Grants:TPS/Futureimperfect/ Free Minds free People and IDEC 2013

This Participation Support request was partially funded in the amount of US$685.00. Please see the discussion page for details.

User names: FutureImperfect and Groupuscule
User location (country): Baltimore, MD, USA
Event name: There are two events: one is Free Minds, Free People(FMFP). The other is The International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC)
Event Web site: http://www.fmfp.org/ and http://www.idec2013.org/, respectively
Event date(s): FMFP-July 11-14, IDEC-Aug 4-8
Event location (city): FMFP-Chicago, IL; IDEC--Denver, CO
Amount requested (remember to specify currency!): USD $2,500
Endorsements

Groupuscule (talk) 11:01, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Budget breakdown

Event registrations and tabling fees: 680 USD

IDEC requires the purchase of a table for $400. It is then our table for all five days of the conference, and it is in the main hall of the conference, which should get a great deal of foot traffic. I will also pay for conference registration for myself, out of pocket. Groupuscule will be at the table when I am not, and his registration as "tabler" is included in this cost. FMFP costs $140 per person, and gives tabling space to any registered participants for free, assuming nothing will be sold at said table. As we have no intention of selling anything, this should be fine.

Travel: 280 USD

According to http://gasbuddy.com/, the trip to Chicago, in my friend's Chevy Aveo, will cost $79.86. The trip from Denver back to Baltimore will cost $162.64. Since gas is often a bit more in the summer, I'd like to round that up slightly from a total of $240 to a total of $280. We will visit friends and take a circuitous route between the two conferences, so I'm not requesting any of that travel be included.

Accommodation: 555 USD

We will stay with friends in Chicago. In Denver, the conference organizers have worked out a deal with a local hotel, which is offering rooms from 114 USD/night. According to http://www.gsa.gov/portal/category/100120, the nightly lodging rate in Denver in August is $149. 75% of that is $111, so that's all I'm requesting. Well pay the rest out of pocket. We are placing a homestay request on our registration, and are pursuing that as an option. If that comes through, and this money is not needed, we'll let you know.

Meals: 700 USD

Denver: The IDEC organizers "highly suggest you select our meal plan option on the registration form... Meals are one of the best opportunities during the conference for informal networking, conversation, and community building." This meal plan costs 150 USD/per person for three meals a day all five days. According to http://www.gsa.gov/portal/category/100120 Meals and incidentals in Denver are calculated at $66/day. Since we are talking 5 days, this $30/day falls far far below that rate.

Chicago: Meals are not being provided by this conference. Two of us will be in Chicago for 4 days for the conference. I'm requesting $50/day for each of us. According to http://www.gsa.gov/portal/category/100120 Meals and incidentals in Chicago are calculated at $71/day. 75% of that is $53.25

Printing costs: 285 USD

We will be making thousands of copies. Also, I'd like to use a large format printer to make us a nice big sign that reads "Ask us why Wikipedia Belongs in Your classroom!" This amount seems reasonable, based on my years of experience making copies for large events. It also rounds out the amount we're requesting. :)

Materials: Non-monetary contribution

We would love it if you could also send us pins, stickers and official educational materials, especially those relevant to educators.

Proposed Participation

I am a not-very-active Wikipedian and very active public high school teacher in Baltimore. My partner, Groupuscule, is a very active Wikipedian. We will be attending two large Education related conferences. Last year we attended an education related conference and Groupuscule set up a small table with literature (some from WikiMania, some developed by him which is very good, clear lit on how to edit Wikipedia.) He staffed the table full time, and I joined him regularly. We talked to teachers from around the country, helping them to get over prejudices they had against using Wikipedia in their classrooms. I showed other teachers how I have students cite sources in a way that shows they found the source through Wikipedia. It was very successful--we talked to a lot of people, some of whom have followed up with us throughout this year.

We will follow that format, except that I will also create a set of lesson plans, geared for different age groups and different content areas, stepping teachers through the process of showing students how to use Wikipedia well. I am also working on a unit plan specifically for a high school English class (though it could be modified by a teacher to fit almost any middle or high school class) adapted from http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sample_Syllabus_for_Wikipedia_assignment.pdf. We will print out copies of these plans, as well as some material from http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/For_educators (If you can't send them to us), and have them at our table. We will also hand out any official merch or lit you send us.

[I will also happily make these lesson plans available (in open source, obviously) somewhere on your network of sites. Let me know where they will be most accessible to teachers.]

We will also have one or two laptops at the table, so that we can demonstrate how to use wikipedia. That was very effective last year, and Groupuscule did a great job of asking teachers what they were very knowledgeable about, then helping them edit pages unrelated or tangentially related to education.

Goal and Expected Impact

As a result of our tabling efforts, thousands of open minded educators from around the country (USA) and around the world (Earth) will see a fellow educator vocally advocating for the use of Wikipedia in classrooms. Some will perhaps reconsider prejudices about Wikipedia in education and in general. Additionally, some fraction of the audience will take a more active interest and contact us by email, use the lesson plans, and visit http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/For_educators

FutureImperfect (talk) 07:55, 9 May 2013 (UTC)