Brazil Program/Education program/Communication/newsletter20120604

Outreaching the Wikipedia Education Program in Brazil for the coming semester

Wikipedia Ambassadors explaining their motivation to participating in the program and what they do.

Last weeks we have had a lot of interesting meetings to discuss with professors already participating in the Education Pilot in Brazil and began to outreach the program for the coming semester. Wikipedia Ambassadors working this semester at University of São Paulo were of huge help in organizing a presentation about the Wikipedia Education Program in Brazil. There were very interesting discussions about open access and open educational resources among the professors and students present, focusing on the challenges of the academia contributing collaboratively with free knowledge and how to reduce the prejudice about Wikipedia inside the university. There was also another presentation at UNESP with live streaming to all its 23 campi around São Paulo state, with lots of questions from professors praising the program and willing to join us in the open call for the next semester.

During our visit to Rio de Janeiro to talk with professors that joined the program and new ones, we have also the great surprise to see an extension course about Wikipedia starting at UNIRIO, with all its places quickly filled with students, undergraduate to graduate, and researchers from other fields, mainly library science.