Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

EDIT: I have a bare bones site up and running - http://ingeniousity.net/

Stop press! I talked to the folks at Ushahidi, and they have an application almost ready for release which will make it possible to
build Ushahidi into this site.

Please visit and play with this combination of functionalities. Content needs to be written or copied (and translated) from Evoke, and it needs to be smartened up visually, but the basic functions are all there. I need your input about what you think is good, bad or desirable before I can take it any further. I've also created an admin account (see message on website) so you can play with the softwares that make it all possible.


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Original message:

I came into Evoke too late to use it in the classroom this year, but very much hope to do so next semester. I'm not clear on whether the existing site will still be available, but after thinking about it I've realised that it would be pretty easy to build something that works in much the same way.

Question: Does this count as a derivative work, as prohibited in the Terms of Service?

I've also realised that if I did build such a site it could function in two ways:
  • Much the same as the existing site, with users around the world being in touch with each other.
  • As a 'private Evoke space' with access restricted to those invited. By making everything downloadable and installable elsewhere, this would effectively give anyone who wants one their own copy of Evoke.
I can't start work on this until after 12 May (too many missions to  complete) but I'm pretty sure I can do the following without any difficulty:
  • Give all users a profile which can be configured to manage the quests, plus whatever other personal information I want to collect or display, including galleries.
  • Enable 'groups' so that teachers can keep track of their students. Each group would have it's own discussion board. This is the biggie for me.
  • Each user has a blog, or author privileges in designated categories which correspond to the missions. Or both.
  • Commenting systems and private messaging
  • Article rating, but only a simple 1-5 stars with no power points.
  • Stuff like featured articles, latest activity, etc.
  • Give points for designated activities, and (optionally) some kind of system for users to give each other points.
  • An integrated, but seperate discussion forum using phpBB. (example)
  • An integrated, but seperate wiki usable by all members for projects. This could include the material from the teaching project, for instance.
  • multi-language support
There are tons of other features which can be added without too much difficulty, all using off-the shelf open source software. With modifications, which may cost money, a great many other things can become possible quite quickly.

If you have suggestions for features, or can offer to help, then leave a message below.

Requirements:
  • Technical help may be needed for any software hacks.
  • Content writing
  • Curriculum stuff, to make it usable.
  • Translation so that this becomes accessible to people who are not good in English.

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I'm not thinking of moving. We've learned that content is important -- not just functionality. We are working with Bill Fitzgerald at Funny Monkey... and we would like to see if we could add some game functionality like evoke has.

Chris Ke Sihai said:
Paul, I looked at your site. I'm impressed. Why are you thinking of moving?
Chris and Paul,
Great minds think alike. I'm sure it is natural to see this game as a course, and regard our involvement as that of very engaged students. I wonder how many of us are teachers and experiencing this. Chris, keep us apprised of the Evokation plans, and if you need a collaborator, you've got one!
Kay
Looks great, Chris! I think Evoke and Alchemy will be fine with it, especially as it's within the spirit of EVOKE. If you need help with it (any h***s to be filled), let me know. As I said before, I'm currently teaching teachers and I suggested Evoke to one teacher who was interested in creating a water and sanitation project for his students centered around well construction.
Thanks for the offers of help. I've reached a point with the functionalities where I can see what's working, what's do-able, and what has to be worked around. I'm very positive about that side of things.

But as Paul says, content is important. I just have placeholders where the missions should be. If anyone is free to help with importing and maybe rewriting the mission descriptions (or translating them) then that would be a great benefit.

I'm taking a week away from Evoke 1.5 in order to focus on completing Evoke 1.0 but I'm also very keen to see this one through. I think there's a lot of potential there that I hadn't really appreciated when I started.
I can help with the technical aspect and with translations. Message me.
Cheers Kevin.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but clicking on Kevin's hyperlink name takes me to a page of his 'discussions' with no link to his profile. How does one find a profile easily?

Mine is http://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/ChrisKeSihai
Yeah! I talked to the developers and they say we CAN integrate Ushahidi into this project.
Hi Chris -- I would love to help with the curriculum. I have part of one drafted, and I'm still looking for collaborators if anyone is interested. You can see it on the original Evoke wiki (http://urgentevoke.wikia.com/wiki/EVOKing_in_the_Classroom). It's a work in progress :-)

It would be great to develop the section on using Evoke in a wired classroom to take advantage of the system you're building. I welcome contributions from any & all. So count me in!

P.S. Click on the profile pic, not the linked name, in a reply to go to the profile. The name does take you to the person's discussions list only.
Hi ninmah, nice to hear from you.

I'm thinking to add the mission descriptions with the learn, act, imagine in the same way as Evoke does now. And then add an additional page for teachers containing lesson plans, resources, etc. On the downloadable version of the site, the teachers could then make that page invisible to students.

How does that sound? Or do you think it needs to have more than one page per mission for the teachers? Either way is fine by me.

I would also keep a site for teachers where they could post additional information and ideas as time goes on.

Also, do you think there should be more than one level of difficulty? I'm inclined to think it's a good idea. Assume everyone is working in their own language, plus maybe an EFL version too?

And how would you use your own Ushahidi maps as part of a lesson? I'm very excited about that development.
Wow this is good and how exciting about Ushahidi! I love some of the new features such as groups and the extra tabs. I too am finishing up and have much on the go but thought I'd drop in to say keep it up it's looooookin good :)
Chris, that sounds like a good idea. Actually, there are a few different options and one is to ask for volunteer moderators as and when needed, but otherwise try and do without. It works on some sites, and keeping away from a platform like Ning would help. It's too attractive. I might try and go that route for the site I'm building now. Flagging is a useful tool to have.

The 'for schools' site would need to be much more tightly moderated, but I'm looking at ways to get corporate sponsors for that. My marketing guy things it's very do-able. And then the downloadable site would be moderated by the people operating it.

Chris Delamer said:
This really looks good.

Content moderation always seems a difficult thing but maybe the method at www.43things.com could help ?
this is where members of the community can flag an item and then vote for something to be removed, if something gets 3 votes it gets removed. This would help out whoever has to do the actual moderation.
useful to get rid of spam bots and suchlike.
Chris,I think your idea is good and will help many teachers.Thanks

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