Education/Newsletter/December 2014/Eastern European education programs presented at regional conference

Eastern European education programs presented at regional conference

CEE 2014 Education Program Session

Snippet: Education program leaders share experiences and discuss best practices at the annual meeting of Central and Eastern European Wikimedians.

At the third annual meeting of Wikimedians from Central and Eastern Europe, Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2014, education program leaders from around the region shared their experiences participating in the Wikipedia Education Program as well as their advice for others in the region interested in participating too. This panel presented many successful models from different countries that could be used to design or reimagine education programs in the region. The session was moderated by Anna Koval, Manager of the Wikipedia Education Program in Eastern Europe. The meeting took place in Kyiv, Ukraine from 19—21 December 2014 and was organized by Wikimedia Ukraine.

Local perspectives were presented by Filip Maljković of Serbia, Kaarel Vaidla of Estonia, Vira Motorko of Ukraine, Snezana Strkovska of Macedonia, Susanna Mkrtchyan of Armenia, Greta Doçi of Albania, Marek Stelmasik of Poland, and Vassia Atanassova, Ph.D. of Bulgaria. Global perspectives were presented by Anna Koval from the Wikimedia Foundation.

Dr. Atanassova presented her experiences from teaching a university elective course on WIkipedia and Wiki Technologies. Her presentation called "The Wiki Educator's Survival Kit" is available on Wikimedia Commons, along with her Survival Manual for students.

The session concluded with this video from Wikimedia Armenia about Wikipedia in Ayb High School.

As it stated in the programme, "Undoubtedly, engaging students to participate in improving Wikipedia not only helps improve Wikipedia in the first place, but also educates more people about it: the way it works, how to properly use it, how to make it better." This may be why the Wikipedia Education Program is one of the most quickly developing projects in our communities. :)