MENA Wikipedia Education Program meeting, Rami Hatanawy, Engineering, Moudar Zgoul, Mechanical Engineering Dept., Dr. Yousef A. Al-Abdallat, Program Director, Eng.

Jordan[edit]

Meeting at University of Jordan

October 24, 2011

Attendees

(WMF) Sara Yap, Frank Schulenberg, Moushira Elamrawy

University of Jordan

Rami Tarawneh User: Tarawneh

Rami is from the 2nd founder generation of Arabic Wikipedia, who joined in 2005. He is the first creator of BOTS on ar:wp, he became less active in editing recently but is constantly active and involved in discussions. Rami is a faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Jordan and founding member of the Center of Languages of Amman.

Moudar Zagoul

Background: Mechanical Engineer, UK Assistant Dean for Engineering. Interested in creating interactive work. Created interactive graphics course. Desires to help students at university level and in engineering.
He teaches a communications/skills class and Intro to Engineering

Youssef Abdallah (Program Director of University of Jordan)

PhD from Kyoto, 2002

TA Professor
Background in Engineering and Bilo Mechanical + Industrial Engineering
Director of King Abdullah Fund (?)

Timelines[edit]

mid to late November: conduct a training/workshop for Professors and potential Campus Ambassadors (WMF)
- 1 day for students and 1 day for professors and then interaction for both groups together
- Includes a joint presentation between both
January: primary campus training for Campus Ambassadors
* This will include marketing the event, emailing about the event, posturing around campus
Costs: wireless sponsor, promotion materials

Action Items[edit]

Frank: show where the counter for number of times an article has been read (to Sara)
Frank will select 3-4 universities to work with for the Global Ed
Frank will confirm dates with his team
WMF team: translate "copyright" slides into Arabic and any other documentation (note--Frank, Sara and Moushira should find a good translator at the WIkimedia event on Wednesday in Egypt
Moudar: will send graduation projects (in English). He will scan and publish this
Moudar: will find basic info on the structure of the class, the number of courses
Moudar will look into the TEDxJordan events for November--if there is overlap, as well as social media activists who might be interested
Videotape workshops (optional)
Moudar and Yousef: video tape program for teachers who can't attend
Yousef will get permission from students who can't attend

Goals for the students[edit]

Interested in Capacity building, increasing number of skills for students
Interested in focusing on: 1) Education, 2) Research, 3) Community Service
Strengthen the engineering articles/science articles online

Recommendations (general and personal[edit]

Start small and grow larger
There was a desire to focus on engineering but think the program should balance out the workshops with students from several disciplines
It's a lot of work for the professors to take on the curriculum so WMF must do as much as possible to make the transition easier
Create a workshop and competition (Moudar)
Educate people about the program
Encourage teachers to set aside a certain percentage of the grades for students so they have an incentive to participate (i.e. 10% of the overall grade)
Consider working with a class that's strong in Arabic Literature, Eng/Technical background
Conduct a poll that target subjects that people are going online to search for, "what do you look up on Wikipedia?"
* 2nd and 3rd year students are the best to work with
* Develop the exercise where students dissect a good vs. bad article
Moudar recommends arranging a seminar to advise students to introduce the concept of Wikimedia
Measure the impact of the Speakers
Measure the Outcomes through a survey

University of Jordan Facts[edit]

46,000
17 Nationalities
19 Faculties
68 Dept
95 Specialties

Courses taught in Arabic:

Law
Political Science
Economics
Translation Classes (10 in tota)
Philosophy
Geography
Social Studies

80% of students are Palestinian/Jordanian, 20% students are from outside the country (15% of which are from the Gulf), 5% are Asian-Malay, Chinese, etc.
Jordan has one of the highest number of engineers in the world
90% of students have access to computers. They do not have access to WiFi yet--downside
1 campus in Aqaba

Challenges at University of Jordan[edit]

Technical challenges at school
Create an awareness campaign to integrate the WP curriculum into a course--how will students be self initiated to do this?
Need for WP/Ambassadors to address questions about WP being a resource for students
Copyright concepts and understanding how to use citations
Session on Free Knowledge for students/profs
Funding
Timing

Takeaways[edit]

Feedback for Frank:
- what resonated was reminded teachers that teachers can use WP as a tool. So much more appealing for students to be able to use their article for a global audience, for the future, with a grandparent. There is no longer a "throw away assignment" per se. He emphasized to start small and serve as
Moudar liked the idea of the program and the notion of "Best Practices"
Yousef: Start small, possibly with the engineer

Yousef really emphasized on the importance of thinking about the strategy before jumping into the program

General Notes[edit]

There are 24 universities in Jordan
Jordan is an attractive country to work in because the FusHa (classical Arabic is strong), the country is stable politically, students are open minded/faculty too (Generally)
Long term goal is to bring outside groups like professors, students and others to this type of workshop

Global Education Program: The Sell by WMF[edit]

Support materials and written materials
Campus Trainers/Ambassadors
Recognition from WMF (WP Teaching Fellow)
Learn how to spread knowledge
Possible media attention