Talk:Education/About

Program name: Global vs Wikipedia Education

Hi, I'm a bit confuse. When I started working on the 'Wikipedia Education Program', the name was 'Global Education Program'. As fas as I understood, it has changed to 'Wikipedia Education Program' (Curiosity: Why?). I've seen some recent references to the program still as Global Education Program. What is the actual program name? --Everton137 (talk) 17:42, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Hi Tom, the change was made because "Global Education Program" means nothing to professors and other people we reach out to, whereas "Wikipedia Education Program" speaks to the core of the program: Wikipedia. You still hear it referred to as Global Ed because internally it still carries that name, and you work for WMF, but please use Wikipedia Education Program in every communication you make. -- LiAnna Davis (WMF) (talk) 19:00, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Hi, LiAnna. Thanks to clarify this! Internally, Global Education Program. To the external public, Wikipedia Education Program. So I'll keep the name Programa Wikipédia no Ensino, which was discussed here and I decided as the proper term for Wikipedia Education Program. I confess it's difficult to find an adequate name in Portuguese, so I hope it was a good choise. For me, when talking to professors, it'd work to talk Programa Global de Educação (= Global Education Program) and Projeto Wikipédia na Universidade (= Wikipedia in University Project) as part of this global program from Wikimedia Foundation. But I keep what you suggested. Also, I think on WMF blog we shouldn't use "Global Education Program" and change it to this external public name, as you explained to me. :) --Everton137 (talk) 00:40, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I think it would be helpful if we made an effort to update the internal bits to say WEP instead of GEP (and even GUP - Global University Program); that would help us phase the phrasing slip-ups out. Rob SchnautZ (WMF) ^{(talk • contribs)} 15:30, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure where the Global University Program came from, as we never used that name (I argued for it originally but it didn't stick because we wanted to have the possibility of working with high school or other students in the future), but yes -- please do update where you see it. I've been meaning to ping Guillaume to see if he can change the blog category. I seem to have the ability to create a new category, but not edit existing categories. I'll ask him now. -- LiAnna Davis (WMF) (talk) 16:26, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Interesting...for several months that's what all of us regional ambassadors were calling it! Funny how that happened. Rob SchnautZ (WMF) ^{(talk • contribs)} 16:22, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

The future of the US/Canada Program

Please note an important notice about our program here. Jmathewson (talk) 22:49, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Replacing the course pages

We're replacing the course page system currently in use for the U.S. and Canada Education programs. Please see en:WT:Ambassadors#Replacing the course pages and place followup comments there. Rob SchnautZ (WMF) ^{(talk • contribs)} 18:12, 9 May 2012 (UTC)

Budget

I thought wiki was a non-profit organisation.--Deathlaser (talk) 19:25, 10 May 2012 (UTC)

The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit. There may be other wikis that aren't. Pine^(talk) 20:18, 10 May 2012 (UTC)

Nonprofit organizations often have income, but they should not have surplus revenue. Budgeting not only helps save money on things; it also helps ensure there is no surplus revenue. Rob SchnautZ (WMF) ^{(talk • contribs)} 16:46, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

Wikimania Education Meet-Up

Are you going to Wikimania? I'd like to arrange an Education Meet-Up while we are all in D.C. this year. Anyone from any country in the world is welcome to join -- Ambassadors, professors, students, program organizers, people interested in starting a program in any country worldwide, etc. We'll even provide T-shirts and some food! Here's where we need some input: when would be a good time for the meet-up, and what kinds of activities would you like to do at the meet-up?

Please fill out this Google Form if you're interested in connecting with other volunteers interested in education around the world at Wikimania! Hope to see you there! -- LiAnna Davis (WMF) (talk) 21:44, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

Whitelisting IP addresses

Hi. In response to a request from a GLAM organizer, I've gathered information on how to request an IP whitelisting for outreach events to override the IP cap. The page is meta:How to request lift of an IP cap. I wanted to let you guys know about it and ask that, if you think it appropriate, you add it to any relevant organizational pages here so that people who need this done know how to do it. :) This could be useful for the EP as well; shortly after I started my initial contract with the WMF, an educator in India contacted us because he could not sign up his students from his classroom. --Mdennis (WMF) (talk) 15:31, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

Farewell!

This is my final post to this wiki as staff. It's been a pleasure serving as a community liaison between editors and WEP staff. I'll still be around as a volunteer regional ambassador, but will not have the same central communication role I've had for the last few months. Please direct future questions to User talk:Ldavis (WMF). Thank you! Rob SchnautZ (WMF) ^{(talk • contribs)} 02:45, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

New face of Wikipedia Education Program

Hi everybody, I strongly disagree with last edit which took out many other projects from different countries (including our from the Czech Republic). I never understand Wikipedia Education Program as official program of WMF but as a new worldwide movement of people, which are trying make the same, join students in Wikipedia writing. This Wikipedia Education Program is therefore only the "connection" between these independent groups of people operating in different parts of education sectors around planet. I do not understand your edit of removal. WMF never acted as "owner" of this name and/or as some leader of these projects which were signed there. We have absolutely great freedom of our activities and we sign it here, because we want it be part of this movement and share our stories with you! Therefore, your edit is little bit confusing because you just cut out the connection between different groups and clean up place where was easy to find information about other projects. Also, you are trying to change back the movement into something, which will be strictly controlled by WMF staff and I do not like this your activity. Please, keep Wikipedia Education Program as a movement which is open for everybody how wants to join it not as a next WMF trademark :) Best regards --Chmee2 (talk) 08:32, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

Please see a parallel discussion of this here: Talk:Education_Portal/Discussion. -- LiAnna Davis (WMF) (talk) 16:26, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

Hi Chmee2, sorry for not answering earlier - I haven't seen your post before LiAnna draw my attention to it (thanks LiAnna!). The page revision you are referring to is in fact the result of two actions:

1. I moved all the project descriptions to the new education portal. There you'll find a list of projects with links to their respective pages as well as all the short descriptions of higher education projects and others. I then removed all the short descriptions of projects that are not being run by the WMF strictly speaking from the WEP page.
2. I modified the Wikipedia Education Program sidebar to include both the links to the projects being run by the WMF strictly speaking as well as links to the pages of the new education portal (project overview page / short descriptions of schools, higher education, and senior outreach programs and projects). - This template doesn't appear in the page history.

As I understand it, LiAnna later took two actions:

1. She changed the introductory text of the page, thereby removing the sentence "Welcome to the hub for the Wikimedia Foundation's Wikipedia Education Program".
2. She also removed the Wikipedia Education Program sidebar from the page. (I cannot re-constitute this in the page history, though)

As it appears from the discussion on the new education portal, the present state of the WEP page is the result of some misunderstandings and a few unresolved issues in the process of integrating the WEP pages into the new education portal. I guess we'll be able to resolve these issues over the coming weeks or months. There is a strong commitment both of the WMF and of members of the community to maintain a common reference base and a community of practice around the theme "Wikipedia in Education". And it seems from LiAnnas remarks in the parallel discussion referred to above and her modifications to the WEP page that the WMF lays no claim of ownership to the WEP or its logo.

I hope this could help dissipate your concerns. If not, please let us know. -- Beat Estermann (talk) 07:09, 28 August 2012 (UTC)

What expectations should we have regarding interaction with program students?

About a week ago I noticed some WEP students working on an enwiki article which I had hoped to expand with some examples, and I tried to ask them on the article talk page whether they were planning to do anything similar. Well, they've continued some work without responding. It's not even a minor issue because they have no obligation to communicate with anyone, just like any other editors, but I wonder what editors' general expectations about this should be.

1. Are students asked to monitor the talk pages of the articles they are editing? If not, is that something that Ambassadors or instructors might want to ask of the students?
2. Is it appropriate to ask questions of WEP students on their talk pages if they don't respond in article talk? If so, after about how long?
3. In cases of conflict (purely hypothetical, by the way) to whom would it be best to reach out first if the students don't communicate? I am guessing that it might be better to talk to an ambassador or instructor before anything more formal or serious.

Thanks. Cupco (talk) 22:37, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

There aren't universal rules for how students are supposed to work, but in general it's good to try to engage with students about article content, and nudge them toward better ways of communicating and working if they are doing things in ways that aren't very helpful. Specifically, letting them know via user talk pages about comments you left on an article talk page is a good idea; they should be watching article discussions, but they may or may not have been explicitly told to do so by ambassadors or the instructor. And your guess for resolving conflicts would be my recommendation; if the students aren't responding well directly, then a friendly message to the instructor and the ambassadors is a good first step.--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 00:15, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

More generally speaking, I think that talkpage communication is an important part of how most big wikis work. If learning about using a wiki (or, more generally, learning about collaborative work online) is one of the course goals, then talkpages really ought to be part of that, I think. If editing focuses on one or two articles, it's understandable that a tutor might skip over the concept of a watchlist. Personally, I'd try to communicate with them in much the same way as any other editor with a similar experience level - and their user-talk is a good place to go if there's no response on article-talk. bobrayner (talk) 21:25, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

Not that I've got all that much to go on, but so far my observation has been that student contributors and their contributions are decidedly "drive-by" in nature, and the contributions themselves tend to be unfocused and irrelevant to the articles they edit. While the goals of this program are laudable, its effects on the Wiki are disruptive. 65.102.185.185 18:26, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

Relevant discussion at en.wp

See here. Beeblebrox (talk) 20:53, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

Wikikids/Vikidia

Hi,

We've been refining some points of the m:Wikikids proposal for a new Wikimedia Foundation Sister Project.

We have fixed and added some points on m:Wikikids/For children or by children ?‎ and m:Wikikids/Questions and answers.

There is also a m:Wikikids/Basic principles (which can be fixed), you can have a look at all the pages on this proposal here : m:Category:Wikikids; and the current step must be to plan a Request for comment.

2 such wikis does exist and are doing well (in Dutch and French) which shows that it is feasible. It is often said that Wikipedia article are too long and difficult for children. They really need and appreciate when it does exist to have a more readable content for them, as we can perceive by their messages on the Vikidia's guestbook.

Beside the "knowledge resource" benefit of such a project, it would certainly also expand the opportunities for the wiki education programs. I mean it can enable to reach younger pupils, that will learn not only from the content of such a Wikikids and about its functioning, but by the way about the functioning of a resource they will use extensively few years later: Wikipedia.

Indeed, this proposal critically needs your remarks, questions, criticisms, support (#People interested) and help/involvement if you think it deserves it! Astirmays (talk) 18:34, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

related grant proposal

Dear Wikipedia Educators: We're advancing an Individual Engagement Grant here. If this is something you and your students might like to be involved with, please add an endorsement. Comments or questions in advance of the September 30th deadline would be most welcome on the proposal's talk page. In particular, our project involves translation work which we hope might be interesting to students. Arided (talk) 14:29, 27 September 2013 (UTC)