Education/Newsletter/June 2023

Wikipedia, the world's largest online encyclopedia, with the Open Foundation West Africa recently launched the African Day Campaign with the theme: "Africa Continental Free Trade, Bridging the Africa Continent Gap, One Article at a Time" to celebrate African entrepreneurs, innovators, academicians and more. The campaign launched on 20th May 2023 and ended on 20th June 2023 aimed to bridge the content gap in African-related content on Wikipedia and support the growth of African start-ups in general. Read more…

Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom has been organized successfully in Yemen where 30 teachers were trained to use Wikipedia and its significance. Read more…

The implementation of RWIC in Lagos State was like a dream come through. It had already been launched in Kwara, but Lagosians always like to be first with any innovation in Nigeria. Yes, Kwara beat us to it but The Lagos State Teaching Service Commission accepted it. The commission approved a pilot phase for the training of 50 teachers. Then the real journey began! Read more…

Wikiteka, a project aimed at Polish teachers - librarians, is completing its first edition. The pilot activities in 2022 brought together a wonderful group of creative, extraordinary people who were able to engage themselves and their students in wiki activities. We talked about what we did together this year, and plans for the next one, in May at a conference and during a study visit to a unique school library. Read more…

Wikimedia UK shares a research booklet that argues for the power of our work to support a more resilient civic space. Our main inquiry was to understand how improving information literacy skills contributes to Wikimedia UK’s vision of a more tolerant, informed, and democratic society. Does our work increase participants’ information literacy, and does this in turn lead to a more engaged civil society? We reviewed the current understanding and frameworks in the intersection of literacies, civic engagement, and democratic participation, to see how information literacy has been found to support civic engagement. We then explored how Wikimedia UK’s work contributes to civic disposition skills. Our research concludes that Wikimedia’s activities can increase citizen engagement in democratic processes through our work in information literacy by 1) Providing open and free access to accurate information, 2) Improving information literacy skills of individuals, 3) Encouraging volunteering, and 4) Providing accessible collaborative infrastructure. Read more…

In June, the research group of Tartu University presented the results of the research “Using Wikipedia for educational purposes in Estonia: The students′ and teachers′ perspective“. The research project, funded by the Wikimedia Foundation and carried out by the Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics in Tartu University, started in the Autumn of 2022. The project is still in the process, however, its research part has been completed. Read more…

Wiki Movimento Brasil's month highlight was at the EduWiki Conference 2023. Four representatives, two presentations, one lightning talk, a workshop session, and a panel discussion marked WMB's visit to Serbia. The group was also one of the event's supporters. Read more…