Urgent: help needed for a Workshop on Open Data in and from schools

I just got a request to run a workshop on “Open Data in and from Schools” next week, at the Open Data Week in Marseille.

(added 2013/06/21, 07:30) IMPORTANT: please note that this is NOT, I repeat, NOT about creating and using open data ABOUT schools, in order to run them better, monitor their “performances” or anything like that. This is about things to do in class or as homework, with very very basic computer skills, even when there is only computer per school with only very slow/intermittent connectivity!

(update 2013/06/21, 11:00) the text below has also been added to the ODW website here. You’re welcome to forward that link instead of this, but please note that feedback by comments can only be added here (which is why I’m keeping this post “as is”).

I am publishing this draft abstract of the workshop in order to gather as much material as possible to add to what I already have. I will add to this page a link to the official announcement as soon as it is online.

Workshop title: “Open Data in and from Schools: When Open Data meets Show and Tell”

For: teachers, open data activists, public employees working on topics normally studied in High Schools, representatives of Parents Associations…

Level: basic! No specific software competence is required. A laptop to surf the Web and work together on a wiki is needed though.

ABSTRACT: The workshop is about the proposal for Open Data and Education first presented at the Open Government Data Camp of 2011.

Participants to the workshop will:

  • learn how and why to promote the systematic use and production of Open Data in High Schools during normal class activities, in the context of standard curricula
  • prepare together:
  • a selection of already existing Open Data sets, and other online resources usable for those activities
  • practical examples of:
    • how those resources could be used in real world classes/curricula of High Schools
    • useful Open Data sets that may be produced by the students during their normal activities

All the results of the workshop will be published online with a CC license.

Request for material

I already have material, of course, but the more the better, especially when timing is as tight as it is in this case. So many, many thanks in advance for:

  • (even during the conference!!!) sending (in the comments below or by email or Twitter at @mfioretti_en with the tag #od4school) any practical example of Open Data used or produced by Schools as explained here
  • passing this request to whoever may be interested and/or provide more examples!