Education/News/November 2023/First anniversary of the game Wikeys

Summary: Wikeys, the board game for the 12 years old and on, celebrates its first birthday. In a playful way, the game explains the operating rules of Wikipedia. The game is now available online and translated into over 6 languages. Here's a review of its first year.

Wikeys, one year to get started

Since its creation, Wikimédia France has never ceased to support French-speaking teachers using Wikipedia as a teaching tool. We offer resources such as videos of testimonials from project leaders. How can we provide teachers with an innovative, fun teaching resource to help them understand the rules of contribution?

Designed collaboratively by a working group of Wikipedians and secondary school teachers, the game was supported for 4 months by the Ministry of Education before its official launch.

The rules of the game are very simple. Over the course of a game lasting around 20 minutes, players are grouped into teams of 2 to 7 and take on the role of Wikipedia editors. By placing cards on the board, they earn points as they learn to write an article that must meet several criteria (editing the article, sourcing information, balancing points of view, and avoiding editing wars).

The game was officially released online on October 5, 2022. Designed by a firm specialized in game design with funding from the French Ministry of Culture, it was first released in a print-and-play version, a format that allows every educator and family to print and cut it out free of charge. Since October 2023, it has been available in an online 3D version on Tabletopia (free account to create), and will soon also be available in a web version hosted on the association's website.

Here is the link to the print & play version

Wikeys workshops across France

To support the roll-out of the game, numerous workshops were organized. In all, 20 workshops were held over the course of 1 year in more than 15 towns and cities, enabling more than 300 national and popular education professionals to be trained in the use of Wikeys as a tool for media and information literacy.

Over the course of a game, teachers get to grips with the game and learn about the notions of sourcing, plagiarism, and neutrality of point of view. They can then play the game independently in class. In this way, the game has been used as a teaching resource, particularly in media and information literacy courses taught by librarian teachers to middle and high school students.

Wikeys in the movement

The game has been translated into English, Albanian, German, Italian, and Swiss German, thanks to Wikimedians from Colombia, Albania, Switzerland, and the US, among others, who worked collaboratively on the translation of the print & play version. After just one year, Wikeys now exists in 6 language versions, enabling it to be used in many countries outside France.

Once translated, Wikeys was introduced at EduWiki in Belgrade, then at Wikimania in Singapore, and most recently at Wikiconvention Francophone in Abidjan for French-speaking Wikimedians.

Wikeys is still looking for volunteers to help translate the game (print & play version) into over 20 languages, including Armenian, Ukrainian, and Greek.

Here is the meta page if you want to enroll in the translation of Wikeys : Wikeys/Traduction

What's next?

The next step for Wikeys will be to publish the game to schools and to enable everyone to buy a box of the game directly from our website.

Here is the meta page if you're interested in publishing the Wikeys: Wikeys/Publishing.