World Encyclopedia & Knowledge Exchange Program on School Health, Safety, Equity, Social and Sustainable Development (www.schools-for-all.org):
This wiki-based web site is positioned as a shared work space to be used by several organizations, academic institutions, non-governmental organizations and individual practitioners as a forum and document development tool.
Over 40 individuals and ten organizations have already contributed their time, expertise and funding to the calls for writers, contributors and sponsors in several subject areas (core concepts, nutrition friendly schools, monitoring/reporting/ evaluation, school substance abuse prevention, mental health, implementation issues, girls and women’s health, behaviour theories, teacher education and development, integration within education systems and more).
Several experts, practitioners and organizations have agreed to lead international discussion groups that will organize series of webinars and web meetings, call for contributors to lead specific topics, contribute to specific Twitter accounts and wiki-based bibliographies of research/resources and oversee the development of that area within the Encyclopedia. To date, we are benefiting from people and organizations leading these discussions:
As of June 2011, over 40 Glossary Terms (1-2 paragraphs), over 25 Encyclopedia Entries (2-3 pages), and over 20 Handbook Sections (15-20 pages) and over 50 Bibliographies of web-linked research, reports and educational/planning/training resources have been developed. There are seven “first edition” documents that have been developed to a publication stage. There are several very extensive “toolboxes” of research and resources on broad topics such as nutrition friendly schools, mental health, sexual health, LGBT students, physical activity and substance abuse. Many of the summaries include one or more of at least twenty recorded webinars that have been embedded as presentations within the text of the documents. Our ongoing scanning of web networking sites such as SlideShare, GoogleDocs, YouTube and others is identifying and gathering collections of bookmarks, web sites, selected policy and guidance documents and more. These collections will be integrated within the bibliographies.
The Alphabetical List of almost 400 topics provides a glimpse of the eventual coverage of this program that we hope to achieve over the course of several years. We have developed outlines for the contents for each type of summary in the program that can be used as guidelines by writers and contributors. A similar set of outlines will guide the development of bibliographies and toolboxes.
A protocol for controlling and sharing the right to publish in other venues has been. ISHN will review all content to ensure that we comply with copyright laws and have permission from other sources if we use or adapt their content. Our technology tools enable us to host and record webinars, use the wiki-based tools to edit and store drafts of the summaries, to encourage participants to post comments and attach their own papers, documents and reports as case studies.
These new technologies permit us to loosen the grip of geography, telephone charges and time zones. However, the real value of this enterprise is the content and the people who benefit from their participation.
This wiki-based web site is positioned as a shared work space to be used by several organizations, academic institutions, non-governmental organizations and individual practitioners as a forum and document development tool.
Over 40 individuals and ten organizations have already contributed their time, expertise and funding to the calls for writers, contributors and sponsors in several subject areas (core concepts, nutrition friendly schools, monitoring/reporting/ evaluation, school substance abuse prevention, mental health, implementation issues, girls and women’s health, behaviour theories, teacher education and development, integration within education systems and more).
Several experts, practitioners and organizations have agreed to lead international discussion groups that will organize series of webinars and web meetings, call for contributors to lead specific topics, contribute to specific Twitter accounts and wiki-based bibliographies of research/resources and oversee the development of that area within the Encyclopedia. To date, we are benefiting from people and organizations leading these discussions:
- Integration of health/social programs within education systems
- Teacher education and development
- Application of behaviour theories
- Core concepts and the evolution of school prevention and promotion programs
- Alleviating disadvantages, reducing disparities, addressing determinants
- Implementation, capacity, sustainability and systems change
- Monitoring, reporting and evaluation
- Physical activity
- LGBT student health and development
- Substance abuse and other addictions
- School Nursing
- Youth engagement and empowerment
As of June 2011, over 40 Glossary Terms (1-2 paragraphs), over 25 Encyclopedia Entries (2-3 pages), and over 20 Handbook Sections (15-20 pages) and over 50 Bibliographies of web-linked research, reports and educational/planning/training resources have been developed. There are seven “first edition” documents that have been developed to a publication stage. There are several very extensive “toolboxes” of research and resources on broad topics such as nutrition friendly schools, mental health, sexual health, LGBT students, physical activity and substance abuse. Many of the summaries include one or more of at least twenty recorded webinars that have been embedded as presentations within the text of the documents. Our ongoing scanning of web networking sites such as SlideShare, GoogleDocs, YouTube and others is identifying and gathering collections of bookmarks, web sites, selected policy and guidance documents and more. These collections will be integrated within the bibliographies.
The Alphabetical List of almost 400 topics provides a glimpse of the eventual coverage of this program that we hope to achieve over the course of several years. We have developed outlines for the contents for each type of summary in the program that can be used as guidelines by writers and contributors. A similar set of outlines will guide the development of bibliographies and toolboxes.
A protocol for controlling and sharing the right to publish in other venues has been. ISHN will review all content to ensure that we comply with copyright laws and have permission from other sources if we use or adapt their content. Our technology tools enable us to host and record webinars, use the wiki-based tools to edit and store drafts of the summaries, to encourage participants to post comments and attach their own papers, documents and reports as case studies.
These new technologies permit us to loosen the grip of geography, telephone charges and time zones. However, the real value of this enterprise is the content and the people who benefit from their participation.