WikiCred/2022 CFP/Wiki Media and Information Literacy Bootcamp for Educators in Nigeria
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, all schools in Nigeria were closed from March 27, 2020, as one of the Federal Government's measures to limit the spread of the disease. This translated to a contextualized state-wide school closure across the 36 states in the country, (Eze, Sefotho, Onyishi, & Eseadi, 2021). With the emergence of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, both teachers and students were forced to quickly transition to remote learning, which was primarily focused on personalizing education by developing alternative learning models to facilitate high-quality learning and teaching efficiency. In response, different states’ Ministries of Education released modalities for radio and TV schooling and internet-based learning for students in public primary and secondary schools, (Eze, etal. 2021).
| Wiki Media and Information Literacy Bootcamp for Educators in Nigeria | |
|---|---|
| A WikiCred 2022 Grant Proposal | |
| Project Type | Event |
| Author | (Bukky658, Ridzaina, James Rhoda, Linason Blessing, Savvyseyi) |
| Contact | bukolajames2017 gmail.com, oluwaseyiogbonlaiyegmail.com, Blessingsarmanthagmail.com, olamideadegboye6gmail.com, rhodajames136gmail.com |
| Requested amount | USD 9,000 |
| Award amount | Unknown |
- What is your idea?
Despite the Federal Ministry of Education's educational policies prioritizing ICTs as 21st-century skills to advance remote learning in Nigeria secondary schools for high-quality teaching and learning, little or no stimulation is provided for prioritizing digital literacy and Open Education Resources to develop vital media and information literacy; understand how information is produced; and how students use information (Education.gov.ng, nd).
According to findings, most of the Federal Ministry of Education Technology partners for ICTs are primarily focused on; personalising education, developing alternative learning models to facilitate safe and high-quality teaching and learning efficiency to adapt to the new normal(https://education.gov.ng/education-coordinated-covid-19-response-strategy/) but none focused on understanding how information is created; how to access and evaluate content online, or how to recognize biases and knowledge gaps in the information they consume.
In a presentation made by the Universal Basic Education Commission on the “Application of Educational Technology as Pedagogy in Basic Education” at the Edtech Summit 2020, they confirmed that technology integration in the Nigerian educational system is still very low, as institutions with technological facilities are not functioning or performing below expectations for a variety of reasons. The majority of educational policies, education medium-term plans and education for change: Ministerial Strategic plan 2018- 2022 concentrated solely on strengthening and growing Open, Distance, and E-Learning; innovating and assisting home learning; and how to implement them, (TEP NESG, 2020).
This presents significant challenges for both students and teachers, who must develop a diverse set of skills to provide a safe and high-quality teaching-learning environment in the new normal. As a result, this Bootcamp will train Nigerian teachers on how to successfully use Wikipedia (and other Wikimedia products) to access, retrieve, evaluate, interpret, and monitor the information consumed whilst developing Open Educational Resources (OERs) by adopting the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Framework.
- Why is it important?
This project has the potential to orient, revitalize, train, and expose teachers to 21st-century ICT skills that will enhance their teaching methodologies, media, and information literacy skills, and provided them with an alternative format for using Open Education Resources in their classroom using Wikipedia as a learning tool to deliver quality education for life -long learning in the Nigerian Education system. Moreso, it will help to reduce the mis/disinformation and fake news online whilst changing their misconceptions about Wikipedia, and exposing them to the backend activities of Wikimedia administrators to prevent manipulation; its core content policies; and control measures against misinformation and disinformation on Wikipedia that can be applied to other information resources retrieval and use. This project is important because it will make Teachers proactive content creators in the information ecosystem and provide them with actionable guides that will help their students to identify and fight mis/disinformation, and fake news online. Thereby improving their ability to make sense of information, the ability to verify, evaluate, and shift reliable information from information chaos. By tying Wikipedia to the components of UNESCO's Media and Information Literacy framework, it will also assist instructors to understand the five pillars of Wikipedia.
- Link(s) to your resume or anything else (CV, GitHub, etc.) that may be relevant
The project team includes:
●User:Bukky658(project lead): is a fellow of Wikipedian in African Libraries, and the first Certified Trainer of the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom program in Nigeria. She has led several projects among which include: Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Kwara, Nigeria, 1Lib1Ref Kwara 2022, WikiGLAM Awareness for Librarians in Kwara State, and Wikidata for Libraries and notable Librarians in Kwara State. Co-organiser Wikipedia awareness for Library and Information Students in Nigeria, Wikidata for novelists and their novels, and the founder of the Wikimedia Fan Club, Kwara State University. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bukola-james-836a221a5
●User:Savvyseyi (facilitator): is a trained facilitator who is passionate about providing solutions to challenges surrounding quality education, sustainable agriculture, community, personal and social development with interests in literacy programs and integration of technologies to enhance teaching and learning. She is a certified teacher with the Teachers' Registration Council of Nigeria and was a facilitator of the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom, Nigeria. https://www.linkedin.com/in/oluwaseyi-ogbonlaiye-2754b0225
●User:Linason Blessing (Communication Expert): she is an experienced Wikibrarian, she has participated in various Wikimedia projects such as WikiLoveAfrica, WPWP, Wikidata (Media personalities in Nigeria), Winner of WPWP Kwara and Wikidata Media personality in Nigeria, WikiGLAM Awareness for Libraries and Librarians in Kwara, Wikidata for Libraries and Librarians in Nigeria, 1lib1ref 2022 Kwara, etc. She led the Wikipedia awareness for Library and Information Science Students in Nigeria and was a facilitator for the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom in Nigeria. https://www.linkedin.com/in/blessing-linason-6102651aa/
●User:James Rhoda (Facilitator): is an experienced Wikimedian, who has participated in various Wikimedia projects (as a facilitator as well as an editor) namely; 1lib1ref, WikiGlam, Wikidata for Novel and Novelist in Nigeria, Wikidata for Libraries and Librarians in Nigeria, Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Nigeria, etc.https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhoda-james
●User:Ridzaina(facilitator): is a Wikimedia volunteer, who has gathered experience from contributing (as a facilitator and as an editor) to various Wikimedia projects like Wiki loves SDGs, WikiGlam, 1lib1ref, Wikidata for Libraries and Librarians in Nigeria, Wikidata for Novels and Novelists in Nigeria and so on. She was also a facilitator for the recently concluded Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom, Nigeria. She is a trained educator who is also passionate about learning and sharing knowledge and is also the General Secretary of the University of Ilorin, Wikimedia Fan Club. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Ridzaina
- Is your project already in progress?
Yes, this project is an evolution of the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom program Nigeria which recruited 75 Teachers across 16 Local Government Areas in Kwara State (North-Central Nigeria) and succeeded in certifying 60 Teachers who met the training requirements.
- How is this project relevant to credibility and Wikipedia?
This project supports credibility which is a fundamental principle of Wikipedia, underpinning its verifiability (WP: V) so that Teachers and students reading and editing Wikipedia can confirm that the information comes from a reliable source. In addition to enhancing their media and information literacy, and research skills, the event could be used to support onboarding into Wikipedia editing practices, both in the Education Program context and via more informal support provided to new editors. The project supports verifiability processes by providing learning support for the creation and use of Open Education Resources using Wikipedia as a learning tool.
- What is the ultimate impact of this project?
The ultimate impact of this project is to recruit 60 Teachers in Nigeria and provide training support for them in order to develop vital media and information literacy skills for the 21st century and promotes critical engagement with Wikipedia that allows teachers to leverage its use as a pedagogical tool. It will also impact teachers in the following ways;
- to become fact-checkers and verifiers of information on Wikipedia, and other online sources.
- Improve teaching efficiency and the manner they conduct classroom activities by incorparating Wikipedia into their classroom activities.
- Develop and improve teachers' pedagogical skills; the ability to research, plan, initiate, lead, and develop teaching with a starting point in both general and subject-specific knowledge of student learning using Wikipedia as a learning tool.
- Create new roles and opportunities for teachers to become Wikipedia content creators instead of consumers.
- Provide teachers with an opportunity to teach students essential 21st-century skills for lifelong learning.
- Effectively integrates the lessons learned into their classroom activities to promote the use of Wikipedia among Students.
- Develop lesson plan that incorporate Wikipedia into their classroom activties for students in secondary schools.
- Assists students to understand and leverage Wikipedia as a learning tool whilst promoting and producing reliable and verifiable information on Wikipedia through micro contributions.
- create and/or improve 300+ articles related to education and subjects taught in their classrooms.
- Can your project scale?
Yes, a prototype of this project has been successfully implemented in Bolivia, Morocco, Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, Ukraine, and Tanzania. Upon completion of this project, we will devise a new initiative for certified teachers to engage their colleagues in their various schools through step-down training and also transfer the knowledge gained to their students in the classroom through the establishment of Wikipedia reading clubs in their various schools to increase reading culture, expose students to the art and act of accessing, evaluating, monitoring, and creating verifiable and reliable Wikipedia articles. This way, our team will be able to evaluate the impact of this training in their classroom activities and ensure the sustainability of the program. Moreso, this project will make available a teachers’ guide that can be adapted for lesson plans and extracurricular activities in the classroom.
- Why are you the people to do it?
We are the people to do it because we have the relevant experience and skills to achieve the set goal. Also, we have successfully trained 70 teachers on how to incorporate Wikipedia into their classroom activities and certified 60 teachers at the end of the training in Kwara Nigeria.
- What is the impact of your idea on diversity and inclusiveness of the Wikimedia movement?
We planned to reach 60 educators in Nigeria and engage them in bridging gaps about educational content that is peculiar to Nigeria on the English Wikipedia with a special focus on the local language Wikipedia in Nigeria such as Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa; coordinate across stakeholders in the Nigerian education sector; work with interested community members and affiliates (User Groups) within the Wikimedia movement which is one of the most intriguing aspects of this project. This project will help Wikipedia meet the goal of becoming “the essential infrastructure of the ecosystem of free knowledge”, improve access to resource materials (OERs) for diversity targets and promote diversity as an asset. Moreover, onboarding new editors is a challenge for recruiting Wikipedia editors, particularly when they are unfamiliar with the core content policies/ 5 pillars of Wikipedia. The project provides an onboarding pathway and support for new editors, developing an inclusive environment and encouraging contributions to open knowledge.
- What are the challenges associated with this project and how you will overcome them?
- Challenge 1: Recruitment of participants is a potential challenge: This challenge is controlled through our pre-existing relationships with Teachers, principals, the ministry of education in Nigeria, UNESCO-associated project network schools, and experience in establishing a partnership with key primary and secondary stakeholders in the education sectors such as National Library of Nigeria, and UNESCO Nigeria, and establishing an independent relationship with teachers in various schools through outreach programs and putting up a call for application online using google form.
- Challenge 2: Identifying their learning needs: This will be done by administering a pre-assessment needs survey for registered participants before the implementation of the project. The result will be properly analyzed and informed decisions will be made to ensure a personalized learning approach.
- Challenge 3: Inadequate ICT Skills of participants: During the registration process, it will be clearly stated that participants should have an internet-enabled device and basic technical skills will be provided for them. This will make the training easier for both facilitators and participants.
- Challenge 4: Ineffective communication and inability to receive feedback. The challenge will be addressed by providing participants with a communication channel such as Telegram, WhatsApp, and a dedicated Facebook page to keep them inform about the program activities and also receive feedback from them. There will also be the use of email messaging and text messaging during the implementation to keep the participants informed.
- Challenge 5: IP address block: Ensure participants create a Wikipedia account before the commencement of the training and also devise other alternative ways of account creation using other Wikimedia projects.
- Challenge 6: Tracking contributions of teachers. This will be solved using the outreach dashboard to track contributions.
- Challenge 7: Evaluation of learning projects can be a challenge, with many technologies evaluated through satisfaction surveys rather than for impact on learning. The team has expertise in the implementation of learning technologies in context, and their evaluation, and has identified evaluation methods such as post-program surveys, and one-on-one interviews with participants.
- How will you spend your funds?
Translation, adaptation, and printing of the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Teachers’ guide for 60 participating Teachers= $1,000
Hiring of 3 certified trainers, 1 communication expert, and 1 Data analyst to lead planning, implementation, and evaluation of the program = $ 4,500
Internet connectivity, hiring of training space for 5 physical training, refreshments for all 60participants, and branded t-shirts for 5 project team = $2,500
printing of swags and certificates for 60 participants, projector rental for 5 physical events, e-posters/roll-up banners for publicity, and DSLR camera rental at 5 events to capture the training activities for report =$700
Miscellaneous needs (logistics, bank charges, and contingency) =$300
Total: 9000 USD
- How long will your project take?
This project will take 5 months;
Planning (1st – 31st May 2023)
Implementation (1st June – 30th July 2023)
Evaluation (1st August – 30th September 2023)
- Have you worked on projects for previous grants before?
Yes, for 2 similar projects; Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Kwara, Nigeria,and Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom for Secondary School Students in Kwara the fund was not from WikiCred.
Some other projects carried out by the proposed project team include: