Education/Newsletter/August 2015/Articles of interest in other publications
Reforma newspaper of Mexico City overviews education efforts with Wikipedia in Mexico
"If you cant beat them, join them" says Reforma, one of Mexico City's most important newspaper in its "Universitarios" education supplement, with a six-page featured article on August 23, 2015, referring to Wikipedia in education. Supplement director Ana Belén Negrete attended the 2015 Wikimania in Mexico City and was impressed enough with what she saw to feature it in the August edition, dedicated to back-to-school.
The article begins with an overview of Wikimedia and the struggle to get Wikipedia accepted by academia in the country, then goes into efforts to develop programs and activities by Wikimedia México with institutions such as the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Quoting Senior Manager for the Wikipedia Education Program Floor Koudijs, details about efforts at UNAM and Tec de Monterrey are discussed. At UNAM, most activities are with the school's Facultad de Filosofia y Letras (Humanities Division). For Tec de Monterrey, the article discusses its various activities, such as students writing and translation articles for classes, "servicio social" (community service hours required of all Mexican undergraduates) and more. It also goes into the creation of major video projects by animation students (three of whom are prominently pictured in the article), as well as the Wiki Expedition to Tepoztlán in March 2015 and the upcoming Wiki Expedition to the Mexico City boroughs of Xochimilco and Tlalpan.
The article then goes into a general overview of Wikimedia, especially in relation to education, mentioning other Mexican universities as well as the education programs in Armenia, Argentina, Uruguay, Egypt, Spain and Chile. The article ends with various statistics about article usage, readership, articles written by students in Mexico, along with tips for using Wikipedia more effectively.
Unfortunately, the article is available now only behind a paywall, but a request has been made to make all or part of it available on Wikimedia Commons.
Writing articles about women on Wikipedia instead of university tests
In Israel, Dr. Sharon Geva, professor of history assigned her students to edit a Wikipedia article about one of the notable women in the history of Israel instead of taking a normal exam. There are several important women who made the history of Israel however they are not well-known outside their families. Dr. Geva has prepared a list of 65 women with great achievements from which students can choose the topic of their entries. The historian professor wanted to reflect what students study and discuss in class into something everyone can benefit from.
WikiD writing workshop engraves women into architecture history on Wikipedia
The Women Wikipedia Design (WikiD project), is an international education and advocacy program working to increase the number of Wikipedia articles on women in architecture and the built environment. As part of the project, Monash University and Parlour are organizing the first WikiD editing workshop in Australia on Sunday September 13 from 11:30 PM to 4:00 PM at The Monash Art Design and Architecture (MADA) faculty.