Education/News/December 2017/Wikimedia CH experiments a Wikipedia's treasure hunt during "Media in Piazza"
Wikimedia CH experiments a Wikipedia's treasure hunt during "Media in Piazza"[edit]
Author: Ilario Valdelli, education lead, Wikimedia CH
Summary: Wikimedia Switzerland has participated to the second edition of "Media in Piazza" (Media on stage) organized by the Faculty of Pedagogy of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) experimenting a virtual treasure hunt as a "gamification" of Wikimedia projects. The format has been successful and the feedback of the teachers has reported a high level of appreciation.
For the second year, Wikimedia Switzerland participated, with a dedicated section, at the "Media in Piazza" (Media on stage) event. The event, conceived by the Faculty of Pedagogy of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), aims to bring schools and teachers closer to new media showing all the advantages of using technology at school but also how to deal with the problems that could arise. The event in fact leads the boys to experiment with new technologies such as robotics, programming and Wikipedia, but at the same time leads students to deal with sensitive issues such as bullying or respect for privacy, for this reason they were also present Amnesty International, Red Cross or the Cantonal Police together with the same SUPSI, the University of Italian Switzerland and Wikimedia. The classes participated accompanied by their teachers who selected the different modules to be tested by middle school students (11-14 years).
For this reason, Wikimedia Switzerland presented a training module based on a virtual treasure hunt in order to find the right information in Wikipedia and in all Wikimedia projects. The goal was to integrate the lessons at school on the search for information on the web, but above all to be able to distinguish between real news and fake news.
Wikimedia Switzerland has equipped 10 work stations, disconnected from the internet with the presence of only Kiwix. In this way the research was limited and the students had to find solutions or solve mistakes with limited tools. The teaching module was conceived as a gamification of Wikimedia projects, providing students with not only tools and skills but also with a module similar to a game.
The total of participants were ~500 students, the training session of Wikipedia had a total of 10 classes with an overall amount of 200 students.
At the end, surveys were also provided to the students who appreciated the training unit. The teachers, however, have joined to the trainers to help students and to be able to put into practice the teaching module. The teachers, on the other hand, carried out another survey that led to evaluations higher than 6 on a scale ranging from 1 to 7 on aspects such as the topics, the efficiency and the presentation to the pupils.
The 4th December the group of associations and the Faculty of Pedagogy, having the results of the survey, decided to have the 3rd edition of "Media in Piazza" for 2018 in another town of Italian Switzerland.
Tags: Wikimedia CH, gamification, treasure hunt, middle school, teachers, didactical unit