Hi Jirka Daněk, Thank you for the great initiative you are planning to take at your university and for reaching out to the Wikimedia Education mailing list.
I agree with the voices recommending that students translate from English to Czech not the opposite. For example, there are +4,500 featured articles <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_articles> on the English Wikipedia and most of them do not exist or not in a good state on the Czech Wikipedia. Students can start enriching the Czech content by translating some of these articles. I agree with Anna that coordinating with Vojtech and the Czech Wikimedia Chapter would be of the best helping options. Their great experience and restless volunteers will help a lot with your promising plan. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have. Regards, -- Samir Elsharbaty, Communications Intern, Wikipedia Education Program Wikimedia Foundation +2.011.200.696.77 [email protected] education.wikimedia.org On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 7:26 PM, Ziko van Dijk <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello, > > Is there a specific reason why your students are supposed to translate > from the native language to English, and not the other way round? > Writing for English Wikipedia is very difficult even to English > speaking students. If the text quality of the contributions is (too) > low, you might receive hostile reactions from English Wikipedians. > Also, it is important not to regard Wikipedia as a place where to > "dump" loads of texts. A text must be curated afterwards. At least for > a couple of days, the students should be online and accept feedback in > order to improve the texts. This time must be planned in your > schedule. Again, if Wikipedians get the impression that "their > Wikipedia" is "abused" as a "data dump place", leaving the work to > improve and wikify the texts to them, the Wikipedia volunteers, it is > possible that the reactions are hostile and that "articles" will be > deleted. > I hope this does not sound too pessimistic. :-) Also, I would advise > to consider to let students something else do that "writing an > article". I think that that is something a beginner should not start > with. > > Happy to hear about your proceedings, on this list. > > If someone is interested, I could report about experiences with regard > to German students translating from English. > > Kind regards > Ziko > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > 2015-05-21 18:10 GMT+02:00 Leigh Thelmadatter <[email protected]>: > > Ive worked for some time here in Mexico with Wikipedia, doing everything > > from writing articles in English, to translation, to photography and > > subtitling projects in Commons. > > > > I very much do recommend you contact the Czech education people, who are > a > > great bunch and can give you invaluable hands-on support. > > > > In my experience, I have found having students write new text in their > > non-native language to be extremely challenging, and you have to be sure > > that students are up for it. Translation gives the basic structure (a +) > > but it also has problems with L1 interference in L2. (and vice versa but > > particularly problematic for L1--> L2) > > > > If you are not sure if students are up for this (or you have the time), I > > have a couple of suggestions for experimenting... > > > > 1) Have students review articles in English on Czech topics for > inaccuracies > > and/or out-of-date information and/or missing details or citations. The > > Visual Editor tool has made article improvement a bit easier, especially > the > > addition of references. > > > > 2) Wikimedia Commons (commons.wikimedia.org) has videos in English that > need > > subtitles. One teacher at my school Karen Mazanec, had students create > > English subtitles for English video as intensive listening practice. > > > https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Newsletter/April_2015/New_to_Wikipedia:_A_personal_perspective > > > > > > Interesting to to get your mail today as I had a meeting where they are > > talking more about modualizing (not a word, I know) courses. If you > could > > send me a link about your course at Masaryk, I would appreciate it > greatly. > > > > Leigh > > > > > > > > ________________________________ > > From: [email protected] > > Date: Thu, 21 May 2015 17:40:12 +0200 > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Education] confirm > > 69ccb875820d9c89580605f70c3db83e8a426db7 > > > > > > Hello, > > > > I am a teaching assistant in ONLINE_A, e-learning English course at > Masaryk > > University, Czech Republic. This course is structured around students > > completing various English practice tasks and in that way gaining points > > towards credit. I came up with the idea to make writing a Wikipedia > article > > one of those tasks. The course is relatively large, but since this is > going > > to be one of the more difficult tasks available and only the more > advanced > > students can actually do it, I assume there would be only about 6 to 12 > > students every semester doing this task. I would not be able to coach > more > > of them anyways. The students are unlikely to have previous editor > > experience on WIkipedia. To accommodate for that, I plan to have them > > translate an article from Czech to English Wikipedia and instruct them to > > refer to an existing similar article on English Wikipedia to get a feel > for > > what they need to create. > > > > Example: Translate https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michal_Tu%C4%8Dn%C3%BD > as > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michal_Tu%C4%8Dn%C3%BD referring to > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Rogers as a source of inspiration. > > > > I am looking for an existing Wikimedia Education initiative under which > this > > initiative of my could be put into practice. I found "Studenti píší > > Wikipedii" at > > https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries/Czech_Republic. > Is > > it the correct bunch of people to turn to, given that I target WIkipedia > in > > English, not the Czech one? > > > > > > _______________________________________________ Education mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Education mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education > > > > _______________________________________________ > Education mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education > -- Samir Elsharbaty, Communications Intern, Wikipedia Education Program Wikimedia Foundation +2.011.200.696.77 [email protected] education.wikimedia.org
_______________________________________________ Education mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
