Education/News/October 2022/Wikimedia & Education Workshops: a Wiki Movimento Brasil initiative
WMB's Education Workshop, Wikipedia Publication & New Manager
Wikimedia & Education Workshops: a Wiki Movimento Brasil initiative
Monthly, Wiki Movimento Brasil hold Wikimedia & Education Workshops with support from the Wikipedia & Education Group. In these online meetings, two guests who use Wikimedia projects for educational purposes share their experiences with an audience of people interested in the subject. The main objective of the workshops is to create a network for exchanging experiences between educators and researchers from the Portuguese-speaking community who are interested in the educational potential of Wikimedia projects.
In a country of continental dimensions and such different socioeconomic realities as Brazil, it is very powerful to hear about the different approaches and strategies used to spread the wiki-word. With these meetings, we realized that many of the educators' anxieties are shared among them, such as the initial technical difficulty to start editing. With an overloaded work reality, it is even more costly for Brazilian educators to find time to learn the technical issues of how Wikimedia projects work. This barrier is overcome by their dedication and their desire to do better for their students, but it does require extra motivation and energy. Meeting and talking to other people who make this extra effort gives them (and us) a boost of energy and enthusiasm to continue working towards free knowledge.
On the 28th of September, we held the 18th edition of the Wikimedia & Education Workshop. One of our guests was Rute Correia, Wikimedian in residence at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the NOVA University of Lisbon (NOVA FCSH). Under the title "Wikimedia at the University: Exploration and Projects at NOVA FCSH", Rute Correia spoke about her work in the development of eViterbo.
eViterbo is a pioneering multifaceted platform that crosses data for academic purposes using Wikimedia Projects. It is still restricted access (private wiki) but will be open when the project is completed. Her work in the project is fundamental to help with the technicalities of the project, including the ones linked to Wikimedia projects integration. "Infoboxes and pre-definitions are not easy to create or to program for those who have never done so, and we are talking about a group of historians who have a knowledge based on social sciences". This means that having a Wikimedian, specialized in the technical aspects of Wikimedia projects, is critical for projects like this to be successful.
We also held Artur Corrêa Souza, a Mathematics graduate student at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS/Brazil). He spoke about "Obelepedia: how several language articles were improved by students of the Brazilian Linguistics Olympiad". The graduate student explained how the Brazilian Linguistics Olympiad works and how one of its phases - the Obelepédia - includes the creation and improving articles on specific languages for the Portuguese-speaking Wikipedia. Their work is graded based on having infoboxes, introductions, and sessions about etymology, phonology, grammar, and several others.
"The students are excited about writing these articles. They are in the third phase of the olympiad, so they are students who are passionate about languages. The articles after the Obelepedia are much more dense and complete. Some even include videos of native speakers". In the 2020-2021 edition, the initiative resulted in the creation of 75 articles in several world languages.
- Slides of Rute Correia's presentation (in Portuguese)
- Slides of Artur Corrêa Souza's presentation (in Portuguese)
All the videos of Wikimedia & Education Workshop are available on our Wikiversity page, as are the speakers' slides.
Wikipedia from A to Z
Wiki Movimento Brasil organised the brochure Wikipédia de A a Z, in Portuguese, which brings together the content necessary to help people enter the world of Wikipedia. In this document, you can find contextual information about the Wikimedia projects, the Wikimedia Movement and the Creative Commons licenses. You also find explanations of what to do before you start editing, how to edit, and how to help others edit.
The document organizes information so well and in such a user-friendly way that it is commonly used as a reference, even in academic papers. With "Wikipedia from A to Z" we were able to explain the basic principles of operation and participation in Wikipedia to the most diverse audiences. The document is freely available on Wikimedia Commons under a CC-BY SA license. Read, use and share it!
New Education manager
Last, but not least: Hello, everyone! My name is Amanda Jurno and I have just started as Education Manager at WMB.
My academic background is in Communication Studies. I have a Ph.D., a Master and a BA in Communication from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG/Brazil).
In parallel, I also work as a researcher and professor of digital media. My research has focused on understanding and analyzing the intermingling and mutual molding between the logic of online platforms and different social sectors, especially in journalism. I am also interested in studying digital platforms, algorithms, artificial intelligence, and their interfaces with communication. Currently, I am a member of the group R-EST – socio-technical networks studies (UFMG) and GAIA – Group of Artificial Intelligence and Arts (C4AI / InovaUSP).
I am extremely excited to work with Wiki Movimento Brasil and to have the opportunity to be part of such a beautiful and powerful movement. Feel free to reach out to me to talk about any of the subjects above, or anything else at amandajurno
wmnobrasil
org.