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Welcome to the home of E-Minima - bring the Internet to the grassroots for better learning and governance.

aileen

I can carry my Web compositions in an EM mini-CD* and make any Pentium PC an instant Internet server. Now, isn't that a miracle?

- Aileen, Master of Development Management graduate, UPLB

* What you see or create here is the same as what you experience using the mini-CD!

Disclaimer: If this page is displayed incorrectly, then it's time for you to consider Firefox, the free, secure browser. Download here. (There is no intention whatsoever of ruining this display - it is entirely up to your current browser.)


EM Empowers Teachers

The following animation will illustrate two elearning situations:

The first is the conventional stituation where the teacher uses "packages" of learning materials (represented by vehicles) that are conveyed to/from the server infrastructure. The server infrastructure may include IT personnel and specialized computing facilities. The student interacts with the teacher indirectly through the server infrastructure which is controlled by IT personnel.

Teacher  truck2
truck1  truck1 		server truck2
truck1  truck1 		 Student


And the second is the new situation using EM, where the teacher is able to use a simple computing facility to dispatch even small pieces of learning materials. The teacher does the exchange directly with the student as she is the one controlling the computing facility.

Teacher  Data_Exchange  Student

Think about your collection of large elearning documents as the "trucks" and the individual pieces of Web pages you create in EM as the "tennis balls".

How different are these situations to you? In which situation would you find elearning easier to achieve?


EM Defined

EM (E-Minima) is a set of minimalist software for interaction between a client and a change agent using a PC or a number of PCs in a network. A software is included in EM if it satisfies the following criteria:
  1. It is free or open-source software, preferably released under the GNU GPL.
  2. The least amount of effort or resources is required for it to actually perform the task.
  3. It enables the change agent to easily store and carry both software and data.
  4. Local support can be made available for both clients and change agents.
EM came out of the vision of bringing interactive Internet technology to the grassroots, as discussed in the First Egovernance Conference at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) in March 2004. The concept of E-Minima was first presented in the Third Elearning Conference (Philippines) in August 2004. On March 1, 2005, eMinima went online using EM and supporting EM.

As of March 2005, EM includes the Slax and Puppy distributions of Linux as well as Apache + PHP and scripts for publishing Web pages, creating and administering tests, and getting user feedback. Data are stored in text files (.htm or .txt for Web pages, .q for test questions) and image files (.gif, .jpg, or .png). EM scripting uses a single file for performing tasks, except when a second file is needed to enhance security, This way, a user can just drop an EM script or two in a folder and begin working interactively with clients.


Test Creation

 teacher rowena

For sure, there is creativity in everyone. And this is the single biggest requirement in making exercises and tests that can bring fun to learning. Using EM and the mini-CD, every teacher or trainer can create a fun test in just one sitting. And since teachers can save and share test questions, everyone will have her own test bank in no time at all.

In the afternoon of February 10, 2005, teacher Rowena de la Cruz dropped by the IDMG office and created this quiz. Try it to experience an online test: click here. Try also this new quiz titled maganda, for a student's self-assessment (compliments of Teacher Laury Arca at annex.ph-islands.net.




Links to Other Pages

Here are the quick links to the different areas of the site. Note that each link below will open a new browser window.
  • User's page -  this is the screen you are seeing now, with the page proper at the left window and the discussion page at the right window. The email link may be accessed at the right window.

  • Owner's (or administrator's) page - the main page for creating, uploading, and displaying content. This page should be kept secret, but is displayed openly in this site to guide you.

  • Welcome and About pages - brief introduction to the mini-CD and the eMinima project. This is also being pointed to by the "more info" link below, beside the hit counter. These pages also point to the help (or mini-tutorial).

  • Testing page- the admin page for creating, editing and reporting tests. Here, you can create your own tests and take those created by others - just don't forget to leave a link/page pointing to the test that you created. See the "Fun Quiz" page above for an example link to a quiz.

Note:  The link over the icon save window in this page opens a Save/Print window (that hides the banner), while the link over the icon show banner restores the banner.


Become a Volunteer or Service Provider

 em_ladies

Visit www.eminima.org/fellows now to enlist yourself as a volunteer or service provider and get personalized tutorial. Avail of this opportunity to lead your area in the dissemination of EM. You may also text "ebarangay (your message)" to 2960.