Wikimedia+Education Conference 2019/Submissions/Wikipedia, Education, and Gender Representation

Submission no.
Title of the submission: Wikipedia, Education, and Gender Representation

Author(s) of the submission

Kelly Doyle

E-mail address

kelly.doyle@wikimediadc.org

Country/place of origin

USA

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

Wikimedia District of Columbia

Main theme: How we make it happen
Type of session: Presentation
Scope: gender equity, educational and GLAM spaces, learners
Length of session: 20 min + 10 min q&a
Do you want to submit a paper for peer-reviewing?: No

Abstract

This presentation will focus on the vast potential of service learning projects in general in our movement, and specifically on my own gender equity centered service learning pilot project that connected students, librarians and academics, and Wikipedians. The pilot project I created allowed for the development of service learning training materials which can now be used by anyone in our global community of Wikipedians, educators, and students to create and implement these projects in their own educational contexts. This service learning project specifically focused on the gender gap and finding creative ways to get women attending universities to edit Wikipedia and add content about women and/or women's issues. We know that students are interested in Wikipedia and editing Wikipedia as a form of activism and this project was successful in helping students discover their interests and abilities through becoming members of our community. Throughout this almost two year endeavor, students gained increased research and digital literacy skills while earning required service learning credit to graduate, the university gained students who were increasingly global and advocates for new types of digital learning, while the Wikimedia community gained new, excited users and gender focused content. Service learning projects are great for institutions and students, but we now need to work together to make these projects scale across our movement. Throughout this presentation I will also cover previously conducted service learning projects throughout the Wikimedia movement and avenues for us to continue service learning projects together as a community. Benefits of the project are multitudinous, especially for generating new users as well as equitable content, but we need more progress, implementation, and learnings to scale. There many interesting ways in which cultural heritage institutions, libraries, and archives can get involved with this programming and allow for student run learning projects from their collections. The opportunities are limitless and the potential value added to our community and others through these types of projects are an exciting look to what’s possible for the future of our movement.

How does your proposal add knowledge to the international community in Wikimedia and education?

Adding to the movement wide discussion about increasing knowledge equity, gender equity, and engaging new users in educational spaces
Informing community of a successful educational project piloted in the US (at 4 universities) that has the ability to scale internationally and presenting ideas and existing training materials to begin the process of testing out this programming
Updating community about a grant funded gender and education focused service learning project and what future engagement looks like

Who is the intended ideal audience for the topic?

Teachers, students, and Wikimedians who want to institute programming around gender representation

Slides or further information

Special requests: N/A

Interested attendees

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