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Presenting the Wikipedia Education Program at the Open Education Global Conference

Author: Vahid Masrour

Summary: Vahid Masrour presented the Wikipedia Education Program at the Open Education Global Conference, in Delft, The Netherlands.

The Open Education Global Conference is an annual event, where educators (mostly in higher education) and other stakeholders in the topic of open education participate. The discussion focuses on “open” practices, especially in the topic of Open Education Resource.

My presentation was titled “Wikipedia as a toolset for open education”. The section on “myhtbusting” was seemingly well liked, as it helped debunk misconceptions participants shared.

Two ideas can be highlighted as “novel” for the participants:

1. Wikipedia is, de facto, the #1 OER in the world. Students all over the world use the wealth of contents it offers in 300 languages over 45 million articles.
2. Using Wikipedia in Education is about students writing contents (with the assistance/under the supervision of their professors), whereas most of the OER discussion currently revolves around professors writing contents for others to use and benefit from. This change of perspective puts Wikipedia Education Programs in a much more participative and active pedagogy model.

The presentation that was used can be found at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_as_a_toolset_for_Open_Education_publish.pdf

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