The Northern Ireland Department of Finance has supported a challenge that encourages the re-use of public Open Data in education. Called the OpenDataNI Challenge – Using Open Data for Education” (ODNI4EDU), this project, officially launched on June 14, intends to award two applications or educational tools and resources that make use of at least one dataset published on the portal OpendataNI.
Tools and resources developed during the challenge should be aimed at primary and secondary education, and must be open and accessible to schools. “The proposal is left deliberately wide so that solutions could be pitched using open data to provide rich resources across a range of subjects within the NI curriculum such as environmental, social and geographical topics as well as maths, computer programming etc.”, the statement says.
A two-stage competition
The competition will run in two stages, during which applicants are firstly asked to submit a paper. Six of them will then be selected and awarded £2 500 to develop their prototype in six weeks. Applicants can submit their papers until 5 pm on Wednesday 28 September.
During the second stage the six prototypes will be narrowed down to two, both of which will receive £20 000 each.
This challenge is part of the global strategy initiated by the Northern Ireland government around Open Data. In its plan for 2015 – 2018, the administration wants to create an “open by default” culture “whereby the publishing of open data becomes part of everyday management practices”.
“This will include not just the technology and a single point of access to public sector data but also the governance and engagement with non-public sector organisations and citizens who wish to consume and utilise the data”, the plan states.