Hi Pru

Thanks for getting in touch. Once we have gathered more evidence it would be really useful to liaise with Wikimedia Australia, so if you could facilitate that in any way that would be great.

Re school libraries we don't have any contact with them at this stage. We have to be a little bit careful about who we contact as we need to operate within the parameters outlined in our project description, so this may be something we explore in a later stage.

Best, Mathieu

Message: 2 Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2021 19:22:15 +1000 From: Pru Mitchell pru.mitchell@gmail.com Subject: [Wiki-research-l] Re: Negative views of Wikipedia in schools [was: Re: Wiki-research-l Digest, Vol 193, Issue 5 To: Research into Wikimedia content and communities wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org Message-ID: CAFUr+eUZrkbthHQd0TW6xE10osFyx4-J97GZFUxJvE=wKC5e0A@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Hi Mathieu

It is good to hear about your University of Canberra research project, and I would definitely be interested in responses to your question from other countries. Based on experience over several years in the Wikimedia Australia chapter[1] I can report that while we have presented to school library staff in online professional learning sessions and conferences, we have been involved in only a handful of secondary school programs and no primary schools. In order to reach classroom teachers we would rely on teacher education faculty and teacher librarians in schools to update teachers on media literacy and fact checking techniques. Noting that many ACT primary schools do not have qualified library staff[2] (an issue in a number of Australian states) this would need a multipronged attack.

Perhaps a survey of attitudes of teacher educators and teacher librarians could be a starting point. There is an email list for ACT school library staff that I can provide to you directly.

All the best, Pru

[1] https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwikimedia.... [2] https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.canber...

On Wed, 15 Sept 2021 at 18:25, Mathieu O'Neil mathieu.oneil@anu.edu.au wrote:

Hi everyone

Apologies if this has been covered previously on the list. I was inspired to write by the reference in the post below to the Wiki Ed Program.

I am about to launch with an education scholar colleague a funded research project aiming to develop fact-checking techniques with Y5, Y6 and Y7 schoolchildren in three Canberra schools (Australian Capital Territory). We are basing our approach to fact-checking on concepts developed by education scholars in the US such as "civic online reasoning" and "lateral reading": look away from the (potentially dubious) content; check the source. The easiest and most effective way to "check the source" is to look at a Wikipedia entry and check the reference list.

In parallel, I am convening a first-year communication course on media literacy at the University of Canberra with 140+ students. A couple of weeks ago we did a group activity on Wikipedia, where students were asked to review and discuss a Wiki Ed Program / Wikimedia brochure ("Instructor Basics: How to use Wikipedia as a teaching tool") which clearly outlines editorial and behavioral policies such as NPOV, Reliable Sources, Assume Good Faith, etc.

We then asked whether any prior assumptions had been challenged. It became clear that when they were in high-school, these students had been forcefully and repeatedly instructed by their teachers to NEVER use Wikipedia ("unreliable"). After completing the activity, students overwhelmingly expressed amazement about the existence of quality controls on Wikipedia and said their opinion of its reliability had changed.

We also have anecdotal evidence that primary and secondary school teachers hold similar negative opinions about WP.

It would be helpful for us to find out if this negative image is specific to the Canberra education system, or has been encountered elsewhere. To that end, I would very much appreciate it if anyone could point me to any studies or projects which explore this issue, or who could share their experiences of how teachers perceive Wikipedia.

If you want to get in touch off-list I usually respond quickest to email sent at my primary address: mathieu.oneil@canberra.edu.au

Many thanks! Mathieu

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