Student Notebook

The Student Notebook (SN) was first trialled in 2008/2009 - in collaboration with Professor Andrew Lister (Queens University, Canada) - in a class of 250 students and met with considerable success. The SN allows students to have a personal offline copy of their class wiki, which is searchable and can synchronize with the online version when a connection is available, and to which they could add their private notes. A complimentary instructor's notebook allows teachers to prepare and review content for the class even when they are not online, keep private notes associated with the class materials as well as present slides in the classroom directly from their notebooks. A second pilot is being conducted at Queens University in the spring semester of 2010, using an improved version of the notebook based on feedback from Andrew and his students.

The technology developed in this project is versatile and offers an excellent basis for developing tools to:

• implement distance learning projects,
• facilitate access to online educational resources for students with intermittent internet access,
• allow collaboration and communication between students and teachers both in the classroom and after school hours.

In 2010 we will be working towards extending the Student Notebook to create a "student dashboard" which includes flexible textbooks and curriculums, team-based mentoring and data from school information systems.
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Hesperian Digital Commons

Hesperian is the non-profit publisher of community oriented healthcare manuals such as Where There is No Doctor (WTND). WTND was originally published in the 1970s and is one of the most widely used health-care manuals in the world. In 2008, the Hesperian Foundation began a project (Hesperian Digital Commons or HDC) to update their materials and modernize them by creating digital versions to allow access via the internet, mobile phones and other technologies. The aim is to improve access to the Hesperian materials through the direct use by community healthcare workers in the field and also through brochures, mobile phone updates, and other adaptations created by local partners addressing specific community needs. As the technology partner, UnaMesa acts as an advisor to Hesperian to help them revise their content development process, create a digital publishing platform, and put in place appropriate processes for integrating community input into reliable publications. UnaMesa responsibilities include:

• Helping to design and implement a technology architecture for Hesperian Digital Commons
• Supporting the adoption of editorial process and delivery mechanisms for digital publications
• Working with Hesperian staff to provide and operate the necessary network services and infrastructure
• Helping to collect and analyze statistics on usage of Hesperian materials

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Details on other UnaMesa projects can be found on our projects wiki which is a working site actively used by UnaMesa associates.

The innovations in software, web services and best practices resulting from UnaMesa projects are available for free to non-profit organizations. With the support of our contributors, UnaMesa provides ongoing maintenance and support for the software and services and the communities around them. This includes:

TiddlyWiki

When looking at the needs of community-based schools, clinics, and social service agencies, it becomes clear that the existing information technology did not serve their needs. In particular, the web is a great tool for providing and gathering information but it requires full time Internet connectivity, something which is simply beyond the reach of many community organizations. To address this need, we have helped develop and support a tool called "TiddlyWiki," a single html file which provides all the advantages of a web-based service but works even when you don't have an Internet connection. (Data can be synchronized when a connection is available.) TiddlyWiki is very flexible, versatile and extensible and amongst other uses forms the basis of UnaMesa's Student Notebook project as well as field notebooks for doctors.

SharedRecords

Additionally, we found that many community organizations still rely on paper records. Even those that have their own digital archives end up printing or faxing records in order to share information with other care providers. The result: organizations quickly spend more than 30% of their resources on administrative tasks ("paperwork") that creates no value for their clients and, even worse, clients often receive inadequate care because of incomplete information and lost records. We helped create and operate the SharedRecords service which provides a kind of "common denominator" for records that gives providers the ability to share records with their clients and with other organizations in a way that is simple, secure, and very low cost. Regardless of whether an organization relies on digital or paper records, the SharedRecords service can work with their existing practices to provide a better experience for their clients. SharedRecords is an integral part of UnaMesa's ServiceLink project.