Education/Newsletter/October 2013/Articles of Interest in other publications
- Editing Wikipedia pages for med school credit
An initiative by WikiProject Medicine headed by Doctors Turkem and Azzam to have medical students write articles for the English Wikipedia] has made The New York Times.Editing Wikipedia pages for med school credit
- Why student learning matters, too
Jami Mathewson, the program manager for the United States and Canada versions of the Wikipedia Education Program, authored an op-ed post for the Wikimedia blog about why student learning matters. In Jami's post, she argues that the benefits of doing Wikipedia assignments are more than just improving Wikipedia articles. Students gain real-world skills they would not achieve through a more traditional assignment. Read Jami's op-ed.
- Next term kicks off in Arab World
Also on the Wikimedia blog, Tighe Flanagan, the program manager for the Arab World version of the Wikipedia Education Program, writes about the plans for the next term. Tighe provides a report on the recent Arab World meeting and Jordan celebration conference in Amman, Jordan, as well as talking about the momentum for the program, which is carrying the efforts forward this term in Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Learn more about the Arab World program by reading Tighe's post.
- WikiSkills program helps teachers in Sweden
One facet of the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme is called WikiSkills, and Wikimedia Sverige has been running a WikiSkills program to instruct teachers on using collaborative tools like wikis in their teaching. Sten Sundin, a teacher at Dalarna University, says he learned about discussion pages and wikimarkup from attending the WikiSkills classes, and he looks forward to incorporating Wikimedia project contributions in his sound and music production classes. Read more about the program.
- Nepal kicks off Wikipedia Education Program pilot
The Wikimedians of Nepal user group ran a small pilot of the Wikipedia Education Program this summer at Islington College in Kathmandu. Around 150 students expressed interest in participating in the education program pilot, but the team narrowed it to 25 of the most promising students. Ambassadors trained students in editing, and they each worked on three different articles on the Nepali Wikipedia, including adding photos they'd taken and writing the article. Students who successfully completed the assignment even received a "Wikipedia Drivers License"! Read more about the pilot program in Nepal.