View source for Activities/Proposals/Combining with teaching and education

Use [[w:QTI|Question and Test Interoperability specification]] (QTI) content and [http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Releases/Acai#Speak_to_the_blind.3F speech synthesis] to meet the UK charitable status criterion.

== Outline ==
The stated UK legal precedent criterion for achieving charitable status is, "If the object be the mere increase of knowledge it is not in itself a charitable object unless it is combined with teaching or education."[http://www.charityfinance.co.uk/home/content.php?id=2876&pg=15&cat=30]  While it should be clear (and accordingly emphasized in the Chapter's tax appeal) that serving http requests for content and subject matter searches does provide a substantial, authentic, free, and high quality teaching and educational service, the legal climate surrounding the National Portrait Gallery controversy may diminish the persuasiveness of that argument.  Therefore, the UK chapter should propose, and apply for seed funding of, projects to include QTI content and the use of speech synthesis.  

The [[w:IMS Global|IMS Global]] QTI standard is unique because, for example, [http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/forstudents/freecourses "free" and "open" courses offered by educational institutions often do not provide any sort of quizzes or assessment], which prevents them from allowing the most effective and time-efficient uses of that and other educational content, prevents self-assessments, and prevents the establishment of an interoperable collection of open assessment content.  Because of the [http://www.imsglobal.org/ProductDirectory/directory.cfm widespread adoption of QTI, especially in the UK], the Chapter could propose that an [[w:Open educational resources|open educational resources]] directory for assessment content be established to agument existing Foundation content.  This would not be an expensive project, amounting to an xml content database and perhaps a searchable directory interface (as opposed to just displaying a list.)

And speech synthesis, for example, could be offered using the free Festival system from the University of Edinburgh[http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/] or the higher quality but non-free (although a Foundation site license could presumably proxy all Foundation content) AT&T synthesizers[http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php] (recommend selecting "Charles" or "Audrey" for UK speech.)

== Benefits ==
These projects would leave no doubt that the Chapter and the Foundation wish to provide authentic and complete educational services, even to the blind in third-world poverty situations where they may even be unable to obtain a screen reader speech synthesis web client.  It will also lay the groundwork for the integration of interactive instructional technology with Foundation content.

== Requirements ==
T.B.D. (I have to run and will finish this in a day's time [[Special:Contributions/76.254.66.195|76.254.66.195]] 16:48, 7 August 2009 (UTC)) <!-- What resources would the initiative need? What funding will the project require? Are there other potential sources for the funding? etc. -->

== Volunteering ==
T.B.D. <!-- How many volunteers would be needed? Have you got any so far? Please list usernames of anyone able to help, and encourage people to add theirs. Be sure to list your name! -->

If you're interested in helping out with this proposal, please sign below with <nowiki>*~~~</nowiki>

== Discussion ==
<!-- Anything else? Any open questions? -->

<!-- Please do not remove this line -->
[[Category:Initiatives]]