Learning Days at Wikimania 2018! edit

We are happy to inform that we will be hosting Learning Days at Wikimania!

In addition to the core-conference, the Learning and Evaluation team at the Wikimedia Foundation organizes pre-conference Learning Days. During these days, there will be workshops on program design, evaluation, and community learning. The event will be held on Wednesday, July 18th, and Thursday, July 19th.

This year, participants will be selected along two tracks according to practice and knowledge:

Traditional Learning Days track: Pre-conference participatory workshop sessions on program design, evaluation, resources, learning, & community engagement for folks working to implement programmatic and community engagement activities in their home communities.
Leadership Development track: Pre-conference sessions for affiliate representatives who are focused on developing leadership for programs and community building through train-the-trainer and other skills development approaches in their home communities.

If you would like to focus on developing programs for the first time in your community and have never attended a Learning Day before, we will have options prepared for you. Alternatively, if you have attended Learning Days before in past conferences and have already accrued experience in implementing Wikimedia Programs, we need your help! Aside from having advanced workshops for experienced program leaders focused on leadership development, we also want your help in co-hosting trainings and presenting what you know to others.

Registration & Selection edit

Registration for Wikimania 2018 opens on Monday, April 9. In the registration form, you will only be asked for your general interest in the pre-conference Learning Days. By stating your interest, you are not automatically registered, as only a limited number of slots are available. There will be a selection process based on the information you provide when stating your interest on Learning Days in the registration form. The selection process will end on May 18; participants are selected on a first come, first served basis, so the sooner you register, the better chances you have of participating in Learning Days. Qualification does not guarantee participation.

Should demand be less than expected, restrictions may be loosened. Follow-up communications and notifications will be sent beginning May 9th. If you have any questions, please reach out to María Cruz (eval wikimedia · org).

Selection Criteria: edit

The selection criteria for Learning Days include that all participants must be endorsed to participate by their affiliate group and demonstrate evidence of at least 3 of the following to qualify for participation:

You want to teach back home what they learn.
You have implemented one or more programmatic activities in the last 12 months or you plan to implement one or more programmatic activities in the next 12 months.
You have engaged, or plan to engage, in learning and evaluation practices in order to learn about their program outcomes.
You are interested in teaching about community programs and/or engagement activities at Learning Day.
You have taught or presented in a Learning Day event in the past.
You have demonstrated application of something they learned at a past Learning Day event.
You are working to develop and/or lead skills training workshops for leadership development in their home community (e.g., skills development for community engagement, community health, program design and evaluation).

Looking forward to a new day of Learning Together!

Participants edit

If you have already registered for Wikimania, and have interest in participating, sign up below

Instructions for sharing knowledge edit

Posters edit

Estimated preparation time: 3 - 5 hours.

Poster dimensions

The maximum dimensions for your poster size A1. Following are the technical specifications for the poster:

Size: A1 (594 x 841 mm "or" 23.4 x 33.1 in)
DPI: preferably 150-300 DPI
Color mode: Preferably CMYK (most graphic editing software programs have the color changing mode and CMYK is great for lossless printing)

Creating your poster

In terms of content, the kind of poster we are looking for is academic poster ^[1], a presentation of information that is educational to others, and serves a learning purpose, rather than a promotional or marketing end. Once you chose the topic you want for your poster, lay out the story in a way that lets other people know what happened, what were the key results, and what is your key advice to them, if you have any. You can also use the ABCDs of Storytelling as a guide to creating your poster. Find more detailed guidance on this Learning Pattern, and also looking at posters submitted by others in previous Learning Days:

There are many programs you can use to create a poster. We have found that Microsoft PowerPoint, LibreOffice Presentation, and LibreOffice Draw are the most easy to use, and make good looking posters. Other programs like Adobe InDesign & Illustrator have more features, but they are also more difficult to learn, and they are expensive. Another option is to use Google Draw.

Whichever program you choose, make sure to set the size of your poster file before you start adding words and pictures. This will help you make sure that the fonts you are using are the right size, and that the pictures you include have a high enough resolution to print properly. Here are some links that may help you create a poster of the correct size:

Finalizing your poster

Once your poster is complete, please print it to PDF format and open it in a PDF reader to make sure that everything is displaying correctly. Are your pictures blurry? Is your text aligned? Once you are happy with the way your PDF looks, please send the PDF to eval@wikimedia.org.

If you have questions, or experience trouble making your poster

Please email eval@wikimedia.org. Remember that the deadline for submitting your poster for printing is Sunday, February 26. If you have questions or requests for us to help you, please email no later than Monday, February 20.

References

↑ Academic poster, on English Wikipedia

Lightning Talk edit

Estimated Preparation Time is 1-3 hours.
Share with your peers something inspiring about your project experience. Give a 3-5 min talk and share:

What you did
How you measured success and
What you learned

There will be time for questions at the end of your talk.
To create a successful lightning talk, make sure you have some visual support. You can use a poster you submitted, a few slides (not more than 3 or 4 is recommended), or a page you want to show to support your story.