Education projects

Contributing to Wikimedia projects, such as Wikipedia, Wikiversity and Wikibooks, is an educational opportunity in the fullest sense, developing sophisticated collaboration, scholarly writing and critical thinking skills at the same time as subject knowledge. Improving an article can be a demanding project in either formal and informal education, for a talented student or a whole class.

Wikimedia UK is working with some of the country's most respected and innovative institutions to explore how Wikimedia projects can benefit UK education. In partnership with universities and support bodies, we are gradually establishing Wikimedia as part of the landscape of higher and secondary education.

The Wikimedia Foundation has an extensive set of educator resources, including reasons to use Wikipedia, case studies and teaching materials.

Projects

Wikimedia Outreach Ambassador

University of Bristol has supported a unique paid internship to explore co-working between Wikimedia UK and a university. One outcome was a Wikimedia Girl Geek Dinner hosted at the university, involving students, lecturers and the broader public.

Student Societies

Imperial College, London attracted national attention as the first UK university to have a Wikipedia student society. The students organised a day event to explore relations between Wikipedia and academia. Our student societies page explains how we can help students get a society under way.

We experimented with a fresher fair stall at the University of Warwick and found it an excellent way of gathering interest from enthusiastic undergraduates.

Campus wikilounges

University of Manchester and University of Liverpool are among the institutions where Wikimedia volunteers have provided "Wikilounge" events, helping students make informed use of Wikipedia.

Wikiversity

Lecturers at University of Exeter (Economics Classroom Experiments) and University of Westminster (Political Simulation and Gaming) are among those using Wikiversity as a learning platform or to share good practice with their colleagues.

Alex Stinson from the United States explains the Campus Ambassador programme at a workshop in the University of Bristol, 19 March 2011

Promoting wiki-literacy

It is important that students and pupils understand the limitations of Wikipedia (and encyclopaedias in general) as well as its usefulness. The Wikimedia community have created many resources to explain the basic concepts of reliability, neutrality and Wikipedia's internal review processes. Wikimedia UK can provide material for student inductions (Contact us).

Advisory bodies

Wikimedia UK is forming links with national advisory bodies to make sure that relevant information about the Wikimedia projects is available to teaching staff, support staff and educational developers. For example, the JISC Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards has a guide to Wikimedia Commons as a platform for Open Educational Resources.

Wikipedia Interest Group

A "WIG" mailing list is being prepared for anyone in UK higher education interested in using Wikipedia or its sister projects as an educational tool. A link will appear here. This is expected to be a low-traffic list and is distinct from the Wikimedia Education mailing list run by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Education conference

Wikimedia UK will run its first EduWiki Conference on Thursday 6th and Friday 7th of September 2012, bringing teaching and support staff together with Wikimedia volunteers. The two communities will explore how Wikipedia and its sister projects can support innovative education while improving their own reliability and completeness.

Call to action

Wikimedia volunteers can help educational projects by meeting with teaching staff, librarians or support staff to raise awareness, using the many resources for educators already created. Some funding is available for travel and subsistence, but only by prior arrangement and in accordance with Wikimedia UK's Expenses Policy. The office can arrange for supporting materials if given plenty of prior notice.

Experienced Wikipedians can also apply to be Online Ambassadors to support students remotely. Helping student newcomers to write good quality articles can be highly rewarding, while making a big improvement to Wikipedia's quality.

We are developing Campus Ambassador training for university staff or students who want to support educational projects, based on a programme which is under way in many US universities. To register an interest, contact martin.poulterwikimedia.org.uk with your name, institution, role (lecturer/ teaching assistant/ student) and any experience on Wikipedia or its sister projects.