SPACE conducted a two day workshop on GNU/Linux System Administration at Mariyan Engineering College, Thiruvananthapuram from 18-19 December 2012. Mtech students and faculty members of the college participated in the hands-on training.
SPACE presented three papers at the national seminar 'Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Disability Management', organised by Centre for Disability Studies from 3-4 December 2012 at Kanakakunnu, Thiruvananthapuram. Mr. Rijoy .V, Mr. Deepu Raj and Ms. Nila Ethel presented the topics 'Text to Speech Synthesis & its Applications for the Visually Challenged', 'Assistive Technologies for the Differently Abled', 'Early Intervention Measures for Prevention of Visual Impairment' respectively.
SPACE and Curriculum Development Centre, Department of Education, University o
f Kerala together organised a workshop to review an e-learning module on adolescent education jointly developed by them. A review of this e-module was held on 30 November 2012 at Trivandrum Hotel, Thiruvananthapuram involving experts from State Resource Centre, SCERT, College of Teacher Education, Loyola College of Social Sciences, Kerala Women's Development Corporation, Research Students and NGOs.
One more village library in Kerala will join a small group of libraries striving to reinvent themselves with the help of new information and communication technologies. Navodaya Library, located in Kadapuzha near Sasthamcotta, Kollam has initiated a series of steps in this direction with the help of SPACE. As the first step, seven students-both boys and girls selected by the library participated in workshops conducted by SPACE.
Panamattom National Library, which had created a website during the Web Maker Summer Party 2012, organised photography classes for its volunteers with the help of SPACE on October 2, 2012.
The trainer was Choyikutty Mash, the veteran photographer who has been associating with SPACE in its programmes for local libraries.
SPACE organised an eight-day workshop for the Library staff of JNU on Assistive Technologies for the visually challenged from 8-15 September 2012. The main objective of the programme was to equip the Library staff as master trainers to assist the visually challenged to use computers. The entire workshop training module was based on free and open source software. A two day orientation programme intended to sensitize the visually challenged in free software based technologies was also conducted for
the students of JNU.
Dhanya, Chinchu and Vineetha, three vivacious teenagers from Arinallur village had never touched a camera before. But now they had nothing less than a DSLR to toy with. Choyikutty mash, the veteran photographer to whom the camera belonged, sent them away with a wave of his hand: Go on! Shoot!
Jawahar library, one of the libraries being mentored by SPACE as a rural information, technology and documentation centre, has taken leadership in documenting Karadikali, an unique artform of Kerala. Karadi Kali, or the dance of the bear, was synonymous with Onam for natives of Kollam until a few decades ago. Over time, this unique cultural tradition along with its rich oral heritage was forgotten, as new forms of entertainment emerged and lured people away from this rustic artform.
SPACE conducted a one day workshop on FOSS in Science and Engineering at SB College Chenganassery. Ganesh from SPACE briefed the students and teachers on the philosophy of free software. After that Mr Prajith, Research Fellow from SPACE presented his project, Molecular Workbench, a free and open source software for Physics.
Early intervention helps to mitigate autism related damage in children, said Dr. Sohan Roy, Psychatriast, in his address to parents and teachers during a meet organised at Insight centre on 8 September 2012. Dr Roy emphasised the importance of providing timely treatment for autistic children. Many parents prefer alternative treatment initially, out of fear of side effects of modern medicine. This results in delay in initiating treatment. Dr. Roy observed that alternative medicine could have side effects too.
