MENA Wikipedia Education Program meeting, Dr. Hani Hussainy (Math), Dr. Abeer El Hafez (Spanish), Nefertiti Mefahed (Math for CS), Salwa Sabat (Zoology)
Appearance

Interviews with Cairo University Professors
[edit]- Dr. Hani Hussainy (Math) -- Connected with Dr. Iman (Ain Shams), via Adel
- Dr. Abeer El Hafez (Spanish)
- Nefertiti Mefahed (Math for CS)
- Dr. Nasser Saleh (Mathematics)
- Dr. Salwa Sabet (Zoology Professor)
October 18, 2011
- Purpose
- to understand the curriculum at the university and gather information/gauge interest in program
- Ideas on how to integrate the curriculum into the school system:
- What if 10% of grades went towards the editing of WP? (Adel)
- Professors (PR): This resonates because students are going to create content. As long as the students are not necessarily using the content
- Approach
- Talk about application and examples in class
- Discuss how the grading will work in the class
- Showcase the results/successes/outcomes
- Facilitate further dialogue
- Create incentives like a teacher fellowship for the WP teachers who participate
- Have a campus wide event at the university where students can translate
- Background
- Since courses are in English, many students are looking for materials in Arabic. When content is public, they can correct the information
- WP can sere as a tool for students to understand material (like Physics for students)
- Hany teaches a dedicated number of students, though small in size. He has 6 students, 3 who are in the Physics dept.
- * Zoology
- 200 students, 1st years are 1000 students
- Translation Class, 4th year students, pre masters-20 students (Abeer)
- Questions
- Would working with masters students be difficult?
- Students at higher levels are preparing a synopsis of their and might be too specialized, so the contributors would be too small. Instead, target 3rd year students because they'll be going between the languages. 1st years students: Arabic, 2nd years students write in ARabic and might speak in English. 3rd year students explain in Arabic, but sciences might be in English.
- Why would a student contribute?
- At least 20% of teachers can control having their students contribute.
- The idea of a centralized system is appealing
- Challenges
- Notations in WP is bad
- It's challenging to edit WP for math students
- How to edit WP rules so it will help students understand the technical skills
- Debrief: Hany seems really interested in the program He brought in a collection of teachers from Zoology, Spanish, etc.
- Dr. Nasser also seems quite interested in the program, as well as Abeer Hafez (Spanish)
- For Spanish classes, they could present the projects in other languages.
- They give press texts, lit, media, texts on lit, cinema
- Zoology: Students studying Arabic but now they have to translate into English. It would be great if they could translate English into Arabic.
- 3rd year students are more comfortable in both Arabic and English.
- Zoology profesor teaches both English and Arabic