Hello all,
Recently, we've announced two new board members and released our annual
plan. We've also announced our sponsorship of WikiConference USA 2015,
launched our Wikipedia Visiting Scholars, and a Summer Research Fellowship
with Andrew Lih. We are also preparing for a new initiative, the Wikipedia
Year of Science. Finally, we've rolled out a new Dashboard tool for course
management.
With so much going on, we thought we'd share some details to keep everyone
in the loop.
** Sue Gardener and Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer* were elected to the Wiki
Education Foundation board. As most of you will know, Sue Gardner was the
executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) from 2007 to 2014. Dr.
Bartsch-Zimmer, of the University of Chicago, is the Inaugural Director of
the University’s Stevanovich Institute on the Formation of Knowledge. We're
very excited to have them both. (Read more here
<http://wikiedu.org/blog/2015/07/21/gardner-bartsch-zimmer-elected-to-wiki-education-foundation-board/>
).
** The Wiki Ed Annual Plan* (available here
<http://wikiedu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Annual-Plan-2015%E2%80%9316-2nd-version_FINAL.pdf>)
covers the first year of our work, and looks ahead to what we’ll set out to
achieve in our next fiscal year (July 1 through June 30). Our biggest goals
include scaling the impact of our classroom program, improving content
quality and the experience of our students, and deepening connections
between academia and Wikipedia through research opportunities such as our
Wikipedia Visiting Scholars program. (Read more here
<http://wikiedu.org/blog/2015/07/20/annual_plan2/>).
** We're very excited to be a sponsor of WikiConference USA 2015.* The
event is co-organized by the National Archives and Records Administration,
Wikimedia D.C., and Wikimedia NYC. It will take place at the National
Archives Building in Washington, D.C., from October 9–11, 2015.
Presentation proposals and scholarship applications are open! Find out more
at
wikiconferenceusa.org.
* Early last month, we announced we'd be administering the *Wikipedia
Visiting Scholars program in the US and Canada*. The Visiting Scholar
position offers Wikipedia editors access to journals, special collections,
and other research tools. Scholars’ use of these materials increases
visibility for collections, advancing the library’s mission of expanding
community engagement. (Read more here
<http://wikiedu.org/blog/2015/07/13/visiting-scholars/>).
* We're hosting our inaugural *Summer Research Fellow, Andrew Lih*
(User:Fuzheado). Andrew is working on strategies and selecting case studies
for ways to connect university libraries, museums, and archives to
instructors, students, and/or the community of Wikipedia editors as part of
the Year of Science. (Read more here
<http://wikiedu.org/blog/2015/07/27/welcome-andrew-lih-first-summer-research-fellow/>
).
* *We've launched a new course management tool, the Dashboard*. The
Dashboard fully handles the course setup and assignment design process, and
gives an even better picture of what student editors are doing throughout
the term. (Read more here
<http://wikiedu.org/blog/2015/07/28/dashboard-launch/>).
* Finally, we're preparing a 2016 initiative aimed at improving science
coverage on Wikipedia: *the Wikipedia Year of Science*. We're seeking out
volunteers, instructors, academic associations and others who are
interested in a focused, sustained campaign to improve Wikipedia's science
content while giving students an opportunity to improve science
communications skills. (Read more here
<http://wikiedu.org/blog/2015/07/24/year-of-science-focus/>).
We've been very busy here at Wiki Ed - and on top of all this, we've also
been supporting a record number of courses. I'll share more details on
student work and instructor satisfaction in the next few days. And as
always, if you're interested in following Wiki Ed's work, you can find
frequent updates on our blog <http://wikiedu.org/blog>.
Cheers,
Eryk Salvaggio
Communications Manager
Wiki Education Foundation
eryk(a)wikiedu.org
User:Eryk (Wiki Ed) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Eryk_(Wiki_Ed)>
@WikiEducation <https://twitter.com/WikiEducation>
wikiedu.org
*Our organization supports the Wikipedia Education Program in the United
States and Canada.*