Réseau @pprendre of French-speaking West Africa Wikimedians User Group

Overview

Objectives

Scope & Activities

Support

Partnerships

Members

Training

Contact

Réseau @pprendre of French-speaking West Africa Wikimedians User Group (Fr: Wikimédiens du Réseau @pprendre d'Afrique de l'Ouest Francophone User Group) is a Wikimedia user group in the process initiated by Wikimedians interested in promoting the Wikimedia projects in education in the French-speaking countries in West Africa by involving pupils and students from primary schools, colleges, and universities.

Réseau @pprendre of French-speaking West Africa Wikimedians User Group
West Africa
Location	West Africa
Official language(s)	French

Mission

Our mission is to foster a culture of knowledge sharing and digital literacy in French-speaking West African countries by actively involving pupils and students from primary schools, colleges, and universities in the Wikimedia projects. Our volunteers are dedicated to enhancing access to free, reliable, and locally relevant educational content from Wiki Projects while empowering the next generation with essential Wiki skills.

Vision

Our vision is a future where every pupil and student in French-speaking West African countries has the opportunity to become a knowledgeable contributor to the world's largest open educational resources in French through active participation in Wikimedia projects. We aspire to see young minds in French-speaking West African countries not only accessing but also enriching and localizing content on Wikimedia projects, thereby creating a dynamic ecosystem of shared knowledge that fuels innovation and progress across the region.

Values

• We believe in the power of the Wikimedia projects in education as a rich container of Open Educational Resources
• We believe in the importance of the involvement of students in enriching and localizing content
• We believe in the importance of Collaboration with local communities to promote educational projects.

Why?

Wikimedia projects are very important for education and while there are plenty of resources and initiatives in English and in many countries, there is a:

• lack of educational initiatives in French-speaking West African countries
• lack of localized content in French for French-speaking West African countries
• The importance of education as SDG. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4 specifically focuses on education and aims to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all."

  

• The importance of having Open educational resources (OER) in French for the region. In November 2019, UNESCO adopted, during the 40th session of the General Conference, the Recommendation on OER, which aims to promote and facilitate access to high-quality, open, and free educational resources for education worldwide. This recommendation encourages UNESCO member states to support the development, adaptation, dissemination, and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) as a means to promote equitable access to quality education. It underscores the importance of openness and the free availability of educational resources to enhance access to education, improve the quality of teaching, and foster lifelong learning.

Approach

To accomplish our objectives, we are formulating thematic educational projects, and these projects will be executed through cooperative efforts and support. While the group is open to potential collaborations with existing affiliates, its foremost emphasis is directed toward addressing countries that do not have affiliates already in place.

In countries with no affiliates

Our approach involves establishing volunteer communities in countries from the region lacking affiliates by following these steps:

• Collaborating with local partners in the targeted nations, such as local education-focused NGOs, libraries, universities, and schools.
• Initiating volunteer recruitment drives in collaboration with our local partners.
• Offering comprehensive online training sessions to volunteers, including trainer training on Wikimedia project editing, essential Wikimedia tools, and the requisite skills for organizing edit-a-thons. When feasible, in-person training sessions are also arranged.
• Launching edit-a-thons and contests in these countries, hosted by our local partners and led by trained volunteers.
• Providing ongoing online support and skill development opportunities for the trained volunteers.

In countries with existing affiliates

Our strategy doesn't involve circumventing the local affiliates; instead, it aims to offer them assistance, essential tools, and skills to guarantee the effective execution of projects

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Réseau @pprendre