Education/News/June 2023/The Journey of Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Lagos State
The Journey of Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Lagos State
The Wikimedia Foundation funded the implementation of The Reading Wikipedia In the Classroom in Lagos State with the support of the Wikimedia Education Team. The pilot phase was launched with an onboarding session for the teachers on November 27th, 2022. 50 teachers were approved by TESCOM for the training and we created a WhatsApp platform as a means of communication with them.
Then the d-day came, which was the launching of the program on the 14th of December, 2022 at LCCI Alausa in Lagos State. The opening ceremony was attended by the commissioner for TESCOM (Mrs Ariyo) represented by the Permanent Secretary of TESCOM (Mrs Olubusola Ajibola), the Director of TESCOM (Mr. Adewale Oladele), the Executive Director of Wikimedia Nigeria ( Mrs. Omolayo Ogunsiji), The program director of the Wikimedia Nigeria was also in attendance for the opening ceremony (Ayokannmi Oyeyemi.
The online training was where the teachers used the Wikilearn platform to access their training materials. The course was broken down into 3 modules. The teachers were taught how to:
- Access information
- Create information.
- To help the teachers improve their media and information literacy skills which are in line with the UNESCO MIL Framework.
- It helps teachers to research content online and identify knowledge gaps in the information they consume.
They were also trained on how to contribute to Wikipedia and Wikicommons.
The training ran for 6 weeks with a two weeks mentoring session. It was a beautiful experience training the teachers. The active contributions of the teachers on the Wikilearn platform made the training very interesting for the facilitating team. After six-week of online training and one physical meetup, on the 24th of February, we had an online graduation for the outstanding teachers. Out of 44 teachers that registered for the training we had 36 who were able to meet up with the criteria, which was to finish with their modules and submit their lesson plans. 36 teachers graduated.
- The Graduation Ceremony
It was attended by Melissa Guadalupe Huertas Senior Program Officer for Education, Wikimedia Foundation, LiAnna Davis (Chief Programs Officer and Deputy Director for Wiki Education), Mrs Olubusola Ajibola, the Permanent Secretary of TESCOM representing the Chairman, Mr. Abayomi Abolaji, the Permanent Secretary representing the Commissioner for Education, Lagos State, Mr Lukuman Alaka, the Secretary of the National Association of Private School Proprietors, Mr Olaniyan Olushola, the founder of Wikimedia Nigeria User Group, Mr. Kayode Yusuff, the co-founder of Wikimedia Nigeria User Group, Mrs Omolayo Ogunsiji, the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Nigeria User Group, Ayokanmi Oyeyemi, the Project Director of the Wikmedia Nigeria User Group,Touchi Precious, the Co-founder of the IgboWikimedia User Group, Ms Tessy Amayo, the Country Director of UNESCO ASPNET, were all in attendance to celebrate and encourage the teachers.
We had two outstanding teachers, Awe Fadekemi and Abanikanda Omowunmi, who got gift vouchers for their performance during the training.
- Conclusion
We have come to the end of the road of the pilot phase of the RWIC implementation in Lagos State, but it is only the beginning of spreading the word to other teachers. We celebrate our outstanding teachers who have given themselves to bringing innovation into learning by adopting Reading Wikipedia in the classroom.
As the project lead, I say a big thank you for the opportunity given to implement Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom in Lagos State. I appreciate the Wikimedia Foundation for their support, the Wikimedia Education Team, Wikimedia Nigeria, UNESCO, TESCOM, my co-certified trainers, and my team for their support during the journey of the implementation. No matter where you come from or how you see the world, one of the benefits of obtaining an education will be that it will open your mind to new perspectives. Reading Wikipedia in the classroom has opened the minds of our teachers in Lagos State to new perspectives on the educational system in Lagos State, and today we have started the RWIC Club in Lagos State.