Wikipedia Education Program/News/6 September 2011

Welcome to the Global 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 Global Education Program Communications Manager, to be added to the distribution list.

6 September 2011 edit

Global Education Program grows out of public policy pilot edit

The Public Policy Initiative was such a success in the 2010-11 academic year that the Wikimedia Foundation has made the commitment to include funding for more outreach to universities in its general operating budget for 2011-12. The new Global Education Program kicked off in India in June, and already, more than 1,000 students are busy editing. The U.S. program has expanded to disciplines beyond public policy, and Canadian professors are starting a small pilot as well. We look forward to working with more countries in the future. Visit the new Global Education Program page for more information.

First Canadian Campus Ambassadors trained in Toronto edit

The Canada Education Program kicked off in August, with the first Campus Ambassador training in Toronto. Five courses from the University of Toronto are piloting the use of Wikipedia in Canadian universities in the fall. More than 1,800 students will learn to edit Wikipedia as part of this pilot. Education Program Advisor for Canada Jonathan Obar, as well as Global Education Program Director Frank Schulenburg and Manager Annie Lin, were on hand to introduce the elements of the new program to the first Canadian Campus Ambassadors. Learn more about the Canada Education Program.

Professor in Brazil using Wikipedia in history class edit

Professor Juliana Bastos Marques of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State (UNIRIO) in Brazil is piloting the use of Wikipedia in university classrooms this term. Her 20 history students will be writing articles on the Portuguese Wikipedia, with the assistance of a volunteer editor from that community. Juliana is blogging about her experiences (in Portuguese) this semester in an excellent series of posts. Read Juliana's blog.

Campus Ambassador role opens volunteering to more people edit

A post on the Wikimedia Foundation blog describes how the Campus Ambassador program opens volunteering for Wikipedia to people who aren't necessarily attracted to typical editing tasks like content addition. In the blog post, Frank Schulenburg introduces Ram Shankar Yadav, a Campus Ambassador in Pune, India, who had never edited Wikipedia but is now taking a central organizing role in creating the university program in Pune. Read the blog post.