Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Lagos,Nigeria
The Lagos State government is the government in Africa’s most populous city. It is the commercial capital of Nigeria that is working really hard to make its citizens digital savvy citizens starting with its education sector. The government has embraced digital literacy and has a goal of ensuring that teachers in Lagos State are digitally savvy. The government launched an online digital training program during the Covid in 2020, to train 10,000 teachers. It was supported by Microsoft. Reading Wikipedia in Classroom is a good complement for the government’s effort at digital literacy. It will additionally be a great boost for the government's effort towards fighting ‘Disinformation and Misinformation'. The government has shown the will. They only need to get the right direction. Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom is not just a good direction, but also the right direction in teaching how to differentiate between reliable information and unreliable information, which is the digital-age’s most potent threat to peace worldwide.
Only a digitally well informed and equipped teacher can build a 21st century generation of well informed and properly equipped students. The Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom program will make the participating teachers in Lagos State, Nigeria, to be better in assessing and evaluating information they receive, as well as to recognise possible biases in information being disseminated. The teachers will in turn pass this knowledge and the discerning ability to their students. The programme will also help deepen and improve the research and writing skills of teachers. Most teachers in Nigeria have for example, never had the opportunity of writing for an Encyclopedia or relating with others in an international community with a diverse audience. This is therefore an opportunity for the teachers to learn how to communicate and relate in a large and diverse community like Wikipedia. The totality of the knowledge and experiences of such exposed teachers, will definitely reflect on their students.