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Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Research Fund/Wikimedia in the Palestinian soceity - challenges and barriers

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statusnot funded
Wikimedia in the Palestinian soceity - challenges and barriers
start and end datesJuly 2023 - July 2024
budget (USD)49,964 USD
fiscal year2022-23
applicant(s)• Maram Sliman and Kholod Massalha

Overview

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Applicant(s)

Maram Sliman and Kholod Massalha

Affiliation or grant type

I'lam - Arab Center for Media Freedom, Devel

Author(s)

Maram Sliman and Kholod Massalha

Wikimedia username(s)

Project title

Wikimedia in the Palestinian soceity - challenges and barriers

Research proposal

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Description

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Description of the proposed project, including aims and approach. Be sure to clearly state the problem, why it is important, why previous approaches (if any) have been insufficient, and your methods to address it.

Despite the increasing popularity of Wiki projects as educational tools in the past decade, they remain absent from the Palestinian education system. While a study was conducted regarding the Wikipedia usage of Palestinian youth in Israel, it failed to touch on the subject of Wiki projects as tools for education and learning or their potential impact.

Studies have shown that integrating Wikimedia projects as educational tools can directly contribute to the student’s information and digital literacies, writing and editing skills, and critical thinking - skills that are crucial for the navigation of our digitized world. Around the globe, an increasing number of educators are adopting methods of “Teaching with Wikimedia”, allowing them to provide students with a new learning experience that fosters independent thinking and critical consumption of information.

Through this study, we aim to better understand the challenges students and educators face in integrating Wiki projects into the Palestinian education system through structured educational programs. By identifying the challenges and barriers, we will be better equipped to design and promote educational programs that can be easily implemented by educators.

This study will be conducted using both qualitative and quantitative methods. a survey will be distributed among 300 students and educators - this is to establish a baseline for the qualitative part of the study. The survey will address different barriers and challenges the participants might face in using Wikimedia projects as educational tools. The distribution of the survey will be conducted in a number of regions, ensuring an inclusive representation of the Palestinian society.

Following the analysis of the survey results, we will conduct 15 focus groups - 5 groups of high-school students, 5 groups of university students, and 5 groups of educators, each group containing 10 participants - from different academic or educational Palestinian institutes. The focus group will be selected from the participants of the survey, and will assist in contextualizing the results of the survey. With the results of the study, we will be able to design and promote structured educational programs that will allow students to expand their knowledge source.

Personnel

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N/A

Budget

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Approximate amount requested in USD.

49,964 USD

Budget Description

Briefly describe what you expect to spend money on (specific budgets and details are not necessary at this time).

Researcher: $19,260

The researcher will be responsible for conducting the study, overseeing the assistants, and providing a report with results and recommendations.

Research Assistant: $7,704

This assistant will help the researcher in analyzing the survey results.

Research Assistant:$ 9,000

This assistant will help the researcher in conducting the focus groups

Venues and refreshments: $1,800

Digital tools: $5,000

Travel expenses: $7,200

Impact

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Address the impact and relevance to the Wikimedia projects, including the degree to which the research will address the 2030 Wikimedia Strategic Direction and/or support the work of Wikimedia user groups, affiliates, and developer communities. If your work relates to knowledge gaps, please directly relate it to the knowledge gaps taxonomy.

Based on Wikimedia's strategic direction, we believe that in order to increase and develop the contribution of the Palestinian society to Wikimedia project, we must understand the challenges preventing it from doing so.

As the educational system is a representation of society, Identifying and overcoming the barriers preventing the Palestinian education system from using Wikimedia as an educational tool will help us increase and develop the contribution of the Palestinian society to the different Wikimedia projects by designing and implementing educational programs based on the movement’s strategic principles of people-centeredness, equity and empowerment, and contextualization.

Dissemination

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Plans for dissemination.

Following the conclusion of the study and the analysis of the results, the study results will be presented in a conference. The event will be attended by students, educators, and public figures from the Palestinian society. Furthermore, the results will be released to the public and distributed among Palestinian school and universities using digital tools. The full report will also be available online on the organization’s website and social media platforms.

Past Contributions

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Prior contributions to related academic and/or research projects and/or the Wikimedia and free culture communities. If you do not have prior experience, please explain your planned contributions.

There have been no studies focusing on the use of Wikimedia projects in the Palestinian education system.

The study will be conducted by a team of researchers headed by Dr. Mtanes Shehadi, and will include Ms. Inas Khatib and Ms. Dania Eid, active members of the Wiki-Palestine group, who will assist Dr. Mtanes with the research.


I agree to license the information I entered in this form excluding the pronouns, countries of residence, and email addresses under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. I understand that the decision to fund this Research Fund application, the application itself along with all the information entered by my in this form excluding the pronouns, country of residences, and email addresses of the personnel will be published on Wikimedia Foundation Funds pages on Meta-Wiki and will be made available to the public in perpetuity. To make the results of your research actionable and reusable by the Wikimedia volunteer communities, affiliates and Foundation, I agree that any output of my research will comply with the WMF Open Access Policy. I also confirm that I have read the privacy statement and agree to abide by the WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes