<div class="gmail_quote"><br><b>Times of India : "Online encyclopedia promotes itself as teaching-learning tool"</b><div><a href="http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-06-07/pune/29629403_1_online-encyclopedia-wikipedia-articles-pilot-project" target="_blank">http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-06-07/pune/29629403_1_online-encyclopedia-wikipedia-articles-pilot-project</a></div>
<div><br></div><div><div><i>PUNE: Wikipedia.org, the largest online encyclopedia in the world, has invited teachers and students in India to incorporate Wikipedia as teaching and learning tool in classrooms through its Wikipedia India Education Programme. The initiative coincides with the start of this academic year, with Pune as its pilot project. Various colleges and universities are being united to participate in the initiative, with students having the opportunity to contribute by editing articles related to their syllabus on Wikipedia, in lieu of conventional paper or report submissions.</i></div>
<div><i><br></i></div><div><i><b>Hisham Mundol,</b> who leads India Programmes, said, "Information about India and that which is contributed by its people is not adequately represented on Wikipedia. We want to change that by increasing the number of editors from India. The Wikipedia India Education Programme will promote this by encouraging teachers in Pune to join a global community of educators who use Wikipedia as teaching and learning tool in classrooms."</i></div>
<div><i><br></i></div><div><i>The Wikipedia team has therefore chosen 22 campus ambassadors in Pune to help them in this programme.</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i>"The campus ambassadors are essentially volunteers who would work with teachers to incorporate Wikipedia and train students on how to write articles on Wikipedia. They would support both students as well as teachers, during the course of the semester. During the course of the initiative, we will provide teaching material and example lesson plans, expecting the professors to assign their students Wikipedia articles to write or improve, as part of the class," said Mundol, adding that the project will cover a wide range of subjects such as engineering and economics and media and law and architecture and medicine and biology and any other area of academic interest.</i></div>
<div><i><br></i></div><div><i>The team proposes to replace student reports and papers with Wikipedia articles. "We will thus work with teachers and professors through campus ambassadors to identify potential articles on Wikipedia that can be created or improved through class work for that particular semester. Through the initiative, we also hope to create educational materials in the form of quality articles, including those about topics important to Indians, as well as people all across the globe," said Mundol.</i></div>
<div><i><br></i></div><div><i>According to Mundol, Pune was chosen as the pilot city for having the world's largest number of colleges and universities, which are attended by more than 200,000 students. "The pilot project in Pune is being used to experiment and learn from before any roll-out of a large-scale program throughout India," added Mundol.</i></div>
<div><i><br></i></div><div><i>The Wikipedia team feels that students would get a lot out of the editing assignments. "As opposed to writing a paper that they work on alone and that which is seen by a single person, the students will now work collaboratively with other Wikipedia editors. Thousands of people all over the world could then refer to their contributions for educational purposes. As for the educators who participate, they would engage and become part of a wider global community of educators who are on the forefront of implementing new teaching and learning practices, thus engaging with a larger, global academic community," said Mundol.</i></div>
</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Regards<br>Tinu Cherian</div>
</div><a href="http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#June_2011">http://wiki.wikimedia.in/In_the_news#June_2011</a>