Updates on the Leamos Wikipedia en Bolivia 2021
Author: Erlan Vega
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Summary:
The second edition of the program "Reading Wikipedia in Bolivia" has received 448 new applicants, and more institutions are getting interested in expanding the project in Bolivia. Also, the community is looking at ways to make this project as inclusive as possible. At the same time, the project has given the local community a boost to continue working on education-related projects due to the reception of the program.
After a very successful first version of the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom program in Bolivia, the Wikimedistas de Bolivia user group embarked on a new challenge to help teachers use Wikipedia in the classroom to improve media literacy and critical reading. The resources and experience obtained during the pilot run by the Education team from the Wikimedia Foundation led the group to apply for a Project Grant to continue this effort.
After being awarded the Project Grant, the group started organizing a second edition of the program in Bolivia. So far, 485 teachers have already signed up for our first open call and conversations are in motion with different teachers associations, especially those in the countryside, in order to get more people on board. A school's director showed interest in making the program available for the primary teachers to prepare them for the flood of information they will receive once they get access to a cell phone.
The project is designed to be as inclusive as possible. Some connection costs are covered by the project to get an equal number of women and men. Also, we are making efforts for teachers from rural areas to sign up. Since making the effort of taking online courses is bigger in the country, we are looking into ways of getting certification from the Ministry of Education or a national teacher's association.
Another very interesting development is that the user group is growing and more people are joining based on their abilities. Due to the level of activity, the group has now twelve people as part of this program among volunteers and coordinators. The project aimed to have a hundred teachers participating in this iteration, but the number of teachers interested in the project has surpassed that milestone on its first round of applications. The group is looking forward to sharing their experiences with the program in the near future.
Facebook: wikimediabolivia, Twitter: @wikimedia_bo