Hello all.
I would like to report on some initiatives and ongoing projects that we have been conducting this academic year in Spain, from our local Wikimedia Chapter, regarding the use of Wikipedia in higher education. Several members of Wikimedia-España have delivered courses, seminars and practical workshops on Wikipedia editing, using Wikipedia in higher education courses, and Wikipedia participation from libraries, archives and museums (many libraries are in universities). Overall, more than 10 sessions have taken place all over Spain. In addition, there have been similar initiatives and projects coordinated by Amical in Catalonia.
In many of these sessions, there has been a thrilling interest from faculties to attend, sometimes running out of free seats in less than 24h after the announcement of sessions. In fact, we are already identifying volunteers from our local chapter members to help with this dissemination and training sessions, so that we can scale up effectively as new universities get on board.
We have also produced content for this sessions in Spanish. As an example, these are the links for a workshop at University of Salamanca in March:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taller-edicion-wikipedia-USAL.pdf
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usuario:GlimmerPhoenix/Taller_USAL
As a result, we are starting to see new promising projects. More specifically:
- WikiUSAL, a new 'Wikipedia club' with students and faculties of Univ. of Salamanca. Several teachers are already preparing plans to incorporate Wikipedia in their courses for the next academic course (starting September 2012). This will be articulated by an teaching innovation project at USAL: "Wikipedia as a learning tool".
- Two professors at University Pablo Olavide in Seville (Biology) and University of Pais Vasco (Physics) are also planning to incorporate Wikipedia tasks in their courses. In fact, in the first case they were already doing so without support (there may be multiple other cases that we are still discovering).
- At University Rey Juan Carlos (URJC, my home) we are also preparing for the next course a proposal for a teaching innovation project, following the same lines of the USAL initiative. We also intend to integrate participation from different departments (Computer Science, Journalism, Medicine and Sociology).
In summary, we are quite happy to see this progress, and we will continue to help raising new initiatives step by step. Looking forward to meeting some of you at the next Wikimania 2012 in Washington, and share some experiences and suggestions to keep up the good work.
Kind regards, Felipe Ortega. Board member for Higher Education and Universities. Wikimedia España.
Dear Felipe, thank you for sharing interesting information with us. It all sounds very promising. One thing that caught my attention was the 'thrilling interest' to participate in the sessions. How do you think you get their attention? How did you advertise the sessions and what did you talk about during them? I would be very happy to keep in touch with you, with regards Vojtech Dostal, coordinator of the Czech Ambassador Program ("Students Write Wikipedia" - http://ambasadorstvi.wikimedia.cz) ************************ Vojtěch Dostál Mail vojtech.dostal@centrum.cz twitter.com/medi_cago
______________________________________________________________
Od: "Felipe Ortega" Komu: "education@lists.wikimedia.org" , Teachers Wikipedia Datum: 25.05.2012 17:29 Předmět: [Wikimedia Education] Wikipedia in higher education: progress inSpain
Hello all.
I would like to report on some initiatives and ongoing projects that we have been conducting this academic year in Spain, from our local Wikimedia Chapter, regarding the use of Wikipedia in higher education. Several members of Wikimedia-España have delivered courses, seminars and practical workshops on Wikipedia editing, using Wikipedia in higher education courses, and Wikipedia participation from libraries, archives and museums (many libraries are in universities). Overall, more than 10 sessions have taken place all over Spain. In addition, there have been similar initiatives and projects coordinated by Amical in Catalonia.
In many of these sessions, there has been a thrilling interest from faculties to attend, sometimes running out of free seats in less than 24h after the announcement of sessions. In fact, we are already identifying volunteers from our local chapter members to help with this dissemination and training sessions, so that we can scale up effectively as new universities get on board.
We have also produced content for this sessions in Spanish. As an example, these are the links for a workshop at University of Salamanca in March:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taller-edicion-wikipedia-USAL.pdf
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usuario:GlimmerPhoenix/Taller_USAL
As a result, we are starting to see new promising projects. More specifically:
- WikiUSAL, a new 'Wikipedia club' with students and faculties of Univ. of Salamanca. Several teachers are already preparing plans to incorporate Wikipedia in their courses for the next academic course (starting September 2012). This will be articulated by an teaching innovation project at USAL: "Wikipedia as a learning tool".
- Two professors at University Pablo Olavide in Seville (Biology) and University of Pais Vasco (Physics) are also planning to incorporate Wikipedia tasks in their courses. In fact, in the first case they were already doing so without support (there may be multiple other cases that we are still discovering).
- At University Rey Juan Carlos (URJC, my home) we are also preparing for the next course a proposal for a teaching innovation project, following the same lines of the USAL initiative. We also intend to integrate participation from different departments (Computer Science, Journalism, Medicine and Sociology).
In summary, we are quite happy to see this progress, and we will continue to help raising new initiatives step by step. Looking forward to meeting some of you at the next Wikimania 2012 in Washington, and share some experiences and suggestions to keep up the good work.
Kind regards, Felipe Ortega. Board member for Higher Education and Universities. Wikimedia España.
_______________________________________________ Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
De: Vojtěch Dostál vojtech.dostal@centrum.cz Para: Felipe Ortega glimmer_phoenix@yahoo.es; education@lists.wikimedia.org Enviado: Viernes 25 de Mayo de 2012 17:52 Asunto: Re: [Wikimedia Education] Wikipedia in higher education: progress inSpain
Dear Felipe, thank you for sharing interesting information with us. It all sounds very promising. One thing that caught my attention was the 'thrilling interest' to participate in the sessions. How do you think you get their attention? How did you advertise the sessions and what did you talk about during them? I would be very happy to keep in touch with you,
Hi Vojtěch,
I must admit it was also astonishing for us. We planned the usual campaign for promotion, but nothing very ambitious. One important point is having support from departments and organizational teams in the universities, so that the sessions are well advertised.
There was a kick-off session at USAL that attracted +100 persons (students + faculties) in the main conference room, at the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting. The room was full and some people could not get a set (I was told that +150 participants registered on the website). The initiave was coordinated by Medialab USAL. They have been extremely efficient in terms of broadcasting and dissemination of announcements, as well as uploading the videos on the web:
http://eventos.usal.es/event_detail/29/detail/wikipedia-como-herramienta-de-... (videos) http://diarium.usal.es/wiki
In that session, Maria presented Wikimedia España, Miguel offered a general overview of the Wikipedia community and I talked about Wikipedia in higher education. The workshop for faculties was pre-announced at the end of this colloquium. We had many general questions from the audience. About one week after that, I received a message from Medialab USAL saying that they had completed the registration for the workshop (~30 seats) within the first 24h after the announcement.
I also have another, more informal example, at my university (URJC). A collegue professor from the Faculty of Medicine asked me to give a 1h talk to their students about editing Wikipedia. He had included a task related to Wikipedia editing in the course syllabus. Normal classes were over (exams period), and attending the talk was compulsory. No major communication plans, just message from the professor to his students. On top of that, we scheduled for the only free slot on that day, 8:00-9:00 am. Thus, I had very low expectations. To my surprise, about 30 (out of 50) students showed up, asking many questions.
In summary, I would say that, first of all, there must be some interest from students and faculties. It is difficult to generate that from the outside, but informal talks (like the one above) can help. Of course, you also have faculties quite reluctant to consider the possibility of mentioning, let alone using, Wikipedia in their classes. As for students, it is a bit easier because almost all of them (if not really all of them) know about Wikipedia and use it. Sometimes, the real issue is helping with some key aspects (free content, licensing, etc.) that is still blurred for many of them.
Appart from this, the following points are important:
- Strong support and commitment from a Lab/Department inside the univeristy. The higher the level, the better for reaching a larger audience. - Tweet/blog about past, ongoing and future sessions on the official channels of your local chapter. - Let people ask. Answer the questions (many times about myths and misunderstandings on how Wikipedia works, who are the "community", etc.). Write them down and prepare material to answer them in the next session, because people will ask the same questions again. - Take any opportunity with mass media to mention existing efforts to explore the use of Wikipedia in higher education. There are many people interested out there who are not aware of the ongoing program and initiatives, yet.
Just 2 cents, hope that it helps.
Felipe.
with regards Vojtech Dostal, coordinator of the Czech Ambassador Program ("Students Write Wikipedia" - http://ambasadorstvi.wikimedia.cz)
Vojtěch Dostál Mail vojtech.dostal@centrum.cz twitter.com/medi_cago
______________________________________________________________
Od: "Felipe Ortega" glimmer_phoenix@yahoo.es Komu: "education@lists.wikimedia.org" education@lists.wikimedia.org, Teachers Wikipedia teaching-with-wikipedia@listserv.olemiss.edu Datum: 25.05.2012 17:29 Předmět: [Wikimedia Education] Wikipedia in higher education: progress inSpain
Hello all.
I would like to report on some initiatives and ongoing projects that we have been conducting this academic year in Spain, from our local Wikimedia Chapter, regarding the use of Wikipedia in higher education. Several members of Wikimedia-España have delivered courses, seminars and practical workshops on Wikipedia editing, using Wikipedia in higher education courses, and Wikipedia participation from libraries, archives and museums (many libraries are in universities). Overall, more than 10 sessions have taken place all over Spain. In addition, there have been similar initiatives and projects coordinated by Amical in Catalonia.
In many of these sessions, there has been a thrilling interest from faculties to attend, sometimes running out of free seats in less than 24h after the announcement of sessions. In fact, we are already identifying volunteers from our local chapter members to help with this dissemination and training sessions, so that we can scale up effectively as new universities get on board.
We have also produced content for this sessions in Spanish. As an example, these are the links for a workshop at University of Salamanca in March:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taller-edicion-wikipedia-USAL.pdf
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usuario:GlimmerPhoenix/Taller_USAL
As a result, we are starting to see new promising projects. More specifically:
- WikiUSAL, a new 'Wikipedia club' with students and faculties of Univ. of Salamanca. Several teachers are already preparing plans to incorporate Wikipedia in their courses for the next academic course (starting September 2012). This will be articulated by an teaching innovation project at USAL: "Wikipedia as a learning tool".
Two professors at University Pablo Olavide in Seville (Biology) and University of Pais Vasco (Physics) are also planning to incorporate Wikipedia tasks in their courses. In fact, in the first case they were already doing so without support (there may be multiple other cases that we are still discovering).
At University Rey Juan Carlos (URJC, my home) we are also preparing for the next course a proposal for a teaching innovation project, following the same lines of the USAL initiative. We also intend to integrate participation from different departments (Computer Science, Journalism, Medicine and Sociology).
In summary, we are quite happy to see this progress, and we will continue to help raising new initiatives step by step. Looking forward to meeting some of you at the next Wikimania 2012 in Washington, and share some experiences and suggestions to keep up the good work.
Kind regards, Felipe Ortega. Board member for Higher Education and Universities. Wikimedia España.
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education