Education/News/February 2023/A Strategic Direction for a Massive Online Course for Educators in Brazil

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A Strategic Direction for a Massive Online Course for Educators in Brazil

Author: AJurno (WMB)
Summary: This February, Wiki Movimento Brasil (WMB) held the first meeting of Strategic Committee of the Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) that is being developed on Wikiversity. The organisation of the Strategic Committee aims to monitor, guide and supervise the creation of a course aimed at educators and those interested in the educational uses of Wikimedia projects. The initiative pretends to present, in a condensed and simplified way, information educators need to start using Wikimedia projects with their students. The expectation with these meetings is that the members of the Committee are going to contribute to the orientation, review, and approval of the content and structure of the course that is meant to be finished by July 2023.
Members of the first MOOC's Strategic Committee meeting
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The Strategic Committee of the MOOC "Wikimedia for Educators"

On the 23rd of February, Wiki Movimento Brasil (WMB) held the first meeting of the Strategic Committee of the Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) that is being developed on Wikiversity. The committee is organized by the Brazilian affiliate, which acts in the activation, coordination, and social transformation in favor of open knowledge.

We are very happy to mention that the MOOC's Strategic Committee is composed of Adriane Batata (Wiki Movimento Brasil), Bukola James (Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Nigeria), Felipe Lima (Wiki Movimento Brasil), Flávia Varella (UFSC, project "Mais Teoria da História na Wiki"), LiAnna Davis (Wiki Education Foundation; Wikipedia Education Program), Luisina Ferrante (Wikimedia Argentina), and Sofia Matias (Wikimedia Portugal). These amazing and dedicated Wikimedians are granting around ten hours of their time to monitor, guide and supervise the creation of the MOOC. We are extremely grateful for their orientation and review throughout this already fruitful process.

The idea behind the creation of this Strategic Committee is to ensure that the course "Wikimedia for Educators" (name to be confirmed) WMB is developing meets the demands of the Wikimedia community and covers the necessary topics to fulfill its main objectives. The course is aimed at educators and others interested in the educational uses of Wikimedia projects.

We expect that, by the end of the course, participants will be able to:

  • have ideas for activities to develop with their students in education, research, and extension;
  • be capable of basic editing four Wikimedia projects – Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikiversity;
  • build their own education programs, both in education and in extension;
  • find advanced information about the Wikimedia Projects that interest them;
  • and ask for funding to develop their education programs.

The MOOC "Wikimedia for Educators" is being created on the Portuguese Wikiversity, and is meant to be finished by July 2023. The idea behind its creatiion is to present, in a condensed and simplified way, information educators need to start using Wikimedia projects with their students. This course does not intend to replace existing materials, nor to delve into specific and advanced details of the Wikimedia Projects covered. The proposal is to facilitate the introduction of educators interested in the Wikimedia universe, including by gathering and systematizing existing content.

Periodic meetings are going to be held, every three or four weeks, during the first semester of 2023 with WMB staff members and the Strategic Committee to present the course content and design proposal. The meetings are closed and held in Portuguese, with English translation. In this first meeting, Victor Lopes (WMB) did the job of simultaneously translating the meeting and making the conversation possible.

The WMB team is carefully documenting the process. It is worth mentioning that, although this is a project focused on Brazil and written in Portuguese, it can be useful in other contexts. Because it is an on-wiki project, with a free license and open to the community, people from all over the world can take ownership of this content and format, and adapt them to their realities and/or to other themes. We hope that this documentation will eventually be useful for other organizations that work with the same objectives in other contexts.

We will keep you posted about this process!

"Arq-a-Thon 2023": Education Program supported by WMB

On the 27th, 28th, and 29th of January 2023, Wiki Movimento Brasil (WMB) supported a Wikipedia-editing marathon organized at the Federal University of Piauí (UFPI – Brazil). The "Arq-a-Thon 2023" was an event aimed at editing entries related to the Archeology field on the Portuguese Wikipedia. It was promoted and coordinated by the archaeologist and professor, Grégoire van Havre, from the Department of Archeology at the Federal University of Piauí and had the co-coordination of Michelle Mayumi Tizuka, archaeologist and Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF – Brazil).

Screenshot showing the "Arq-A-Thon 2023" participants, which was taken by Prof. Gregóire van Havre at the end of the event

The activity was organized as an extension course at UFPI, for internal and external students, and gathered 28 graduate and undergraduate archaeology students from UFPI and from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE – Brazil). During the "Arq-a-Thon 2023", students created one new article, improved eight articles, and totalled 250 editions. Together, they added almost 10 thousand bytes of quality and referenced information in Portuguese about archeology, archaeological sites, artifacts, digital archeology, and archaeological collections.

The professor, Grégoire van Havre (UFPI), also participated as a guest speaker in WMB's XXI Wikimedia & Education Workshop, held on February 15. At the occasion, he told a lit bit about the event's organization process and their students' perception. According to him, they all want a second round of it.

And the WMB's team is looking forward to the next events and partnerships!

Call for chapters for the book "Wikimedia in Brazil"

The call for chapters for the book “Wikimedia in Brazil: the power and challenges of open knowledge” (name to be confirmed) was extended and is open until March 26th, 2023. The book is a Wiki Movimento Brasil (WMB) initiative and aims to celebrate the work and gather stories about the trajectory of the people who have been protagonists in the development of Wikimedia in Brazil.

Access to quality knowledge and information is essential for the development of any society. And it is due to the collaborative Wikimedia community that all content on the Wikimedia Projects is openly available on the internet to be freely used, edited, copied, and redistributed.

WMB wants to gather theoretical reflections and reports of practical work, carried out in Brazilian territory, that address and/or involve at least one of the 15 Wikimedia projects. The expectation is that the book is going to be a collection of chapters authored by professors, researchers, professionals, Wikimedians, and other enthusiasts of the Wikimedia Movement. This is such a rich, dynamic, and diverse movement that it can only be conceived and carried out in a multidisciplinary way.

The organizers are accepting proposals written in Portuguese and English, containing between 5 and 10 thousand characters; however, the complete texts will necessarily have to be written in Portuguese. The organization of the book is also part of the WMB's tenth-anniversary celebrations.

Be bold and send your proposal, too.