Education/Newsletter/April 2015/Articles of interest in other publications
Wikipedia Education Program signs agreement with National Library in Chile
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Wikimedia Chile signed an agreement with the National Library of Chile to increase content on Wikipedia. For the occasion of the singing of the agreement, Wikimedia Chile organized a conference for educators and librarians, that WMF Education team staff attended. Wikimedia Chile is building out their Wikipedia Education Program, which so far consisted of four different experiences that included 215 students. With the help of the library, Wikimedia Chile hopes to grow the Wikipedia Education Program.
University Challenge winner: I learned my answers on Wikipedia
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This article in The Telegraph interviews Ted Loveday, a student in Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, led his team to a great victory in the University Challenge final. Loveday referred the secret of this win to Wikipedia. Ted expressed that he has been extensively reading articles on Wikipedia before the final stage to prepare himself with the biggest amount of information he can get. The team members divided their preparation duties by making each one responsible for a certain branch of knowledge to read Wikipedia articles and watch videos about it. Ted advised everyone looking for general knowledge or certain information to read Wikipedia.
Now, learn about Bidar in French, Arabic and Sanskrit
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Bidar Wikipedia Project is an initiative supported by Bidar district administration to add more articles about the historic Indian district to Wikipedia.The initiative has led to creating several articles by Wikipedians around the world. As part of the second phase of the project, an editathon was held on April 12 with the participation of students and university staff to get training on Wikipedia editing. Invitations were sent to many universities in the district to participate. The initiative started back in January this year with a meeting between a group of 20 students headed by Channaveer Patil, faculty from the GND engineering college. These students started editing and creating 50 articles which were translated afterwards to 30 languages by editors around the world.
Harvard professors' attitude to the use of Wikipedia by students is changing
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The fact that all professors always don't want their students to refer to Wikipedia in their research is no longer true. Some Harvard professors believe that university professors use Wikipedia in their own research so why should they warn students of using it. Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris believes that the old attitude toward Wikipedia lacking trust in it has changed into a new thought that considers it useful in some areas than others. Students use Wikipedia whether it was an accepted behavior by their professors or not, then professors should be guiding students on how to use Wikipedia than discouraging them from doing.
Wikipedia Edit-a-thon to study contributor demographics
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Peter Cannon and James Scholz, USF School of Information students, held an editathon on March 31, 2015 with the participation of students from different majors. Students were invited to participate in the editathom from the university library or remote through Google Hangouts. The organizers held this event not only to improve Wikipedia and free knowledge, but also to collect data for their study about the most important issues the encyclopedia suffer from like the large gender gap, and to get statistics about which demographics are the most regular and occasional contributors to Wikipedia. The editathon was held over three hours in a positive atmosphere that encourages new editors to edit and get the support they need from the community.
Prominent South Bend, Notre Dame women's stories edited for Wikipedia
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As part of the Hesburgh Library’s Women’s History Month, an Editathon was held with the participation of Notre Dame students and staff to write and expand Wikipedia articles about prominent women in Notre Dame and South Bend History. Kai Smith, a visiting assistant librarian, and Allison Stankrauff, Indiana University South Bend archivist along with the St. Joseph County Public Library and the History Museum, prepared a list of local prominent women lacking Wikipedia pages in order for students to help write and develop these articles.The editathon included both beginner and experienced editors with the help of Notre Dame librarians and volunteers. Students of both genders participated in the editathon and expressed the benefits they learn from editing and researching, they also expressed their desire of helping closing the gender gap and reach objective knowledge.
Students combat gender imbalance online with Wiki Women Edit-A-Thon
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In the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) Library, University of Cincinnati, an editathon was organized by three design students with the participation of 30 students aiming to add information about female artists, designers, architects and interior designers to Wikipedia. Students researched, wrote, and edited already existing articles about prominent female artists and created new articles for those lacking entries on the encyclopedia. The editathon was held over 48 hours and was attended by both male and female students.They were happy to help building objective knowledge on the internet.