Hey Guys,
I am Wasim, Campus Ambassador at the India Education Program.
I have been reading the mails from the wiki lovers about the so called DEATH and POST MORTEM of the India Education Program. It feels terrible to hear such words but on the other hand we are going to accept this and learn from the same. As we all know the program was a pilot program and it is just a BABY, at this stage we all make mistakes.
- About the student selection in future I think it is better to keep it optional so that we get more QUALITY instead of QUANTITY. - We want some more participation from the Teachers, so that the articles are checked regularly. - Online Ambassadors need to be more ACTIVE so that the burden on CA's is reduced to some extent. - Planning needs to be done as far as the Article selection is concerned to avoid unnecessary copy paste.
Talking about the involvement, it is voluntary and we need to step up and take the responsibility to make it successful. If we just keep complaining about the things like *"we had no idea of what to do"*, then I don't think the program is going to work with your support. Sometimes you need to lead and take up the challenge, as it is rightly said by someone *"RESPONSIBILITY IS ALWAYS TAKEN - NEVER GIVEN".* * * To be honest we have learnt a lot from the program and we are sure to work on the* delta's (Δ) .* Also if you guys can appreciate the fraction of work we have done it would be motivating and in future we would be better than now. We dared to think out of the box and had the courage to stand in front of 1000 students and urged them to write on Wikipedia.
There are some things which cannot be experienced by sitting at home. We were present right there to experience the feeling of pride and victory in the student eyes when he was able to write a paragraph on Wikipedia, that really matters in a pilot program.
Criticizing Ideas demotivates everyone, and It gives an impression to the participants that their Ideas will get them into trouble. The thing is wackiest ideas are the most creative.
*"Our greatest glory consist not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." * * * *Thanks & Regards,* *Wasim* * * * *
Regarding so called death and post-marten
I wont be right person to talk about CoEP or SSE, I am assigned to SNDT Women's University,So I will stick to the work and responsibilities assigned to me... it is challenging to engage female editors as we have less women editors. (IEP is still running in SNDT)
Instead of following classic approach of going to Classes and teaching them*during lectures *, I preferred to have fun workshops on Sunday's where they come together for 3 hours and do "collaborative editing"
Even before India Education Program, I had conducted Wiki Editing Workshops, and even without marks and prize students from workshops are editing wikipedia regularly. And Whole world edits wiki not to get marks but to learn and to have fun. So for me it was ideal to follow fun workshops for my own assigned IEP class.
And current status of my class is - Everyone started editing wikipedia, so we have new women editors who never edited wikipedia before...regarding articles - not great, quality is not good, still need to conduct more workshops to improve quality of their work.
Good thing about class is - Class Teacher attends Community Meet-ups and is aware of ongoing activities (sometimes more updated than myself).
Another good thins - Workshops are on Sundays in absence of teachers, so they can ask doubts freely. and can have real fun.
still I have to work hard to improve "quality" of articles through workshops, and hope so other classes CA's (SSE and CoEP) find such alternative which is more effective.As of now, CoEP and SSE follows classical *presentations during lectures* method.
We will resume workshops after SNDT exams. Will keep updating all of you about progress at SNDT and IEP.
Thanks to those who supported :-)
Keep Supporting, Keep Inspiring!
Best, Abhishek Suryawanshi
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