Affiliate-selected Board seats/2016/Nominations/Leigh Thelmadatter

Name:

Leigh Ann Thelmadatter

Username: Thelmadatter

Questions for all candidates - Questions for this individual candidate that do not apply to other candidates

Statement

Despite being an organization whose focus is education, we have yet to have anyone on the board who is an educational professional.

I am adding my name as an affiliates candidate, even though I am not a member of a chapter or thematic group. I am, however, one of the founders of the user group Wiki Learning Tec de Monterrey. Since our inception in 2011, we have been challenging assumptions about how educational profesionals and students can/should participate in Wikimedia and the global Wikimedia community. I would like to continue to do this as the first educational program which is also an affliate, because we have only just begun to explore what user groups have to offer the movement, aside from being "proto-chapters" or "proto-thematic groups." User groups offer groups of people who are interested in contributing, but whose situation may not be conducive to chapters and user groups.

Résumé

Leigh Thelmadatter

Wikipedian since 2007

Involved in face to face Wikimedia activities starting in 2009. My first major project was recruiting the Museo de Arte Popular into Wikimedia, initially under GLAM, with Mexico's first editathon under Wikimedia México. From then until 2011, my interests shifted more towards Wikimedia in education.

I am a professor of English-as-a-second-language (MA U of Arizona) at the Instituto Tecnológico y Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Tec de Monterrey), México's largest private university which regularly gives the state-financed UNAM a run for its money in rankings. We have 32 campuses in most parts of Mexico, which gives us a unique ability to spread Wikimedia activities outside Mexico City and nearby satellite cities.

2007 I taught the first class at Tec de Monterrey (Toluca Campus) using Wikipedia, before there was a Wikipedia Education program, but this experience was not repeated until I was at the Mexico City campus.

2011 The first organization attempt occurred at Tec de Monterrey, with a student group. Started with 7 students.

2012 Wikimedia activities became an option for International Baccalaureate students seeking to fulfil Community, Action, Service hours. We presented our experiment with this and work in classes, especially translation of articles, at Wikimania in Washington DC.

2013 Wikimedia became an option for students who need to fulfil "servico social," community service hours (required of all undergraduate students in Mexico). Student participation grew to about 20+ per semester.

2013 The student group was changed to a campus educational program for the sake of stability, headed by myself and Lourdes Epstein, and we applied to become a user group. Under the name of Wiki Learning, the program got the attention of Tec de Monterrey authorities at the main campus.

2013 to present - Wiki Learning gives presentations and training sessions to professors and others at conferences and workshops.

2015 Tec de Monterrey implements "Semana i" (I Week), a week set aside for students to dedicate themselves to a project instead of going to classes. Groups of students work with Wikimedia in March 2015 and Septembe4 2015, at three campuses, Mexico City, State of Mexico and Santa Fe. The next Semana i is scheduled for September 2016, which will have four groups doing distinct projects under four different professors.

This is not a traditional resume for good reason. I did not do all this work by myself and there is no way to separate what I have done from what my colleagues have. We have kept extensive documentation at in Outreach wiki

Eligibility

Wikimedia NYC has offered to support "non-traditional" affiliate candidates. I do believe that user group affiliates as active as ours should have at least the same rights as chapter/thematic group affiliates with far less activity.