Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit

The Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit was held for the first time in July 2011. The event aimed to:

  • celebrate the volunteers who participate in Wikimedia's university based program activities
  • build a community of Wikipedia Ambassadors, professors and other university staff members
  • share skills, best practices and success stories
  • shape the future of Wikimedia's university programs
The first Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit was held at Simmons College in Boston.

In 2011, the Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit also served as the final event for the Wikimedia Foundation's Public Policy Initiative.

#Hashtag for use on Twitter, Identica, etc.: please use "#wphied". (This replaces the earlier proposal for "#wikied".)

Overview

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Thursday, July 7

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Reception

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Rod Dunican introducing the reception.

Who: Everyone
When: 7 p.m. – 10 p.m.

Join us for drinks and extensive hors d'oeuvres as we kick off the Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit! You'll pick up your registration packet here and have the opportunity to mingle with fellow attendees. Find old friends and meet new people who are excited about using Wikipedia in university classrooms. The reception will feature short speeches from Samuel Klein, a member of the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees, and Simmons College Dean Laurie Crumpacker.

Friday, July 8

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Opening Address

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David Ferriero giving opening address.

Who: Everyone
When: 9 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

Archivist of the United States David Ferriero will deliver the opening address to the Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit. David is a graduate of Simmons College and is passionate about Wikipedia's use in education. David will be introduced by Dominic McDevitt-Parks, a Campus Ambassador at Simmons College who is currently serving as the Wikipedian in Residence at the National Archives and Records Administration.

Public Policy Initiative Project History and Results

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Slide deck: History of the Wikipedia Public Policy Initiative

Who: Everyone
When: 9:30 a.m. – 10 a.m.

Five members of the Wikimedia Foundation's Public Policy Initiative team will provide a short history of what they've accomplished and explain the results from the pilot project. Education Programs Manager Rod Dunican will give an overview of the Public Policy Initiative, Research Analyst Amy Roth will discuss article quality improvement statistics, Campus Team Coordinator Annie Lin will provide insight into the on-campus activities, Online Facilitator Sage Ross will discuss on-wiki activity, and Communications Associate LiAnna Davis will talk about media interest.

Keynote Speech

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Sue Gardner demonstrates the volume of text added by the Wikipedia Public Policy Initiative: 11 packs of paper. Watch her presentation.

Who: Everyone
When: 11 a.m. – noon

Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner will talk about the foundation's strategic goals and how the work the volunteers have done through the Public Policy Initiative works to meet those goals while cementing Wikipedia's role in higher education. Head of Public Outreach Frank Schulenburg introduced her.

Course Tools Demo

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Who: Everyone
When: noon – 12:30 p.m.

Sage Ross and Carnegie Mellon University researcher Rosta Farzan will demo some of the course tools that are in development for the coming term, including a dashboard for instructors to track student work and provide private feedback on edits, as well as a new course page builder to help instructors create useful and well-structured course pages.

The Online Ambassador Experience

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Who: Online Ambassadors
When: 1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m.

Online Ambassadors will gather together to discuss their experiences in the Public Policy Initiative. We'll start with a getting-to-know-you activity, followed by discussion about what worked and what didn't work in our first two terms. We'll start tackling the outstanding questions about the Online Ambassador role, like how we will grow the number of Ambassadors to make the program sustainable. This session will be facilitated by Wikimedia staff Annie Lin and Jessie Wild.

The Campus Ambassador Experience

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Who: Campus Ambassadors (and Ambassadors-in-training)
When: 1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m.

Campus Ambassadors will gather together to discuss their experiences in the Public Policy Initiative. We'll start with a getting-to-know-you activity, followed by discussion about what worked and what didn't work in our first two terms. We'll start tackling the outstanding questions about the Campus Ambassador role, like how we will grow the number of Ambassadors to make the program sustainable. This session will be facilitated by Wikimedia staff LiAnna Davis and Sage Ross.

The Classroom Experience

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Who: Professors and students
When: 1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m.

Professors and students will gather together to discuss their experiences in the Public Policy Initiative or their ideas of how they will use Wikipedia in the classroom in the future. We'll start with a getting-to-know-you activity, followed by discussion about what worked and what didn't work in our first two terms and what the motivations were for professors and students. Professors Brian Carver, Jon Beasley-Murray, Cindy Allen, and Chris Cooper will be part of an informal panel, moderated by the Wikimedia Foundation's Frank Schulenburg and Amy Roth. Questions will be directed initially at the panel from the moderators, but audience members are welcome to chime in with their own comments and questions.

Improving the Ambassador Program

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Who: Selected Campus and Online Ambassadors
When: 3:15 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Notes: Notes from session

We are still struggling to integrate Campus and Online Ambassadors better and determine the best way for the two groups to communicate with each other. In this session, we'll ask you that question: How can we connect the Wikipedia Ambassadors better? We'll hear from you about your experiences and brainstorm ideas of how to improve collaboration between the two groups, as well as what additional support you would like from the Wikimedia Foundation. This session will be facilitated by Campus Ambassador Gabriel Mugar and Online Ambassador Eddie Erhart.

Institutionalizing Wikipedia on Campus

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Who: University staff
When: 3:15 p.m. – 5 p.m.

We targeted university staff for the Campus Ambassador role, in part because staff tend to stay longer at a university than students do. In this session, we want to bring university staff together to learn how we can best institutionalize Wikipedia on university campuses. How can the Wikimedia Foundation support you in integrating your Wikipedia duties into your job description? What job on campus is the best to be a Campus Ambassador? Current Campus Ambassadors Bonnie Macallum, Rebecca Brudette, and Rob Pongsajapan will kick off discussion on an informal panel, but audience members are encouraged to chime in with their own comments and questions. Wikimedia Foundation staffers Sage Ross and LiAnna Davis will moderate the discussion.

Integrating Wikipedia into the Syllabus

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Who: Educators and students
When: 3:15 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Experienced educators will discuss what they did specifically with their assignment in another informal panel. We want to learn what more the Wikimedia Foundation can do to support educators' needs surrounding the assignment. For example, educators will discuss how they graded their Wikipedia assignments, and what they'd like to change about that, if anything. Educators on the panel will be Piotr Konieczny, Max Klein, Kristin Ruppel, and Jonathan Obar, and the discussion will be moderated by the Wikimedia Foundation's Frank Schulenburg and Amy Roth.

Saturday, July 9

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Shaping the Global Future

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Barry Newstead. Watch his presentation.
 
Frank Schulenburg. Watch his presentation.

Who: Everyone
When: 9 a.m. – 10 a.m.

The Wikimedia Foundation's Chief Global Development Officer, Barry Newstead, and the Head of Public Outreach, Frank Schulenburg, will deliver a presentation explaining the initial activities already underway to expand Wikipedia editing in university classrooms globally. Barry and Frank will outline the new Global University Program's ambitious goals and explain how the exceptional work of the 2010-11 participants has made this expansion possible.

Open Workshop on Campus Outreach

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Who: Anyone who wants to
When: 10:15 a.m. – noon

Presentation: Ambassadors Outreach Workshop Prezi Notes: discussion notes from meeting

Campus Ambassadors Mike Cline and Alex Stinson have been exceptional leaders on campus, starting student clubs and bringing students to Wikipedia through channels beyond the classroom assignment. In this workshop, Mike and Alex will talk about what motivates all the players-institutions, professors, librarians, students, etc.--to engage wikipedia as a teaching tool. We encourage all Campus Ambassadors, Online Ambassadors, and anyone who is interested in promoting Wikipedia as a teaching tool in today's classroom through outreach and mentoring to attend this workshop.

Open Workshop on Wikipedia Governance and Culture

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Pete Forsyth

Who: Anyone who wants to
When: 10:15 a.m. – noon

One of the first questions newcomers to Wikipedia ask is, just how does it work? In this section, experienced Wikipedians Pete Forsyth and Michel Aaij will answer just that question. Pete and Michel will talk about the way Wikipedians self-organize and make decisions. Michel will also walk attendees through the Good Article Review process on Wikipedia, showing exactly what rigorous peer review an article will need in order to be deemed a Good Article on Wikipedia. We encourage anyone who is new to Wikipedia to attend this session.

Open Workshop on Advanced Wikipedia Editing

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Who: Anyone who wants to
When: 10:15 a.m. – noon

You know how to add an image to a Wikipedia article, but do you know how to use citation templates? How familiar are you with categories? In this session, experienced Wikipedians Chris Hopkin (User:Chzz) and Molly White will walk novice Wikipedia editors through some of the more advanced editing skills that they use in their work on-wiki. This workshop will be held in a library computer lab, but participants are encouraged to bring a personal laptop if possible.

Why Public Speaking Sucks, and What You Can Do About It

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Who: Everyone
When: 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Wikimedia Foundation Education Programs Manager Rod Dunican has spent a lot of time speaking in public — and he knows how painful and fun it can be. In this talk, he will share some stories, tips and tricks he's learned over the years for making it easier to get up in front of a large crowd and speak.

Student Panel

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Student panel. Watch the panel discussion.

Who: Everyone
When: 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

New York University's Amanda Levendowski, Georgetown's Patrick Friedel, UC Berkeley's Kevin Gorman, Western Carolina's Kasey Baker, Michigan State's Anna Chlopecki, Indiana's Alexi Lamm, and Troy's Michael Patrick will be part of a panel of students who completed Wikipedia assignments for class in the 2010-11 academic year. They'll answer questions about their experiences and motivations for the Wikipedia assignment from moderators and the audience.

Regional meet-ups

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Regional Ambassador map

Who: Everyone
When: 3:45 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.

United States Regional Ambassadors will lead a two-hour session where people in that region can start discussing plans for the fall. Each of these sessions can change based on the distribution in the region, but professors could, for example, work out a syllabus for the fall term with input from Ambassadors and students. Each region will have input from one Online Ambassador. Regional breakdowns are as follows:

  • New England (ME, VT, NH, MA, RI, CT): Max Klein
  • Northeast (NY, PA, NJ, DE): Richard Knipel
  • Greater Chesapeake (DC, VA, MD, WV): Alex Stinson
  • Ohio River Valley (IN, KY, IL, OH, MI, WI): Chanitra Bishop and Rob Schnautz
  • Texarkana (TX, LA, AR): Dylan Staley
  • South (TN, MI, AL, NC, SC, GA, FL): Annie Lin
  • Skyplains, and West (MN, CO, NM, ND, SD, NE, IA, KS, OK, MO, WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, NV, UT, AZ): Tom Cloyd and Bryan Cox
  • California (CA, HI): Derrick Coetzee and Matt Senate
  • International: Frank Schulenburg

Awards Ceremony

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Who: Everyone
When: 6 p.m. – 7 p.m.

We've been giving out awards throughout the Summit to 2010–11 participants who did exceptional work as professors, Ambassadors, and students in the Public Policy Initiative. In this final Awards Ceremony, we will recognize our outstanding volunteers.

Party!

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Who: Everyone
When: 7 p.m. – 10 p.m.

Archived version of this page, including logistics information

Photos

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Videos

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Presentation slides

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Media coverage

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Twitter

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Feedback and questions

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