Education/Newsletter/March 2016/Single

Wikimedia Education Newsletter – Volume 5, Issue 1, March 2016

Argentina • Argentina and Mexico • Czech Republic • Egypt • Nigeria • Sweden • Taiwan • Global • Articles of interest •

Headlines · Highlights · Single page edition

Educational hackathon about digital sources, big data, and Wikipedia

Snippet: A four-hour educational hackathon where educators and experts designed activities to work over big data, digital sources, and wikipedia in the classroom.

Introduction

In November 2015, we conducted an educational hackathon focused on teaching the purpose of generating creative educational proposals on Big Data and Internet resources in educational settings. Taking advantage of a digital art that was shown in an interactive museum, it gave the opportunity to make an original way of working based on prototyping and design thinking. The proposal was designed by four leading institutions in Argentina, including Wikimedia Argentina. During the event, Wikipedia was an ideal place to analyze and provide collective knowledge for construction case; and with new results, opportunities for training, inspiration and creation were combined.

The use of data and sources on education

When we use Internet in educational spaces, it is usually to access information but how do we know if the source is reliable? Do we know how to distinguish what is a verifiable fact and what is not? Do we distinguish valid data from one which is not? Do we distinguish a valid source from one that is not? Many questions come to mind and only one answer: teachers must have tools to guide the strategic use of the various sources, make good use of the data, and read and edit Wikipedia.

With these ideas, three leading institutions in Argentina came together to develop a unique experience: A hackathon Educational called the "teaching creaton;" for teachers and leaders in technology and education to be transformed into designers of educational proposals to resolve these questions. A valuable instance was that four institutions joined forces, intentions, and purposes to be positioned in an innovation agenda in education: from the subject, to the methodology. The event was free and within a few hours from when the call was launched had more than 400 registrants from all latitudes, which validated the interest in the topic and the proposal.

Results

During the event, more than 70 teachers and specialists co-designed nine proposals in a hybrid way to guide pedagogical work. In many cases, Wikipedia was the gateway, and they are now available online: Creaton dashboard. Participants were not only part of a unique experience in construction with others, but also met new colleagues with whom they created more powerful ideas for education and had a first-hand experience of other forms of learning and teaching.

Read more about the educational hackathon:

Know all the experience
Learning pattern: How to design and develop an education hackathon within the Wikipedia Education Program
Photos , PENT Flacso´s post, Chequeado.com´s post. Social networks: Storify , Periscope, Facebook

First mentoring program between the Argentine and Mexican chapters

By Melina Masnatta (WMAR)

Snippet: A mentoring program about Wikipedia education program between to regional chapters.

During the 25 to 29 January in Buenos Aires the first regional mentoring program has happened. In that week the teams Wikimedia Mexico and Wikimedia Argentina were working on the exchange of experiences, projects and GLAM program.

On the other hand, Wikimedia Mexico began working on their future education program. Although they have some experiences, we have worked on the first steps to define and design a new program. Also we have given some strategies to focus into aspects such as the importance of regional context and how to create alliances with key educational institutions.

Besides we have talked about the strategic guidelines of Wikimedia Foundation in relation to the educational programs, to contribute at Wikimedia Mexico to design better strategy in this area, as well as major benchmarks and measuring success.

We have got engaged to contribute at Wikimedia Mexico in the next steps. Actually we have just finished a new learning pattern to help another educational programs in a mentoring program, take a look: How to transfer the knowledge and the experience of an Education Program.

Know more about the experience: Photos, video and Iberocoop proposal

Czech education program turns professional with a new education manager

By Vojtěch Dostál (Wikimedia Czech Republic)

Snippet: Gabriela Boková becomes the new education manager of Wikimedia Czech Republic, responsible for university education program and courses for seniors.

Wikimedia Czech Republic has selected Gabriela Boková to lead the professionalization of the Czech education program in 2016 (see official blog post in Czech). The sustainability of the volunteer-led management was untenable after we have gradually started collaboration with dozens of Czech professors teaching with Wikipedia and also recruited more than 100 Czech seniors to start contributing to Wikipedia. This does not mean that volunteers will be out of the process - on the contrary, they will be vital in guiding the new employee, sharing their experience and helping to lead Wikipedia courses in class. However, the manager will take over the leadership, administrative work, reporting and also, increasingly, also strategic planning and project development. Awakening the small pool of potential tutors of Wikipedia will be one of her top-priority goals.

Gabriela has significant experience in project management and community management in both, companies and NGOs, including education projects. She started the Youth for You(th) festival in Brno in 2011, was a volunteer for YMCA Brno, TEDx Prague and worked for Impact Hub as a community manager. We value her project management skills and hope she will enjoy the diverse, enthusiastic and a bit chaotic Wikimedia community and become part of it.

Egyptian Wikimedians celebrate the seventh conference of WEP

By Walaa Abdel Manaem (Wikipedia Education Program Egypt) & (Egypt Wikimedians User Group)

Snippet: Egyptian students have celebrated the end of their 7th term on Wikipedia which witnessed their highest contributions ever in spring and summer 2015!

Egyptian Wikimedians have celebrated the end of the 7th term of WEP in Cairo, Ain Shams and El Azhar Universities. The seventh celebration conference was held in Conference Center at Cairo University. In this term, students achieved great success during spring and summer 2015 and added their highest contributions ever to Wikipedia since 2012 when the program had its first inception there. More than 15 million bytes were added and 1930 new articles were created and edited by students of 5 classes in 3 universities. The Egyptian Education Program continues its efforts to increase gender diversity on Wikipedia by encouraging more female students to join. 89.91% of the students who participated last term were female.

Over seven consecutive terms, Egyptian students have added massive amounts of content to Wikipedia that now accounts for 3% of the whole Arabic encyclopedia. This content also increases article quality with a growing number of featured and good articles that represent approximately 12.80% of the featured articles; 7.71% of good articles; 3.89% featured portals; 3.27% of featured lists of the Arabic Wikipedia. See all statistics of the WEP in Egypt here. Volunteers run and develop the Wikipedia Education Program in Egypt and successfully guide new contributors from one term to the next. The Wikipedia Education Program has overcome many challenges and continues to expand to new courses and universities.

Wikipedia workshop for students of Fountain University

By Olatunde Isaac (Wikimedia User Group Nigeria)

Snippet: A 2-day Wikipedia workshop was organized by Wikimedia User Group Nigeria for students of Fountain University in Osun State, Nigeria.

On 16 January 2016, the education program team in Nigeria, led by Olatunde Isaac, organized a 2-day workshop for students of Fountain University in Osun State as part of the celebration of Wikipedia's 15 year anniversary. The purpose of this workshop is to acquaint the students with the overall scope of Wikipedia, its policies, and its practices. The overall aim of the workshop is to increase the number of editors from Nigeria and to establish a strong relationship between the institution, the user group, and the education program team. The first workshop was held on 16 January 2016 at the university's main campus. The second workshop was held on 28 January 2016 in the same venue.

Over 20 students participated in the workshop and 6 experienced Wikimedians were present, including Olaniyan Olushola, the team lead of Wikimedia User Group Nigeria. The workshop was a success and the vice-chancellor of the university described the pilot as "a step towards increasing the number of subject-specific contributors". About 8 participants of the workshop are now active editors of the English Wikipedia. We are likely to record a higher number after they finish their second semester examination. Also, Dr. Abdul Jaleel Shittu, the Head of the Computer Department and an Associate Professor of Computer Science, is now an active member of the education program team here in Nigeria.

Teacher celebrated for excellent pedagogy with Wikipedia

By Sara Mörtsell (WMSE)

Snippet: Teacher in Sweden receives prize for Wikipedia project with students.

About a year ago, secondary school teacher Gunnel Thydell completed her first course in the Wikipedia Education Program as an instructor. Her 27 students did a great job. She attributed their success to the help of Wikipedia Ambassador Jonatan Svensson Glad and to the librarians supporting the class with resources from the school library. At this point, Gunnel was one of the first course instructors to make use of the Education Program Extension on Swedish Wikipedia. This tool allowed her to manage and monitor students' progress from the course page.

The effort that Gunnel and her students put into the Wikipedia project were noticed by the administrators at the school district. In late 2015, Gunnel was selected as one of the recipients of the Quality Prize for Excellent Pedagogical Projects. The project was named: Students write Wikipedia - how to develop research skills. In February 2016, the prize ceremony was held at the town hall of the Nacka municipality.

Watch a video about this project on YouTube here.

Read the blog post by Wikimedia Sverige in Swedish here.

Taiwanese students use Spoken Wikipedia as their service learning

By Shang Kuan Liang-chih, Reke Wang, and Dr. Yuwen Lai and (WMTW)

Snippet: Students contribute 46 entries of Spoken Wikipedia to Chinese Wikipedia for their service learning

Hsinchu is a city known for its high-tech industry. World-leading computer brands such as Apple and Acer all use components designed in Hsinchu Science Park located in the city. To nurture tech and engineering talents, there are several prestigious universities around the area, including National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) and National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), among others.

The Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at NCTU is the latest educational partner of Wikimedia Taiwan in the Spoken Wikipedia project. In this project, 10 freshmen from the department recorded Featured Articles from Wikipedia and uploaded the sound files onto Wikimedia Commons.

This work benefits visually-impaired readers of Wikipedia. It is also part of the students' service learning.

In the past fifteen years, Chinese Wikipedia has had only 44 spoken articles. But within the last 3 months, the students recorded and uploaded 46 additional articles.

Right now, the team is led by Dr. Yuwen Lai, the professor who initiated this collaborative project. Dr. Lai is also advising a graduate student from Indonesia to follow the same recording protocol for Spoken Wikipedia project in Bahasa Indonesia.

Note: This text was first published in the Wikimedia East and Southeast Asia Newsletter, January 2016.

Education Program Historic Data Campaign

By Anna Koval (Wikimedia Foundation) and Msannakoval (Wikipedia Education Program)

Snippet: Epic campaign begins to collect historic data from all Wikimedia education programs worldwide.

In 2015, Wikipedia celebrated 15 years and the Wikipedia Education Program celebrated 5 years. As we conclude 2015 and welcome 2016, we are recalculating our collective impact.

Wikipedia is being used as a teaching tool in education around the world in more than 80 countries worldwide. We know that these education programs exist, but in some cases, we know little more than that.

We are collecting historical data from all education programs to update our narrative and to communicate our contributions to the Wikimedia Movement and the world. This campaign will include each and every country that has participated in the Wikipedia Education Program, including those that have not been counted before.

This page explains the campaign's context, purpose, targeted outcomes, and overall goal. This Phabricator task tracks the campaign committee's collaboration.

So far, more than 30 programs have shared their data, and already the results are impressive!

“In 10 years, almost 5,000 educators and almost 50,000 students in more than 500 cities and at almost 1,000 schools have added almost 150,000 articles to Wikimedia projects and have contributed more than half a billion bytes of content to the free knowledge movement.”

And that is with just 30 programs reporting. There are another 50+ programs to count.

If your education program has not shared its numbers yet, there is still time. Through March, we will continue collecting data.

Please share your education program's data here. Later this spring, we will analyze the data and announce the campaign results.

There are plans to develop tools that would automate the collection of some of this information. For example, an internationalized multi-language, multi-project dashboard along the lines of what the Wiki Education Foundation developed. The functionality of the Wiki Ed Dashboard is demonstrated and explained in this video To learn more about the Wikimedia Foundation's Program and Events Dashboard, please see this discussion on Meta wiki. It is important to note that these dashboards can only count current contributions. They cannot count backward and collect historical data. Therefore, this process must be done manually.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to share your education program's historical data. We look forward to working together with you to showcase and celebrate the collected results of our work. :)

Share your education program's data here.

Articles of interest in other publications

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