Nice work!

My opinion is that your home language is good to know, BUT here you have a perfect place to show your student the importance of knowing languages. They already knows that the whole world will be looking at them, but the whole world does not speak Greek...

It use to be hard for students to "understand" why they shall learn new things, unless you explain. Here it is self-explained. Use English (to force them to learn, it is a school!), but at home it is up to them...

I my self is teaching my own kids better english by letting them translate English articles into Swedish. (Not complete, but the read and pic the most interesting things). Then they learn a language and can see that people actually read and improve what they have done. Its like a kinderegg (butt better for your teeths): 3 in one (new article, a learning opporturny and it is fun for them)

Best regards,

Harald

(user: Adville, home wiki: svwp)

From: theoth@otenet.gr
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 08:34:07 +0200
To: education@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Education] Wikimedia Education Program

Hi to all from Kefalonia, Greece:)

Our school has been editing Greek Wikipedia under my guidance since 2007, but this year we have shifted to Commons: it was simply the PERFECT place to publish the material we are gathering from two projects in Upper Secondary! And, for the first time, I have 4 pupils uploading with their own accounts (rather than handing their work over to me for the uploading/gallery building). All I have to do is "touch up" their work. Read about it here, in the post I wrote for WMF Global blog last month: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/02/21/education-program-greece/, links to projects are included in post).

Have a look at the Villages project. A pupil of mine is very keen on photography, and he released a set of photos that he had already taken with his mobile phone. Another pupil (username "Deliko") uploaded them to Commons and added the photos to the gallery. (See first item in gallery, "Argostoli", which is our capital). Although our designation was around three photos for each village, Argostoli has so many points of interest that we added 11.

We are still in a "dilemma" over whether we should use English or Greek for captions in the gallery (-ies) (if you have a look now, you'll see it's mixed up: other captions are Greek, others English). I intend to "streamline" the gallery soon, but I need input on language. A user who has been helping us in categorizing (Foroa) suggested Greek as a baseline, but I think that would make it difficult for international users to "follow". Using both Greek and English captions would "clutter" the page, in my opinion (unless we're talking about very small captions). We try to add descriptions in both languages on each individual file page (at least when I'm around: I'm bilingual, but not all my pupils are fluent in English). What do you think? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated:)

To everybody: keep up the good work in using Wikimedia in education, and keep us posted!

Best,

Mina (user Saintfevrier)

On Mar 20, 2013, at 7:14 PM, LiAnna Davis wrote:

Hi James, and welcome!

Beat is exactly right: the "Wikipedia" part of the Wikipedia Education Program branding is for outreach purposes; people outside our movement understand Wikipedia and not Wikimedia, but that doesn't mean we only encourage educational projects on Wikipedia. Commons is another popular project we encourage students to participate in, although there are more. See http://education.wikimedia.org/casestudies and add your own assignments to contribute to sister projects -- we're always looking to inspire people to try new assignments.

The trick is to find an appropriate assignment for each course. Wikipedia article writing is common because most disciplines require students to write a research paper or a literature review section so it is an easy replacement, but that's obviously not the *only* option. The video and photography courses we've worked with have all produced great content for Commons, and one journalism professor we've worked with has had his students write articles for Wikinews. Making the switch from traditional assignment to Wikimedia assignment will be painful for every professor who isn't already a Wikimedian, because of the learning curve, so finding the most closely related assignment possible on a Wikimedia project is important.

I look forward to hearing more about the symposium you linked on the outreach wiki page -- sadly, the link seems to be dead, but we're always interested in hearing more of what people are doing globally, both on this list and in the newsletter:

http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education_Portal/Newsletter

If you're attending the Chapters Meeting, I also encourage you to come for the Education Program Workshop, where we'll discuss how to grow programs and share learnings globally:

http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/Education_Program_Leaders_Workshop_2013

LiAnna

On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 7:10 AM, Estermann Beat <beat.estermann@bfh.ch> wrote:

Hi James,

Concerning the p à m thing:

I think outside the Wiki(p/m)edia movement, the “Wikipedia” brand is way better known and more popular than the m-brand.

Therefore, it probably makes sense in most cases to use this brand to approach “new” people when doing outreach. Even when talking about WPs sister projects you’ll probably find yourself referring to WP first and then going on to explain the particularities of the sister project.

This in mind, I think it shouldn’t be too hard to adapt the texts in a way that it becomes clear to the “insiders” that Wikipedia isn’t meant exclusively…

I’ve just read one of the manuals of the WP Education Programme today – they recommend as a starter task to have students take a photo and upload it to Commons.. here you go!

Best,

Beat

From: education-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:education-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of James Neill
Sent: Mittwoch, 20. März 2013 14:01
To: Wikimedia Education
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Education] Wikimedia Education Program

Thanks, already, Tom and Beat - I'll work with the Educational Portal (new for me) and try not to change too many p -> m ! ;) I look forward to hearing more about Brazil's education work with sister projects.

I find it is also a problem/opportunity with other WMF initiatives being too WP-focused e.g., Wikipedia Town - why not Wikimedia Town with QRcodes that can go to any sister project page?

On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 11:22 PM, Estermann Beat <beat.estermann@bfh.ch> wrote:

Hi James,

The Wiki(m/p) Education Portal on Outreach is open for initiatives aiming at Wikipedia’s sister projects as well:

http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education_Portal

Why don’t you just include any case studies, tips and resources concerning the sister projects on the existing portal? – And don’t forget to contribute reports about cool projects in the “This Month in Education” Newsletter!

Best regards,

Beat

From: education-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:education-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of James Neill
Sent: Mittwoch, 20. März 2013 12:58
To: education@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [Wikimedia Education] Wikimedia Education Program

Hi,

I wanted to reach out and say hello. I'm James Neill (jtneill).

I've sketched out the beginnings of an outreach project:

http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Education_Program

which is simply to expand the Wikipedia Education Program to focus on all sister projects rather than just Wikipedia.

Perhaps you already have something like this in mind, hence I'm touching base to see what you think.

Sincerely,

James

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