Education/News/August 2022/Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Program Nigeria: The Teacher experience
Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Program Nigeria: The Teacher experience
Adeniyi's (Ajia4ty) Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom learning experience
Wikipedia is an online free encyclopedia that allows users to retrieve information about an article, and also allows users to become content creators. Wikipedia is also an open Educational Resource and a pedagogical tool to develop 21st-century skills in the classroom that enhance digital skills, critical thinking, and research skills.
During the implementation of RWC, Kwara led by Bukky658 I acquired knowledge on how to;
- access information on Wikipedia to foster media and information literacy skills.
- how to improve the content writing skills and promote the reading culture of students.
- how to create an account on Wikipedia; how to set up a page on Wiki; customize the page; and how to thank the author or contributors of an article by clicking on view history to see the thanks and click on it.
The facilitators trained us on how to become an editor on Wikipedia using best practices. And this helped me to achieve my edit metrics on over 400 articles, in which I added 70,000+ words and citations where necessary on a different article. I was also able to work on Wikicommon by uploading free license images captured by me. My learning experience spanned through Wikidata where I added Wiki data items of some notable schools and people in Nigeria. Reading Wikipedia in the classroom taught me how to; add links, values, statements to Wikidata items, and references to an article. As a Teacher, the application of my lesson learned won't be complete without a lesson plan, which we were trained on how to prepare for lectures in the classroom.
Furthermore, the RWC Kwara revealed me to the friendly space policy and five pillars of Wikipedia; the need to be bold to fix it myself instead of just talking about it, and not to be upset if my bold edits get reverted. We were taught the Wikipedia Pillars which are as followed; it is written from a neutral point of view, it is free content that Wikipedia editors can edit, use, modify and distributes.
The values of Wikipedia are enormous; it strives to be unbiased, it is up to date, and Wikipedia editors Identify, evaluate and cite reliable sources that enrich the articles.
MY NEXT STEP!
The next line of action is to step down what I have learnt in my school for other teachers to gain the knowledge that I have acquired during the training to improve media and information literacy skills in the classroom. I am also working on how to create an article myself to be published on Wikipedia. I had a lot of experience when editing articles on Wikipedia, some articles are not well structured, some have typographical errors, and some are grammatical errors, and all of these need to be edited. Many thanks to the Wikimedia Education team, project lead, and facilitators of the program for a Job well done. A big thanks to the Executive Governor of Kwara state for the approval and commencement of the program in Kwara State.
Salihu's (Waliniger) Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Learning experience
The Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Kwara, Nigeria happened to be the first of its kind with the first pilot phase in Kwara State. As a nominee representing my school; Government Day Secondary School Adewole, Ilorin, just like my counterparts from other schools across the sixteen (16) local government councils of the state, I am elated to be part of this wonderful and great opportunity provided by the Education team of the Wikimedia Foundation and other bodies who collaborated together with the implementation team in Nigeria.
A TIP OF MY JOURNEY DURING MY INTRODUCTION TO WIKIPEDIA AT THE READING WIKIPEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM PROGRAM
In the 21st century, 90 percent of information is being fetched or retrieved from different media sources available on the internet, and information is also dumped indiscriminately with little or no screening. If care is not taken and one is not watchful, it is very easy to consume unreliable information through the internet. Shielding the vast majority of people, especially students, from falling into this very unfortunate situation became necessary and to get this done, Media and Information Literacy (MIL) was brought onboard by the Education team of Wikimedia Foundation which adopted UNESCO Media and Information Literacy framework for the training tagged Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom. The material is made up of three different articulated and rich modules in it.
The training started on the 9th of June, 2022 with module 1 of the Teacher's guide. The module explains the first framework Accessing Information. Relevant information regarding the topic was given by the facilitator and this included;
- the importance of access to information, what is "Wiki "?
- what is Wikipedia?
- who writes and who doesn't write Wikipedia? to mention a few.
It was also added that choice of word matters a lot when it comes to searching for a piece of information on a particular subject matter. During this training session, I and every other participating teacher were asked to search for a piece of information on any topic in line with his or her area of specialisation through the Wikipedia site (www.wikipedia.org) using their cellphones. At the end of this first training session, an assessment assignment was given to us just to evaluate our assimilation in the first module.
The second training session surfaced and the second module of the material was treated. This module is tagged Evaluating Information. A vivid explanation of the three components of UNESCO's Media and Information Literacy (MIL) framework was given to us. These components are accessed, evaluated, and created. The explanation was given on how can one successfully access information from a pool of information on the internet, and evaluate such a piece of information. Also how to create information and share was explained. At this juncture, every participant was put through to open a Wikipedia account. The three components aforementioned were worked on with our Wikipedia account in the training class for better understanding. An article written on MAYA ANGELOU was used to explain different elements that can be used to evaluate and grade information on Wikipedia. Also, at the end of this second session, an assessment assignment was given which all submitted.
In the third session of the training, module 3 was brought onboard. The module dwells on Creating Information which is the theme for the segment. In this session, participants were subjected to rigorous practical work on how to carry out certain tasks that make one a good and qualified Wikipedia editor. These tasks include but are not limited to creating a user page on Wikipedia, adding citations to articles that need it, and correcting grammatical errors. Others are correcting some facts on a subject and how to thank other editors. Some videos were made to explain these actions better. Furthermore, lectures were also given on how to design a lesson plan to integrate Wikipedia in the classroom and an assignment was given to test Teachers' competencies in adapting the existing lesson plan to create new classroom activities.
MY NEXT STEPS
As a certified trainer, I would like to go with the spirit of a popular statement that says " To Whom Much is Given Much is Expected " Any time the opportunity presents itself anywhere, I will readily make myself available to share the knowledge acquired by me. I shall put an effort in place at my station to step down the training for teachers and students.
Oluyemisi's (Yemiwrites) Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Learning experience
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia created by Jimmy Wales Larry Senger, where reliable information is gathered freely, the information can be sourced in different languages of the world depending on the information sought after. “Wiki” is a Hawaii language that means speed. Wikipedia is written by a collaborative effort of people all over the world, anyone with internet connectivity can access it. It is a global space that can be worked on remotely as users don’t have to wait for a publisher to create a new edition or update information. Any information sent on Wikipedia should have a secondary source where the users can verify the information before use. It helps to verify facts before sending them to other users, it improves digital skills, fosters media information literacy skills, accesses information, and creates information for this reason it is important that teachers and students in the 21st century need to be exposed to its literacy skills. It also promotes a reading culture outside the four walls of the classroom such that students can learn at their own pace. Wikipedia users have the ability to create, contribute ideas, and monitor, and edit articles.
Wikipedia as an OERs benefit provides students by helping them get started with a general idea of what a topic is all about and proper organization of ideas. It is easy to use, as there are cross-references to related information. There is also a wide range of information much of which is becoming more reliable. Wikipedia benefits all categories of users by acting as a widely and free encyclopedia, a comprehensive written online compendium that contains information on all branches of knowledge. Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Program Nigeria further exposed me to knowledge equity on Wikipedia; it cites reliable sources, it is unbiased (both sides of the argument are balanced), and is always up to date as editors contribute to Wikipedia every 24 hours.
Because of the wide range of accurate information contained in Wikipedia, secondary school students should be allowed to use it for their assignments and class work because Wikipedia is all the world’s knowledge gathered in one place. However, there is a caution for the students to be monitored by adults and teachers so that they won’t indulge in negativity when they are online. Teachers should also check out the assignment on Wikipedia before it is assigned to them for verifications on the details contained as the students' safety is very pertinent.
I learned that there are a few misconceptions about Wikipedia which include: edits done on Wikipedia can’t be undone; Wikipedia makes students lazy and their works plagiarised (but it actually helps them to learn).
We were further made to know that there are behavioral guidelines on Wikipedia which include:
- assume good faith i.e Wikipedia editors are encouraged to assume that people who work on the project are trying to help not to hurt.
- do not disrupt Wikipedia to prove a point.
- do not bite newcomers.
- maintain etiquette.
MY NEXT STEPS
As a certified Wikipedia trainer, I intend to start a Wikipedia club with my students at Bishop Smith Memorial College, Ilorin teaching them how to search for more knowledge on Wikipedia and giving them prior knowledge of what they are about to learn. My target student group is particularly Arts students, so I can easily monitor their activities when I give them assignments in Literature–in–English my subject area. I also intend to train other interested teachers on how to use Wikipedia in the classroom to teach their students in their subject areas.