Grants:PEG/Manos Kefalas/Wikipedia School in Athens, Greece

Funded

This submission to the Project and Event Grants Program was funded in the fiscal year 2014-15. This is a grant to an individual.

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Report: Please visit Grants:PEG/Manos Kefalas/Wikipedia School in Athens, Greece/Report to read this report, comment on this report, or review its status.

This grantee has requested a change to the budget submitted here and this change has been approved by WMF. Please see the discussion page for details.

Basic information

Grant request details

Are you an organization, a group, or an individual?: Individual
Please provide your name, or the name of the group or organization requesting this grant.: Manos Kefalas
Please provide the name (or username) of the main contact for this grant request. You do not need to disclose your legal name publicly.: ManosHacker
Please link to any relevant documents, including your website if you have one.

Project details

Official project name: Wikipedia School in Athens, Greece
Project start date: This is the date you begin work on your project. Please include a month, day, and year. You must include a project start date.; 8 September 2014
Project completion date: This is the date you finish work on your project. Please include a month, day, and year. You must include a project completion date.; 6 June 2015
Please describe the project in a few sentences: Over the course of nine months we will teach and mentor people how to contribute in Wikipedia successfully, under the roof of real schools. We will guide and teach students, teachers and adults basic and advanced skills of being a Wikipedia editor, including emotional and social intelligence. We will start with 2 schools for students and two schools for adults, hopefully, and try to spread. Wikipedia School will raise credibility of Wikipedia in people's minds and increase participation.

Financial details

Please request your grant in your local currency. WMF is able to grant funds in many currencies.

Amount and currency requested: ~~€6,131.12~~ €6,184.48
Please provide an equivalent amount in US dollars using the exchange rate provided by Oanda on the date you open this request: ~~US$7,907.37~~ US$7,944.58

Goals and measures of success

Project goal

Please briefly describe what will be accomplished if the project is successful.

Project goal: Train more than 100 people (capacity for our four schools = 80 participants concurrently, which gives an estimate of more than 250 participants if School works in an osmotic way) on how to be successful Wikipedia editors, provide certificates for their CVs, upraise hope and optimism level as a new school, warm up people and educational institutions for more Wikipedia schools

Measures of success

Please provide a list of measurable criteria that will be used determine how successful the project is. You will need to report on the success of the project according to these measures after the project is completed.

Measures of success

Number of people who start the lessons throughout the school year: 100 adults, 50 students
Percent of participants who complete their lessons (beat 50%): adults 80% (80), students 60% (30)
Percent of participants who state (in questionaries at the end of the lessons) that learning to be a wikipedian inside the school changed them for the better as a person and/or in their lives: 85% (94)
Number of articles created (not stubs) or dramatically changed: adults 300, students 150
Percent of participants that completed the lessons, who remain active as editors after their lessons are over: beat 15%, 17 people after one year
Number of new schools or municipalities that reproduce Wikipedia School in their own ground: 4
A decision of Ministry of Education that Wikipedia School can be a standard lesson inside "For Life Learning" education program for adults

Measures of success are optimistic but possible.

Project scope and activities

This section describes what will happen if this project is funded. Who will do what, and when?

List of activities

Past activities

Ttzavaras, 2011-2012, 2012-2013, 2013-2014 school years
- Wikipedia School has already operated, untitled, teaching students in 24th Gymnasium of Athens, under the supervision of its headmaster, Ttzavaras. This will go on and has to be made known.
ManosHacker, 2013-2014
- Municipality of Kaisariani decided to support and host Wikipedia School.
- Designed Wikipedia School poster.
- Posters were hung on streets.
- Interview of Wikipedia School on a big news site, reference for Wikipedia School, some more publications.
- Wikipedia School has officially operated for adults for three months (May-July 2014) under the roof of 2nd Gymnasium of Kaisariani, as part of the municipality's education program for adults.
- Computer lab of 2nd Gymnasium of Kaisariani was helped technically and with donations.
- 2nd Gymnasium of Kaisariani is about to have Wikipedia School run for its students (September 2014 - May 2015), as 24th Gymnasium of Athens has had for 3 years.
- The headmaster of the Profession School of Zografou along with the education for adults center of Zografou Municipality have declared interest in running Wikipedia School under their roof for the 2014-2015 school year. Meetings were done and decided to continiue at the end of August in order to make it accepted as oficially as possible.

August & September 2014

ManosHacker, continiue work with Zografou School & Municipality to create Wikipedia School there.

September 2014

ManosHacker
- The computer lab of 2nd Gymnasium of Kaisariani is outdated and needs an upgrade. It will host 2 Wikipedia Schools (for its students and adults). A special terminal server edition for schools is our choice for funding that will help us the most.
- Set up and configure the new server, finish old pc repairs to work as thin clients on the new server and cooperate with the of teacher of informatics of the school to finalize the computer lab.
- Bring in from small donations, and buy with available school's money, more pc equipment to 2nd Gymnasium, to work as thin clients and reach the 20 seats the server can support. We already have 14 old pc learning seats (11 Windows2000 P4 1,7GHz 512ram + 3 WindowsXP).
- Adjust School poster for every school and have it printed.
- Design helping material, like cheat sheets and guides for learners, update Wikipedia Leaflet, and have it printed

September 2014 - May 2015

ManosHacker, press announcements for Wikipedia School whenever needed (call for participation, announce results and presentations)
ManosHacker, Sotkil, hang Wikipedia School posters on streets.
ManosHacker & Ttzavaras, design a program of education, containing a series of lessons for developing the skills and virtues of a wikipedian and open people's hearts for Wikipedia.
ManosHacker, update Wikipedia School's web site.

October 2014 - May 2015

Ttzavaras, ManosHacker, Sotkil and Chrysalifourfour will voluntarily cover all teaching activities for school year 2014-2015 (2 schools for students, 2 for adults).
Ttzavaras, Sotkil, ManosHacker, Chrysalifourfour watch learners' contributions & write down evaluations.
ManosHacker, Sotkil, Ttzavaras, Chrysalifourfour design questionaries for learners to help us make Wikipedia School better in time.
ManosHacker, full cooperation with schools that host us and also inform the municipality education department(s) for our progress.
Ttzavaras, ManosHacker, arrange meetings with, and presentations to, other schools in order to help them, call their teachers to attend our classes and build relationships to spread Wikipedia School.

June 2015

ManosHacker, design posters for school year ending events.
Ttzavaras, Sotkil, ManosHacker, Ceremony events, award with certificates that will be special for every single participant of Wikipedia School.
Sotkil, Ttzavaras, ManosHacker, end Wikipedia School year with a full day presentation event where we will meet people and teach them simple editing, before the big presentation.

Budget

Please provide a detailed breakdown of project expenses according to the instructions here.

Grantees are subject to line-item scrutiny of expenses. Changes to the approved budget beyond 10% in any category must be approved in advance.

Project budget table

Number	Category	Item description	Unit	Number of units	Cost per unit	Total cost	Currency	Notes
1	School equipment	Server hardware	1 computer tower	1	~~1,821.58~~ 1874.94	~~1,821.58~~ 1874.94	EUR	Intel® Xeon® E3-1271 v3, 32GB 1600MHz DDR3 ECC UDIMM, NVIDIA® Quadro® K600 1 GB, 240GB SSD, 3 years warranty
2	School equipment	Server Operating System	1 license	1	214.97	214.97	EUR	Microsoft Multipoint Server Premium 2012 Academic (WinMultiPointSvrPrem SNGL LicSAPk OLP NL Acdmc - software assurance price)
3	School equipment	Server Terminal User Client Licenses	1 license	20	39.75	795.07	EUR	WinMultiPointSvrCAL 2012 SNGL OLP NL Acdmc UsrCAL (software assurance price)
4	School & presentation equipment	Internet connectivity (mobile internet)	1 pack	1	89	89	EUR	4G Full Pack (usb stick + 6 daily uses of 1 Gb each) - internet drops, backup connectivity is needed
5	Printed material	Anything printed on paper	Various	-	650	650	EUR	Estimate for presentation posters, monthly ad. posters, cheat sheets, wikipedia leaflets, attendance registers, questionaries, certificates etc
6	Soft Drinks & Light Snacks	Presentation & ceremony events (3)	Catering (people served)	250	1.8	450	EUR	Estimated for 2 hours presentation and ceremony (Kaisariani, Zografou & Poligono)
7	Closing event	All day event, workshop & presentation/review	Event	1	1,476	1,476	EUR	Event place: ~300m² / wifi, chairs, tables, podium, speakers panel, projector, microphone/speakers, air conditioning, lights/electricity
8	Soft Drinks & Light Snacks	Closing event soft drinks & light snacks	Catering (people served)	250	1.8	450	EUR	Estimated for whole day event
9	Accountant services	Services	hours	5	36.9	184.5	EUR	services of an accountant to handle grant income & expenses in books

Total cost of project: ~~€7,131.12~~ €7,184.48 (funds) (-€1000, see below)

Cost of voluntarily activities, for information only:

€21,600 (450 teaching hours - 19hours/week - 30 weeks)
€4,500 watching learners' contributions, writing down evaluations, updating web pages
€800 contacting and presenting physically Wikipedia School to 20 secondary schools
€300 designing posters, cheat sheets, learning guides etc.
€300 education program design
€300 designing exersises for emotional & social inteligence skills
€200 designing questionaries

Total very rough estimate :€ 28,000:

Total amount requested from the Project and Event Grants program: ~~€6,131.12~~ €6,184.48

Additional sources of revenue that may fund part of this project, and amounts funded: €1,000 = 2nd Gymnasium of Kaisariani budget for computer lab, for supplementing and replacing old equipment with modern (though cheap) thin clients and flat (refurbrished) screens. (For the time being we accept old pc and screen donations to work as thin clients and reach 20 learning seats.)

Non-financial requirements

See a description of non financial assistance available. Please inform Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) of any requirements for non-financial assistance now.

Requests for non-financial assistance

Use of Wikipedia Logo, has been used without proper permission.
Banner in Greek Wikipedia, for September and some days per week for the rest of the school year.
Small Wikipedia paper notebooks with pen are excellent gifts for graduates during the ceremonies.
50-150 memorabilia from the stock available in Wikimedia Foundation.

Resources and Risks

Resources

This section is used to highlight your potential for successfully executing this project.

Team members: Ttzavaras, ManosHacker, Sotkil, Chrysalifourfour. If more Wikipedia Schools pop up, it is quite possible that help will come from the community.
Onwiki evidence of community support:
- Announcement (Greek WP) of the decision of Municipality of Kaisariani to support Wikipedia School
- Announcement (Greek WP) of Wikipedia School start
Endorsements & special skills:
- Ttzavaras is an administrator of Greek Wikipedia. He has ultimate experience as the Headmaster of 24th Gymnasium of Athens for many years, who has run the Wikipedia School project in his school for 3 years. He has been promoting Wikipedia publicly[1].
- ManosHacker is a Wikipedia editor since 2010. He has been promoting Wikipedia publicly[2]. He achieved to persuade Kaisariani Municipality to host Wikipedia School along with its other learning programs for adults. He has established good relations with 2nd Gymnasium of Kaisariani and Wikipedia School will be part of the school's program. Asaf Bartof has watched him teaching through this presentation.
- Sotkil is a Wikipedia editor since 2008. He has teaching experience, promoting Wikipedia publicly with workshops[3].
- Chrysalifourfour is a Wikipedia editor since 2011. He has been watching workshops from ManosHacker and Sotkil, so he already has the spirit and he is a very active editor.
Evidence of past success:
- Ttzavaras has run Wikipedia School for students for three years[4][5][6].
- ManosHacker has run Wikipedia School for adults for three months[7].

Risks

This section is used to identify key risks or threats that would prevent you from achieving your project goals and how you would mitigate those risks and threats.

There is a chance of only a few people be willing to follow the lessons.
There is a chance of more people willing to participate than 2 Wikipedia schools for adults can hold. We will have to adjust in many ways, in such case.
Teaching program is very tight for teachers. No two of us can be ill at the same time. It would be wise to ask for more helping hands from the community.
There is a chance of exercises for emotional and social intelligence, or teaching to use love as the underlying emotion during a strong disagreement or more difficult situation, bring opposition. Of course the framework is just Wikipedia, but only a few people can teach these with the sharpness and sensitivity needed. Every such lesson with students will be done under the supervision and knowledge of school teachers and headmasters.
Participants should not be pushed at all to produce articles so that Wikipedia School gets measurable results, or seeded guilt for not producing articles. If someone feels the need to compete the others it is ok, but Wikipedia School in Greece targets to build editors that are healthy, in the way that they just love to share knowlegdge and they follow the lessons in order to learn how to do it successfully. The balance is delicate, it determines if some editors stay or leave. A contest should follow as a natural result, wanted by the heart of learners, in Wikipedia School.
There is a risk of losing our bases, or the warm relationships with new schools, candidate for Wikipedia Schools, if and when headmasters change. We have to develop good relationships with the parent-teacher associations, too.

Impact

In the sections below, please describe how the project is related to the Wikimedia mission and Wikimedia's strategic priorities.

Fit to strategy

How will this project support the key organizational objectives of

increasing reach (more people will access or contribute to Wikipedia or our other projects), participation (more people actually contributing), quality (more content, more useful content, or higher-quality content), credibility (more trust in our projects), organizational maturity and effectiveness (how it will move you or the Wikimedia community forward), or financial sustainability (how it will help you achieve more in the long run)?

This statement should address at least one of the strategic priorities listed here specifically. See Project and Event Grants program criteria for decision making.

Increasing reach: 2nd Gymnasium of Kaisariani students and adult learners who cannot interact with Wikipedia properly during their lessons, will have equipment to do so.
Increasing participation: More people will contribute to Wikipedia and WM Commons as Wikipedia School participants. Mentoring people makes them surprisingly more resilient when they get bitten by old editors.
Quality: Teaching encyclopedic tone and use of sources increases new editor's potential from the very beginning.
Credibility: People who know how to write an article the right way will increase, and the rumor of Greek Wikipedia being written under no control will lower because of the open presence of Wikipedia School.
Organizational maturity and effectiveness / financial sustainability: People who become better inside and more efficient in their lives because of the skills and values they obtain attending a special school, where they learn how to be a successful wikipedian, will testify on this and support the movement. Using these skills in their CVs gives more credibility to Wikimedia movement itself and projets its value to an additional level.

Benefits

If the project will benefit a specific online community, please tell us.: This project will directly benefit Greek Wikipedia. Articles will be created and editors that are properly skilled will be produced. More people with emotional and social intelligence inside Greek Wikipedia means a more healthy Wikipedia.

Please provide a brief statement about how the project is related to other work in the Wikimedia movement. For example, does the project fit into a work area such as GLAM, education, organizational development, editor retention, or outreach?: The project falls into the education program area, editor retention and outreach.

If successful, will the project have the potential to be replicated successfully by other individuals, groups, or organizations? Please explain how in 1–2 sentences.: The project's intention is indeed Wikipedia School spread. Wikipedia School can be reproduced up to a level successfully, teaching technical skills, guidance to rules and policy, encyclopedic tone etc. In order to teach our special delicate things, someone has to attend our lessons and some extra lessons to use these as a teacher, or it might prove catastrophic. A bad clone will also fail if its target becomes the number of articles and not the number of people who know how to successfully write articles and behave inside Wikipedia.

Please list other benefits to the movement here.: An editor interacts with knowledge deeper than a reader does. Wikipedia School is part of Wikimedia Movement, which shows that it actively considers for education of people also in a deeper level, not only for opening knowledge to people who receive it passively. More people who research knowledge and develop critical thinking, emotional end social intelligence, have an impact on societies and Wikimedia Movement has a role on that.

For grantees

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