Learning patterns/The teacher as producer of educational proposals with Wikimedia projects
What problem are you trying to solve?
[edit]Most proposals to include technology in the classroom end up being a closed project, a guide or sum of experiences that have already been executed that do not interpellate the very practices teachers already have. They (the teachers) are expected to apply a methodology or replicate an experience without anchoring these in their own experiences or needs.
What is the solution?
[edit]In the context of the long distance course, «Puentes entre las culturas escolares, digitales y libres» (Bridges between school, digital and free cultures), we proposed as a final instance the creation of wikiprojects by the teachers themselves.
The first step of the course was dedicated to awareness and motivation: educators learned about case studies or education programs designed by other teachers, that worked as fuel and inspiration. In order to have these resources, we previously did a survey of existing cases in the country, on different levels of education. We chose two cases: a formal course of under-graduate level, and an informal course for secondary school level.
We proposed the teachers to investigate these two courses that included Wikimedia, observing both the design process and the implementation process. We also asked them to highlight the strong points and possible strategies that could be applied to their classes. With this end in mind, we generated a forum for debate among the course participants, to survey the strategies that they considered interesting and applicable to their contexts. We later on generated a template for teachers to generate their own projects, having in mind these axis for planning:
- Subject (seminar or class)
- Topic or content to be developed
- Goals
- Homework or activity to be developed (Idea, duration, number of students, evaluation proposals)
- #Wikipuentes (What component will you use of the school culture, which ones of the digital culture and which ones of the free culture?)
- Wikichallenges (e.g., do you work with some ideas on Gender Gap? Or reassess the local culture?)
Once the Wikiprojects were designed, we shared them among the teachers, for them to also use them in their classes or educational contexts. In this way, the activity was also useful to promote and to co-create patterns of project validity.
We are now systematizing these productions to share them with the community.
How to use this pattern
[edit]In the context of the long distance course, «Puentes entre las culturas escolares, digitales y libres» (Bridges between school, digital and free cultures), we proposed as a final instance the creation of wikiprojects by the teachers themselves.