Wikipedia Education Program/News/18 February 2014

Welcome to the Wikipedia Education Program Update -- a newsletter from the Wikimedia Foundation about efforts to bring Wikipedia into higher education classrooms. The newsletter is released on the first and third Tuesday of each month. To be notified of the latest issue, add this page to your watchlist or email LiAnna Davis (ldaviswikimedia.org), the Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager, to be added to the distribution list.

Results from med school pilot in Israel released

The first academic course in Israel dedicated to Wikipedia editing to offer full academic credit has wrapped up at the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel-Aviv University — and the results are astounding. Sixty-two students improved nearly 130 medical-related articles on the Hebrew Wikipedia. Course leader Shani Evenstein wrote a detailed description of her course's successes for the Wikimedia blog, including her learning points and results. Read the blog post.

Louisiana State U faculty Becky Carmichael profiled

If you teach in the science department at Louisiana State University and want to incorporate a Wikipedia assignment into your classroom, Becky Carmichael is the person to meet. She began volunteering as a Wikipedia Ambassador in the Wikipedia Education Program in the United States in 2011, during her graduate studies and work as a teaching assistant for a Conservation Biology course. Now, she's helped 13 classes at Louisiana State University use Wikipedia as a teaching tool. Read a profile of Becky on the Wikimedia blog.

Frank Schulenburg selected as Wiki Ed executive director

Frank Schulenburg was the driving force behind the pilot edition of the Wikipedia Education Program in the United States, and his dedication to the program led the Wiki Education Foundation's board to select Frank as the first executive director of the organization. Frank left the Wikimedia Foundation last week, and today is his first day as executive director of the Wiki Education Foundation. The Wikimedia Foundation and Wiki Education Foundation put out a joint release announcing the move and thanking Frank for his great work on the program over the years. Read the release.

Welcome, Floor Koudijs!

A warm welcome to Floor Koudijs (pronounced cow-dice)! Floor has joined the Wikipedia Education Program team at the Wikimedia Foundation to assist on program management duties. She's a native of the Netherlands who has worked for the Dutch National Government as a program manager with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Justice. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and daughter, and is looking forward to learning about the Wikimedia world and helping support Wikipedia Education Program activities around the globe. Send her a welcome message at fkoudijswikimedia.org.

Celebrating 100 editions of this newsletter!

A note from the author of this newsletter, LiAnna Davis: The newsletter you're reading right now is the 100th edition of the Wikipedia Education Program Update! I've been publishing this newsletter (first weekly, then twice a month) since September 2010, and I'm thrilled that you're still reading it! Thanks for all the feedback over the years. As always, I welcome suggestions for the newsletter at ldaviswikimedia.org.