I agree that any community service type editing would have to be planned and done
carefully as the type of work being done is everything. Obviously adding content about
businesses and television shows would have no community impact, but documenting cultural
topics, marginalized peoples, and the like very well could. Not to mention academic topics
to the same communities as Wikipedia Zero serves. No sense students having free access if
they information they need does not exist.
Servicio social for Mexican universities also has an academic component, relating the
service to their majors. María José has written a blog post, which is in the draft queue,
about her experience which I hope gets published eventually.
Leigh
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2015 21:03:50 -0400
From: aleksey.bilogur(a)gmail.com
To: wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
CC: wikimedia-cascadia(a)lists.wikimedia.org; wikimediaus-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Editing Wikipedia for school community service hours
If editing Wikipedia counted as community service my school ought to start
handing me plaques.
Alas, it does not, for a host of legitimate reasons as I see it, ranging
from academic uncertainty about the usefulness of doing so when it comes to
community impact, to the sheer difficulty of actually measuring. More
meaningful (and, in the spirit of things, selfless) to volunteer at a local
Wikipedia editing event then to sit back in an armchair and do the whole
first-world-netizen-at-a-computer thing.
On Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 8:57 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
Many schools in the United States encourage or require students to perform
community service hours, such as by cleaning up parks, caring for the
disabled, or tutoring younger students. Sometimes more specialized
requirements apply, such as university schools of education or health which
may require experience that is applicable to a student's desired
coursework. Contributing to Wikimedia is one form of accepted community
service in a multi-campus Mexican university, and the practice seems to be
gaining momentum (see
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/04/13/wiki-learning-edit-a-thon-mexico/).
These community service programs are different from in-class assignments
that require Wikipedia editing. Wikipedia can benefit from both kinds of
activities.
I am wondering, have other Wikimedia affiliates had success with
encouraging students to complete community service requirements by
contributing to Wikimedia? I am thinking that here in Cascadia, we might
encourage schools to allow this option, and other affiliates also might
want to explore this possibility.
Thanks,
Pine
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