Wikimedia Education SAARC Conference happening in India
Author: User:Pavan Santhosh (CIS-A2K)
Social Media channels or hashtags:
- Twitter: #EduWikiSAARC19 @CISA2K
Summary: During 20-22 July 2019, Wikimedians, education program leaders, educators and researchers engaged with Open Education and free knowledge movement from SAARC countries in South Asia are coming together to attend Wikimedia Education SAARC Conference happening in Christ University, Bengaluru, India.
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Logo of Wikipedia Education SAARC conference
Many of the SAARC countries in South Asia share a common history and culture. As a result, Issues and opportunities for Wikimedia in Education have lot of similarities in these countries. Wikimedia Education SAARC conference is first of its kind event which engages stakeholders of Wikimedia in Education in this region to help this community to understand the different efforts of communities involved in the Wikimedia Education movement and create models, templates and documents that can be replicated in by other institutions or programs.
Objectives of this event is as follows:
- To generate awareness of Wikipedian in Education and activities happening in Asia by different communities.
- Sharing the knowledge and best practices of how to build "trust relationship" with new partners and how to improve trust in Wikipedia.
- To understand Challenges on student retention and how to engage students in the broader Wikimedia movement.
- The best method to evaluate and measure the quality of the work done by students.
- To introduce tools like the dashboard, across diverse languages, and other tools which will be useful for tracking, assessment, allocation of the topics and others.
- Integration of Wiki activities with academic assignments, regular course syllabus.
- To bridge the gap and develop a mutually beneficial liaison between Wiki communities and Wikimedia Education stakeholders.
Centre for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge, team that is working to catalyze the growth of open knowledge movement in South Asia is collaborating with Christ University, a private deemed university in Bengaluru, India where CIS-A2K has been working with the department of languages from 2013 that is resulting students of the university to contribute to multiple Wikimedia projects to organize this conference.