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Education/Newsletter/March 2017/Wikilesa: Working with university students on human rights

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First Wikilesa in Universidad Nacional de la Plata.

By Luisina Ferrante (WMAR)

During 2015 and 2016 we carried out four activities called Wikilesa, designed to edit existing information on Wikipedia about Human Rights Violations that took place in Argentina during the last Military Dictatorship, from 1976 to 1983. With our partner Cosecha Roja, a news portal specialized in justice and human rights, we trained teachers, university students, activists and researchers to learn how to use Wikipedia, how to edit existing articles, and how improve and create new content.

Wikilesa Editathon.
Second Wikilesa in "Memory Site"

In just one year, Wikilesa became one of WMAR’s main education activities. We designed specific trainings with students from different universities to build, through Wikipedia, a social condemnation that contribute to the processes of memory, truth and justice in our country. We also took Wikilesa to new institutions that were interested in working on this subject. We worked with them to replicate it in different educational and cultural spaces. This strategy gave it more visibility and promoted the Wikilesa project as a reliable activity when it comes to talking about Human Rights in the educational and research community. Our focus to teach students and specialized researchers about how to edit Wikipedia. This audience use to write referring this subject, so they are well prepared to create quality content.

The editing day that usually lasts five hours, goes on using an edit-a-thon format that includes a main presentation of the subject and the participant's work on Wikipedia. During these experiences, we realized that involving the educational community in sensitive issues such as the military dictatorship in Argentina generated a challenge to those who participated, as well as a way to use Wikipedia as a space for social demand. We had the opportunity to organize these edit-a-thons with the participation of human rights specialists, among them, survivors of the last military dictatorship and judges of the trials that are being carried out now in Argentina. This year we will continue expanding the experience of Wikilesa and we prepared a special activity in a University on March 24th, meaning the 41st anniversary of the last civil-military coup in Argentina.

Results

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Learning
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  • Students and university teachers become aware of the need to write and valued the recovery of the Argentina's historical memory.
  • Argentinan students and teachers improve their knowledge and skills in relation to Wikimedia projects.
Changing action
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  • Improved quality content on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects by giftedstudents.
Changing Conditions
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  • New users: 82 editors participate along this experience, 21 are active in Wikipedia, proposing future activities to further extend the experience in the provinces.
  • 54 articles improved
  • 21 new articles
  • New quality content in Wikipedia and Wikipedia Commons
  • New giftedstudents network created
  • New editors retained
  • Long term engagement from cultural and educational partners.

Articles created and improved during Wikilesa activities

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Further reading:
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Tags: Human Rights, Wikilesa, Wikipedia in Higher Education

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