Education/Newsletter/June 2016/Spring semester wiki activities end at Tec de Monterrey, Mexico City
Spring semester wiki activities end at Tec de Monterrey, Mexico City
By Leigh Thelmadatter (Wiki Learning Tec de Monterrey)
Snippet: Highlights of Spring 2016 semester activities of Wiki Learning Tec de Monterrey
In terms of absolute production, Spring 2016 was a relatively light semester at the Ciudad de México campus of Tec de Monterrey. We had three classes involved with Wikipedia: one with Martha Gómez (User:Nutresilla), a Spanish-as-a-foreign-language class with Artemisa Martinez (User:Pasifarte), and one with Leigh Thelmadatter (User:Thelmadatter). This was in addition to the usual group of students completing social service hours bring the number of student participants to 81. The exciting news is what content was produced and activities not directly related to Wikimedia content.
Video work continues to grow in importance on the campus, as we take advantage of students studying fields related to video, animation, and sound production, who need to create their portfolios as well as be of service to Mexican society. For the Spring 2016 semester, we again worked with the Museo de Arte Popular, finishing two videos, one about the museum itself and a second for a consortium of museums in the Mexico City area that are working to make cultural institutions more accessible to the disabled. Even more important is that we have acquired a new "client" or collaborator for these video projects, Pronatura, which is a Mexican environmental non-profit organization.
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Interview of Alex Stinson by students
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Tutorial on how Wiki Learning translates texts
Semana i activities remain a major tool for the promotion of Wikimedia activities for the Wiki Learning program. However, in January 2016, the university system decided to hold Semana i only once-a-year, instead of once-a-semester as was originally planned. The reason behind this was to give organizers more time to create better "challenges" for students, in particular, those which have students collaborate with outside entities. This semester has been dedicated to doing just that. Five professors on two campuses have stepped up to create and run Wikimedia-related challenges for the Semana i event to be held September 19-23, 2016. Two challenges will be WikiExpeditions to the center and west of Mexico City, led by Martha Gomez and Alvaro Alvarado respectively. Another challenge will focus on creating or improving biographies of Mexican authors, led by Antonio Alcala (User:TONYchainsaw). Lourdes Epstein (User:Lourdes Epstein) and sound engineering director Alejandro Ramos are creating a project related to recording freely-licensed versions of traditional Mexican music, with the advice and help of the [National Sound Library http://www.fonotecanacional.gob.mx/]. Leigh Thelmadatter is working with the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana to interview 15 of their artists. The goal of this project is to add information to articles which are small because there is little published in traditional media about these artists, despite their national standing. Obviously, these are all major projects and preparations have been underway since the end of January.
In February, a team of researchers from the Wikimedia Foundation came to the Mexico City campus to interview students and professors about their use of Wikipedia. The team had the opportunity to meet the head of Humanities for the Mexico City area, Dr. Julio Rubio, library director Dr. Lourdes Epstein, medicine department head Dr Luis Clemente Jimenez Botello, the advanced English class of Antonio Alcala, and several students with Wikipedia experience. They were also interviewed by the Concepto Radial campus radio station.
Another important development for us was our first representation as an affiliate at the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin in April. The experience was very much worth it as we were able to take ideas and determine our next steps as an organization.
Read more about the Wikipedia Education Program at Tec de Monterrey in Mexico here.