Are you running an Education Program in your country? Do you want to start working with instructors and students to improve Wikipedia? Are you interested in helping shape a global community of program leaders to grow Wikipedia's use in education worldwide?
We are thinking about convening an Education Program Leaders Workshop, where 20-30 program leaders worldwide will gather for one day to build a global community to share learnings and help each other overcome challenges. We're considering having this all-day workshop in conjunction with the Chapters Meeting hosted by Wikimedia Italia on April 19-21 in Milan, but before we finalize the details, we wanted to see if this would be a convenient time with enough people to make it worthwhile.
If you are interested in meeting with other program leaders worldwide, would you take 5 minutes to fill out a quick survey?
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1T-1KvPYJQwtRMauHk6Xypm733CUmB0wUi3NRZkkp3g8...
We need responses within 24 hours if possible so we can confirm dates. More information will be coming later this week.
Thanks so much for your quick reply!
LiAnna
Hi, LiAnna.
Thanks for sharing this, that is a good idea. I just sent to all Brazilian professors of our network to sound their interest, but I really think 24h is not enough time for they to answer, from my experience of the time professors usually take to answer e-mails. At least this happens with academics in Brazil, not sure how it is in other places (in physics it is the same everywhere).
I also think most professors have no idea what a chapters meeting is, neither what a Wikimedia chapter is. Thus, if I was a professor, I would first wonder what is it and, since I would likely not have time to read all pages to discover it, I would say "no" or simply do not answer.
Then, as a suggestion, maybe try to rephrase to something like this would be good "there will be a global meet up that happens every year among wikimedians and we want involve professors involved in the Wikipedia Education Program etc.".
My to cents. :)
Tom
On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 9:23 PM, LiAnna Davis ldavis@wikimedia.org wrote:
Are you running an Education Program in your country? Do you want to start working with instructors and students to improve Wikipedia? Are you interested in helping shape a global community of program leaders to grow Wikipedia's use in education worldwide?
We are thinking about convening an Education Program Leaders Workshop, where 20-30 program leaders worldwide will gather for one day to build a global community to share learnings and help each other overcome challenges. We're considering having this all-day workshop in conjunction with the Chapters Meeting hosted by Wikimedia Italia on April 19-21 in Milan, but before we finalize the details, we wanted to see if this would be a convenient time with enough people to make it worthwhile.
If you are interested in meeting with other program leaders worldwide, would you take 5 minutes to fill out a quick survey?
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1T-1KvPYJQwtRMauHk6Xypm733CUmB0wUi3NRZkkp3g8...
We need responses within 24 hours if possible so we can confirm dates. More information will be coming later this week.
Thanks so much for your quick reply!
LiAnna
-- LiAnna Davis Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager Wikimedia Foundation http://education.wikimedia.org (415) 839-6885 x6649 ldavis@wikimedia.org
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
-- Everton Zanella Alvarenga (also Tom) "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."
Hi Tom,
The idea behind this is that it is not necessarily for *professors* but for *program organizers* -- in other words, 1-2 people per country, people like you. :) I think generally professors have a lot to offer in the discussion of things like "what kinds of content students can add" or "should we work in sandboxes?", but we are looking for this to be a higher-level discussion of things like "How can we be better about documenting what we've learned in Egypt so that program leaders in other countries can follow what we've done?"
I should have made this distinction clearer, sorry.
LiAnna
On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 4:44 PM, Everton Zanella Alvarenga < ezalvarenga@wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi, LiAnna.
Thanks for sharing this, that is a good idea. I just sent to all Brazilian professors of our network to sound their interest, but I really think 24h is not enough time for they to answer, from my experience of the time professors usually take to answer e-mails. At least this happens with academics in Brazil, not sure how it is in other places (in physics it is the same everywhere).
I also think most professors have no idea what a chapters meeting is, neither what a Wikimedia chapter is. Thus, if I was a professor, I would first wonder what is it and, since I would likely not have time to read all pages to discover it, I would say "no" or simply do not answer.
Then, as a suggestion, maybe try to rephrase to something like this would be good "there will be a global meet up that happens every year among wikimedians and we want involve professors involved in the Wikipedia Education Program etc.".
My to cents. :)
Tom
On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 9:23 PM, LiAnna Davis ldavis@wikimedia.org wrote:
Are you running an Education Program in your country? Do you want to
start
working with instructors and students to improve Wikipedia? Are you interested in helping shape a global community of program leaders to grow Wikipedia's use in education worldwide?
We are thinking about convening an Education Program Leaders Workshop, where 20-30 program leaders worldwide will gather for one day to build a global community to share learnings and help each other overcome
challenges.
We're considering having this all-day workshop in conjunction with the Chapters Meeting hosted by Wikimedia Italia on April 19-21 in Milan, but before we finalize the details, we wanted to see if this would be a convenient time with enough people to make it worthwhile.
If you are interested in meeting with other program leaders worldwide, would you take 5 minutes to fill out a quick survey?
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1T-1KvPYJQwtRMauHk6Xypm733CUmB0wUi3NRZkkp3g8...
We need responses within 24 hours if possible so we can confirm dates. More information will be coming later this week.
Thanks so much for your quick reply!
LiAnna
-- LiAnna Davis Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager Wikimedia Foundation http://education.wikimedia.org (415) 839-6885 x6649 ldavis@wikimedia.org
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
-- Everton Zanella Alvarenga (also Tom) "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Hi, LiAnna.
I understood now, no problem. Even so with my misinterpretation, I think it was interesting to send to all professors, let me know if they will answer. Since we need to create a program self-sustainable, I do believe we have to find professors who canI also have a leadership role in expanding the program, like Juliana Bastos (one example we know).
I have noticed other professors from our expansion in the second phase of the pilot here in Brazil that could also do this, and the idea of this meeting just made me think we should think on ways on how to estimulate professors willing to perform this role in a national or regional level. For instace, after the open call in Brazil and having discovered the work of professor Yuri http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/14/professor-yuri-leite-brazil/, from the same state of other two professors, I believe on the importance of forming this local network of professors so that they can even develop their own solutions and ideas on how to expand the program and help themselves in the local level. :)
Tom
On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 10:49 PM, LiAnna Davis ldavis@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi Tom,
The idea behind this is that it is not necessarily for *professors* but for *program organizers* -- in other words, 1-2 people per country, people like you. :) I think generally professors have a lot to offer in the discussion of things like "what kinds of content students can add" or "should we work in sandboxes?", but we are looking for this to be a higher-level discussion of things like "How can we be better about documenting what we've learned in Egypt so that program leaders in other countries can follow what we've done?"
I should have made this distinction clearer, sorry.
LiAnna
Absolutely, and the question of thing like "how can we encourage professors to play a more central role in leading the program?" is *exactly* the kind of thing that we'd like to discuss among this group of people. People like Juliana who are already natural program leaders thinking on the meta level of global programs -- but who are also professors -- are encouraged to attend as well! Obviously, there is overlap in many countries between program leaders and professors. :)
The goal of this meeting is to get people from all the different programs talking to each other, rather than just talking to the Wikimedia Foundation, and hopefully expand the reach of the information we are sharing among each other. It's about making sure that everyone feels like they're part of a global community, and feel free to share successes and learning points among each other, so we can all support each other in growing Wikipedia's use in education.
This form is just to get an idea of whether tying this meeting to the Chapters Meeting in Milan is a good idea or not; our idea is that many people who are program leaders will also be attending the Chapters Meeting, so it would be a good time, travel-wise, to attend. We'll send a lot more details of what we're thinking in a day or two, once we know what dates seem to work for people, based on the results of the form.
I hope this helps clarify the concept.
On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 5:08 PM, Everton Zanella Alvarenga < ezalvarenga@wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi, LiAnna.
I understood now, no problem. Even so with my misinterpretation, I think it was interesting to send to all professors, let me know if they will answer. Since we need to create a program self-sustainable, I do believe we have to find professors who canI also have a leadership role in expanding the program, like Juliana Bastos (one example we know).
I have noticed other professors from our expansion in the second phase of the pilot here in Brazil that could also do this, and the idea of this meeting just made me think we should think on ways on how to estimulate professors willing to perform this role in a national or regional level. For instace, after the open call in Brazil and having discovered the work of professor Yuri http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/14/professor-yuri-leite-brazil/, from the same state of other two professors, I believe on the importance of forming this local network of professors so that they can even develop their own solutions and ideas on how to expand the program and help themselves in the local level. :)
Tom
On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 10:49 PM, LiAnna Davis ldavis@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi Tom,
The idea behind this is that it is not necessarily for *professors* but
for
*program organizers* -- in other words, 1-2 people per country, people
like
you. :) I think generally professors have a lot to offer in the
discussion
of things like "what kinds of content students can add" or "should we
work
in sandboxes?", but we are looking for this to be a higher-level
discussion
of things like "How can we be better about documenting what we've
learned in
Egypt so that program leaders in other countries can follow what we've done?"
I should have made this distinction clearer, sorry.
LiAnna
-- Everton Zanella Alvarenga (also Tom) "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education