Eduwiki Conference 2023/Report

Overview

The most common area of programmatic work carried out by Wikimedia communities and entities:

• 90 estimated number of organization/ countries within the movement implementing Education programs
• 70% proportion of WMF grantees who indentify Education as a core programmatic area in their annual plans
• $5M estimated annual spend by the Foundation on supporting movement implementation of Educational programs

Wikidata for Education: Aligning Wikimedia projects with school curricula

This session discusses a pilot project using Wikidata to digitalize the school curriculum in Ghana. The Wikidata for Education initiative aims to ensure that the "sum of all knowledge" can be aligned with school curricula and easily accessible by teachers, students and researchers to achieve their learning objectives.

Wikidata for Education will start with a pilot project in Ghana to structure curriculum data, add it to Wikidata, create more curriculum-aligned content, and develop platforms that help curate it. Below are examples of how this initiative will impact global education.

• Why modelling the curriculum? Making it possible improve the accessibility and quality of Open Educational Resources. Where are we now? We collected data curriculum, create a date model, upload data, publish and report.

• What's next? Get the wikidata propriertiies left; add more curriculua to wikidata

Wikidata page: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Wikidata_for_Education

Wikidata in Secondary School Classrooms

Wikidata can be used as a teaching and learning tool in secondary school social studies classrooms, because can help students develop critical thinking skills, collaboration and engage in research to enhance their understanding of social studies concepts. Challenges: lack of awareness, digital divide, curriculum integration

Ikusgela: adding pedagogical free videos to Wikipedia articles

Ikusgela is a project specialized in pedagogical videos. Its aim is to increase the presence of the Basque language on the web and to complete the scope of Basque Wikipedia. With a fresh tone that appeals to both students and those interested in the topics being worked on, it will use a language and resources adapted to the new narratives. All the videos, moreover, have been completed with free content, mostly from Wikimedia Commons, and the material created will also be free, as a sign of a way of acting in the network. Ikusgela also wants to act as a bridge: it wants to bring those who only use Basque in the formal sphere to see Basque content in the informal sphere as well.

Students are going to video platforms more than ever and this content is not usually free (some want to make money and other don't know how to use cc licenses).

Step to create Ikusgela:

• they helped the prototype of the idea via a digital humanities grant

• they talked to institution (basque is giving the most)

• they partnered with expert (teachers)

The most difficult part was write solid script. Each script is created by topic expert from university, secondary school (they tell them what is important for student); then their communication partners translate in into a viewable video (photo and video from Wikimedia Commons). Publishing: create a page with the credits at their wikipedia project, then they published on the social media platform (youtube, tik tok, ins

tagram, mastodon..).

Future plans: something with music, universal literature, technology.

Wikipedia: https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari:Hezkuntza

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Ikusgela

Website: https://wikimedia.eus/ikusgela/

Democracy and Wikimedia - sharing insights on how our work strengthens civil society

Booklet on Democracy and Wikimedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wikimedia_and_Democracy_-_Wikimedia_UK_report_2021_(full_report).pdf&page=1

Utilizing PETScan Tool for Identifying Wikipedia Articles in Need of Translation or Expansion

In the context of education program and training workshops, the tool offers diverse application, including: extraction a list of articles requiring translation, e extraction a list of articles in need of expansion, extraction a list of articles requiring maintenance, sorting of pre made article lists, and more.

Tool: https://petscan.wmflabs.org/

Pedagogy in crisis: support for teachers in Peru

They analyse the current situation of secondary school teachers, in Puno (Peru) in terms of access, verification, and creation of knowledge (i.e. Wikipedia, Encyclopedias, etc.). For doing it, they run a survey where they ask questions about i) knowledge and use of encyclopedias and Wikipedia, ii) Media and Information Literacy, and iii) training courses and tools. They are trying to create WIkimedia Andes. Problem there: gender gap, from minoritized to minority, education in crisis (most of the courses are in spanish, but they speak other "minor" language. Is difficult to write in this language). They implement the reading wikipedia in the classroom program. They use wikisourse to write article in quechua. If someone want to contribute only with voice, it's possible to use lingua libre: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Lingua_Libre.

To do pedagogy we need new approach!

Enhancing Education Programs and Workshops Quality through Data Collection and Analysis

Pros: i) facilitates group dynamics and interaction; ii)stimulates varies perspectives and insights; iii)generates rich qualitative data

Cons: i) requires skilled facilitation; ii) dominant voices may overshadow other; iii)difficult to ensure equal participation; iv)findings may not represent individual perspectives accurately

Data analysis tools:

• Spreadsheets: excel and google sgeets
• Programming languages: Python, R and SQL
• Data visualization tools: Tableau and Power BI
• Advanced programs: MATLAB, JMP and SPSS

Example 1 - Issue:engagement challenges in meetings/workshop -- Resolution: leveraging surveys to identify participants interest

Example 2 - Issue: excessive trainer talking and limited student interaction -- Resolution: Decreasing trainer teaching time (TTT) and implementing a measure to assess solution effectiveness

Let’s Connect Peer Learning Program: What we have learnt so far?

What is let's connect?

• Open and safe peer learning space for any wikimedian that is part of an organized group;
• Space to share and/or learn different skills with other peers to contribute collectively to the community;
• Purpose: develop skills, share knowledge, promote human connection and mutual support between different groups in alignment with the Movement Strategy.

The team: this is a collaborative program with community and WMF. Community working group guide and create the sense of joint ownership with the community; Foundation providing the platform and support to highlight community work, learning and networking.

How does it work? 1. Learning clinics (organize workshop, support communities), 2. Connection (use the skills directory to find people to learn and share with), 3.Connection to other spaces (informing members of other training opportunities)

Skills: grant proposal writing, organizational planning, volunteer management, community health and governance, team management, learning and evaluation, improving organizational skills

Article "Support Beyond Funding: Introducing the Peer Learning Program – Let’s Connect": https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/02/24/support-beyond-funding-introducing-the-peer-learning-program-lets-connect/

Reading Wikipedia in the classroom in Morocco

1st, 2nd edition through facebook and 3rd they organize a boothcamp (more than 800 participant from all Morocco).

How to build educational materials to work on Wikimedia Projects in the classroom?

Wikimedia Argentina design and implement of the series of booklets "Teaching with Wikipedia", designed for secondary school teachers and based on the curriculum design of secondary school in Argentina. They also printed some copies and they send them to 200 teachers around Argentina. At the end of each booklet there are 4/5 activity to do online (but also offline).

Here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Serie_Ense%C3%B1ar_con_Wikipedia. We can translate it in Italian!

Activity: design your proposal.

• Starting point: how much do you know about the school, the curriculum or the educational experiences in our county? At what educational level do you want to place it? Is it something for teachers or for students?
• Wikimedia project: which Wikimedia project will you choose? why? do you know in depth? what do you have to learn about the use of this project?
• Modality: what type of modality will you choose for this material? Is it an activity, an explanatory text, a tutorial, a guide, an infographic? Why do you choose this modality to design it?
• Support: How is it going to be doing? Is it a video, a digital material? Can it be used autonomously or does it need a workshop to be implemented? Can you design it or do you have to contact an expert for the design?

Wikipedia as a learning tool at university: New editors and engagement

Students at university level have been using Wikipedia as a source in their daily basis. Creating and expanding articles has also been tested for quite a while as a regular activity in regular courses. Furthermore, the learning outcomes and students’ engagement during the whole process has been successful. However, if we take into account the data regarding students editing habits after the class activity is completed the results are rather poor. The vast majority has not edited anymore after the completion of their compulsory activities, even when they expressed, they were happy with the possibility of contributing to Wikipedia.

Student's difficulties: editing, fear of other editors (communities), misunderstanding of copyrights law, suspicious over sharing their work. The solutions can be (maybe) more guidance during the project, teamwork, incorporation in the curriculum, training on open knowledge after the project, offline groups (help connections).

Tips & Tricks for the Programs & Events Dashboard

The Programs & Events (P&E) Dashboard allows organizers to effectively train participants in their programs, monitor the work participants do on Wikimedia wikis, and assess their contributions. It also allows them to report metrics on what the participants have done. While it is aimed at a more general audience of organizers in the Wikimedia movement, the underlying Dashboard was built to support education programs. The tool assists in collecting and systematizing data on the activity developed, in generating reports, and in measuring student performance in order to evaluate them effectively. However, the metrics can become meaningless if the educator does not carry out adequate planning, pre-establishing how the students' participation will be evaluated. You'll see the list of students and how many of them finish the training (and the time).

Dashboard: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/.