This week, Wiki Education celebrated our 10 year anniversary with community members from around the globe! The virtual program featured remarks from special guests including Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander, Wiki Education Board Chair P.J. Tabit, former Board Chair Diana Strassmann, and Executive Director Frank Schulenburg, as well as the reflections of program participants, staff, contributors, funders, and community members worldwide.
Schulenburg opened the program with a warm welcome to attendees, emphasizing the critical role of all program participants to the decade of growth and impact of Wiki Education.
Speaking to the instructors, Schulenburg noted that Wiki Education did not invent the concept of teaching with Wikipedia, but rather was inspired by the instructors around the world who were already using the platform to enrich student learning and improve knowledge equity. The mission of Wiki Education stemmed from a desire to support these efforts, he explained – and what started as a small group of instructors grew to more than 6,500 classes and 130,000 students supported over the past decade.
Schulenburg also reflected on the organization’s milestone moments, including the creation of the dashboard, the Scholars & Scientists program, and the Communicating Science initiative, as well as its efforts to help healthcare experts add their knowledge to Wikipedia during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recognizing the significance of Wiki Education’s work, Iskander underscored its wide-reaching impact beyond metrics.
“It’s one thing to run programs and have impact measures,” said Iskander. “It’s quite another thing to contribute to narrative change and perception change at a societal level. When I think about how Wikipedia is understood and received by educators, by institutions of higher learning, it’s a huge change. All of you here really should take pride in that.”
As a member of the working group that helped create Wiki Education, Strassmann remembered the many brainstorm sessions, Post-it notes, and what she called her biggest accomplishment – persuading Schulenburg to lead the new organization.
In addition to her role as founding Board Chair, Strassmann has also engaged with Wiki Education as an instructor, receiving support for Wikipedia assignments in her courses at Rice University.
“With the support of Wiki Education, I had students say it was the most impactful assignment at Rice University during their entire four years,” said Strassmann, joking about her less successful attempts to teach with Wikipedia before Wiki Education existed. “The role of Wiki Education is more than filling content gaps, it’s giving students and those who are supported by the program a sense of the agency they can have in the world to change it.”
Tabit echoed Strassmann’s sentiments in his message to the audience, emphasizing both the skill development and personal growth experienced by program participants as they improve public access to knowledge.
“This is a critical moment for Wikipedia, for our educational institutions, and for our public discourse,” said Tabit. “Through the millions of words our program participants add to Wikipedia and the media literacy and research skills they develop in the process, we are helping prepare the public to navigate an increasingly complicated information landscape.”
During the event, Schulenburg led a moment of silence for three community members who are no longer with us, thanking them for their contributions to Wiki Education’s mission and programs: Founding Wiki Education Board Member Adrianne Wadewitz, North Dakota State University psychology professor Jim Council, and Wikipedia advocate at Smithsonian Institute Effie Kapsalis.
He also recognized Wiki Education’s current and former board members, current and former staff, contractors, interns, and fellows, and our many technical contributors and funders. Deputy Director and Chief Programs Officer LiAnna Davis joined Schulenburg to honor Wiki Education’s “10-Year Superstars,” celebrating the longtime engagement and contributions of participants from both programs.
The event concluded with an interactive activity which invited the audience to share their own memorable moments and learning experiences with Wiki Education – ranging from humorous to heartfelt, and everything in between.
Visit teach.wikiedu.org to learn more about the free resources, digital tools, and staff support that Wiki Education offers to postsecondary instructors in the United States and Canada.
Visit learn.wikiedu.org to explore our professional development courses for subject matter experts.
Explore previous webinars and register for our next program, “The Experts Behind the Edits: Expanding public understanding of healthcare” at wikiedu.org/-speaker-series.
