Education/News/June 2024/5th WikiEducation 2024 Conference in Mexico
5th WikiEducation 2024 Conference in Mexico
On June 14 and 15, was time for teachers, students, researchers and education professionals to meet at Centro Cultural El Rule (Mexico City) to exchange and share ideas, projects and experiences in this last year regarding the #WikipediaBelongsInEducation (#WikipediaEsParteDeLaEducación) movement that is generated in Mexico.
When talking about WikiEducation, we are not only talking about the incorporation of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects into the classroom, but also emphasizing the importance of open access to knowledge and the impact of collaborative work in education and, therefore, in today's society.
This space focused on the dialogue of different perspectives that allowed to give a broad overview of the educational projects in which the Education Program of Wikimedia Mexico has had the satisfaction of collaborating recently.
The day began with the round table on Experiences with educational communities from the meaningful wiki-collaboration, led by Alberto Ramirez, Armando Avila, Brenda Padilla, Paulina Villalobos and Ivonne Lujano, who spoke about the impact that wiki projects have on educational communities to be more inclusive and dynamic. To close the first day, Ivonne Lujano took the floor in the educational tertulia entitled Navigating Open Access: how to identify reliable journals to consult and publish, with her contribution, the attention focused on the valuable resources that exist in our environments and how to get wiki projects more rich.
On the second day, the activities started with our colleague Nebojša Ratković from sister project Wikimedia Serbia. His talk called Educational Projects from Wikimedia Serbia allowed us to learn about the similarities and differences of projects that exist thousands of kilometers away. Afterwards, with the intention of breaking away from the formality of the talks, we gave way to a philosophical coffee moderated by Esther Charabati, which hovered around the question What makes a teacher a teacher? At this point, the attendees explored a profound question in a relaxed manner.
The second table of experiences of the conference was full of emotion and joy with the students who told their Experiences from a student perspective, which brought together the points of view of students from Aguascalientes, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City, who stood out in the educational projects of their institutions. In addition, Claudia Muñoz gave a workshop on Digital Preservation of Educational Projects, which provided useful tips to be able to keep a record and backup of the activities carried out in the educational field.
Immediately after, Omar Terrazas spoke on #WikipediaEsParteDeLaEducacion: Designing digital spaces from UNAM.
To continue with the dialogue and reflection, Jackeline Bucio, Brenda Padilla, Alberto Ramírez and Luis Álvarez, exchanged ideas on Possible Futures: Wikipedia+Education+Generative IA? This discussion brought to the table the great interest that exists around the relationship of Wikipedia and Wikimedia Foundation projects with generative artificial intelligence software and the future of knowledge consumption and production. In the last table of experiences Mayeli Álvarez, Oscar Pizaña, Zariá Casillas, Orlando Orozco, Orien de la Torre, Mónica Lloret, Jonathan Girón, Alejandro Ledesma, Nancy Galván, Lilia Ortega and Alicia Gerena shared their Reflections on educational projects in the classroom. Last but not least, Ricardo Burnes, Martín Tena, Olinka Solórzano and Juana Espinosa concluded the dialogue with their talk Projection of collaborative technologies from spaces located in non-formal education, which gave a glimpse of the fertile field that exists in the educational field.
It was a memorable day with the participation and representation of 10 states of Mexico, undoubtedly a space that strengthened ties with educational institutions, networking, and certainly reinforces the projection and increasingly notorious importance of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects as an educational tool inside and outside the classroom.
Thanks to each and every person who believes and creates from saying: #WikipediaIsPartOfEducation!