Draft:SolarSPELL
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The ASU SolarSPELL Initiative
[edit]
SolarSPELL is a global educational initiative based at Arizona State University that combines curated digital libraries, solar-powered, offline technology, and training with the intention of building information literacy and internet-ready skills.[1] Their mission is to empower learners globally by providing localized educational information and the training to build 21st century skills in primarily offline environments. Their initiative focuses on encouraging student success, both around the world and at Arizona State University.[2]
History
[edit]The ASU SolarSPELL (Solar Powered Educational Learning Library) initiative was co-founded in 2015 by Dr. Laura Hosman and Bruce Baikie, faculty members at Arizona State University (ASU).[3][4] During fieldwork visits to remote schools in the Caribbean, West Africa, and the Pacific Islands, Hosman and Baikie gathered insights from teachers who described the challenges of teaching in resource-constrained environments, often without access to electricity or the internet.[3]
In response, Hosman, Baikie, and their students developed SolarSPELL, a solar-powered, offline, portable digital library that provides locally relevant educational content to communities with limited infrastructure.[4] SolarSPELL’s initiative employs a train-the-trainer model aimed at fostering sustainable skills development among local users of the library.
Current Work
[edit]SolarSPELL’s digital libraries have reached 15 countries in the Pacific Islands, East and Southern Africa, Middle East, and the United States.[4]
Wikipedia for Schools
[edit]Wikipedia for Schools (WFS) is a curated selection of approximately 10,000 Wikipedia articles designed for offline use in primary and secondary classrooms. Originally developed by SOS Children’s Villages UK and launched in 2006, WFS saw multiple updated versions until 2013, when updates ceased due to funding limitations.
In 2020, SolarSPELL took on the role of maintaining and updating Wikipedia for Schools. With permission from SOS Children’s Villages and the Wikimedia Foundation, SolarSPELL tried to create updated versions of WFS, with the goal of including relevant content that can be accessible for offline learning environments.
SolarSPELL collaborated with Kiwix, a nonprofit organization that hosts websites for offline use, to make WFS freely available to download worldwide.[5] Additionally, SolarSPELL created the first Arabic-language Wikipedia for Schools for inclusion on the SolarSPELL Middle East Library. The Arabic WFS is also publicly available for download on Kiwix’s website.
SolarSPELL released the first updated version of WFS in 2021, hosted on the Kiwix platform. To encourage further development, the SolarSPELL team documented their process and published a roadmap to guide other initiatives in creating localized versions of Wikipedia for Schools in different languages.
References
[edit]- ^ "SolarSPELL | ASU Foundation". www.asufoundation.org. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
- ^ "ASU SolarSPELL Initiative – Empowering learners globally". Retrieved 2024-11-10.
- ^ a b "ASU's SolarSPELL digital libraries help teachers in Ethiopian refugee camps | ASU News". news.asu.edu. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
- ^ a b c "ASU-developed SolarSPELL libraries deployed to help communities in Arizona | ASU News". news.asu.edu. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
- ^ "Kiwix Library". library.kiwix.org. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
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