Technology (Development)In Education 201

Efraim Feinstein(Open Siddur Project)NewCAJE 2August 2011

Tech development on one foot

The Internet is made up of read-write resources

Web 2.0 is driven by social interactions over the network

A natural environment for student activities and outlet for creativity

Beyond the classroom

You frequently control access to the resources you put up

Putting up resources on the Internet is an opportunity to increase the value of the available resources for everyone

What can you do?

Augment existing resourcesEditing

Remixing

Add entirely new resources within an existing framework

Start something completely new

The minimum you need to know about copyright and sharing material on the Internet...

DON'TPANIC

Free software,
Open source software,
Free culture content

Framework for facilitating remixing and sharing in a world designed for property (whether you like it or not)

Everything you produce is under copyright

In order for large repositories to allow sharing and remixing of what you produce, they need your permission

Free software,
Open source software,
Free culture content

Use material without restriction

Share the material without restriction

Make modified versions (Remixing)

Share your modified versions

Usually involve certain requirements in exchangeMaintain Attribution Notices

Share-Alike

Common free culture content licenses that you will see

GNU Free Documentation License

Creative Commons Zero

Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA)

Avoid No-commercial use/ educational use only

Limits the scope of who can make use of/corrections of your work

Improvements can come from anywhere

Parasitism can be avoided with share-alike terms

Basic rules online

Credit your sources

Follow the licenses of your sources

Credit is not enough: don't infringe copyrights

Learn and follow the rules of the frameworks you're sharing in

Augment existing resources

English Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org

Hebrew Wikipedia: http://he.wikipedia.org

Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org

English Wikisource: http://en.wikisource.org

Hebrew Wikisource: http://he.wikisource.org

Wikipedia

Encyclopedia anyone can edit

Localized to a lot of languages, including Hebrew

Shares under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license

Basic rules of Wikipedia

Encyclopedic in nature

Anything on Wikipedia should be verifiable (sourced)No original research

Perfection is not required

Do fix problems!

Do explain your edits (use talk pages) the more major the edit, the more likely it is that it requires explanation

Issues on Wikipedia

You are participating in a very large community: not everyone will agreeCommon disagreements Notability

Neutral Point of View

Wikipedia has etiquette

Unfortunately, it will not always be followed

New resources within a : Open Siddur

Goals are to produce a web application and database of Jewish liturgical material with translations and commentary

All material in the Open Siddur will be editable and remixable

Make a personalized siddur with chosen translations and commentaries

Open Siddur

Can be found at http://opensiddur.orgOpen Siddur font pack and Hebrew keyboard setup

Is under development (that is: not ready)

Is accepting and sharing contentCurrently placed in a blog-like format

Will eventually be placed in a database

Is developing an applicationOpportunities for young developers!

Finding material to put online...

http://hebrewbooks.org

Seforim Online

Jewish National and University Library Digitized Book Collection

Google Books

Always verify that the work is in the public domain! (If it was published before 1923, it is, otherwise, it's harder.)

It's not just about transcribing...

Learn what you're transcribing

Comment on it

Open Siddur

Talk to contributors and developers opensiddur-talk discussion group

Mentoring available for advanced students interested in tech developmentopensiddur-tech discussion group

Email: efraim@opensiddur.org

Making your own project I

You can even build smartphone apps without programming

and without a smartphone

Google App InventorPoint and click smartphone app creation

No programming required

Programming optional for new features

Making your own project II

Is your need unmet elsewhere?Use Google!

Forming collaborationsUse your social media resources!

Jewish Education Change Network: Integrating Technology in Jewish Education

Just putting it on the Internet doesn't mean instant collaborators

Share in a way that lets others take off where you left off

Exercises

Wikipedia: Pick a Jewish topic on Wikipedia and begin reading.Did you find any mistakes?

Is anything missing that should be there?

Can you find any topics that are missing entirely?

Open Siddur: Preparing your own siddurYou want to produce a siddur with your class: what material is already out there? What do you need? How would you go about putting it online?

Google App Inventor: Think about building an app:What do you want it to do?

What data do you need? Is it already there? Accessible?

How do you represent it on screen using the existing controls (the real challenge!)