Wikimedia at the Open Educational Resources Conference 2018

Authors: Ewan McAndrew and Martin Poulter

Summary: The 9th annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy, OER18, took place at the Bristol Watershed Cinema on 18 and 19 April 2018. Its theme was ‘Open to All’ and it featured Wikimedia heavily in its programme.

The opening keynote, The Long View: Changing Perspectives on OER, was given by Wikimedia UK Trustee and the University of Edinburgh’s Open Education Resources Liaison for Open Scotland, Lorna Campbell.
Wikimedian in Residence at the University of Edinburgh, Ewan McAndrew, hosted an EdTech Wikipedia Editathon (using a SPLOT resource), gave a lightning talk on "Wikidata in the Classroom: The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft database" and used the cinema setting to showcase a video on "Stories of Student Empowerment: Wikipedia in the Classroom. A return on investment straight from the horse’s mouth" featuring a compilation of video interviews with students recorded in March 2018 to coincide with the two year review of the Wikimedia residency at the University of Edinburgh.
Wikimedian in Residence at the University of Oxford, Martin Poulter, gave a presentation about Wikidata, the Semantic Web, and the emerging global knowledge base (video link).
National Wikimedian for Wales, Jason Evans, gave a lightning talk on "Wikipedia and Education and the Welsh language"
Jeffrey Keefer (New York University / The Trust for Public Land) gave a presentation remotely on "Managing Fake News via Extra Credit: A Case Study in Teaching and Learning Research Process and Methodology through Editing Wikipedia".
Anne-Marie Scott (University of Edinburgh) gave a presentation on "'A piece of illumination enlarged' – using OER for access and activism in cultural heritage" discussing how we can use OER to make a closed cultural heritage site open to all and more specifically how the beautiful murals by Phoebe Anne Traquair decorating the Mortuary Chapel of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children can be preserved through the kind of 'knowledge activism' that engaging with Wikimedia affords.

OER18 further builds on the advocacy work of the last seven years when Martin Poulter first presented on ‘Wikipedia and Higher Education: beat them or join them?’ back in 2011. An overview of Wikimedia UK’s growing engagement with the OER Conference over the years can be found on the Wikimedia UK site. A playlist of the recorded talks from the conference can be found on ALT’s Youtube channel while the Wikimedia related sessions are also hosted on CC-BY licences on the University of Edinburgh’s Media Hopper channel along with a recently uploaded playlist of 2018 videos of interviews with staff and students about the Wikimedia residency. A roundup of blogposts since the conference can be found on OER18’s site.

Tags: Wikipedia, OER18, OER, Open education, Wikidata, Wikipedia in the Classroom, University of Edinburgh, Wikimedian in Residence, University of Oxford, New York University, ALT, Bristol, Wales, Welsh education, National Library of Wales, Jason Evans, Martin Poulter, Anne-Marie Scott, Lorna Campbell, Jeffrey Keefer, Ewan McAndrew.