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The Spring 2013 semester was a busy one for Wikipedia projects at ITESM-Campus Ciudad de México in Mexico, building on the success of prior work and starting new activities.

Medical English class

Two classes of Medical English, an advanced-level English as a foreign language course for medical professionals, worked with Wikipedia in Spanish and English as well as Wikimedia Commons. The Commons project was first, with students uploading more than 60 photos related to their future professions, including photographs of hospitals, campus classrooms, and laboratory activities for their other courses. The next project was to translate medicine related articles from the English Wikipedia to the Spanish Wikipedia. Not only is this process a good way to introduce Wikipedia writing style, formatting and technological requirements, but it is also helpful to the Spanish Wikipedia, which has fewer medicine-related articles than the English version. Twenty four articles were translated including Artificial pancreas, Amaurosis Fugax, Binge drinking and Abdominal pregnancy. The final project was to create a new article or augment an existing article in English Wikipedia, preferably one with a topic related to Mexico. This effort resulted in 29 articles created or expanded including Dorsal nexus, Embryology of the heart, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, the Mexican Red Cross, and the History of smallpox in Mexico.

International Baccalaureate CAS

Students from the International Baccalaureate program at the high school level have now been working with Wikipedia for three semesters to fulfill hours needed for the CAS (Creativity, Action and Service) hours, working on various projects. Participating students for the this semester were Xibsuarz, MichiKiske17, Salcedo95, Piskysama4, Aerozt, and EdmundoGuadarrama.

They have continued to work on articles related to the ongoing project with the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, translating articles on artists such as Álvaro Zardoni as well as creating articles in English. Following their own interests, other articles were translated from English to Spanish, such as Incidente de la colina Flagstaff, Antojito (expanded), Cheonggyecheon, Laima, Abrahadabra (Thelema), Aeon (Thelema), Tsundere, and Fujiko F. Fujio. In addition to creating content on their own, students assisted with the judging of the Holy Week in Mexico photo contest and the descriptions and uploading of the donation of 2,100 images from ITESM campus archives into Wikimedia Commons (both detailed below).

Campus archive photo donation

In January, a project to prepare, upload, and integrate more than 2,000 photographs from campus archives was begun. The campus is a busy one with at least one activity happening each school day, all of which are photographed for publication in campus newsletters and other outlets. As an experiment, a primary batch of 100 photographs was donated in January 2013. Students from the International Baccalaureate program and Thelmadatter worked to create descriptions for the photographs, upload them and integrate them into Wikipedia articles where appropriate. At the end of this phase, the students gave a presentation to Armín Gómez, the director of campus communications and Lourdes Esptein, the director of the campus library, impressing them with how the photographs can be used in Wikipedia and seen worldwide. This led to the authorization of 2,000 more photographs, which are in the process of description and uploading. As of this writing, more than 1,700 are in Commons, and appear in more than 100 Wikipedia articles in English and Spanish. The donation has been particularly useful for photographs of notable writers, politicians, academics and others such as José Emilio Pacheco, Patrick Loliger, Susana Pagano, Manuel Espino, Federico Reyes Heroles, and many more. It has also been useful for images related to various forms of dance, both modern and folk and sports.

Holy Week in Mexico photo contest

Due to the success of last semester’s Day of the Dead photo contest, the campus library again sponsored a photo contest related to Mexican culture, this time dealing with traditions related to Holy Week. Most communities have some kind of public religious observance during this week, especially on Good Friday, and some are very elaborate and well-known in the country, such as those of Iztapalapa, Mexico City and Taxco, Guerrero. The contest attracted more than 160 photos related to the week, many of which are of high quality. There were three awards in three categories. The winner of the best photo category and the most photos category was Marcelo Sánchez Olaiz (User:Marcelolaiz) and the winner of the most original photo category was Jorge Alberto Rey Hernandez (User:A01333441jarh). The award for the best photo was an iPod Touch, for the most original photo was a gift certificate for 800 pesos and for the most photos was a gift certificate for 500 pesos.

Thelmadatter, Wikimedian Regional Ambassador/Professor at ITESM Campus Ciudad de México
Xibsuarz, International Baccalaureate student/CAS participant

Español

ITESM Campus Ciudad de México cumple muchos proyectos relacionados a Wikipedia

El semestre de Enero-Mayo 2013 ha estado lleno de proyectos para Wikipedia en el ITESM Campus Ciudad de México, México. Se ha trabajado tanto sobre proyectos anteriores como con nuevas actividades.

Clase de Medicina en Inglés

Dos clases de Medicina en Inglés, es decir, un nivel más avanzado de inglés como lengua extranjera para profesionistas médicos. Los alumnos han trabajado con Wikipedia en inglés y en español, así como con Wikimedia Commons. El proyecto de Commons inició con los estudiantes subiendo más de sesenta fotos relacionadas con su futura profesión. Estas fotografías incluían hospitales, aulas del campus y actividades de laboratorio de otras materias. El proyecto posterior consistía en traducir artículos médicos de Wikipedia en inglés al español. Esto, además de ser una buena introducción al estilo de redacción, formato y aspectos técnicos de Wikipedia, es útil para Wikipedia en español que tiene menos artículos médicos que Wikipedia en inglés. Vienticuatro artículos fueron traducidos, incluyendo Páncreas Atrificial, Amaurosis fugaz, Episodio alcohólico y es:Embarazo Abdominal. El proyecto final consistió en crear un nuevo artículo o expandir uno ya existente en Wikipedia en inglés, de preferencia uno relacionado con México. Esto resultó en veinte y nueve articulos creados o expandidos, incluyendo Dorsal nexus, Embryology of the heart, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Mexican Red Cross y también History of smallpox in Mexico.

CAS Bachillerato Internacional

Estudiantes del programa de Bachillerato Internacional en preparatoria han estado trabajando con Wikipedia por tres semestres para cubrir las horas necesarias de CAS (Creatividad, Acción y Servicio), trabajando en diferentes proyectos. Los estudiantes que participaron este semestre son: Xibsuarz, MichiKiske17, Salcedo95, Piskysama4, Aerozt y EdmundoGuadarrama.

Los alumnos han continuado en el proyecto de artículos relacionados con el Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, traduciendo artículos de artistas como es:Álvaro Zardoni, así como creando artículos en inglés. De igual manera, han traducido articulos de inglés a español de acuerdo a sus propios intereses como el Incidente de la colina Flagstaff, Antojito (expandido), Cheonggyecheon, Laima, Abrahadabra_(Thelema), Aeon_(Thelema), Tsundere y Fujiko_F._Fujio. Además de crear contenido propio, los estudiantes han juzgado fotografías para el concurso de Semana Santa en México, de igual manera, han subido fotografías y descripciones a Wikimedia Commons a partir de la donación de 2100 imágenes proporcionadas por el ITESM (ambos eventos con detalles más adelante).

Donación de fotografías de archivos del Campus

En enero se inició un proyecto para preparar, subir e integrar más de 2,000 forografías de los archivos del campus. El campus está lleno de actividades, con al menos un evento al día; todos estos eventos fueorn forografiados para una publicación escolar y otros medios. A manera de experimento, un lote incial de 100 forografías fue donando en Enero de 2013. Estudiantes del programa de Bachillerato Internacional y Thelmadatter trabajaron creando descripciones para las fotografías, lo que permite subirlas e integrarlas en artículos de Wikipedia con características apropiadas para tal fin. Al concluir este fase, los estudiantes dieron una presentación a Armín Gómez, Director de Comunicaciones en el campus y a Lourdes Esptein, Directora de la Libreria del campus, impresionándolos sobre como las fotografías pueden ser usadas en Wikipedia y vistas alrededor del mundo. Esto llevó a la autorización de 2,000 fotografías más, que están en proceso de descripción e integración. Más de 1700 fotografías están en Commons y más de 100 en artículos de Wikipedia en inglés y español. La donación ha sido útil para artículos de escritores notables, políticos, académicos y otros como José Emilio Pacheco, Patrick Loliger, Susana Pagano, Manuel Espino, Federico_Reyes_Heroles y muchos otros. También ha sido útil para artículos relacionados con varios tipos de baile moderna, folclórica y deportes.

Concurso de fotografías sobre la Semana Santa en México

En el semestre pasado (ago-dic 2012) el Campus patrocinó un concurso para documentar al Día de Muertos en México. Por tener éxito, la biblioteca del Campus patrocina otro concurso para documentar las tradiciones de Semana Santa en México. La mayoría de las comunidades en el país tienen celebraciones y procesiones religiosas durante la semana, sobretodo en Viernes Santo. Algunos son muy complejos y famosos en el país, incluyendo las de Iztapalapa, Mexico City and Taxco, Guerrero. El concurso de Semana Santa recibió más de 160 fotos relacionadas con estas actividades, muchas son de alta calidad. Tuvimos tres premios en tres categorías. El ganador en la categoría de “mejor foto” y la categoría de “mayor cantidad de fotos” fue Marcelo Sánchez Olaiz (User:Marcelolaiz), el ganador en la categoría de “foto con mayor originalidad de tema” fue Jorge Alberto Rey Hernández (User:A01333441jarh). El premio para la categoría de mejor foto fue un IPod_touch, para la fotos con tema más original, se entregó una tarjeta de regalo de 800 pesos y para la categoría de mayor cantidad de fotos, el premio fue una tarjeta de regalo de 500 pesos.

Thelmadatter, Wikimedian Regional Ambassador/Professor at ITESM Campus Ciudad de México
Xibsuarz, International Baccalaureate student/CAS participant

But hey, perhaps we should initially look at the overarching aim of an education programme in Sweden. The overall goal is to have Wikipedia (and other Wikimedia projects) accepted as learning tools among teachers at various educational levels in Sweden.

Employment

On 1 October, Sophie Österberg was employed as Education manager as to initiate and lead the education programme in Sweden. Then, the world’s first Wikipedian in Academy was employed the spring of 2013 by a Swedish University, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. We’ve recently spoken to another university here in Sweden who is quite interested in the idea of employing a Wikipedian. So we might see another Wikipedian in Academy this autumn.

Funding

The education programme managed to get funding for a quarter of the manager’s salary from an internet fund for a specific educational project. The project is a collaboration with an educational institution where we offer Wikipedia training to teachers of immigrants who are learning Swedish. When they’re on a more advanced level, a possibility is to translate a Swedish Wikipedia article about something typically Swedish and hence learn about a historical person or phenomenon, and writing this article in their native language on their Wikipedia language version. So far we’ve found, and had to meet-ups with the interested teachers who will engage their students in this the coming fall. Look at the list of examples of what to write about which is arguably typically Swedish. (What might a list look like on your language version? What are typical German, British, Spanish, Arabic articles?)

Invitations (at least a few of them)

The education programme has kindly and generously been invited to various events around in Sweden, mostly in Stockholm and Gothenburg, our two largest cities. We’ve been talking at large conferences, exhibiting the education programme at various events, held seminars and co-hosted teachers evenings and various workshops. At the Internet days here in Sweden we participated in a panel discussion regarding digital resources in education. At SETT (yes, it’s like BETT and is the Swedish version of it) we held lectures on both the days of the huge exhibition. We were also invited to have a seat at the jury for a well-established school competition in April. These are a few of the events we’ve been invited to, and the invitations keep on coming! (It must be due to the amazingly gorgeous t-shirts!)

Collaborations

The education programme is supporting a network of teachers in Sweden who are using the flipped-classroom idea. There has been a lack of a good place to store these movies so Commons seemed as a rather splendid alternative. The dialogue was initiated between the education manager and one of the most engaged flipped-classroom teachers in Sweden, Karin Brånebäck, in the end of March, and the first movie is now up after a page has been created for this purpose on Commons.

Moreover, the Swedish Educational broadcasting radio (which also does TV) has had its largest ever TV production aiming at immigrants learning Swedish and the teachers engaged in their education. Through the Wikipedia education programme, a part of the production is to have teachers share their experiences, knowledge and ways to teach Swedish via Wikiversity which is promoted by the Swedish Educational broadcasting radio. They will also create a short movie about Wikiversity and how one may contribute to the project.

Ambassador programme

On 24t March, all was created that was needed for an ambassador programme, and the very first Swedish Ambassador was done with his online training on 4 May. He has now been given a lovely t-shirt and other goodies and has already scheduled a meeting with the principal of the school to discuss how the best may utilise Wikipedia at their school.

Online-education

An online-training for teachers, which looks at the pedagogical aspects of Wikipedia, the current legislation in Sweden in regards to what should happen in school and how Wikipedia fits into that context, is now on Wikiversity. The course was finalised on 22 February, and 17 people have take the online course. The first teacher succeeded with all the three tasks the other day and has now been sent a …. well I guess you know by now what we’ve sent him! ;) He will run a programme this fall with his pupils to develop a specific article about an area that is close to their school. They will collect information and take photos, all in order to make Wikipedia better!

Travels

As a great part of the education programme here in Sweden is to inform about the possibility to use Wikipedia in the classroom through practical workshops and/or lectures, the education programme has been to 13 cities so far in Sweden. It’s actually 1,379 km (857 miles) between the cities Skellefteå in the north and Simrishamn in the south, so we’ve covered quite a bit of this long country, which is in total 1,574 km from north to south.

Programmes

• This past fall students at KTH Royal Institute of Technology had the option of writing their assignment as an article on Wikipedia.
• 13-year olds have started writing articles together with their very dedicated librarian.
• A high-school class has written articles relating to their journeys to Uganda and South Africa.
• The Royal College of Music has had a small tryout with Wikipedia writing about music production, which they wish to scale with much more students this coming fall.
• Students at Linneaus University are writing about different bacteria on Wikipedia as a part of their course.
• High-school students are currently writing about their home town and are finding historical fact by engaging the local museum to help them.

A tool

The programme has so gratefully had the chance to be helped by a dedicated Wikipedian in Sweden who has developed a tool for counting a group’s contributions to Wikipedia. This is currently used by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Museums have also expressed interest in using this as it makes possible to quantitatively see what they’ve actually contributed to this wonderful encyclopedia.

And what about the fall …. ?

Some of the things that are planned are:

• A day for teachers in museums about digital resources. This will be in collaboration with two other organisations.
• Half a day for primarily principals about Wikipedia. As teachers are very interested in Wikipedia but would need more support by their principals, we are arranging a half-day seminar about Wikipedia and its importance in education
• Education for librarians. A joint program with an organisation for school librarians about how Wikipedia works and how they can use it in their role as librarians.
• Initiating WikiMini in Sweden. The interest for WikiMini has been quite big in Sweden from teachers at younger levels, and we are aiming to have WikiMini up and running this fall. This will be in collaboration with an educational institution in Gothenburg.
• Two seminars during a course this fall for principals. In collaboration with an organisation supporting principals in Sweden, we have been offered to host two seminars during their semester-long evening course for principals where we will talk Wikipedia.
• Among various of other interesting & exciting stuff of course! :)

Sophie Österberg, Wikimedia Sverige

Wikimedia France is pleased to announce the first winner of the Wikimedia France Research Award:

Pete Forsyth, an early designer of the Wikipedia Education Program, is now teaching a free online course on Wikipedia and Open Educational Resources, along with Wikipedian and education researcher Sara Frank Bristow. The six-week course, “Writing Wikipedia Articles,” recently concluded its first run, and will be offered again starting 14 May (Americas)/15 May (Asia/Australia). You can enroll here.

The course was born of Communicate OER, a project that seeks to activate the Open Educational Resources community to improve and update Wikipedia articles relevant to its field. Accordingly, as students learn about the technical and social aspects of Wikipiedia, they are encouraged to improve such articles as open educational resources, open content, MOOC, and free license. Students successfully completing the course earn the WikiSOO Burba Badge, which is based on English Wikipedia’s “service awards” and Peer to Peer University’s badges. The course is offered through the Peer to Peer University’s recently launched School of Open.

“This course has allowed us to bring together several communities that are passionate about the same things, but not always closely connected,” Forsyth said. “The OER community brings the values and practices that brought Wikipedia into existence to formal and informal learning around the world. The School of Open provides the perfect environment for a course like ours, allowing us to work alongside colleagues from free culture organizations like Creative Commons and Mozilla.”

Students are welcome to enroll regardless of their background; while some familiarity with wikis or OER can be helpful, it is not required.

“The WikiSOO course is exactly the kind of work serious Wikipedians need to be doing not only to make their encyclopedia better, but to make their community a more sane place to collaborate,” said Christine, a student who earned the WikiSOO Burba Badge in the course’s first run. “This course provides a solid primer of the skills needed to navigate the syntax, discourse, and guidelines you will encounter if you want to make substantive contributions to Wikipedia’s audacious mission.”

Enrollment in the course’s second run is open through next week. (The first class will be held Tuesday/Wednesday.) See the course’s page on the School of Open for more information, or to join the 60 students who have already enrolled!

LiAnna Davis, Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager

With this in mind, we are pleased to announce the first Program Evaluation and Design Workshop, on 22-23 June 2013 in Budapest, Hungary.

We have only 20 slots available for this workshop and the application deadline ends on May 17th. This two-day event will be followed by a pre-conference workshop at Wikimania 2013. Ideally, applicants would commit to attending both events.

The first Program Evaluation & Design workshop will be held in the shadows of the Buda Castle, Budapest, Hungary

Our long-term goals for the workshop are:

• Participants will gain a basic shared understanding of program evaluation
• Participants will work collaboratively to map and prioritize measurable outcomes, beginning with a focus on the most common programs and activities
• Participants will gain increased fluency in common language of evaluation (i.e. goals versus objectives, inputs and outputs versus outcomes and impact)
• Participants will learn and practice how to extract and report data using the UserMetrics API
• Participants will commit to working as a community of evaluation leaders who will implement evaluation strategies in their programs and activities and report back at the pre-conference workshop at Wikimania 2013
• …and participants will have a lot of fun and enjoy networking with other program leaders!

We will publish a detailed agenda for the event in Budapest soon on Meta-Wiki.

During the workshop in Budapest, we will only have a limited amount of time. Therefore, we will be focusing on the some of the more common programs and activities:

• Wikipedia editing workshops where participants learn how to or actively edit (i.e. edit-a-thon, wikiparty, hands-on Wikipedia workshop)
• Content donations through partnerships with galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) and related organizations
• Wiki Takes/Expeditions where volunteers participate in day-long or weekend events to photograph site specific content
• Wiki Loves Monuments, which takes place in September
• Education program and classroom editing where volunteers support educators who have students editing Wikipedia in the classroom
• Writing competitions, which generally take place online in the form of contests, the WikiCup  and other challenges – often engaging experienced editors to improve content.

Contributors who play an active role in planning and executing programs and activities as described above in the Wikimedia community are highly encouraged to apply. Your experience and knowledge will make this workshop a success!

Hotels, flights and other transportation costs will be the responsibility of your chapter; the Wikimedia Foundation will provide the venue, handouts, breakfasts, light lunches, and a dinner for all participants on Saturday. If you’re not affiliated with a chapter and cannot afford to attend the event, please email me after you apply – we have a small amount of money set aside for those cases.

Remember, applications are open until May 17. You can apply via this Google Form.

Thanks for your interest, and I look forward to a great group of participants!

Sarah Stierch, Program Evaluation and Design Community Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation

This post is available in 2 languages:

Português  • English

In English:

Professor Rafael Pezzi, a professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, read about a new program to support university faculty members in Brazil who were interested in incorporating Wikipedia editing into students’ assignments. Rafael was intrigued by the idea, and thought it might be a good idea for his physics course for engineering students.

“Wikipedia makes it explicit how knowledge is built: a never-ending dynamic process with conflicting opinions in a lively discussion,” he says. “Although this process is fundamental, it is ignored in the standard textbook-based class where knowledge is just given, considered as an absolute truth.”

Rafael was impressed with the level of support he received in the program, both from colleagues and from the Wikipedia community. Fabio Azevedo and Israel Rocha served as Wikipedia Ambassadors for his class. They introduced Wikipedia and motivated the students to participate in the assignment. They were also very supportive on-line, clarifying technicalities of the Wikipedia interface and introducing the participants to the Wikipedia community.

For Fabio, an editor since 2007, becoming a Wikipedia Ambassador and supporting Rafael’s class was a natural choice.

“I was motivated by using a modern teaching technique at my university, improving free content in my language, and helping Wikipedia to grow,” Fabio says. “I gave a talk on Wikipedia editing for his students in the first or second week of class. After, I replied to some emails, helping students with editing question and uploading images.”

“I must say that the help of the Ambassadors was key to making it happen,” Rafael says. “Without them it would not have happened, as I am not an experienced editor and created my Wikipedia account for this project.”

Rafael’s students really took to editing, creating or significantly expanding several important articles about physics related topics on the Portuguese Wikipedia, including articles such as Thermometer, Supercritical fluid and Interference of waves. In fact, five of Rafael’s students enjoyed the assignment so much that they volunteered to be Ambassadors for the current term.

“Basically traditional writing assignments are read once or twice and then sits in a drawer or folder archive in the professor computer,” Rafael says. “It is of limited value and does not really motivate the student apart from getting a good grade. With Wikipedia, the students have the real publishing experience and the feeling that what they write can help others understand what they are studying. Some get really motivated by this challenge.”

LiAnna Davis
Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager

Em Português:

Professor de física encoraja estudantes a editar a Wikipédia em português

Professor Rafael Pezzi, um professor da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, leu sobre um novo programa que apoia professores universitários no Brasil que demonstrem interesse em incorporar a edição de verbetes da Wikipédia, no currículo estudantil. Rafael ficou intrigado pela ideia, e achou que poderia ser uma boa opção para a sua disciplina de física para estudantes de engenharia.

“A Wikipédia torna explicito como o conhecimento é construído: um processo infinito e dinâmico, com opiniões confrontantes, em uma discussão vívida,” ele diz. “Mesmo este processo sendo fundamental, ele é ignorado nas aulas comumente baseadas em leituras, onde o conhecimento é apenas entregue e é considerado como verdade absoluta.”

Rafael ficou impressionado com a boa qualidade do suporte que ele recebeu no programa, tanto de colegas como da comunidade Wikipédia. Fabio Azevedo e Israel Rocha atuaram como Embaixadores da Wikipédia na sua classe. Eles introduziram a Wikipédia aos estudantes e os motivaram a participar do projeto. Eles também ofereceram grande apoio on-line, esclarecendo especificações técnicas da interface da Wikipédia e introduzindo os participantes à comunidade Wikipédia.

Para Fabio, editor desde 2007, se tornar um Embaixador Wikipédia e apoiar a classe de Rafael foi uma escolha natural.

“Eu fiquei motivado em utilizar uma técnica de ensino moderna na minha universidade, melhorando o conteúdo livre disponível em meu idioma, e ajudando a Wikipédia a crescer “, diz Fabio. “Eu dei uma palestra sobre edição de Wikipédia para seus alunos na primeira ou segunda semana de aula. Depois, respondi a alguns e-mails, ajudando os alunos sobre como eram feitas as edições e o upload de imagens.”

“Devo dizer que a ajuda dos Embaixadores foi essencial para fazer tudo acontecer” diz Rafael. “Sem eles não teria acontecido, já que eu não sou um editor experiente e criei minha conta na Wikipédia para este projeto.”

Os alunos de Rafael realmente levaram a cabo a edição, criação e uma significativa expansão de importantes artigos sobre tópicos relacionados a física na Wikipédia em português, incluindo verbetes sobre Termômetro, Fluido supercrítico e Interferência de ondas. Na verdade, cinco dos alunos de Rafael gostaram tanto do projeto que se voluntariaram como Embaixadores para o atual período.

“Basicamente os trabalhos de escrita tradicionais são lidos uma ou duas vezes e depois postos em uma gaveta ou em uma pasta de arquivo no computador do professor” diz Rafael. “(Trabalhos tradicionais) São de valor limitado e não motivam verdadeiramente o estudante a nada além de receber uma boa nota. Com a Wikipédia, os estudantes têm uma experiência real de publicação e o sentimento de o que eles escrevem podem realmente ajudar outros a entender o que eles estão estudando. Alguns ficam realmente motivados por este desafio.”

LiAnna Davis
Gerente de comunicação do Programa Wikipédia no Ensino

At Rice University, students pursuing a minor in Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities (PJHC) must complete two core courses addressing poverty, justice, and human development. Since Spring 2010, Professor Diana Strassmann has given students in her courses the same final assignment: to create or expand Wikipedia articles about poverty and about the links between gender equality and economic development in various regions of the world. She has also trained the other professors who teach the minor’s core courses so that they can include the Wikipedia assignment.

Nadhika Ramachandran, a rising senior studying political science and international relations in addition to the PJHC minor, signed on for the first of the two core courses in Spring 2012 and learned that she would be editing Wikipedia. Nadhika was both excited and nervous.

“So many people turn to Wikipedia for information that you know your contribution can have a real impact in terms of how people view a certain subject,” she says. “Of course, that also made me a bit nervous because if I did not include certain information or an important viewpoint I would misinform people.”

For that term’s class, she significantly expanded the peacebuilding article, which introduced her to Wikipedia editing. Since Professor Strassmann has set this assignment up for both of the two core courses in the minor, Nadhika enrolled in the second class a year later. In that class, Nadhika created the Women in the Arab Spring article because she “felt it was an important issue that had no coverage” on English Wikipedia. The article explores women’s involvement in the political protests and demonstrations, including their role online.

“I love knowing that my work will educate people all over the world about an important but often-ignored topic,” Nadhika says. “The Arab world has a reputation of treating women as second-class citizens in areas like political participation, economic independence, personal freedoms, and general social status. When the Arab Spring first began, it seemed like a unique opportunity to boost the status of women in the Arab world. The protesters were pushing for democracy, increased political participation, respect for human rights, and better economic opportunities, all of which would improve the status of women. Additionally, women actually participated in the revolution as street protestors and in some countries, as leaders. However, as the new governments formed and Islamist parties won elections in most places people began to fear that they would actually curtail women’s rights. The impact of the Arab Spring remains to be seen.”

Nadhika’s class was supported by Wikipedia Ambassadors, who helped her and her classmates learn how to edit Wikipedia. The students received in-person support from university staff member Christine Cox as well as Virginia White and Joyce Chou, students who had taken the class in previous semesters. They could also seek assistance from long-time Wikipedia editors Mike Christie, Justin Knapp, and Pat Earley.

“The dedication of the other editors in the community reinforced the impact of our work and their support made me feel more comfortable when editing,” Nadhika said. After spending a few days responding to those editors’ constructive feedback, she submitted the new article to appear on the main page of Wikipedia as a Did You Know, and it appeared on March 25, with more than 1,500 views. Soon after creating the article, she was already able to achieve her goal of sharing the fruits of her academic studies with more people.

Thanks to Professor Strassmann’s advocacy for Wikipedia assignments, many students at Rice are editing Wikipedia during multiple terms. The students don’t necessarily edit in between assignments, but they’re returning to Wikipedia with a stronger editing background and familiarity with norms, so they have more time and energy to create even better content. Even though Nadhika has completed her class assignment, she plans to expand the section about the aftermath of the Arab Spring protests once her schedule clears at the end of the term.

Jami Mathewson
Wikipedia Education Program United States and Canada Associate

Chanitra Bishop.

Every day, students come to Chanitra Bishop for advice about information — everything from how to find certain articles, to what books will help their research projects. Ms. Bishop certainly has the right pedigree. At Indiana University Bloomington, she’s the Digital Scholarship and Emerging Technologies Librarian at the Herman B Wells Library, which contains more than 4.6 million volumes, including special collections in African Studies, Russian and East European Studies, Uralic and Altaic Studies, East Asian Studies, and West European Studies.

“I wanted to work in the library,” says Ms. Bishop, “because I enjoy working with people, doing research, and helping people find information.”

Ms. Bishop has found that same connection with Wikipedia. In the fall of 2010, she began helping IU Bloomington students who were writing articles for the Wikimedia Foundation’s Public Policy Initiative. That initiative, which evolved into the Wikipedia Education Program, had students write public-policy-oriented articles as a formal classroom assignment. As a Wikipedia Ambassador, Ms. Bishop works not just with students but with professors in the program. One of Ms. Bishop’s first realizations: While every student already read Wikipedia, few students realized they could actually edit and contribute to Wikipedia’s articles. Students also assumed that each Wikipedia article was written in full by just one person.

“When we explain Wikipedia,” says Ms. Bishop about the volunteer instructors, “we usually go in and do an initial talk, and a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, I never knew all of that.’ I like to show one of the videos that is about the ‘Edit’ button and how people often just ignore it. Even though it’s there, it’s like it’s not there. I tell them, ‘If you see something that’s inaccurate on Wikipedia, you don’t have to wait for someone else to fix it. You can fix it yourself. You don’t even need an account; all you have to do is click ‘edit.’”

Ms. Bishop also shows students a Wikipedia article’s “History” function, “so they can also see that even though an article today might have several different sections and be may be many pages long, when it first started out, it may have been six sentences. Often it may just start off as a sentence, or a paragraph, and then the community kind of helps build that article. So it doesn’t always just start off with someone just writing all of the information. Just one person kind of gradually can build up to its current state. So a lot of students also are surprised to see the initial, first view of the article.”

From her initial volunteering in 2010, Ms. Bishop is now Wikipedia Regional Ambassador for Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, meaning she works with Wikipedia Education Program classes throughout those three states. Ms. Bishop, who has a Bachelor’s degree in English and a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science, was raised in Chicago, which is just 120 miles from Bloomington. Being Wikipedia Regional Ambassador means she often connects with students online — while never having to leave Bloomington. Ms. Bishop feels like she’s part of the bigger Wikimedia community of readers, contributors and volunteers.

“The community is what really drives Wikipedia,” says Ms. Bishop, whose Wikipedia user name is “Etlib” — a derivation of “Emerging Technologies Librarian.” “There’s not one person that’s in charge and makes all the decisions about how Wikipedia works. It’s very much community driven and it’s something that anyone can be involved in. Even though anyone can be involved in it, it’s like any other community, so the more you contribute to that community, the more people will believe what you put on there, the more respect you’ll have in that community.”

Jonathan Curiel, Development Communications Manager, Wikimedia Foundation

This post is available in 2 languages:

العربية  • English

In English

With more than 280 million native speakers, Arabic is one of the world’s most spoken languages, but the Arabic Wikipedia has lagged behind other language Wikipedias in terms of the amount of articles. The Arabic Wikipedia has only 205,000 articles — a tiny fraction in comparison to the English Wikipedia, which has 4.2 million articles. But the Arabic Wikipedia has been steadily growing over the last year, thanks in part to the efforts of college students in Egypt participating in the Wikipedia Education Program.

The Wikipedia Education Program kicked off in Egypt with a Cairo pilot at two universities, Ain Shams University and Cairo University. The chart at right shows the amount of content added to the Arabic Wikipedia by students participating in the program. In the first term of the pilot, students added about 1.85 million bytes of content to the Arabic Wikipedia — an incredible achievement celebrated at a conference in Cairo in July 2012. In the second term of the pilot, which wrapped up in February 2013, students contributed even more, with over 5.97 million bytes of content added to the Arabic Wikipedia. In addition, students who we’ve introduced to editing through the Wikipedia Education Program have contributed an additional 515,000 bytes, meaning the program has brought a total of more than 8.34 million bytes to the Arabic Wikipedia.

Volunteer program leaders organized a second celebration conference at Cairo University on February 27, 2013. Dr. Abeer Abd El-Hafez, a professor of Spanish from Cairo University, opened the conference and spoke about the spirit of the program and its importance in the lives of students and teachers in terms of skills development and new experiences. Faris El-Gwely, the education program consultant who runs the program in Egypt, shared results from the second term, and the best students and Ambassadors from the program received certificates recognizing their hard work. Students and professors also shared information about their experiences in the program. See more photos from the conference.

The second celebration conference was a catalyst for the program to grow. Two more universities in northern Egypt have joined the program, Damanhour University and Kafr El-Sheikh University, as has Saint Khadija High School for Girls in Cairo. The drive from these programs comes from past students and Wikipedia Ambassadors who want to volunteer their time to further the spread of the Wikipedia Education Program in Egypt:

• Walaa Abd El-Moneim, leader of the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University
• Doaa Saif El-Din, leader of the Faculty of Al-Alsun (Languages), Ain Shams University
• Helana Raafat and Mina Saber, leaders of the Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University
• Samir El-Sharabaty, commander of the Faculty of Education, Damanhour University

Egypt is not the only Arab World country to see growth in the Wikipedia Education Program. In the term that’s just beginning, universities in Algeria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia have joined the program. All told, more than 45 classes will be editing the Arabic Wikipedia as part of their coursework this term.

In Jordan, Dr. Nidal Yousef of Isra University is one of five university professors teaching Wikipedia classes this term through the program. The Jordanian Teachers Association is also leading a program where high school students in every governorate in Jordan will be editing Wikipedia as part of their schoolwork, assisted by volunteer Wikipedia Ambassadors. Dr. Abd El-Haq Fareh of Algeria is also incorporating Wikipedia editing into his free software class this term. And Dr. Mohammed Alghbban and Dr. Sami Bin Slimah of King Saud University are leading a Wikipedia translation program in Saudi Arabia in their school’s languages department.

We look forward to seeing the Arabic Wikipedia continue to grow, thanks to these dedicated faculty leaders and students.

Faris El-Gwely, Education Program Consultant, Arab World
LiAnna Davis, Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager

Participants in the Education Program Leaders Workshop in Milan.

The Education Program Leaders Workshop was held in conjunction with the Wikimedia chapters conference in Milan, an annual opportunity for representatives from around the world to meet in person to discuss the future of the movement. The enthusiasm worldwide for the program bodes well for the future of Wikimedia projects like Wikipedia and education.

Notes from the workshop highlight the incredible depth and breadth of activities happening worldwide in the education sphere. Some programs, like in Serbia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Brazil, and Egypt, have been in operation for several terms and have been achieving incredible results on their language Wikipedias. Others, including programs in Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, have dedicated staff people working on furthering their goals. Programs in Mexico, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia are small but effective thanks to the dedicated work of individual volunteer educators whose drive to use Wikipedia in their own classrooms has furthered their language Wikipedias. Still others are just getting started, and many are exploring opportunities to collaborate with governmental bodies who work on creating curriculum and education policy to include Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.

“Education” is a broad field, and participants represented programs working with everyone from school-aged children to seniors. Workshop participants discussed the different activities relevant to education programs, and talked about the best way of setting goals for programs as a whole. The Wikimedia Foundation remains committed to supporting education programs worldwide through such support resources as brochures, a MediaWiki extension, and online trainings. Workshop participants agreed that developing a better system to share experiences across countries — perhaps a searchable database of learnings — would help programs learn from each others’ mistakes and determine the best path forward for their own programs. With more than 30 programs in operation worldwide, the future is bright for Wikimedia projects and education.

LiAnna Davis, Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager