Education/News/June 2025/Bolivia has 20 new teachers graduated from the Let's Read Wikipedia in the Classroom program

Bolivia has 20 new teachers graduated from the Let's Read Wikipedia in the Classroom program

Summary: In May, Bolivia graduated 20 more teachers who joined the group of teachers who use Wikipedia to teach in the classroom. The teachers are part of the Simon Bolivar I Educational Unit and teachers in training at the Simon Bolivar Teacher Training College. The incorporation of this new group of teachers who critically use Wikipedia fills us with pride because the lesson plans they presented incorporate novel and very creative ideas that allow students to critically read the information they receive in the classroom and in their environment.

First promotion of Leamos Wikipedia at the Escuela Superior de Maestros Simón Bolivar

At the Escuela Superior de Formación de Maestros Simón Bolívar, the first promotion of Leamos Wikipedia in Bolivia, with teachers in training, graduated. The event was really emotional and significant for the students, since the delivery of the certification took place in a public ceremony in the auditorium of the School, the general director of this higher education institution, Mirtha Apaza, showed her support by participating in the delivery of certificates to each of the graduating students.

This first graduating class of Leamos Wikipedia from the Escuela Superior de Formación de Maestros Simón Bolívar opened the possibility of signing an inter-institutional cooperation agreement and, with this, continue the work of Leamos Wikipedia in the years to come.

In the lesson plans developed by the teachers in training, one can see really creative and novel ideas that challenge students to question the information they receive on the Internet, social networks and other sources. For example, Franklin Tuco works on the exploration of physical performance from Wikipedia, crosses the information with sports myths that exist on the web, evaluates this information from the implementation with students to finally present a report on the veracity or not of these myths.

Reysa Ochoa, in her Plan “Religious Tolerance”, investigates with her students the representation of different religions in Wikipedia and other Internet sources, questions whether these promote tolerance towards the religions practiced in Bolivia and the possible biases with which they could be represented.

In the case of Ariel Cama, his lesson plan entitled “Lights and shadows of the prophets” evaluates the information contained in Wikipedia and other sources about religious prophets and how they are represented, that is, if this information, in addition to highlighting their religious virtues, also highlights their human dimension, with the good and bad that this may entail.

We believe that these approaches enrich the readings on diverse representation, intercultural dialogue and promote the practice of analysis and exchange of ideas even on sensitive topics such as spirituality. We believe that the approaches promote respectful dialogue, which is valuable in an educational setting and can enrich the educational experience in the classroom.

The graduation of the teacher trainees of the ESFM Simón Bolívar took place in a public ceremony.
Professor Carlos Martinez receives his Leamos Wikipedia graduation certificate.
Professor Willy Zurita with his Leamos Wikipedia graduation certificate.
Professor Reysa Ochoa receives her graduation certificate from the Leamos Wikipedia program.
The Director of the ESFM Simón Bolívar, Mirtha Apaza, receives a present from Wikimedistas de Bolivia

Graduation at the Simón Bolívar Educational Unit I

In the case of the teachers who graduated from the Simón Bolívar Educational Unit, we would like to share the experience of teacher Viviana Maidana, who proposes in her lesson plan the use of Wikipedia as a starting point for the work of collecting sources and criteria for verifying the information for the development of monographs, a topic included in the sixth grade educational curriculum.

Zuleyka Reyes worked on the design of a lesson plan that proposes critical reflection on the representation of gender in the process of Bolivian independence. This work of reflection is not minor, as the teacher crosses the information contained in the school textbook with the information available on Wikipedia; this work will allow students to reflect on how much and how women are represented on the web and explore issues such as the gap of representation and access to the Internet in their context.

Official photo of the teachers who graduated from the Simon Bolivar School's Let's Read Wikipedia program.
Professor Dannia Quispe.
Professor Zuleyka Reyes.
Professor Viviana Maidana
Professor Dulcema Castillo.

Our next steps

The work with the Leamos Wikipedia program in Bolivia will continue with the graduation of the group of teachers from the Specialized Unit for Continuing Education, UNEFCO, which began its training process in May through virtual sessions, in which we have the participation of Noemí Ticona, one of the first certified mentors of the Leamos Wikipedia program globally.

UNEFCO is the decentralized state agency of the Ministry of Education of Bolivia in charge of developing training and continuous updating processes for teachers in the Bolivian education system and we have worked in this alliance in a very enthusiastic way because of the scope it means and the recognition of the value of the training program in new spaces.

In addition, we continue with the training of teachers in different educational units and we are working in other municipalities in Bolivia.

In the next issue we will also tell you about our experience at the EduWiki Conference, held in Bogota at the end of May.