Welcome to the Living Lanka Project

2006-04-17T08:14:00.000-07:00

What is the Living Lanka Project?

About Living Lanka
Living Lanka is an online opportunity that enables Sri Lankan schools to develop and publish an online resource, based on a Lanka heritage treasure within the community.

Living Lanka preserves history, heritage, community, people, and culture in a digital format for every generation, and allows our children's voices to present a view of Sri Lanka on the World Wide Web.

Free to all schools & educational institutions
Participation in Living Lanka is free to all schools and educational institutions in Sri Lanka and those overseas with links to Sri Lanka and open to all age groups. Self-publishing web pages help simplify the process of online publishing for students and teachers.

Students as Storytellers
Living Lanka provides an authentic learning experience by encouraging students to become investigators and storytellers, collaborating with each other to research, write, and publish on the Web.

Study your Locality
Identify a unique and important piece of Sri Lanka to share on the Web such as the story of a local person, family, event, landmark, or building.

Links to the Curriculum
A Living Lanka web-based story incorporates the use of Information & Communication Technology across a range of curriculum areas, such as History, Geography, Economics, Social Sciences, Arts, Politics, Technology, Environment and English.

Living Lanka is a project of the Sri Lanka Genealogy Website

Goals
The Living Lanka Project aims to show the world Sri Lanka's unique cultural and historical treasures, as portrayed by the young minds of the Island, by:

- encouraging the preservation of our heritage for today's and future generations;
- creating and maintaining an online "living" database of original heritage resources;
- motivating students and creating more effective learning and teaching, with the latest information communication technology;
- providing meaningful activities and learning contexts;
- assisting schools and teachers to become confident and successful in using online technology; - encouraging all Sri Lankan schools to participate in the Living Lanka Project.

Benefits
For Schools & Educational Institutions
- Building relationships within the community, with community groups, families, and individuals.
- Fostering relationships with other schools, locally and nationally.
- Establishing an online presence locally, nationally, and globally.
- Meaningful activities and learning contexts, integrating information technology into curriculum areas, and supporting the development of essential skills.
- Support & assistance for teachers in using online internet technology.

For Students
- Discovering treasures in their local surroundings.
- Exploring personal values and a sense of identity.
- Collaboration and group activities.
- Motivation, and more effective learning, using the latest information technology.
- Meaningful activities and learning contexts that integrate curriculum areas, essential skills, and information literacy.
- Confidence to explore, adapt, and shape technological understanding and skills.
- Support in developing essential skills from the Sri Lanka Curriculum Framework.

For the Community
- Encouraging students to take pride in their community.
- A place for local groups to promote themselves.
- Participating in a school project.
- Discovering and recording stories that have not been told.
- Initiating local history and oral history projects.
- Establishing a presence on the world stage.

For Sri Lanka
- Promoting local treasures to other Sri Lankan's, and the wider world.
- Preserving history and culture in a digital format for today's and future generations.
- Presenting a view of Sri Lanka through the eyes of our children.
- Showcasing Sri Lanka's unique character to the rest of the world.

For the World
- Discovering the unique and indigenous treasures of Sri Lanka.
- Sharing resources and experiences with Sri Lankan schools and communities.
- Building relationships with Sri Lankan schools and community groups.

Getting started
Congratulations on participating in Living Lanka Project! We want to make the process efficient, easy and rewarding.

How do Schools & Educational Institutions participate?
If your school wishes to produce a Living Lanka resource, go to the ten steps shown below under "Steps to creating your Living Lanka Project" section. This sets out what you need to do, from choosing a topic to submitting the work in digital format. Living Lanka then presents your project as a website.

How long will it take?
The project could be a brief activity, or an in-depth study. It could be completed within a week, month, term, or year. Schools can continue to develop their projects online.

What will it cost?
There is no cost to schools to participate in the Living Lanka Project.

Which resources do we use?
Schools provide their own resources.

What skills are needed?
Basic computer usage skills and research skills are required. HTML knowledge is not necessary. We will use the free blog creation facility online on the internet.

Steps to creating your Living Lanka Project

1. Discuss with your teacher/institution and identify a local heritage topic that you think you are able to research and develop into a project

2. Send an e-mail to the Living Lanka Project at livinglanka@gmail.com stating the following:
- Name of your institution
- Name of the teacher(s)/institution who will be responsible for supervising and assisting with the project
- Names, Ages & Grade of all the student resources who will be working on the project as a single team
- Your contact address, telephone numbers, fax numbers, e-mail address and location
- Proposed Project Topic/Title/Subject selected giving some details about its scope, & location
- Expected target date for completion based upon your own understanding and analysis

3. Discuss the topic selected with the team and your teacher(s)/institution

4. Plan the project assigning each team member to carry out his/her own research based on the source list given below

5. Collect all the data researched and write up a draft project using a word processor (MSWord) or a wysiwyg html editor (MS Frontpage). Those requiring assistance to achieve this will be helped along by the coordinator. Please send an e-mail with the type of assistance needed.

6. Obtain permissions from newspapers, authors, writers or owners of the data if and when necessary where copyright laws are in place

7. Review the outcome of your project with the team and your teacher(s)

8. Finalize the project by reformatting it and enhancing it with graphics, pictures, and any other informative ideas and styles

9. Sign off the Project with your teachers/institution

10. Submit the project data via e-mail attachment to livinglanka@gmail.com OR request for assistance on how to create your own blog online on he internet and upload your data by yourself usi9ng your own resources

Note: For those who wish to make an attempt at creating your own blog by yourselves using the data you have identified, researched and prepared, please do the following:-

a. Connect to the Internet using any browser (MS Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome)
b. Link to http://www.blogger.com/
c. Click on the Orange bar that says "Create Your Blog now"
d. Chose a User Name (make it simple but precise pertaining to your school/project. this will be the name you will log on to the blog with)
e. Enter a Password (twice) in the fields provided (use a password thats easy for you to remember)
f. Enter a Name for the Blog (Title)
g. Enter an e-mail address & Click the orange arrow CONTINUE
h. Enter the name of your blog (could be the same as f above
i. Enter the blog address using a suitable and appropriate text string without spaces
j. Enter the word verification characterds as specified on the screen in the appropriate field & click the orange arrow CONTINUE
k. Choose a template as displayed on the screen by selecting the one you desire and then clicking the orange ARROW
l. Click Start Posting and update your blog
m. Input the required data for creating the blog pages

Suggested Sources for research on Topic Ideas

Information sources
People
Experts
Teachers/Librarian
Family members
Professionals
Community members

Places
Local library
Department of National Archives, Reid Avenue, Colombo 7
Museum
School Library
Art Gallery
National Library

Resources

Print
Magazines
Newspapers
Maps
Books
Reports
Encyclopedia
Historical documents
Local history books
Community/business directories
Government directories

Non-print
Photo albums
Diaries
Oral histories
The Internet
CD-ROM
Videos
Photographic collections
Computer catalogues, databases
Art works
Movies
Music
Scrapbooks
Online community databases
Online Government and council databases

Sample Topics Suggested
Achievements
Agriculture & Farming
Animals
Archealogy
Beaches
Beliefs
Buildings
Businesses
Ceremonies
Cities
Communities
Companies
Crops (Tea, Rubber, Coconut, Rice, Cashew, Fruits, Vegetables, Fish)
Customs
Ethnicity
Forests
Handicrafts
Houses
Lakes
Legislature
Mountains
People
Perahera
Plants
Presidents
Prime Ministers
Professionals
Religion
Rituals
Rivers
Royal Families
Rulers
Schools
Sports
Streets
Superstitions
Towns
Tsunami 2004
Wildlife

Sponsors Invited
Living Lanka invites private sector commercial organizations to sponsor this project by way of offering prizes for the winners, runners-up and also participants. Sponsorship will be a great motivating factor for the participating schools and will also provide a valuable opportunity for the sponsor to advertise his business and contribute effectively to the growth and development of IT education amongst Sri Lankan studenta

Contact Living Lanka
Living Lanka is coordinated by the Webmaster of the Sri Lanka Genealogy Website, an experienced IT professional who is also committed to the research and publication of heritage and historical data of Sri Lanka. Thge Sri Lanka Genealogy Website may be reviewed at:-
http://www.rootsweb.com/~lkawgw

Contact:
E-Mail livinglanka@gmail.com

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Living Lanka Project

Welcome to the Living Lanka Project

Resource Websites & Blogs