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Wikipedia & Education User Group/2021 Annual Report

< Wikipedia & Education User Group

In 2021, the Wikipedia & Education User Group focused on our ongoing Open Meetings and piloted a mentorship program. The EduWiki Conference 2020, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, continued to be postponed in 2021. We also started work in thinking about ethical standards for education programs, continued to participate in Movement Strategy discussions, and presented virtually at several conferences.

Governance

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Our board was stable throughout the year:

  • LiAnna Davis, chair
  • Susanna Mkrtchyan, vice-chair
  • Ziko van Dijk, secretary
  • Filip Maljkovic, treasurer
  • João Alexandre Peschanski, membership admin

Our board met 10 times in 2021 to discuss our activities and move projects forward. We also met an additional 5 times with the Wikimedia Foundation’s Education Team to coordinate our efforts.

Membership

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Our user group has experienced an increase in its membership. It now has 194 members and has had the support of 19 affiliates. A challenge has been to create more engagement in our open meetings, as only a small number of our members normally join them.

Activities

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Open Meetings: Showcasing member activity

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In 2021, the User Group hosted three public, open meetings:

  • In March 2021 (video on YouTube), we welcomed two guests: Mossab Banat spoke on the program at Hashemite University in Jordan, and Ziko van Dijk spoke on ethical standards in education programs.
  • In June 2021, (video on YouTube), we welcomed two guest speakers, Maxwell Beganim from Ghana, who talked about Kiwix in local secondary schools, and Rocío Aravena, from Chile, who talked about a course for school teachers she ran.
  • In October 2021, (video on YouTube), we welcomed two guest speakers, Thomas Shaffee from the WikiJournals project and Amanda Rust and Amy Ruskin from Northeastern University, who talked about their Wikidata project about public art in Boston.

Calls for meetings were actively disseminated on social media – especially the Wikipedia & Education Facebook page – and the education mailing list. Our members, particularly our board, have been some of the most active participants in these movement channels, which aim at becoming a hub for inquiries on Wikimedia and education for affiliates, educators, volunteers and the general public.

These open meetings gave board members a chance to present what they've been up to among the members who attended the meeting, enabled potential new members to be welcomed into our community, and gave a chance for different members to present their work.

Mentorship pilot

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Mentorship remains a key goal of our user group. In 2021, we kicked off a pilot of a mentorship program. We had 17 people who signed up to be mentored or be a mentee; we were able to pair everyone in groups of 2 or 3 in mid-2021. The formal pilot ran through the end of 2021. We plan to distribute a survey of participants in early 2022, but preliminary results indicate that some participants found it helpful. We look forward to continuing this work in 2022.

EduWiki: Planning to bring our community together

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We carefully evaluated the public health situation throughout 2021, deeming it irresponsible to hold our planned in-person conference. We continue to believe in the importance of this conference being in person, so we will hold off on scheduling our conference until we believe it is safe to do so.

Ethical standards in education programs

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When people engage in educational activities, ethical questions arise. Many educational institutions such as schools have therefore established ethical standards. In the Wikimedia movement we meet special challenges. In general, an open wiki is optimized to serve as a website for the collaborative production of content. We expect Wikipedia editors to have rather independent, resilient and self-educating personalities. In contrast, a school should be a safe space for young and vulnerable people.

On the board we have discussed related topics repeatedly. In the future, we want to give the movement a platform in order to talk about ethical standards for educators engaging in the Wikimedia movement.

Movement Strategy

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Board members remained engaged in the Movement Strategy process throughout 2021, participating in global discussions.

Virtual Conference Participation

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