As the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the United States, residents are seeking information about their local governments’ responses. Local newspapers are often a great source for the most recent news, but it’s hard to get a big picture of the pandemic’s impact on states, cities, and regions from reading a daily newspaper. Wikipedia, however, provides … Continued
In the spring 2020 academic term, higher education around the world shifted from in-person to virtual classes. The University of British Columbia was no exception, but for students in Dr. Shona Ellis’s Morphology and Evolution of Bryophytes class, the switch wasn’t as challenging as it could’ve been, because a key assignment was to improve a … Continued
This post was collaboratively written by Wiki Education staff members Helaine Blumenthal, LiAnna Davis, Will Kent, Ryan McGrady, Ian Ramjohn, Sage Ross, Shalor Toncray, and Elysia Webb. Last weekend, Wiki Education staff attended WikiConference North America, an annual gathering of Wikimedians from around North America. This year’s event was hosted at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, … Continued
A few weeks ago, I was honored to travel to Europe where I participated in two conferences related to the broader Wikimedia movement: The Wikimedia Summit in Berlin and the Wikimedia + Education Conference in Donostia. Wiki Education is one of the largest organizations in the Wikimedia movement in terms of both budget and number … Continued
In early 2018, Wiki Education piloted a new program, which we called Wikipedia Fellows, and which we’ve since re-launched as Wiki Scholars & Scientists. In the program, we empowered subject matter experts to contribute their knowledge to Wikipedia through a structured online synchronous 12-week course. We ran one course in early 2018, after which we … Continued
At the end of November, I attended the 2018 edition of WikiCite, an annual gathering of librarians, Wikimedians, and others in the open knowledge space dedicated to creating an open repository of bibliographic data. While this was the third edition of WikiCite, it was the first that anyone from Wiki Education had attended, and it was … Continued
Earlier this month, I visited Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, to delve into planning a collaboration with their School of Information Sciences around integrating Wikidata assignments into the curriculum. Wikidata is a Wikimedia project that is an open structured data repository; Wiki Education is eager to get started on improving the quality, quantity, and … Continued
Over the last several years, many of my colleagues and I have been approached by individuals asking for our advice and feedback on program plans, grant proposals, and other documents related to Wikipedia and education initiatives led by other organizations or individuals. While we’re generally happy to support these mission-aligned ideas, we are finding they’re … Continued
This spring, Wiki Education ran a pilot program called Wikipedia Fellows to train subject-matter experts in three disciplines on how to edit Wikipedia. Over a three-month structured course that included weekly meetings, nine academics in political science, sociology, and women’s studies improved Wikipedia articles in their fields of expertise. We’re excited to declare the pilot a success, … Continued
