Hi Shai, thanks very much for this information.
Would everyone who has contributed to this thread (Leigh, Lilit, Shai,
and Gabriel) be OK with me copying the content of these emails onto the
Outreach Wiki, and linking to your Wikimedia user accounts on the wiki
page? I will try to find a place for this discussion that makes sense on
Outreach wiki. Once the information is there, I can put links to it from
other locations and/or copy from it to other locations with appropriate
attribution.
Thanks,
Pine
On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 3:13 AM, שי כץ <shai(a)wikimedia.org.il> wrote:
Hello everyone,
Sorry I'm joining the correspondence late (this is the period of
training teachers in Israel, busy days). It is interesting to learn from
the experience that was gained around the world and different models that
were developed. I'd be happy to share a few points based on the education
activity in Israel.
Our main expertise concerns educational tasks of creating new articles,
and significantly expanding existing ones, in Wikipedia. Here, too,
experience has shown that for such tasks, level of writing is more
important than age (as long as the students are not too young, that is,
their age is over 13 or 14).
Regarding the skills required for such tasks – we defined the following
skill Check:
1. Curiosity, the ability to ask questions
2. Good information literacy - high ability to detect and evaluate
information sources
3. A good reading comprehension, including the ability to perform
critical reading and distinct between important and unimportant data
4. Good writing skills, including the ability to write clearly and
correctly, form independent phrases, design the structure of the text,
synthesize different sources of information, and adjust the writing style
to the desired genre
Another point that should be noted, is that the ability of young
students (and generally, of newcomers) to cope with the task of articles
writing depends not just on their personal abilities, but also the nature
of the writing subject, the assignment and the training. These are the
conclusions we reached in this regard:
1. Writing subjects: young students performs better when they write
about concrete writing topics, such as persons or heritage sites.
2. Assignments: young students tend to deal with creating a new content
unit (a new article or chapter) better than with modifying an existing text.
3. Training:
a. Young students will need assistance in choosing the writing subject,
planning the process of work, locating and evaluating sources of
information and drafting. Therefore, it is important to have a close and
professional figure that will supervise them (we work with teachers
especially trained to do it.)
b. If all the students write about a similar topic, it is easier to give
them detailed guidance, because everyone can get the same recommendations
regarding the structure and type of information sources. (For example, in
one of our projects, 50 young students wrote articles on the same topic -
leading scientists, and thus we were able to produce a uniform training
brochure
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMIL_-_A_Guide_to_Writing_Articles_about_Awards_Winning_Scientists.pdf>
that
can guide them better in the process of content creation.)
One last point: teachers may be interested in using Wikipedia as a
pedagogical tool in the context of content creating, but also in the
context of information consumption. I am attaching a link for a teacher
guide
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_in_Class_-_Teachers_Guide.pdf>
that
offers teachers the pedagogical use Wikipedia in both these contexts.
Thanks to everyone for sharing information, happy to be a part of this
correspondence!
Shai Katz
Education Coordinator, Wikimedia Israel
2016-07-13 22:25 GMT+03:00 Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com>om>:
I like how you think. (:
Pine
On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 12:21 PM, Lilit Tarkhanyan <
lilit.tarkhanyan(a)wikimedia.am> wrote:
> Yes, Pine, you are right. They are editing mainly Armenian Wiktionary
> and we have just begun editing Wikisource but it is an experimental trial
> though I think with time we'll succeed again :) There are secondary school
> students who simultaneously edit Wikipedia under their
> teachers/coordinators' guide but they are hyperactive in Wiktionary. One of
> our goals of involving students in editing different wikiprojects is that
> we want each student to find a wikiproject which fits him, which he will
> edit with great pleasure and as a result we have long-term editors. After
> gaining enough experience they move from one project to another thus they
> do not get bored.
>
> Best,
>
> Lilit Tarkhanyan
> Wikimedia Armenia
> Board Member
> Wikipedia Education Program Leader
> 2a Arshakunyats ave., 4th floor
> tel. +374 55 534 011
>
> On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 10:52 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Lilit. If I recall correctly, Wikimedia Armenia also includes
>> middle school students in its education program? Is that correct, and if
>> so, which projects do they tend to edit?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Pine
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 3:30 AM, Lilit Tarkhanyan <
>> lilit.tarkhanyan(a)wikimedia.am> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Pine
>>>
>>> I agree with Leigh that an educator should design his course based
>>> on his students' abilities as not all the students have strong skills of
>>> writing an encyclopedic article and in in this case the age doesn't
really
>>> matter. That is the reason why we started our Education program
>>> based on Armenian Wiktionary
>>>
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/02/01/wikicamp-armenia-student-editors/>
>>> which has a real success. The majority of the program editors are secondary
>>> school students. We also began to include Armenian Wikisource in our
>>> program, so we'll see what comes of it.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Lilit Tarkhanyan
>>> Wikimedia Armenia
>>> Board Member
>>> Wikipedia Education Program Leader
>>> 2a Arshakunyats ave., 4th floor
>>> tel. +374 55 534 011
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 4:07 AM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> That is very useful information for me to hear. Thanks Leigh.
>>>>
>>>> I think that Wikimedia Armenia is similarly finding that they can
>>>> be successful on projects other than Wikipedia; in their case I believe
>>>> that their younger students are having success with Wiktionary.
>>>>
>>>> Pine
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jul 12, 2016 at 4:44 AM, Leigh Thelmadatter <
>>>> osamadre(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> If we only think about WEP as writing a Wikipedia article as a
>>>>> class assignment, then yes, the overriding qualification is writing
>>>>> ability... same as for any other volunteer doing that work.
>>>>>
>>>>> Fortunately, there are other ways to participate... just like any
>>>>> other Wikimedian.
>>>>>
>>>>> I think what it really comes down to is designing a
>>>>> program/activities that meet the needs and strengths of students. We
saw a
>>>>> long time ago that what works for the US and Canada does not
necessarily
>>>>> work for other parts of the world. Even at the national level, a
single
>>>>> model may not work.
>>>>>
>>>>> At Tec de Monterrey, little of our activity is writing new
>>>>> articles as part of coursework and there are various reasons for this
based
>>>>> on our system and culture. Instead, we focus on students doing their
>>>>> community service requirement (WP is a popular option for this) and
Semana
>>>>> i (i Week) ... when students work on projects instead of going to
class.
>>>>> We do translations, photography, video, audio and animation. (still
working
>>>>> on convincing someone to look into hacking opportunities). These
activities
>>>>> have worked very well for us so far, and we have excellent
contribution
>>>>> stats.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>> From: wiki.pine(a)gmail.com
>>>>> Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2016 20:49:11 -0700
>>>>> To: education(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>> Subject: [Wikimedia Education] Which kinds of students are
>>>>> successful in education programs?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Education Program participants,
>>>>>
>>>>> I am wondering, for purposes of the "LearnWiki" video
series,
>>>>> which kinds of students tend to be successful in Wikipedia Education
>>>>> Program courses. The impression I am getting is that age is less
important
>>>>> than writing ability. I have heard that some middle school students
with
>>>>> strong writing abilities can do well on Wikipedia, while 1st and 2nd
year
>>>>> college students can struggle if their writing skills are weak. Would
you
>>>>> agree with that assessment?
>>>>>
>>>>> Are there any "skill checks" that you would recommend
educators do
>>>>> with their students to make sure that they have the skills necessary
for a
>>>>> WEP course?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>
>>>>> Pine
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________ Education mailing
>>>>> list Education(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Education mailing list
>>>>> Education(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
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>>
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*בברכה,*
*שי כץ *
*רכזת הדרכה וחינוךויקימדיה ישראל*
משרד: 077-3200796 | נייד: 054-4435834
http://www.wikimedia.org.il
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