Gomez: Smartphones have transformed the way people can access the internet. Over the years, the students knew more and more about about computers before coming to school, but I have noticed a sharp reversal in this trend over the past two years as an increasing number of students no longer have a computer at home, all is done with mobile devices and a smart TV. I have been teaching computer science since the mid-eighties, before the web was developed at CERN here in Geneva. Thullen: That must be the detrimental effect of smartphones on what I consider to be basic computer literacy such as knowing how to use a keyboard and mouse, knowing the difference between input and output, between local and remote storage. Gomez: What’s been the biggest surprise for you over the years? They were all quite enthusiastic and receptive when I shared Kiwix with them. In all, a few weeks were spent meeting with schools and other facilities like the US Peace Corps training base in Thiès and the Naval Academy in Dakar. Having surmised the usefulness of offline Wikipedia for schools with little or no Internet access, I had brought a few dozen USB keys pre-loaded with Kiwix and the French Wikipedia. At the same time, I was checking up on the distribution of a few hundred math books I had shipped to Senegal, and I met with a few teachers and government officials. As coach of a team of Senegalese wheelchair basketball players playing in different European championships, I was involved in organizing a tournament in Dakar. The second phase of my involvement started with a trip to Senegal in Summer 2014. Unfortunately, we waited over a year for the Kiwix plug computers to be produced so that by the time the hardware was delivered to Geneva, the funds had dried up and the school year was over. I really got into using Kiwix while helping distribute it at the WMCH booth during the 2013 Wikimania in Hong Kong, and was able to successfully secure a mandate from my employers for the 2014-2015 school year to investigate the pedagogical opportunities opened up by the use of offline Wikipedia and Kiwix. I was fascinated by the presentations at Wikimania 2012, about Kiwix and Wikipedia Zero. Thullen: I consider that there were two phases in my involvement with offline Wikipedia. You can also read the other parts of this ongoing series.Īnne Gomez: Tell me about what started your interest and involvement with offline Wikipedia? When was it? As Gabriel writes in the Wikimedia Education newsletter, “These schools are in cities with limited access to the Internet and in small towns with little or no electricity, no cell phone coverage, and no Internet.”īoth Anne and Gabriel recently participated in the OFF.NETWORK Content Hackathon to advance Kiwix and its distribution of offline Wikipedia. In this installment, she interviews Gabriel Thullen, a Geneva (Switzerland) Wikimedian, previous Wikimedia CH board member, and school teacher who has worked with schools across West Africa to test the Kiwix offline Wikipedia browser during the 2016–2017 school year. In her first conversation for the Wikimedia Blog, Anne chatted with Emmanuel Engelhart (aka “Kelson”), a developer who works on Kiwix, an open source software which allows users to download web content for offline reading. Over the coming months, Anne will be interviewing people who work to remove access barriers for people across the world. One of her areas of interest is offline access, as she works with the New Readers team to improve the way people who have limited or infrequent access to the Internet can access free and open knowledge. Senior Program Manager Anne Gomez leads the New Readers initiative, where she works on ways to better understand barriers that prevent people around the world from accessing information online.
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