Education/News/November 2024/Wikimedia MKD's new collaborations and new content
Wikimedia MKD's new collaborations and new content!
- Training workshop at Nova International School in Skopje
After the introduction, the practical training on editing Wikipedia began, where students, with the support of the organizers, learned how to create user accounts and received detailed instructions on the basic principles of editing. In addition, they were guided through the process of creating, editing and publishing new articles, putting the learned skills into practice. The training started at 14:30 and lasted one hour, during which a total of five new articles were created. The students showed exceptional interest and motivation, with a strong desire to continue editing Wikipedia and beyond, contributing to the increase of quality and free content in Macedonian.
- Training new editors in Veles
Through the Wiki clubs young editors are trained to create and improve articles in the Macedonian language, contributing to the enrichment of the digital library of free information. One of the prominent Wiki clubs is Wiki Club Veles, which has been active since 2020 under the leadership of coordinator Lili Arsova.
On October 2, 2024, the club received four new members, and there was organized training for the young editors. The training started by introducing students to the basics of Wikipedia, how it works, and how important volunteering is to the global encyclopedia. Coordinator Lili Arsova guided them through the process, providing them with detailed instructions on how to create user profiles and master the basic principles of editing. After the introductory part, the practical editing training followed, where new members had the opportunity to create and edit new articles themselves, with the support of the organizer.
The students showed great commitment and desire to contribute to the enrichment of Wikipedia content. With this training, the Veles Wiki Club has grown with new editors who will continue to contribute in the future.
- Wiki Camp Struga
The sixth Wiki Camp in organization of Wikimedia MKD took place in one of the most picturesque location on the shores of Ohrid Lake - Kalishta, Struga. Hotel Biser was the exact location where 40 participants spent three wonderful days productively and effectively. The camp started on 11 October and ended on 13 October 2024.
Organized for the Wiki Club members and active participants, the Wiki Camp offers excellent opportunity to learn new things, contribute Wikipedia, have fun and achieve awards. Like almost all camps in the past, this Wiki Camp was thematic and the editing topic of the Wiki Camp participants was 'Climate Changes'. The participants were supposed to create new articles on Macedonian on the given topic and the most productive and effective participants were awarded with small awards as a sign of acknowledgment of their effort and love for creating new free knowledge. By the end of the camp the participants created 215 new articles on the Macedonian Wikipedia on the given topic.
Besides the editing, the participants were provided with lectures and opportunity to learn new things. The participants had to opportunity to learn new things on the topic 'Global Warming or Climate Changes' lecture by Prof. Dr. Igor Kuzmanovski, get to know the concept of 'Green Transition' as lectured by MA Nenad Shundovski and learnt how to protect themselves online as taught by MA Valentina Trajkoska.
This Wiki Camp proved to be highly successful, lots of new articles were created and Wikipedia got lost of new editors and free content. The share of ideas and experience facilitated the participants to produce such results that make happy all of the Macedonian Wiki community.
- Training at SOU "Kole Nekhtenin" in Shtip
On 24 October 2024, at SOU "Kole Nekhtenin" in Shtip, a training was held for the students of this school, in order to encourage them and get involved in the editing of Wikipedia. The event started at 10:00 am and 17 students took part in. The first part of the training started with a lecture by the executive director of Wikimedia MKD, Snezhana Štrkovska, who emphasized the importance of the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and the role of the association in the development of the Macedonian version of this platform. After the opening address of Snezana Štrkovska, the manager for the educational program of Wikimedia MKD, Bosa Filipovikj, gave speech. She emphasized the importance of Wikiclubs as an opportunity for young people to get involved in editing articles and become part of a dynamic community of editors.
After the lectures, the practical part of the training occurred, where the students, guided by their mentors, started editing Wikipedia articles. This part of the training proved to be very inspiring for the students, who were actively involved in the editing process, expressing great enthusiasm and motivation. Each student had the opportunity to independently edit an article, which allowed the students to feel the importance of their contribution to free knowledge available in the Macedonian language.
A total of 19 new articles were written. Through this training, the students not only learned how to edit Wikipedia, but also felt the importance of volunteer work and the common mission of creating and expanding free information. Many of them expressed their desire to continue editing in the future, becoming part of the community of Wikipedia editors, in order to contribute to improving the quality and quantity of the content available in the Macedonian language.
- Conference for professor at the UGD
The conference was opened by Snezhana Shtrkovska, executive director of Wikimedia MKD, who introduced the participants to the encyclopedia itself, how Wikipedia works, what are the benefits of using Wikipedia as a teaching tool, and how to properly use Wikipedia as an information source for accurate and verified information. Towards the end of the first part, Bosa Filipović, manager of the educational program, spoke, who introduced the participants on how the educational program of Wikimedia MKD works, and then followed editing Wikipedia. The participants, assisted by the organizers, were trained and instructed on how to successfully create a Wikipedia user account. In addition, they were introduced to the basic principles of Wikipedia editing and were introduced to how to start, edit and publish new content.
After the break, the second part of the conference began, where Tony Ristovski, lectured on Wikidata. He mentioned that Wikidata is a collaborative database editing project for Wikipedia. Ristotvski also mentioned that the project was started by Wikimedia Germany with the intention of enabling a common source of certain types of data such as dates of birth, a class of certified data, to be used by all language editions of Wikipedia. This is also the first new project of the Wikimedia Foundation since 2006.
The conference took place in a pleasant and working atmosphere. The participants were interested in the way Wikipedia works, but also the possibilities that exist for using the encyclopedia as one of the teaching aids in the educational process in Macedonia.