Education/News/March 2022/EduWiki Week in Armenia
EduWiki Week in Armenia
Summary: Within the framework of EduWiki Week, Wikimedia Armenia visited several educational institutions to introduce Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects to school students and teachers on February 21-25, 2022.
Wikimedia Armenia decided to participate in EduWiki Week 2022 which took place on February 21-25. The format we chose was a campaign aimed at introducing Wikipedia to various educational institutions of Armenia. After discussing the format of possible cooperation with various educational institutions, we came to an agreement with two high schools and a college. One of the schools has a biochemical focus while the college is focused on informatics. In general, more than 80 students participated in EduWiki Week.
To make our presentations and introduction exciting and engaging for school students and teachers, we prepared a presentation consisting of two parts – theoretical and practical. In the first part, we introduced them to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, the opportunities they create, how they can use Wikimedia projects in their learning process, and in their personal development. The participants were so interested that they were asking a lot of questions, even some challenging ones. One of the most thought-provoking questions was “What are the secret ways of using Wikipedia more efficiently”. It was also quite inspiring to see that school students were able to pinpoint issues existing on Armenian Wikipedia and express their willingness to support its development.
The second part of the presentation was a practical one. We explained the basics of how Wikipedia, Wikicommons and Wikidata work and showed them how to create an account on Wikipedia and how to make changes to articles. After explaining some of the most important rules of Wikimedia projects we suggested one of the participants create an account and edit an article in order for everyone to see how it works. The students who made their first steps on Armenian Wikipedia felt proud that they were able to make even a small contribution to the free encyclopedia.
“Education through Wikipedia” concept interested the director of one of the schools and we decided to sign a memorandum and take our cooperation to another level. After the EduWiki Week, we received several calls from different schools who asked us to organize a similar meeting in their schools as well. Taking this positive response into account we have decided to declare March as EduWiki Month by visiting more educational institutions.
Social Media channels or hashtags: Wikimedia Armenia Facebook page