Thanks, Mike.
Many of the professors are still looking for an Online Ambassador, as you
can see on the Course
Page<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:United_States_Education_Program/Cour…>list
(and here is the link to the Canada
program's Course
Pages<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Canada_Education_Program/Courses/Pre…>.
If you'd like to choose a course (*or more than one!*), we can finalize the
pods for the semester much more quickly. I have directed professors to
reach out to OAs, but they may not have yet completed the Professor
Orientation Modules and may still be struggling to figure out how to post
to your talk pages. :)
Please also email me separately (off-list, please) if you're a Campus
Ambassador who is still interested in participating this semester and has
not yet spoken to a professor. We want to increase all ambassador support
for the semester, so there may still be a professor on your campus who
could use some more support!
Thanks, all!
Also, thanks to all who responded so quickly and joined the IRC chatroom!
On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 11:05 AM, Mike Christie <coldchrist(a)gmail.com>wrote:
> I hadn't seen an announcement that we should start signing up -- did I
> miss it? I've been pretty busy so that's quite likely. Could you resend a
> link to the current page where interested ambassadors should go to sign up
> for a course?
>
> Thanks
>
> Mike
>
> On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 1:44 PM, Jami Mathewson <jmathewson(a)wikimedia.org>wrote:
>
>> Hi Ambassadors,
>>
>> Some classes are getting started now, and students have been coming on
>> to IRC to test it out recently -- so we need to make sure we have
>> people in the chat room when students come in to ask for help!
>>
>> Whenever you have some time, please hang out in the chat room to help
>> any students who come by. It's the #wikipedia-en-classroom channel on
>> freenode.
>>
>> You can join here:
>> http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=wikipedia-en-classroom
>>
>> Or if you'd like information on using a client for your operating system,
>> see:
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat#Clients
>>
>> Please also check out the Guidelines for the channels:
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ambassadors/IRC/Guide
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>> --
>> Jami Mathewson
>> U.S. Education Program Associate
>> Wikimedia Foundation
>> jmathewson(a)wikimedia.org
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ambassador-announce-l mailing list
>> Ambassador-announce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/ambassador-announce-l
>>
>>
>
--
Jami Mathewson
U.S. Education Program Associate
Wikimedia Foundation
jmathewson(a)wikimedia.org
Hi Ambassadors,
Some classes are getting started now, and students have been coming on
to IRC to test it out recently -- so we need to make sure we have
people in the chat room when students come in to ask for help!
Whenever you have some time, please hang out in the chat room to help
any students who come by. It's the #wikipedia-en-classroom channel on
freenode.
You can join here:
http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=wikipedia-en-classroom
Or if you'd like information on using a client for your operating system,
see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat#Clients
Please also check out the Guidelines for the channels:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ambassadors/IRC/Guide
Thank you!
--
Jami Mathewson
U.S. Education Program Associate
Wikimedia Foundation
jmathewson(a)wikimedia.org
***
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Wikipedia community has decided to black out the English Wikipedia globally for 24 hours on January 18 in protest of SOPA and PIPA. During this time, the English Wikipedia will be unavailable. Learn more:
https://contacts.wikimedia.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5…
***
Welcome to the Global Education Update — a newsletter from the Wikimedia Foundation that is distributed the first and third Tuesday of each month. Someone from our staff has talked with you about our Global Education Program to bring Wikipedia into higher education classrooms around the world, and we wanted to keep you in the loop on all of our exciting activities. If you would prefer not to receive these messages, simply reply to the email and ask for your address to be removed. Learn more about subscribing and read the archives here:
https://contacts.wikimedia.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5…
Professor blogs about teaching experiences in Brazil
Juliana Bastos Marques a professor at UNIRIO, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State in Brazil, wrote a post for the Wikimedia Foundation blog highlighting her experiences using Wikipedia as a teaching tool in her course last term. Her students worked to improve the Portuguese Wikipedia's coverage of Roman history, with help from a Campus Ambassador and two Online Ambassadors, all volunteers from the Portuguese Wikipedia community. Learn more about what Juliana learned by reading her blog post.
https://contacts.wikimedia.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5…
Cairo Pilot project plan now available
The Wikipedia Education Program is launching a small pilot in Cairo, Egypt, this term, and the details of the program plan are now available on the Outreach Wiki. The Cairo Pilot will take place at two universities, Cairo University and Ain Shams University, and a maximum of 90 students across 6-7 courses will be contributing content to the Arabic Wikipedia. Some students will be writing original content, and others will be translating existing articles from the French and Spanish Wikipedias to the Arabic Wikipedia. For more information, read the Cairo Pilot program plan.
https://contacts.wikimedia.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5…
U.S. digital media class covered on WMF blog
College of Staten Island professor Michael Mandiberg participated in the U.S. Education Program in the fall term, wherein he asked his students to improve the content of Wikipedia in the design discipline, including giving students extra credit for getting a contemporary designer to release an image of themselves or their work under a free license on Wikimedia Commons. Michael's course also had a unique opportunity to work with the Museum of Modern Art in New York City to write articles on an exhibit that opened during their term. Learn more about Michael's experiences by reading the blog post.
https://contacts.wikimedia.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5…
Participation Requirements for spring announced
Professors joining the Wikipedia Education Program in the spring 2012 term are finding a new set of participation requirements in place, designed to ensure that all participating professors and students receive adequate support on Wikipedia. While the work of the fall term produced a lot of incredible content, many students lacked the support they needed from volunteer Ambassadors, so the Participation Requirements in part commit the Foundation to ensuring there will be one Wikipedia Ambassador for each 15 students in the course. For more information, see the requirements page on the Outreach Wiki.
https://contacts.wikimedia.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5…
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https://contacts.wikimedia.org/index.php?q=civicrm/mailing/unsubscribe&rese…
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This email is sent from:
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
United States
Hi Ambassadors,
As you may have heard already, the English Wikipedia community has
decided to black out the English Wikipedia for 24 hours in protest of
SOPA and PIPA, two companion pieces of legislation in Congress that
would, if passed, do great harm the free and open Internet, including
Wikipedia. The global blackout will begin at midnight ET this evening
(so in about 11 hours). Visitors to Wikipedia will be asked to contact
their representatives and senators to oppose SOPA and PIPA. The
Wikimedia Foundation is supporting the community's decision.
Please reach out to your professors and students, and inform them that
Wikipedia will be unavailable during this time. You're welcome to send
any professors who have concerns to me (ldavis(a)wikimedia.org) or Jami
(jmathewson(a)wikimedia.org); we are happy to answer any questions.
Here are some links with more information:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackouthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Take_action#Question…
Thanks,
LiAnna
--
LiAnna Davis
Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program
(415) 839-6885 x6649
ldavis(a)wikimedia.org
Hi Ambassadors,
Thanks to all of you who have participated in a number of discussions
on the U.S. Education Program talk page[1] or Mike Christie's
incredibly useful Signpost article [2] over the last few months. Every
term with the Wikipedia Education Program brings new challenges and
opportunities to learn what works and what doesn't. We know there's
been a lot of frustration over the last term as we grew faster than we
were able to support at this point, and we're sorry about that -- so
we wanted to let all of you be the first to know that we've just
instituted a new set of Participation Requirements across all country
versions of the Wikipedia Education Program in operation this term
(which is the U.S., Canada, and Egypt), so that we are explicitly
focusing on quality over quantity.
The requirements are here[3], but to summarize the high points, we're
enforcing a 1:15 Ambassador:Student ratio, requiring each course to be
supported by at least one Wikipedian, and making an orientation for
professors mandatory. This affects Ambassadors most in the fact that
we're making a concerted effort to limit the number of students you
are expected to support. Our hope is that we will be able to provide
better levels of support to participating professors and students next
term, and that professors will have a greater understanding of
Wikipedia thanks to the orientation (thanks as well to all of you who
offered input on suggested topics for that orientation).
Unfortunately, the downside to these requirements is that for the U.S.
and Canada program, we've had to turn down interested professors this
term (hence the reduction of quantity in favor of quality). We hope
this will not continue to be the case in the future, but this will
mean attracting more Ambassadors to the role, so we can continue
supporting professors at the 1:15 ratio with at least one Wikipedian
present. We're sad to turn away interested professors, but we want to
ensure that we can support classes well, so the quality level of
student contributions remains the same as it was during the Public
Policy Initiative pilot.
Look for a more practical email next week with information on
supporting courses and a few minor changes, once we've finalized the
course roster.
Thank you for all your amazing work -- the Wikipedia Education
Program's successes are thanks to you!
The Wikipedia Education Program staff:
Frank, Annie, LiAnna, Jami, and Ayush
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:United_States_Education_Program
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2011-12-12/Opinio…
[3] http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/Participatio…
Welcome to the Global Education Update — a newsletter from the Wikimedia Foundation that is distributed the first and third Tuesday of each month. Someone from our staff has talked with you about our Global Education Program to bring Wikipedia into higher education classrooms around the world, and we wanted to keep you in the loop on all of our exciting activities. If you would prefer not to receive these messages, simply reply to the email and ask for your address to be removed. Learn more about subscribing and read the archives here:
https://contacts.wikimedia.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5…
Plans underway for Cairo pilot in spring 2012
Wikipedia Education Program staff Frank Schulenburg and Annie Lin traveled to Cairo, Egypt, in December, to begin planning of a Cairo pilot of the education program, which will kick off this month. Joined by local Wikipedians, Frank and Annie met with professors and students in Cairo to determine the best plan of action for the spring pilot. Professors at Ain Shams University and Cairo University will be participating in the program, and students will be asked to both write Wikipedia articles for the Arabic Wikipedia as well as translate articles from other language versions into the Arabic Wikipedia. Learn more about Frank and Annie's travels and plans for the Cairo pilot by reading a Wikimedia Foundation blog post on their trip.
https://contacts.wikimedia.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5…
Few slots remain for U.S. and Canada program
Are you a professor from the United States or Canada interested in using Wikipedia as a teaching tool in your class this term? If you haven't already been in touch with a Wikipedia Education Program representative, please do so immediately! We have a limited amount of support resources available for professors in the spring, and only a few slots remain open. If you're interested in participating in the Wikipedia Education Program in the spring, please email Jami Mathewson today at jmathewson(a)wikimedia.org.
Student's video featured on WMF blog post
Alverno College student Katy Lederer created a video of the Milwaukee Art Museum's brise soleil, a wing-like structure that closes at night and opens in the morning. You can read more about Katy's video, her inspiration for choosing that topic, and why she liked working on a video for Wikipedia as part of class, in a new blog post on the Wikimedia Foundation blog. Read the post.
https://contacts.wikimedia.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5…
Wikimedia trains "Referenten" in Germany
Frank Schulenburg and Annie Lin also traveled to Cologne, Germany, where they conducted a 1.5-day workshop with 10 longterm German Wikipedians who have signed up to be a part of an education program with Wikimedia Deutschland. The "Referenten" (similar to Ambassadors) will train professors and teaching assistants on how to incorporate Wikipedia editing into their classrooms. The Referenten will not be in the classrooms themselves, but they will be available to assist the professors, TAs, and students as-needed. For more information, check out the training slides (in German).
https://contacts.wikimedia.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=5…
To unsubscribe from this newsletter, click this link:
https://contacts.wikimedia.org/index.php?q=civicrm/mailing/unsubscribe&rese…
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This email is sent from:
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
United States