple choice testing facility that covers past O/L exam questions and Answers for self testing and improve the student in preparation for exams. Past 3 -5 Year questions are to be included for testing and reference.

Catering for Syllabus and Subject Scope Changes
The initially proposed total content for Sinhala, Art, Dance, Music and Social Studies is based on the 2004 syllabus. At the award of the project, the subjects of Science and Math were included as to be 25% of the total content. The deepening of Social studies subject dividing into three subjects, increased the Total Content Body required for O/L. In Dancing student require to seelct one of the three styles on personal choice. However it requires project to cover of all three dancing styles.

Total Content Body
The actual requirement has increased the actual subject areas to 12. Hence the total content required has increased to 7004 units. The Testing content for the above subjects also considered an important requirement and estimated to be 950 Units. Therefore we estimate the total content body to be 8000 units. During the pilot project 4000 Units are targeted. Rest of the content is planned during the replication stage.

The content map version 2.2 is presented is based on 2006 O/L Syllabus. The content development intends to be a continuing process which requires aligning to new syllabus changes. The content map will be updated with time to time with new content.

Content Map Review
The content map was peer reviewed by a team of Teachers who serve as resource persons for the project. Based on the review content map was improved from version 2.0 to 2.2. The list of teachers and signatures attached.

Content Map Review Team
1 Niranjan Meegammana ICT Professional - BCS CMAP Production
2 Yamuna Ratnayaka Teacher - (ICT/English) Semp Center Mgr Cordination, Science
3 Samudra Hettiarchchi Teacher - BA, Post Grad Diploma (Edu) Sinhala
4 Geetharangi Dissanayaka Teacher – BA (Sp) Post Grad Diploma (Edu) Sinhala
5 P L A Samalatha Teacher - BA, Post Grad Diploma (Edu) Sinhala
6 Thusitha Hewage Teacher - BA , Post Grad Diploma (Edu) Environment
7 Hema Samarakoon Teacher – Dancing Trained Dancing
8 S W Jayaratna Teacher – BA, Post Grad Diploma (Edu) Social Science
9 N R Ethipola Teacher – BA, Post Grad Diploma (Edu) Social Science
10 Himali Gamage Teacher – BA, Post Grad Diploma (Edu) Dancing
11 K K Nishsanka Teacher - BA, Post Gr

Shilpa Sayura Finacial Management Method

11/19/2007

Although e fusion is a private limited company, we have been running our operations having a community outlook in organizational culture.

This was the first ever grant for we received although we had been contributing to ICT developements for local community needs.

Our remakable contribution is developing local language concepts and providing free services, tools and technologies for local language internet communications and publishing.

On reciept of the grant e fusion management team (the founders of kaputa.com) desided to make Shilpa Sayura a 100% non profit project outside our commercial services.

We also desided to make Shilpa Sayura a CSR project and to involve as much as participants from our professional and friends network including online community.

1. The project and finances are planned for a year.
2. All activities are over looked by Project Management Team lead by Project Chief Niranjan Meegammana.
3. Training and Resources for teachers provided to create content.
4. All man power, equipment and other resources hired for the projct, most of the people work part time. This was done to increase participation and to reduce costs as project activities vary time to time.

Financial Management
1. All finances are handled in a seperate new bank acount opend for the project.

2. All money recived deposited in the said bank account.

3. All expences made against pre approved budget plan. Deviations are approved in minimal terms.

4. All cheques are signed by 2 Senior Project Staff and Monthky Internally Audited by Chief Financial Officer of e fusion and representive of teachers group working with e fusion.

5. As the grant is given in milestones in deliverables basis, the project also make all payments on deliverables basis.


Niranjan Meegammana
Project Director

History Of the Shilpa Sayura Project

11/19/2007

e fusion Team has pioneered Creating Sri Lankan Internet Communities around kaputa.com in local languages. We felt the need to sinhala educational content, a project was formulated to create a large content base, which involved making 20000 photographs, 20 video tours and writing educational content.
We also started researching educational tools and methods and content creation process continued as a free time work.

ICTA e-SDI Participation by e fusion (2004-2006+)
e fusion founder Niranjan Meegammana was invited when ICTA e-Society Focus Group was formulated. It was a good experience to share information and work towards and information empowered society. e fusion also contributed with its ideas in the focus groups with regards to Content Needs in rural communities.

eSDI Partnership Assistance Program (2005)
Under e Sri Lanka Initiative world bank loan was given to GOSL for implementing a ICT based content projects under e-SDI. The selection process was transparent and partnership expression of interest was called by ICTA. The Partnership Assistance grant was a Rs. 5 million. Compared to many other grants the PAP grant was a considerbly hi in sum. As well as it encouraged replication of the project.

e-SDI PAP Expression of Interest (2005)
Buy that time e fusion had communicated with Ministry of Education SEMP project to explore possibilities in SEMP for a content project. The communications and study of Nenasala Model, e fusion designed an innovative project to improve rural student educational standards while increasing the utilization of Nenasala and School Resources. The expression of interest had also an objective to create Local Indegenous Knowledge content in Art, Dance and Sinhala Music. Sinhala and Social Studies were other two subjects planned. The expression of Interest was selected to submit a project proposal which was a competive selection proces. The Project was designed to be implemented as a pilot in Matara Hambantota and Monaragala District 20 locations.

e-SDI Shipa Sayura Project Formulation (September 2005)
During the Project proposal we re modeled the project to suit e-SDI theme and planned the project giving more emphasize to strengthen Nenasala, Self Learning and replication. Content, Local Language Content Management System, Content Marketing Model was build. We setup a Teachers Group in Kandy who wish to contibute their knowledge for content. Communication made with several schools also made their interest in project participation.

Receipt of e-SDI Grant (February 2006)
Shilpa Sayura was Selected by ICT e-SDI Grant Board to Award the First Grant. On the advice of the Grant Board, Maths and Science was added to make the no of Subjects are 8. His Excellancy the President Mahinda Rajapaksa awarded the Grant in a Ceramony organized by ICTA. The grant received by e fusion was highly appreciated by ICT community and many people volunteered to assist in the project.

Implementation of the Project tookpalce since then learning dyanmically and changing to fullfill the needs of the rural community.

Niranjan Meegammana
2006-08-29

- See more at: http://shilpasayura.org/uniportal/news/info.asp?xi=384#sthash.fWd3vMhh.dpuf

ශිල්ප සයුර සඳහා

11/19/2007

ශිල්ප සයුරට සහය ලබාදෙන අය විශාල ගණනක් සිටිති. පහත දක්වන මහත්ම මහත්මීන් විසින් ශිල්ප සයුර ව්‍යාපෘතියේ සංවර්ධනය සඳහා සජීවීව සහය හා උපදෙස් ලබාදේ.

1. රජීව් රන්ජන් - ICT උපදේශක UNDP/e-SDI සහන අරමුදල
2. චිතාංගනී මුබාරක් -ව්‍යාපෘති කළමණාකාරීණී ICTA e-SDI Programme
3. වසන්ත දේශප්‍රිය - අධ්‍යක්‍ෂක ඊ රාජ්‍ය ව්‍යාපෘතිය - ICTA
4. ජාලිය ජයවර්ධන - e-SDI ක්‍රියාවලි උපදේශක - PWC
5. ආචාර්ය අජිත් පැස්කුවල් - මොරටුව විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය
6. ගුණසේන රාජපක්‍ෂ - ප්‍රවීණ සෞන්දර්ය අධ්‍යාපනඥ
7. ජැක්සන් ඇන්තනි - ප්‍රවීණ මාධ්‍ය වේදී/කළාකරු
8. මහාචාර්ය වී. කේ සමරනායක
9. මහාචාර්ය ජේ. බී. දිසානායක
10. යමුනා රත්නායක - ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ පාසැල් ගුරු හා SEMP ICT කළමණාකාරිණි
11. වසන්ත දුක්ගන්නාරාල- ප්‍රවීණ මාධ්‍ය වේදී/කළාකරු


මීට අමතරව අප සමග වැඩකරන ගුරුවර ගුරුවරියන් 20 ක ද තාක්‍ෂණ හා අනුකුත් වෘත්තීයවේදීන් ගේ සහය හා උපදෙස් අපට ලැබේ.

Shilpa Sayura Concept and Its Evolution

11/19/2007

1992 සිට මවිසින් සිංහල අක්‍ෂර තාක්‍ෂණයේ නියැලුනේ කිසියම් දිනක සිංහල තොරතුරු පරිඟණක සඳහා අවශ්‍ය වන බව දැනගනය. එවකට නාරා ආයතනයේ මගේ පරිගණක ගුරු මයිකල් ග්රූබර්ගේ තාක්‍ෂණ සහයෙන් කැන්ඩි නම් අකුරු වැල නිමවා ප්‍රථම වරට වින්ඩෝස් හි සිංහල භාවිතා වීමට සැලසිණි.

කාලය ගෙවෙත්ම 1995 දී මා ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ගැන සංයුක්ත තැටියක් නිමැවීමට කටයුතු කළෙමි. සිංහල හා ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් නිමැවු එය අදද පාසල් ළමුනට ප්‍රයෝජනවත් වී ඇත.

නිරංජන් මීගම්මන෴

ඉන් අනතුරුව 1997 දී ලංකාදීප හා දිවයින සිංහල පුවත්පත්ද , වීරකේසරී දමිළ පුවත් පතද අන්තර්ජාලයට එකතු කරමින් දේශීය අන්තර්ජාල සංස්කෘතියකට මුලපිරීමට උත්සුක වූයෙමි. අප අනුගමනය කළ බොහෝ අන්තර්ජාලවේදීන් එම සංකල්ප ඉදිරියට ගෙන ගියහ.

1997 දී ලංකාවේ දක්‍ෂතම තරූණයන් දස දෙනකුට පිදෙන "TOYP" සම්මානය විද්‍යාව හා තාක්‍ෂණ සංවර්ධනය සඳහා මටද පිදිණි. මා සමග එම පිදුම ලත් අය අතර ජැක්සන් ඇන්තනි, සනත් ජයසූරිය වැනි මගේ වීරවරයන් වීම මම මහා ගෞරවයක් කොට සලකමි.

එතැන් පටන් නව ජීවයක් ලද මා දේශීය තොරතුරු රැස්කිරීමටත්, අන්තර්ජාලය දේශීය කරණය කිරීමටත් උනන්දු වූයේ 1999-2000 කාළයේ ඇමරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදයේ හා තායිලන්තයේ ලත් මහඟු අත් දැකීම් වලිනි.

2000 දී ඊ ෆියුශන් ආයතනය පිහිටුවා සිංහල වෙබ් අඩවි තැනීම හා දේශීය තොරතුරු පිරි www.mysrilanka.com, malkoha.com, srilankareference.org, kaputa.com ආදී වෙබි අඩවි අප කණ්ඩායමේ (Kaputa Team) නිමැවුමි විය.

සියළු වෙනස්කම් සිදුවූයේ e-srilanka ව්‍යාපෘතිය සමඟිනි. මුළ පටන්ම ICTA ආයතනය අප VGK, e-Society කටයුතු වලට හවුල් කර ගති.
ආචාර්ය ගිහාන් මුල් කොටගත් සිංහල යුනිකේත කමිටුවට සහභාගි වී, ICTA විසින් ගෙන්වූ මැලේසියාවේ මුරසු මහතා අතින් ලැබූ යුනිකේත පුහණුව ශිල්ප සයුරට උත්පේරකයක් වීය.

ඒ අතරම අධ්‍යාපන ව්‍යාපෘතියකට සූදානම් වීමට අප විසින් ඉතිහාසය, පරිසරය ආදී විශයන්ට අදාල ස්ථාන වල ජායාරූප 14000 ක් රැස්කර තිබුණි. සිංහල යුනිකේත තාක්‍ෂණය භාවිතා කරමින් gov.lk කිරීමද සිංහල යුනිකේත සමූහයේ සහයද ශිල්ප සයුර නිර්මාණයේ වැදගත් විණි.

2006 වසරේ e-SDI ප්‍රදාන සඳහා ඉල්ලුම් පත් කැඳවීමේදී අප විසින් එතෙක් සකසා තිබූ තොරතුරු හා යෙදුම් මත ව්‍යාපෘතියක් සැකසීම ඇරඹිණි.

ඒ අතරම අවශ්‍යතා හඳුනාගැනීමට අධ්‍යාපන දෙපාර්ථමේන්තුවේ SEMP ව්‍යාපෘතිය සමඟ සාකච්චා කළ අතර, එහිදී ආචාර්ය ප්‍රසන්න හඳුන්වාදුන් moodle e-Leaning Management Syatem කෙරෙහිද අවධානය යොමවිය.


1992 සිට මවිසින් සිංහල අක්‍ෂර තාක්‍ෂණයේ නියැලුනේ කිසියම් දිනක සිංහල තොරතුරු පරිඟණක සඳහා අවශ්‍ය වන බව දැනගනය. එවකට නාරා ආයතනයේ මගේ පරිගණක ගුරු මයිකල් ග්රූබර්ගේ තාක්‍ෂණ සහයෙන් කැන්ඩි නම් අකුරු වැල නිමවා ප්‍රථම වරට වින්ඩෝස් හි සිංහල භාවිතා වීමට සැලසිණි.

කාලය ගෙවෙත්ම 1995 දී මා ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ගැන සංයුක්ත තැටියක් නිමැවීම