Hi all, after months of hard work, we are happy to share with all a new video series on the Wikimedia Education Program. You can now watch all 12 episodes on
Commons,
Youtube and
Vimeo.
With this series, we hope to engage new educators in using Wikimedia projects in the classroom, as well as promote existing resources to support education programs all over the world, like the
Education Program Toolkit and the many
brochures for educators.
What is this video series about?
Chapter 1: Introduction and Why do you teach Wikipedia?
Meet Educators and Wikipedia education leaders from around the world who share why they use Wikipedia in classrooms not just as a way to access knowledge, but also a way to develop their students’ capacities, digital know-how and to share knowledge with the world. Learn how the process turns their students from consumers into knowledge producers, leaving behind papers that only the teacher reads for articles that the whole world can access.
Chapter 2: What was your first Wikipedia article?
How did these educators and Wikipedia education leaders get started? Starting from light copyediting, to translating, realizing information of interest was missing… and creating new articles!
Chapter 3: The five pillars of Wikipedia
5 things you must know before you get started on writing on the Wikipedia. From these 5 rules, the educators reflect on the geopolitical implications of knowledge production, good online behaviour, and even learning to express knowledge the best we can.
Chapter 4: Assignments
How does using Wikipedia in the classroom work in practice? Educators and Wikipedia education program leaders share different experiences and ways to turn the open online encyclopedia into an educational, active learning tool. … and the importance of explaining what plagiarism is, as well as the value of using good references.
Chapter 5: Brochures and tutorials
Need a little help? Downloading a few brochures can go a long way into learning in more detail how to use Wikipedia as an edtech tool. Follow the link and : https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Brochures
Chapter 6: The key to a successful education program
Starting small and then growing the educational program seems to be the key. If you are trying to start an education program in your region, experiment with a single teacher, learn from that experience, an then grow the program progressively.
Chapter 7: Social media & connectivity
Social media is an ally to connect with other education initiatives, other educators, and helpful volunteers that can answer questions regarding the use of the internet.
Chapter 8: Work with the Wikipedia community
A fact to take in consideration: connecting with the community of volunteer that edit the Wikipedia in your language increases the probability of success of your education project!
Chapter 9: Motivating students
Motivating students to learn through editing Wikipedia is not very hard. Here are a few experiences that highlight the value of using Wikipedia as an educational tool, as well as a few tips on specific actions that will fuel their interest even more.
Chapter 10: Language and translation
Wikipedia exists currently in 283 languages, and “incubates” many more encyclopedia in other languages. There’s a very high probability that students can work in the language they’re fluent in. Translation can be an activity that will show them the ropes and increase their language skills, on top of developing their knowledge of the subject matter.
Chapter 11: When to hire an employee
How do you scale an education program that spans over many classrooms and even many institutions?
Chapter 12: Success and learning from failure
Success or failure? It’s all learning! This applies at the student level, but also to the educators’ tasks, and to education program leaders.
How can you get involved?
We count on you to help us spread the word about this series and to use the videos in your outreach efforts, for training and any other use you can give them! Let us know how you like them, and feel free to translate captions as well.
Thank you to all program leaders who took part in this video production, sharing what you have learned during all this time running your education program. A special thank you to Floor Koudijs, who sparked the first efforts for the series to be and set the wheels in motion for this series to happen.
Have a great week!
Best,
María
María Cruz \\ Communications and Outreach Coordinator, PC&L Team \\ Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.