Overview
As in past years, Program Education supported education for all age levels in 2021, particularly around tools for educators, digital innovation and access to education. We continued building and supporting scalable, reusable partnership models and free platforms for educational content. We also explored how to build the team to manage both educational activities and a new innovation space starting in 2022. Last, we helped teach learners how to write Wikipedia articles and evaluate an article’s quality to build digital skills and literacy.
This work was in line with Program Education’s strategy to provide material and tools to trainers, emphasizing the Theory of Change model where teachers can leverage their unique relationships with students to transform education. In Switzerland, educators are hungry for technology and new methodologies, and Wikimedia CH can provide solutions, particularly around online learning and open knowledge. These interests align with Wikimedia CH’s new five-year strategy (2022-2026), which adds Experimentation & Innovation as a fifth impact direction (in addition to the four current directions). As such, much of Program Education’s work in 2021 centered on building the foundation for innovation going forward.
Highlight activity
Program Education provided consistent funding to several free platforms that are pursuing their own independent programs to make educational content accessible to kids: (1) Wikimini, an online encyclopedia for and by students (older children help younger ones write entries); (2) Dicoado, a dictionary for and by students available in Switzerland’s French linguistic area; (3) Chinderzytig, a newspaper for young people published by an association of teachers; and (4) Klexikon, a German online encyclopedia for children aged six to twelve years modeled after Wikipedia. Wikimedia CH’s own openedu.ch offers even more tools for educators, providing them with a platform to search which Wikimedia and associated projects are available for their lessons.
Thanks in part to our support, several of the platforms were improved in 2021. Of note:
- Wikimini was migrated to a new data center to ensure reliability and improved performance.
- Dicoado received a complete restyling and improved user interface. The team is also planning to open the platform in other languages.
- Chinderzytig instituted a new strategy to propose more solutions to Switzerland’s German-speaking schools.
This work was essential to lay the groundwork for launching an Innovation Lab in 2022 as part of our Experimentation & Innovation impact direction. Our partnership model supports innovative projects and aims to advance innovation in the field of education. Each platform reports back to Wikimedia CH on its progress. Already, we have created a synergy with Chinderzytig and Dicoado by championing the new ideas they have shared with us. For example, Dicoado made software improvements in 2021, including implementing a chat feature, and the project leader shared with us the lessons learned from their implementation and related training.
Key program activities
- Continued work on openedu.ch by mapping the European key competences to Wikimedia projects so that educators understand and use our platforms.
- Supported three Wikipedia for Peace camps in collaboration with ongoing partner Service Civil International (SCI). An online camp about women’s suffrage was held in February, and another online camp about SCI history took place in April. In September, we supported the week-long in-person camp Wikipedia for Peace: Climate Justice. At each camp, participants learned how to write Wikipedia articles and learned about inspiring activists, events and organizations.
- Financially supported Switzerland’s participation in the international Wiki Science Competition, the largest photo contest in the world. For the second time, Switzerland also held a national contest with its own jury and prizes; the contest included Liechtenstein.
- Advanced lifelong learning in science through edit-a-thons in partnership with the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
- Contributed to a scientific paper on Wikipedia as a tool for academic teaching, working with the University of Zurich and garnering interest from other chapters.
- Partnered with institutions to support university-level education, helping students learn to contribute to Wikipedia. Some examples include (1) Partner: University of Bern. Program: Bachelor-level seminar about “Women at the PTT” in cooperation with the historical PTT archives. (2) Partner: University of Neuchâtel. Program: Bimonthly online WikiNeocomensia meetups for future GLAM professionals. (3) Partner: Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). Program: A joint project for students in the Applied Languages program to undertake real translation assignments from Wikipedia.
- Collaborated with educators to support learning at the high school level and below, leading lessons and workshops for both teachers and students about using Wikipedia and other projects in an academic context. For example, we taught students how to evaluate the quality of a Wikipedia article and create their own articles with Lernfeld Wikipedia, a project of the 3BZ class of Muttenz High School. We will have a follow-up in 2022 with the same ambassador.
Program impact
- Our work with Wikimini, Klexikon, Chinderzytig and Dicoado – as tools that can operate in the academic context – created a strong model, learnings and synergies in 2021 to develop an Innovation Lab starting in 2022.
- Also in preparation for the forthcoming innovation space, we continued to improve and promote openedu.ch by ensuring that educators relying on the European Union’s educational rubric can see how openedu.ch and Wikimedia projects align with the key competences.
- Finally, in 2021, we began developing an Education strategy that focuses on free learning platforms to make education more accessible.
Looking ahead
In 2022, Program Education will incorporate a substantial portion of its work into Wikimedia CH’s new Experimentation & Innovation impact direction to enable innovation in education. We will build the team’s capacity with a dedicated resource to create the Innovation Lab.
This work aligns with the Wikipedia Movement Strategy. One of the strategy’s priority initiatives is to “enhance communication and collaboration capacity with partners and collaborators” (under the recommendation “coordinate across stakeholders”). The Innovation Lab will provide a sandbox where collaborators can invent and explore together. Another priority initiative is “continuous experimentation, technology, and partnerships for content, formats, and devices” (under the recommendation “innovate in free knowledge”). Similarly, the Innovation Lab’s reason for being is to inspire new educational technologies that make learning more accessible.
Throughout 2021, we worked closely with relevant partners and stakeholders to amplify our efforts and augment our sustainability and efficiency without reinventing the wheel. We’ll do the same in 2022. Our goal is to identify promising tools gaining momentum in Switzerland’s education community and help them flourish without competing with one another.
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Photo credits
- Alpine bearberry (Arctostaphylos alpinus) in autumn colors at the Ofen Pass. Photo by Martingarten, own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.
- Swedish student, age 11, edits Wikimini using an Ipad. Photo by Sara Mörtsell (WMSE), own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Klexicon bookmarks with a colorful background. Photo by Ziko, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Switzerland’s Wiki Science Competition 2021. Photo by Ilario, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Women in Science, an edit-a-thon held 11 February 2021 by the EPFL, a public research university in Lausanne. Photo by Ilario, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on this planet. Cellulose nanocrystals are nanometer-sized rods that can be isolated from, for example, wood or cotton sources. Interestingly, the cellulose nanocrystals form self-assembled structures in water. Here, you can see a polarised optical microscopy image of the cellulose nanocrystals, which truly look like a Van Gogh painting. Photo by GwennDelepierre, own work, CC BY 4.0.
- Screenshot of openedu.ch. Photo by Ilario, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- A day in the large open space of the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence, managed by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) and the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI). Photo by Marian Duven, own work, CC BY 4.0.
- Lake Thun and Niesen, a mountain peak in the Bernese Alps. Photo by Gabrielle Merk, own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.