Talk:Education/News

Newsletter improvements

We are pleased to announce some improvements to our monthly community-led newsletter, This Month In Education, including a subscribe by email option and a single-page edition.

This work, we are happy to report that has led to several new subscriptions as well as a significant increase in pageviews per issue (see graphs below).

Thanks to Leigh Thelmadatter for her continued dedication to this important work.

And thanks to our education community for your ongoing contributions of updates, news and stories.

Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 16:20, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

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  This Month In Education Newsletter Pageviews Report Bar Graph
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  This Month In Education Newsletter Pageviews Report Line Graph

Signpost-style article teasers

The News tab looks great this month! Well done with a design that works well for a really full issue.--Sage (Wiki Ed) (talk) 13:55, 17 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, Sage! :) I knew we needed to shorten this issue, and I thought of the "read more" feature that's used on the WM blog, but I wasn't sure how to do it. User:Elitre suggested the Signpost-style snippets, and it was exactly what I wanted to try. GLAM had already ported the template to Outreach wiki, so I copied it and tweaked it and think it looks pretty good! I'm glad you agree and I appreciate you saying so. :) It means a lot, and, honestly, it kinda made my day. :) Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 22:18, 17 June 2014 (UTC)

VisualEditor

I wonder if a short article about VisualEditor would be interesting and useful to your readers? People who like it say that it lets them focus more on the writing and less on figuring out the right wikitext code, so it seems like an education-related editor might want to consider it. I'm not sure that everyone would want to use it, because learning wikitext markup might be the goal of some programs, and it does work better on faster computers. What do you think? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 19:10, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Hi Whatamidoing (WMF)! :) Thanks for stopping by and offering to share some news with the education community. A short article about VisualEditor seems like a good idea, and a timely one since James Forrester is enabling it here on Outreach wiki later today (see: Village pump). Teachers and students were the very audience I had in mind when I originally asked about it being a beta feature. You're right, not all will want to use it, but those who do soon can. If your story were to focus on educational applications, highlight the most useful functionality, include screenshots and links to help, and interview a teacher and a student who are active users of VisualEditor, that would really inform our readers. Pinging User:Thelmadatter to see if she agrees. Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 16:01, 24 June 2014 (UTC)

I'm not sure that "a short article" can contain all of that, but I'm willing to give it a try. It would be useful to know how much of your program involves peoplew writing in non-Latin languages (especially right-to-left scripts like Hebrew or Arabic). The first step here will be turning it on, and that requires a decision about turning on the language feature. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 05:22, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Well, "short" was your word, not mine. ;) Fortunately, there's no word limit on newsletter articles, so it's not an issue. :)

VisualEditor has been turned on today as an opt-in beta feature by James Forrester (see discussion on Village Pump).

Your question about non-Latin languages is a good one. There are around 60 countries that we know of doing educational outreach on-wiki and there may be more Wikimedia communities that wish to get involved, too. Arabic and Hebrew are, in fact, two languages we work with. And we have a number of other languages with complex IMEs: Armenian, Bengali, Nepali, and others.

Really glad to have your eyes on this, Whatamidoing (WMF). And looking forward to your article. Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 06:02, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Newsletter improvements, June 2014 issue

We are pleased to announce additional improvements to our monthly community-led newsletter, This Month In Education.

The most visible change is the Signpost-style article teasers, featured on the main page of the newsletter and in a new highlights edition. Since our newsletter is published once it month, it can be quite long. The goal here was to share the main ideas without overwhelming the readers.

The other major change is a new way to submit articles, called the Bullet points page. Here community members can provide basic information about their news and newsletter volunteers will write a brief article for them. The intention is to make it easier for everyone to contribute even if they have concerns about their English skills or their writing skills.

We are happy to report the results of these improvements. There are new subscriptions, another significant increase in pageviews (see graphs at right), and more submissions than any issue yet. The June 2014 issue featured 21 articles from 13 programs from around the world. This Month In Education is reaching more people and speaking for more programs than ever before, and we think that's a really good thing! :)

Many thanks to Leigh Thelmadatter. Every month, she pings people on-wiki and nudges people on-list, and as a result, the newsletter always has stories to share. Her ongoing commitment to this important work is very much appreciated!

And many thanks to our education community for always sharing your news.

Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 20:54, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

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  This Month In Education Newsletter Pageviews Report Bar Graph, updated to include June 2014 issue
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  This Month In Education Newsletter Pageviews Report Line Graph, updated to include June 2014 issue

Category got transcluded

A link (and thus category membership) seems to have been sent out with notifications about this month's newsletter. See this diff. And, yes, that's despite it being inside a noinclude tag. Might be an idea to remove this from people's talk pages... —Tom Morris (talk) 20:01, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

Hi Tom Morris, thank you for noticing this tweak and notifying us. You are right that it is better to remove it. I will run my AWB to remove it from talk pages very soon. Thanks. --Selsharbaty (WMF) (talk) 13:22, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Help plan a new software feature for easy subscription to newsletters

We are developing a MediaWiki extension that will enable users to subscribe to community newsletters much more easily. We are very excited to hear your feedback on the features we have planned. Feel free to share your thoughts here. - Tinaj1234 (talk) 12:38, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

Hi Tinaj1234, thank you for working on this and sharing the phabricator ticket with us. I will forward it to our newsletter editors and readers to see if they have any comments. --Selsharbaty (WMF) (talk) 13:52, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

@Selsharbaty (WMF): Sure, everyone feel free to comment on the phabricator task or here ( comments on phabricator would be more visible to developers ) whenever you feel an improvement needs to made on any features or if wish to have any more features :) --Tinaj1234 (talk) 11:39, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

Suggestion to change the newsletter publication from monthly to quarterly

Because of the amount of work that is involved each month, we propose to modify the frequency of publication from monthly to quarterly from now on. This will be more efficient for everyone: publishers, authors, and readers. And this is in keeping with the frequency of other movement communication methods, for example, the L&E newsletter Evaluation Quarterly. If there is consensus for this change, a new name for the education newsletter might be appropriate, for example, Wikimedia Education Quarterly. We welcome your thoughts about the proposal to make this a quarterly newsletter, as well as other ideas about the newsletter publication process. If you have any thoughts, please comment here on the talk page. (Read more details on the education newsletter)--Selsharbaty (WMF) (talk) 20:28, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Please see also: Education/Newsletter/August 2015/On its third birthday, a retrospective of This Month In Education and proposed changes to the publication process. Thank you, Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 13:53, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

Call for volunteers

In reference to our newsletter post inviting the community to participate in the newsletter volunteer team, we have dedicated this section for community members to show their interest in participating. If you are interested, please add your name below and the role you are interested in. Thank you! --Selsharbaty (WMF) (talk) 15:30, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Please see also: Education/Newsletter/August 2015/Call for volunteers - This Month In Education. Thank you, Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 13:56, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

Content leader

Add your signature here.

1. Christian Cariño (talk) 04:23, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
2. Msannakoval (talk) 17:52, 8 February 2016 (UTC)
3. ...

Publication leader

Add your signature here.

1. Masssly (talk) 21:57, 1 September 2015 (UTC)
2. Saileshpat (talk) 13:30, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Distribution leader

Add your signature here.

1. Saileshpat (talk) 17:35, 1 September 2015 (UTC)
2. Rberchie (talk)--Rberchie (talk) 17:59, 1 September 2015 (UTC)
3. Ras Benjih (talk) 00:17, 20 September 2015 (UTC)
4. ...

Approved new education newsletter team members

Following the call for volunteers above, we are happy to announce the new leaders of the quarterly education newsletter:

1. Christian Cariño
2. Masssly
3. Saileshpat
4. Rberchie
5. Ras Benjih
6. Msannakoval

Welcome to the education newsletter team! --Selsharbaty (WMF) (talk) 08:45, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

Ukrainian

As the newsletter headlines were almost 100% translated into Ukrainian (all except the changes made today) it should have been sent to ukwiki in Ukrainian. --Base (talk) 20:28, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for your help with the translation, Base! --Selsharbaty (WMF) (talk) 03:05, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Дякую, Base! I see that there is also a page for a French translation. Merci, Grind24! It is so exciting to see our global news being published in more languages. :) Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 21:46, 17 December 2015 (UTC)

@Base: You might want to update your translation from 'Education Quarterly' to 'Wikimedia Education Newsletter'. Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 21:46, 17 December 2015 (UTC)

Something went wrong with the latest delivery to talk pages

Rather than posting the contents list, all of the contents of the newsletter ended up on user talk pages - e.g. see [1]. Can this be fixed please? Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 17:43, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

Dear Mike, The newsletter that was distributed is an old version and we apologize for it. Thank you for having the patience, we will be distributing the fresh newsletter very soon.--Saileshpat (talk) 22:13, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

See also m:Talk:Global_message_delivery/Targets/Wikimedia_Education_Newsletter. --Elitre (WMF) (talk) 07:25, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Note

Hello, please check that everything is correct on every page type, like Flow :) See fr:Sujet:Tnvui1nzldyojjck. --Framawiki (talk) 20:01, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Cellphone

The green bars for the titles extend the screen horizontally for nothing and make the newsletter hard to read on cellphones. Amqui (talk) 11:15, 1 August 2017 (UTC)

Copyediting

Hi @SPatnaik (WMF):, would you please make sure that all submissions to the Education newsletter are copyedited before the newsletter is published each month? Thanks, --Pine^✉ 06:10, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

Hi @Pine:, right now the Education Team does not have the bandwidth for in depth copy-editing. Individuals can seek support for copy-editing their articles from friends and colleagues. We always appreciate community input with writing and publishing the monthly newsletter. We'll be revamping volunteer roles and hope to have more community support in the future. NSaad (WMF) (talk) 18:10, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

Hi NSaad (WMF), thanks for the update. I don't think that expert level copyediting is necessary, but I think that some copyediting should be done, especially considering that newsletter contributors may not be native communicators in English. I don't think that it's necessary to use volunteer time for copyediting. Copyediting could be done by a communications intern, which would be a low cost way of completing the work while saving volunteer time for other activities. --Pine^✉ 22:05, 28 November 2018 (UTC)

HI @Pine:,Thank you for your opinion. NSaad (WMF) (talk) 15:56, 29 November 2018 (UTC)