Wikipedia Education Program/News/21 May 2013

Welcome to the Wikipedia Education Program Update -- a newsletter from the Wikimedia Foundation about efforts to bring Wikipedia into higher education classrooms. The newsletter is released on the first and third Tuesday of each month. To be notified of the latest issue, add this page to your watchlist or email LiAnna Davis (ldaviswikimedia.org), the Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager, to be added to the distribution list.

Physics professor featured on WMF blog

Professor Rafael Pezzi, a professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, was featured on the Wikimedia Foundation blog. In the post, he explains his views on why using Wikipedia as a teaching tool is important: "Wikipedia makes it explicit how knowledge is built: a never-ending dynamic process with conflicting opinions in a lively discussion. Although this process is fundamental, it is ignored in the standard textbook-based class where knowledge is just given, considered as an absolute truth." Read more in the profile.

Busy term wraps up for Mexico program

A student in the Medical English class uploads a file to Wikimedia Commons.

Ambassador and professor Leigh Thelmadatter has been working hard at incorporating Wikipedia into her students' work in Mexico. Leigh authored a post for the Wikimedia blog about all the activities she's been running at ITESM-Campus Ciudad de México over the last term, including translation efforts of two medical English classes, an International Baccalaureate program, and photo donations and contests. Read more about the incredible breadth of activities happening around education in Mexico.

US student contributes two articles as part of minor

Nadhika Ramachandran is pursuing a minor in Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities at Rice University, and she — like other students pursuing the minor — has two required classes. Both classes included an assignment to contribute to Wikipedia on a course-related topic. For Nadhika's first project, she chose to expand the article on peacebuilding; the next term, she created an article on women in the Arab Spring. She's been particularly excited to add content to Wikipedia as part of her coursework. Read more about Nadhika's story.

Swedish program offers progress update

Sophie Österberg, the education manager for Wikimedia Sverige, offered an extensive update on all of the educational efforts going on in Sweden right now. The program has been in operation for the last seven months, and they have been busy attending events, supporting collaborations, and creating online trainings to support their efforts. Read more about the program in Sweden.