Hi,

(I am Mathias Damour - Astirmays, I opened Vikidia in 2006)

There is not so much resources in English about Vikidia or the encyclopedic wiki for children generally, yet you can read : - https://www.wikimedia.fr/vikidia-in-english-opens-today-lets-build-a-childre... - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikikids and its sub-pages and other links.

There is several definitions and approach of education for sure. On Vikidia, we have both goal (or maybe three or more...;-)) to build a valuable documentary resource for children and to let them (not exclusively) be involved in building it, be it on their own from home or in a school project, to "train to collaborate" and for several other benefits.

If education is not only about learning, we think that such a wiki can meet with some articles of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. Among other:

"/Article 13 - 1. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include *freedom to seek, receive and impart information* and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice./"

See: Wikikids/Relation to the Rights of the Child https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikikids/Relation_to_the_Rights_of_the_Child

I would say that to let children and teeagers be involved in such a wiki is not only a matter of education/training, it's to fulfil their aspiration to participate, and I dare to say it's also to be frugal on the adult's time resource and thus make the project sustainable by their contributions.

Actually, school projects on Vikidia make a part of the content, yet they hardly participate enough time to know the community and be involved in it. They are still welcomed and their content, which will be reviewed and expanded, is useful, especially because they would often work on subject that are part of the curriculum and therefore much needed by their fellow student the following years. In a school project on Vikidia, the teacher can have his own goals (skills learning, information literacy...) and view on his role in the exercise, as long as it integrates well in the wiki.

Le 22/02/2021 à 14:02, Ilario Valdelli a écrit :

I think that you have to consider what are your goals and what is the role of the teacher.

If you are looking for a Wikipedia written by children, this is a goal and some projects are more adapt than others.

If you are looking for a tool that teachers can use to train student to collaborate, this is another goal.

Wikimini.org has been just now migrated in new servers to give it the possibility to expand but definitely Wikimini is considered a tool for teachers and the same concepot is followed by Klexikon, I suppose.

But behind everything there is the most important question: what is education? A young contributor writing content did receive education? Or behind education there are the skills learning?

If the wikimedia world does not evaluate what is education, what is the role of the teacher in this process, and if young students need a support, it would be complicated to say what is the most correct approach.

Kind regards

-- Mathias Damour 49 rue Carnot 74000 Annecy 04 57 09 10 56 06 27 13 65 51 mathias.damour@gmx.fr