Education/WikiCamps

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WikiCamps
What is Wikicamp?	Organized Wikicamps	Resources -	Header example
	Armenia (portal in English) Hungary (grant) (blog) Serbia (newsletter) (blog) (presentation) Arab world (planned, draft portal in Arabic)

WikiCamps are educational camps, whose main goal is the education of participants through Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and other Wikimedia Projects. During Wikicamps participants contribute and enrich one or more of Wikimedia Projects with the help of more experienced Wikimedians. WikiCampers improve their editing, writing, speaking, translation, communication, cultural, computer skills. Along with editing, campers also visit cultural heritage sights, make Wikiexpeditions, play intellectual games and sports, sing, dance etc. WikiCamps balance contribution, education and fun.

How to organize a WikiCamp?

WikiCamp structure

• Coordinator -
• Financial team - team responsible for financial part of the camp, finding potential sponsors, grants, reporting etc.
• WikiTeam - team responsible for sources, lists and the themes based on which articles would be created and improved on Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikisource. The team also organizes workshops during the camp, reviews articles, summarizes daily results, etc. They are also responsible for the camp document forming, application submitting, registrations, camp schedule.
• Technical team - team responsible for arrival and departure to the camp (buses, tours), uninterrupted work of the connection and computer equipment, WikiCamp various materials design and print, etc.
• Team leaders group - team responsible for the division of the campers into groups, their accommodation in rooms, intellectual, sport and leisure games, various contests organization, campers healthcare etc.

On-wiki activity

• Daily topics and groups. Every group has its own workspace for each day (see a day example). On one hand this creates competition between groups, team working gets better, on other hand it eases the work of reviewers. Each day has its own topic. Topics should be arranged in the way in which every next one is more complex. If you have many newbies, the best option would be to start with Wiktionary. In that case a workpage on the Wiktionary should be created.
• Creation of suggested article lists and choosing daily topics. When prepared list of articles are given to the campers, they choose and edit more effectively. However, they are encouraged to edit articles that are interesting for them personally, and are not in the suggested list. You may see it on the main page of WikiCamp divided by days. Everyone is required to sign in the top of chosen articles, so other campers will not choose the same one.
• Workshops and edit-a-thons. There are 3 workshops in every day (day schedule example). During workshops editors are divided into newbies and experienced. Learning process is more "individually oriented", so WikiTeam will help anyone who has questions answering and explaining him/her. If it is an important question everyone should know, WikiTeam may explain it for everyone too. We may also ask experienced campers to help their team-mates or friends if they have questions.
• Reviewing and evaluation. In the second half of the day, when campers have fun and play various games, WikiTeam gathers and reviews edited articles. All articles created and improved during the day should be reviewed, corrected and evaluated. WikiTeam takes notes of the things camper did wrong, what she/he should learn etc, so it would better help her/him.
• Points and competition. Each camper gets points each day for his/her contribution. Wikimetrics will only help with quantity, but to better evaluate the quality, all articles should be reviewed. Summing individual points group points are formed. Best editor, best group and best article of the previous day are announced every day before workshops start.
• Competition and motivation. One of WikiCamp key points and motivating factors is the competition between groups and individuals. This motivates campers a lot. However, everyone gets presents in the end, because all editors should be encouraged. There is a big present for the camp best editor and certificates & wiki-mugs, magnets etc. for the rest. The other key is the campers' love to other campers, WikiCamp atmosphere, special guests, organizers, and wiki movement. They get friends on wiki and are very happy to contribute on it when wiki gets better their friendship also does.

Out-of-wiki activity

• Special guests
• Entertaiment and games
• Expeditions