Thanks, Oona, this is indeed exciting. :-) I have to say though, that this did not come out of nowhere. Rather, this is a result of many different smaller collaborations and pilot projects with specific schools, specific teachers, specific targeted groups (like gifted children) GLAMs, universities and later on with the Ministry of Education itself. These projects have been running separately by different wikipedians and wikimedians in Israel in the past 3 years, and even longer in higher education and universities.
For schools, we created different models of integration for different age-groups. It was crucial, since for example, though high-school students and gifted children in junior high may be mature enough to write full articles, this is not the case for elementary school and regular junior high students. We had to cteate a system where different ages engage with wikipedia in a different way that makes sense in terms of their abilities and capacity, and that the wiki skills they are taught, are used to teach them other learning skills from an pedagogical POV. Junior-high students (7th-9th grades) might work in a groups, with the teacher, and only improve articles. And elementary shool children (1st-6th grades) might not be able to contribute anything, but just learn how wikipedia works and how to properly work with it as a tool. So in order to scale, it became clearer and clearer that the teachers are as much our target as the students. We began giving wiki-workshops to teachers, who would then become wiki-agents in the classroom. In the latest pilot that has been running in Israel, 2 wikipedians ran a pilot in Beer-Sheva, a big city in the south of Israel, with the ministry of education. They reached out to many different junior high classes, in various schools in the city, at the same time, working closely with the teachers and the ministry. Students improved articles and even wrote new ones about historical places and monuments in the city and the pilot came to show a successful model of working with junior high students. Joining other smaller but successful collaborations with gifted children (sometimes in collaboration with GLAMs we've been working with), highschool students and even elementary scools, the minister got convinced it could work and we are working on building a program that will help teachers implement it in class. I'm sure like everything new that hasn't been done exactly like that before, there will be some "labor pains" and a learning curve. But given the opportunity to do that on the national level is huge for every country - Serbia, Israel, it doesn't matter; it's only a matter of time till it'll be something that is regularly done worldwide. That is what we want, really - to be part of the process and keep being there for the long run. Cheers, Shani. --------------------------------------- Shani Evenstein, WM-IL. On 11 Jun 2014 09:53, "Oona Castro" <oonacas...@gmail.com> wrote: > excellent news! congratulations! > > Did you guys see Israel is also to get Wikipedia included in the > curriculum of public schools? Sorry for crossposting in case it has been > shared here: > http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=18059 > > I'm really excited to hear and learn more about these initiatives, though > I'm really concerned about our limitations in the Brazilian education > system. > > Oona > > > On 11 June 2014 03:42, Nurunnaby Chowdhury <n...@nhasive.com> wrote: > >> Wow..excellent news Mile! >> Congratulations.. >> >> -- >> Nurunnaby Chowdhury | @nhasive >> Sysop, Bengali Wikipedia | User: Nhasive >> Member, IEG, WMF >> Ambassador, OK Bangladesh >> Sent from my iPhone device >> >> >> On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 4:55 AM, Shani <shani.e...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Great news, Mile! >>> Looking forward to seeing you in London and hear some more, :-) >>> Shani. >>> On 11 Jun 2014 01:31, "Jens Best" <jens.b...@wikimedia.de> wrote: >>> >>>> That's really great news. Congratulations to all people involved in >>>> preparing and realizing this important success. >>>> >>>> best regards >>>> >>>> Jens Best >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Präsidium - Board of Trustees >>>> Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. >>>> web: http://www.wikimedia.de >>>> mail: jens.best <http://goog_17221883>@wikimedia.de >>>> >>>> Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V. >>>> Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts >>>> Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig >>>> anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, >>>> Steuernummer 27/681/51985. >>>> >>>> >>>> 2014-06-10 23:13 GMT+02:00 Mile Kiš <mil...@vikimedija.org>: >>>> >>>>> Hello everyone! >>>>> I am honored to inform you that several months of integrating >>>>> Wikipedia into primary and secondary schools in Serbia has finally paid >>>>> off! >>>>> >>>>> After the Ministry has prescribed that from September 2014 all >>>>> students of the second year of secondary school curriculum *must >>>>> study wiki tools*, Institute for the Improvement of knowledge and >>>>> education has included a course on Wikipedia in its catalog of programs of >>>>> continuous professional development of teachers, professors and other >>>>> school personnel. We got accreditation for two years. Not a lot applicants >>>>> got accreditation. >>>>> >>>>> This course will start in December. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> first challenge we successfully crossed :) next will come. >>>>> >>>>> I started writing blog post about this and hope it will be ready on 20 >>>>> June. >>>>> >>>>> If you have some questions I will be happy to answer you :) >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Mile Kiš >>>>> >>>>> Vikimedija Srbije - rs.wikimedia.org - >>>>> 00381 (0)60 7 454 772 >>>>> >>>>> „Zamislite svet u kome svaka osoba ima slobodan pristup celokupnom >>>>> ljudskom znanju. To je ono na čemu mi radimo.“ >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Education mailing list >>>>> Education@lists.wikimedia.org >>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Education mailing list >>>> Education@lists.wikimedia.org >>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education >>>> >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Education mailing list >>> Education@lists.wikimedia.org >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education >>> >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> Education mailing list >> Education@lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Education mailing list > Education@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education > >
_______________________________________________ Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
