Wikimedia+Education Conference 2019/Submissions/Learning about Wikipedia when you know nothing about the Web
 | This is an Open submission for Wikimedia+Education Conference 2019 that has not yet been reviewed by the members of the Program Committee. |
- Submission no.
- Title of the submission
- Learning about Wikipedia when you know nothing about the Web
- Author(s) of the submission
- Gabriel Thullen (GastelEtzwane)
- E-mail address
- gabriel
thullen.com
- Country/place of origin
- Switzerland
- Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)
- Wikimedia CH
- Main theme
- Type of session
- Scope
- teachers, learners, trainers, advocates and activists
- Length of session
- 30 min
- Do you want to submit a paper for peer-reviewing?
- no
- Abstract
More than half of the people living on this World have no access to the Internet. In Africa, more than 75% of the population has no access to the Internet, and a lot of them have never used it, not even once.
In Europe, the Internet is almost everywhere. As soon as there is mobile phone coverage, there is Internet access. And as soon as we search for information on the web, Google shows Wikipedia pages. Sooner or later, most Internet users will find out that Wikipedia exists. That makes it a lot easier for us to talk about the work we do with Wikipedia.
Some of us, hopefully most of us, also know about Kiwix, the program that allows us to read Wikipedia without being connected to the Internet. We know about the wealth of information contained in the encyclopedia because we use it a lot and have helped build it. It is easy for us to be convinced of it's worth, and for us it is obvious that being able to access Wikipedia by using a program like Kiwix would a huge benefit for those who have no access to the Web.
But those who have never had access to the Internet, how will they fully appreciate the value of an online encyclopedia like Wikipedia? How could we show them that all of this information can be stored on a small USB key? How to convince them that Wikipedia is a source of information that is at least as reliable as their old school books? How to explain that all this information, the equivalent of millions of books, is at their disposal for free? And that it is so easy to copy a few files so that this information is spread further on?
- How does your proposal add knowledge to the international community in Wikimedia and education?
- Show how one can talk about Wikipedia with people who do not know the Internet.
- Provide talking points for those seeking to promote the use of off-line Wikipedia.
- Who is the intended ideal audience for the topic?
Everyone who will be travelling to locations with little or no internet access
- Slides or further information
- Special requests
- none
Interested attendees[edit]
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