Education/Countries/Switzerland
Primary Contacts
editIlario Valdelli, Staff, Wikimedia Switzerland
Project Portal
editProgram Description
editGoals and Activities
edit- Goals
- To increase to adoption of Wikimedia project by the Academic world, To improve quality by reaching new qualified editors
- Activities towards goals
- One Day Workshop at the Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne: should open the way for regular workshop during the academic year
- Initiation conference for Senior & Junior: An afternoon of presentation of the wikimedia world to 6 seniors help by 8 juniors (14-16).
- Initiation lesson at the University of Applied Sciences in Yverdon
- Presentation and training on Wikipedia for librarians, BFH in Bern, by Diego Hättenschwiler
- General Presentation on Wikipedia at Journées des Alternatives Urbaines, Lausanne by Chantal Ebongué
- Participation of two board member to the Education meeting during Wikimedia Conference in Milan
- Wikimedia CH provided Kiwix to people in jail. The aim of the project is to link the usage of Wikipedia with the training program of the prisoners : use of Wikipedia in the classes, organization of general culture contests. Eventually we want to train new Wikipedia editors. This last point needs It development because the prisoners to do not have access to the internet.
Reflections
edit- We notice that we should have a team of teachers that we can train, not only on wikip/media but also on pedagogic issues. We aim to build a team of WP coaches/teachers in the 3 languages.
- We cancelled the organization of the EduWiki Conference in 2013. The project didn't receive the approval of the head of the University. Then, we prefered to cancelled the event rahter than runnning it without a full partnership with an Education partner.
Projects
editCollege of Colombières
editThe "Wikipedia" activity is an educational activity conducted at the College of Colombières Round orientation since the 2006-2007 school year. It involves the creation or improvement of Wikipedia articles by students of the seventh year (see Swiss education system ) under the guidance of their teacher. This activity lasts for a few weeks and can address the different concepts in the field "Information and communication".
Aims:
- Familiarize students with the Information Technology and Communication for Education ;
- Enable students to improve themselves subjects of interest;
- Forcing the rigor through systematic identification of their sources of information;
- Make students understand the virtues and difficulties of collaborative work and peer review.
- These objectives form a coherent whole and aim to encourage everyone's participation in the construction of a reference book and dissemination of knowledge.
- Students, in general, are already a very regular use Wikipedia for their research. This activity shows them how to move from a mere consumer to a contributor.
Wiki Loves Universities
editThe Wiki Loves Universities project has several targets. First, it is a question of distribution of free knowledge in and from Switzerland. Numerous of scientific collections realized by eminent swiss biologists are not preserved and promote as they deserve. It falls into the scope of our association to help in resolving this issues.
- In terms of content, these collections represent uniques sources of free illustration for hundreds of wikipedia articles and Wikispecies entry.
- Wiki Loves Universities will be composed of different digitalization project, but also partnerships for scientific congress ogranisation of scientific event for general audience.
- These projects will be good occasions for building bridge with academic world.
- A project in preparation will concern the digitalization of an herbarium with a part of initiation to Wikipedia, Commons and Wikispecies to the scientist and the student of the university.
University of Neuchâtel Herbarium
edit- Neuchâtel’s Alma Mater and Wikimedia CH have signed an agreement for the digitization and dissemination on free collaborative websites of photographs of dried pressed specimens of Swiss plants from the herbarium of the University of Neuchâtel (UniNE).
- It puts into concrete form an initiative taken by Charles Andrès, Chairman of Wikimedia CH and lecturer in biology at the University of Neuchâtel.
- Thanks to the participation of the Institute of Biology and especially that of Jason Grant, the person in charge of the herbaria, several hundred specimens have already been digitized and will shortly be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, the online media library.
- Eventually, some 30,000 specimens comprising images and scientific descriptions of Swiss plants will be available for public viewing.
LabiSAlp
edit- The LabiSAlp is a scientific center of research focused in the study of Alps. It is composed by a committee of researchers and teachers from different countries (Switzerland, Italy, France, etc.).
- The material is already in digital format, but some budget can be used to turn into a standard format.
- They have contacted Wikimedia CH in order to donate their scientific articles published in their review in different languages (German, French and Italian and some minors in Rumantsch).
Aims:
- Upload this content in Wikisource
- Empower weak articles concerning Alps using this content
- Organize a "peer review"
Budget: The budget (20.000 - 40.000 CHF) will cover these costs:
- a person dedicated to the project in order to collaborate with the Laboratorio di Storia delle Alpi to help them to upload the content, to contact the authors and to review the text
- organize local events to to give a plug to the project
Wikipedia Offline in Jail
editSince March 2013, prisoners who request can have an access to Wikipedia offline. The idea is to stimulate or to support the interest for education of prisoners who were, for a large majority, condemned to long-time sentences.
After three months of pilot phasis, the project is successful: Among the 36 prisoners of the Bellevue’s prison in Gorgier, 18 possess or rent a computer. All of them requested the upload of Wikipedia offline on their PC. For security reasons, swiss prisoners have a very restricted access to internet. The feed-backs are unanimously positive: they reveal that Wikipedia is seen as an improvement of the education and/or information activities in jail.
The follow-up of the project aims to use Wikipedia in the training program of the prisoners: use of Wikipedia in the classes, organization of general culture contests, even train new Wikipedia editors. The partnership between Wikimedia CH and the direction of the prison aims to be durable: Wikimedia CH installed the Kiwix files and trained the IT team of the prison, who can now upload the software for every new prisoner who requests.
WMCH is now collaborating with the Swiss Insitute for Education in Detention Centers to expand the coverage of Wikipedia offline in Swiss Prisons.
Detention Centers for minors are excluded from this program in Switzerland as they get access to the internet and don't have the need to access Wikipedia offline.
Sponsoring of the SOL2012 congress
edit- Wikimedia CH, is now an official partner of the Congress SOL2012, the Solanaceae Conference. This is the annual conference bringing together the leading scientists in the field of Solanaceae, a large family of plants.
- At first sight, this may be a surprising partnership for a Wikimedia-related entity, but our goal was to collaborate with a major scientific congress.
- The participation of Wikimedia CH will take the form of the development of a USB key distributed to all attendees, containing the conference abstract book, as well as the ZIM offline reader Kiwix, and the ZIM files of a selection of articles related to the subject of the conference, in English, French and German.
- Wikimedia CH is willing to support any initiative on Wikipedias for the improvement of key articles on in English, French and German for example WMCH could provide prizes for winners of editing contest, or access to research article not in open access or also help for the acquisition of book of reference in the scope of the articles.
- In return for our support, the abstracts should be published on line or in an open access journal, so that Wikipedians can use them as references in Wikipedia articles.
- We will also hold an information booth during the convention to reach the participants and participate in an official workshop about dissemination of scientific information from labs to public.