Shilpa Sayura goes on a preview tour

11/19/2007

In the world of ICT, best designed software have failed,. ICT Project that planned for  mass implementation have failed more than they have become a success. Shilpa Sayura Team had known this factor. We wanted to be sure of the field implementation plan goes right. The only way to find out make a preview tour.

A tour was undertaken covering 5 Nenasala Tele Center Communities in deep south of Monaragala and Empbilipitiya. The tour also included taking part in World Children day program at Hamillaketiya Nenasala to Showcase Shilpa Sayura to students and obtains feed back. 

Two meetings with target Nenasala Operators were conducted at Hallmillaketiya and Wellawaya Nenasala to demonstrate Shilpa Sayura Software, content to obtain feedback. The tour also intended to identify technical environments of  Nenasala Tele Centers to better understand issues that would need attention.

The tour also studied several schools around Nenasala Communities to understand the status of current education. Ideas were generated for capacity building needs. One of the most important needs of Shilpa Sayura preview tour was to understand children’s reactions and ask them what extras thaye would need.

The Children were given a form to fill up their derails and evaluate Shilpa Sayura on following criteria of 

1. Ease of Use

2. Content Presentation

3. Content value for studies

4. Content value for exams

5. Ease of Learning

100 Students were asked give 1 to five marks for each and an overall score was generated averaging each mark. Students were asked to make comments. The results were calculated averaging generally.

Maximum Marks – 24

Minimum 19.6

Average 23.6

Minimum Grade: 5th Grade

Maximum Grade : 11th Grade

Average Grade : 8 (General)

Subjects Mostly Reviewed : Sinhala, Science, Dance , Art, Music

Subjects Least Reviewed : Sinhala, Math, Social Science

One of the major comments made by children, parents and Nenasala staff was to add English Learning facility.  

 

Locations Covered : Halmillaatiya, Padalangala, Wellawaya, Monaragala, Buttala, Maduruketiya, Panamura, Udawalawe, Godakawela, Kandiyapitawewa, Balaharuwa, Suriyakanda

Shilpa Sayura goes on a preview tour

11/19/2007

In the world of ICT, best designed software have failed,. ICT Project that planned for  mass implementation have failed more than they have become a success. Shilpa Sayura Team had known this factor. We wanted to be sure of the field implementation plan goes right. The only way to find out make a preview tour.



A tour was undertaken covering 5 Nenasala Tele Center Communities in deep south of Monaragala and Empbilipitiya. The tour also included taking part in World Children day program at Hamillaketiya Nenasala to Showcase Shilpa Sayura to students and obtains feed back.

Two meetings with target Nenasala Operators were conducted at Hallmillaketiya and Wellawaya Nenasala to demonstrate Shilpa Sayura Software, content to obtain feedback. The tour also intended to identify technical environments of  Nenasala Tele Centers to better understand issues that would need attention.

The tour also studied several schools around Nenasala Communities to understand the status of current education. Ideas were generated for capacity building needs. One of the most important needs of Shilpa Sayura preview tour was to understand children’s reactions and ask them what extras thaye would need.



The Children were given a form to fill up their derails and evaluate Shilpa Sayura on following criteria of

1. Ease of Use
2. Content Presentation
3. Content value for studies
4. Content value for exams
5. Ease of Learning

100 Students were asked give 1 to five marks for each and an overall score was generated averaging each mark. Students were asked to make comments. The results were calculated averaging generally.

Maximum Marks – 24
Minimum 19.6
Average 23.6
Minimum Grade: 5th Grade
Maximum Grade : 11th Grade
Average Grade : 8 (General)
Subjects Mostly Reviewed : Sinhala, Science, Dance , Art, Music
Subjects Least Reviewed : Sinhala, Math, Social Science

One of the major comments made by children, parents and Nenasala staff was to add English Learning facility.



Locations Covered : Halmillaatiya, Padalangala, Wellawaya, Monaragala, Buttala, Maduruketiya, Panamura, Udawalawe, Godakawela, Kandiyapitawewa, Balaharuwa, Suriyakanda

Shilpa Sayura Reaches 3rd Milestone for content

11/19/2007

Shilpa Sayura Reache 3rd Milestone by end auguest and being tested by Teachers Group and students of Swarnamalee collage.

The third mile stone target was to reach 2000 unites (topics) of 8000 identified content. The content base include 8 subjects Sinhala, Math, Science, Art, Dance, Music, Environment and Social Science (History, Geography and Civic Studies)

After the review process and approval Shilpa Sayura will test the content with a pilot implementation at 20 Nenasala Tele Centers to obtain feed back to improve the content and delivery.

Shilpa Sayura Progress August 31 2006

11/19/2007

By August 31 2006
- Grant was given in mid february
- Content Map creation was started in March and ended in end June.

- Shipa Sayura Software System prototype developed and reviewed internally in mid june.

- Shilpa Sayura Conten Map Reviewed by Teahers Group during June/July

- Content Map Approved in mid August.

- Content Creation Started in mid August. How ever at least 20% of the content had been created before the project was available for subjects Sinhala, Social Science and Envoronment

Future Plans
Shilpa Sayura aims to create at least 60% of the content core during the pilot stage. The implementation to be started in December 2007.

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- See more at: http://shilpasayura.org/uniportal/news/info.asp?xi=387#sthash.4WjkoJYG.dpuf

How Shilpa Sayura 2nd Milestone was approved

11/19/2007

Shilpasayura.org was setup and Shilpa Sayura Software was set up by 10th September and testing started with a demo content base.

The Software developed for Shilpa Sayura was first made available to professional ICT community through Sinhala Unicode Group, Which Helped to obtain fisrst hand feedback and bug reports.


http://groups.google.lk/group/Sinhala-Unicode/browse_frm/thread/ffdc920f53159f8c?hl=en

The Sinhala Unicode Group had been a great inspierer and supporter in Shipa Sayura.

The software also presented to Digidev Yahoo group

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/digidev/message/311

 

Professional Comments receved from Mr. Rajeev Ranjan was greatly helpful. Certain improvements made to user interface based on comments.

Finally the Software presented to Yahoo Nenasala Group, for testing at ShipaSayura.org

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nenasala/message/723

The comments received were very limited, which we belive due to communications gap. How ever phone call from Wellawaya Nenasala - Mr. jayatilaka, Pasgoda, Halmillakatiya were very encouraging.

A presentation was made to ICTA e-SDI 21 Sep 2006. e-SDI Focus Group pointed out Shilpa Sayura Potential as a National Project and suggested improvements to content using video material.

Another presentation was made to 4 members of SL FOSS community Harsula, Predeepa, Ravindra and Mifan who has been key members of Localisation of linux and Sahana FOSS project. The comments were highly encouraging, while Harsula suggested to port Shilpa Sayura as a FOSS e-Learning Environment as well as to inclue it in e-Sri Lanka PC.

Finally a Presentation was made to PWS process consultant Mr. Jaliya Jayawardena and Mr. kannan. Althrough the Shilpa Sayura was initially planned to be a content management system. How ever from the inspiration and encouragement we received made the software to reach an e Learning Environment taking ideas from Worlds finest e Learning Software and localising concepts.

The tight process consulting guidelines for milestone approval by PWS has been a key to make software error free. Rigorous testing was carried out to make sure software did not fail during review process.

As well as the software was tested with over 30 students randomly during developement to understand their behaviors and ease of use.

We that as a government funded community project we have done our best effots to build a good software that would be a infrastructure of the Shilpa Sayura Project.

Although the Software mile stone is completed, it will continue to evolve as content core is built. As well as our idea is to make the system to be tested by more students. Following activities have been planned.

1. Swarnamalee Collage Kandy - IT Week
The 20+ Teachers who help with Shilpa Sayura Content and at Least 300 students will test the Shilpa Sayura System and make comments

2. International Children’s Day Programme at Halmillakatiya Nenasala / All near by Nenasala operators have been invited to become aware of the project and see Shilpa Sayura Software
On 1st Oct 2006

3. Nenasala Operator Awareness at Wellawaya including meeting 60 students who study at Nenalsala
2nd Oct 2006

4. 11-12 Demo & Presentation at Rajarata University Web Training Programme for Lectueres

5. Awareness presentations through Nenapiyasa TV programme in ITN.

Additional Presentations would be made to e-SDI grants board, Aid Agency World Bank Team and many other stake holders including Policy Makers as a part of awareness campaigne.

It is our intention not only to reach milestones as well as increase community and stakeholder participation and make the process transparent and participative.

Although Shilpa Sayura Project was conceptualized and documented and implemented by us, It was inspired by community who keep supporting us.

Thank you for all

Niranjan Meegammana
Shilpa Sayura Project Director

ICTA Approves Shilpa Sayura 2nd Milestone for Software

11/19/2007

The 2nd Milestone was an important stake in Shilpa Sayura as it completed the flat form for the Shilpa Sayura content management. The user interfaces, interactive aspects and content delivery and management mechanism is crucial for Shilpa Sayura to be a success.




The software was presented to PWS process consultant, ICTA e-SDI focus group and tested and commented online by Sinhala Unicode community. The software had been tested with children with different ages from 7 Years to Advanced Level students.

The objective of Shilpa Sayura was to develop an intuitive local language interface that would need least ICT resources and run on existing Nenasala Platforms. Support for Sinhala Unicode was researched and developed.

Shilpa Sayura Software Reviewed by Online ICT Community

11/19/2007

Sinhala Unicode Group assisted in testing Shilpa Sayura Software for the pilot setup on Shilpasayura.org. They commented in Sinhala Unicode group on technology and conrent concepts. The feedback helped to improve Shilpa Sayura usability making improvements.

ශිල්ප සයුරේ මුදුකාංග අදියර නිමයි : බලන්න www.shilpasayura.org

Sinhala Unicode Group is an online google group who discuss Sinhala Unicode related technical and implementation issues. The members of the group currently over 150 and growing come from wide variety of technical, social and educational segments.

Sinhala Unicode Group members comprises of Sinhala Unicode Developing and Users of Kaputa.com, LKLUG, University of Colombo, Open University, University of Moratuwa, ICTA, Nenasala Tele Centers as well as Students and teachers. They provide a perfect developer and user group for developing local language technology, localization and rural implementation discussions.

This is a new experience for Sri Lankan community ICT as Shilpa Sayura expanded its support and stakeholder base involving volunteers to help community ICT projects. It also helps to increse the acceptance of the project among stakeholders.

- See more at: http://shilpasayura.org/uniportal/news/info.asp?xi=388#sthash.cKK4vj1Q.dpuf