Wikipedia Primary School

This project page documents a research project currently in progress.

Wikipedia Primary School: Providing on Wikipedia the information necessary to complete the cycle of primary education in the languages used by the different education systems is a project allowing students, families and teachers to find on Wikipedia the documentation necessary to obtain the primary school qualification in their country, in their language.

Wikipedia is meant to be an educational tool and it is currently available online, via mobile phones and offline. Experiences have shown that, once accessible, Wikipedia does not provide information that responds directly to curriculum-based questions. The project relies on Wikipedia as an existing and growing resource, it solves the need for an encyclopaedia capable of responding to curriculum-based questions, and it fosters Wikipedia content, quality and outreach.

More specifically the project aims at:

Bridging Wikipedia and primary education. This objective implies to move the Wikipedia community towards a focus on primary education, and at the same time to strengthen the capacity of the education ecosystem to contribute to Wikipedia, and in general to open collaborative knowledge.
Enriching Wikipedia with new content relevant to primary education. This objective implies an assessment of the articles produced.
Fostering the development of translations and new content in different Wikipedia linguistic editions. This objective implies the release of existing educational resources (OER in cc by or cc by-sa), the production of datasets and the involvement of the Wikimedia movement.
Verifying and evaluating the use of Wikipedia as a source of information for primary education. This objective implies the involvement of stakeholders and data analysis.

Wikipedia Primary School contributes to universal primary education and to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG2: Achieve Universal Primary Education). Even if it is scalable and international, the project is conceived primarily to address African countries and languages.

Context

Project's SWOT Analysis
Strengths	Weaknesses
Despite critiques, Wikipedia is already the most power and existing educational tool. It has 400 million readers, it is the most used online source of information, and it provides for free content which can be used, reused and modified for commercial and non commercial purposes. The wide Wikimedia movement contributes voluntarily to Wikipedia content and in making Wikipedia more accessible. The Wikimedia movement is open and anyone can join it. Wikipedia is accessible on mobile phones for free in numerous countries thanks to the project Wikipedia Zero. Wikipedia is accessible offline on USB-key and DVD with the specific offline interface Kiwix, also thanks to the project Afripedia. Wikipedia is already distributed in schools in particular thanks to OLPC One Laptop per Child, Wikimedia chapters activism and Afripedia. There are over 280 linguistic editions of Wikipedia and almost all the official and “permitted” African languages of the local educational systems have a Wikipedia edition.	OER Open Educational Resources mainly focus on higher education and offer very limited open resources for primary school. Wikipedia presents an over-representation of the so-called Western-based subjects and an under-representation of the subjects related to the so-called “Global South”. Wikipedia does not respond to curriculum-based questions in all countries. Few Wikipedia editors contribute to African content on Wikipedia. The majority of Wikipedia editors are in the US, Europe and Japan. Very few editors are based in Africa. The majority of Wikipedia linguistic editions are very small and with low participation. Offline distribution of Wikipedia does not allow to edit Wikipedia and to contribute to it; this is a major limitation for the “encyclopaedia anyone can edit”. Primary schools still face in many countries major challenges: lack of adequate infrastructures (with of course very limited access to computers), large classes, teachers’ absenteeism and lack of schoolbooks and libraries.
Opportunities	Threats
Access to Wikipedia is rapidly growing all over the world, online and offline. Wikipedia has the potentiality to respond to curriculum-based questions in all countries of the world. Contributing to the quality and quantity of Wikipedia content means to contribute to anyone’s knowledge. The new Wikimedia project Wikidata is providing a new tool to synchronise data on different Wikipedia linguistic editions. Experience has showed that a critical mass of content triggers participation. Several linguistic editions of Wikipedia have grown rapidly thanks to mass uploads (in particular by uploading stub articles about communes using existing database); once a critical number of articles is reached a linguistic edition has more chances to establish a growing and healthy community of editors. Primary school education is at the centre of Millennium Development Goals (MDG, n. 2-3) and linked to “Education for All” (EFA-UNESCO) The first years of primary school are commonly taught in local languages and teachers often face difficulties in teaching in official languages when different from their mother-language. Providing content on Wikipedia which respond to curriculum-based questions in local languages Education is made of a wide ecosystem of institutions, people and stakeholders. Supplementary educational tools can be provided outside Wikipedia on other specific projects (exercises, questions, content of exams and their solutions...).	The 2012 EFA Global Monitoring Reports stats that “on current trends, the goal of universal primary education (UPE) will be missed by a large margin”. The community of Wikipedia is made of a large web of independent clusters. To contribute to Wikipedia it is essential to respect Wikipedia pillars and to negotiate with the communities the notability and relevance of a contribution. * Individuals can “be bold” but institutions and projects produce better results when they are not. To avoid conflicts, it is important that institutions and projects conceive their contribution to Wikipedia as an offer to the community rather than a direct contribution; they can provide open content, support and networking. For institutions and projects, the most efficient and sustainable path to contribute to Wikipedia is the indirect and longest one. It requires to implement simultaneously more activities and to involve the largest number of stakeholders and communities. There are three main approaches in the assessment of Wikipedia articles: 1. Articles are evaluated in a collaborative way through a questionnaire published in the articles and open to anyone. 2. Wikipedia editors can collaboratively select “quality articles” and “featured articles” which need to meet a list of requirements. 3. Researchers study Wikipedia articles and evaluated them; the results of the evaluations are published in scientific articles. More assessment tools can benefit Wikipedia quality. Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia, not a schoolbook. It requires a certain degree of education to be consulted. Teachers are at the core of the learning process. Digital tools and any tool need to be part of the everyday teaching practices, otherwise they will remain isolated, provisional and ineffective.

Methodology

Wikipedia is a very peculiar encyclopaedia. It is a living organism made of a wide community with specific policies, clusters and dynamics. Contributing to Wikipedia means to play a fair game, and to respect the way Wikipedia works, its rules and community. To strengthen the capacity of Wikipedia to respond directly to curriculum-based questions, the project does not simply transfer content from national schoolbooks into Wikipedia. The methodology is centred around research and fieldwork activities. Research activities focus on monitoring Wikipedia in different linguistic editions; understanding the different national education systems and identifying which are the content capable of responding to curriculum-based questions; involving a scientific committee in contributing to the project; establishing and managing a Wikipedia Scientific Journal, a peer-reviewed scientific publication in Creative Commons attributions share-alike license, designed to involve scholars and to assess Wikipedia articles, in collaboration with other scientific journals and by fostering synergies between scientific knowledge and Wikipedia and open access; producing datasets to generate stub articles on Wikipedia in all linguistic editions; uploading content, in particular OER Open Educational Resources already available and images and texts provided with an open license compatible with Wikipedia; supporting territorial development with tutors and with upload capacities (in particular for countries with low connectivity); monitoring and evaluating the project. Fieldwork activities focus on testing and enhancing the use of Wikipedia in primary school and it is developed in collaboration with the stakeholders already working in education. They provide training, in particular training for Wikipedians in residence; they organise Wikipedia events, in particular Wiki Loves Monuments; they allow networking with institutions and governments to facilitate the release of content with open licenses; they tutor institutions and people; they develop pilot projects in schools and in collaboration with NGOs working in education; they establish hotspots where needed; and they facilitate the distribution of Wikipedia offline in countries where relevant.

Activities

Involving government in releasing dataset about public administrations (to contribute to Wikidata and produce stub articles; at the moment only Botswana was documented)
Asking OER open educational resources to be released in cc by or cc by-sa (and not cc by-sa-nc-nd).
Asking other institutions working in education to contribute to OER.
Assessing Wikipedia articles by creating a Wikipedia Scientific Journal. The idea is to assess wikipedia articles with the involvement of academic peer-revierwes. this is specifically necessary for content related to Africa because it needs to acknowledge the last 60 years of postcolonial studies (which at the moment they are not well represented on Wikipedia). the Wikipedia Scientific Journal is established in partnerships with existing scientific journals; the peer-reviewers of those scientific journals review the articles (existing ones and new ones) and we can make calls for papers. those call for papers can address existing Wikipedia authors but also scholars (who can add those publications to their cv since they ae peer-reviewed and made in collaborations with scientific journals). it is not a direct way of working on Wikipedia but i think it is the most relevant on the long run. Once articles are peer-reviewed they can be translated and they can be rewritten in specific ways. At the same time also articles from Vikidia can be a source.
Establishing a scientific committee who defines which articles contribute to primary education and they overview and evaluate the project. the scientific committee is also a communication tool which makes sure stakeholders are involved.
Fostering communication and community building among the different Wikipedia/Wikimedia clusters (project pages on Wikipedia, different projects, different wikipedia linguistic editions, wikimedia chapters, project such as wiki loves monuments which helps to understand what wikipedia is and to start contributing)
Monitor what happens with data analysis.

What we do not do

Wikipedia Primary School is a scalable and international project with a specific goal: it responds to a real need, it relies on existing networks and resources, and it is structured to allow people and institutions to contribute to it. The very nature of the project is meant to produce a broad impact. If the project Wikipedia Primary School is successful, it can be developed in the future by producing content for other cycle of education.

We do not break Wikipedia rules. The project respects Wikipedia pillars and the opinions of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia communities.
We do not believe the project substitutes in any way the essential role of people and institutions working in education. We want to contribute in a specific way to the work many people and institutions are already implementing and we believe only a collaborative approach can really allow the project to be effective and relevant.
We do not produce a selection of Wikipedia articles. We want people to access and benefit from the whole Wikipedia.
We do not address students, teachers and families only. Contributing to Wikipedia is meant to provide better knowledge for everyone everywhere.
We do not work for governments and ministries of education. The project is meant to be independent. It selects articles to be based on national educational systems, but it does not implement on Wikipedia governments’ strategies or requests.
We do not provide offline access to Wikipedia over online access. We consider online access to Wikipedia a priority and the best way to access Wikipedia, because it allows to contribute to it.
We do not consider Wikipedia a schoolbook. Wikipedia is not a schoolbook and it can not substitute teachers and educators and other appropriate educational resources.
We do not simplify Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia and it requires a certain level of literacy in order to access it. We do not want to adapt Wikipedia to primary school level; we want to include topics and content relevant for primary education.
We do not make content available for Wikipedia only. Using Creative Commons as part of the project methodology allows contents to be available beyond Wikipedia.
We do not promote Wikipedia as a stable and passive resource. We consider essential that people who use Wikipedia understand what Wikipedia is. To understand it, the only appropriate way is to contribute to it and being part of it.
We do not provide Wikipedia as it is. The project aims at fostering a joint effort to improve Wikipedia and to assess its quality.
We do not centralise all the activities. The project can only reach its goal and produce high quality content and impact, if people and institutions can adapt them to their context, vision and work.

Project history

At the moment WikiAfrica Cameroon promoted by doual'art with the support of Orange Foundation is implementing a pilot project around Wikipedia and primary school (2012-2013). The WikiAfrica Primary School Feasibility Study has been developed in 2012 in the frame of WikiAfrica with the support of volunteers and lettera27 Foundation, to evaluate the possible synergies between Wikipedia and primary school with a focus on the linguistic editions of Wikipedia and their use in primary education in Africa, current Wikimedia projects, OER-Open Educational Resources and case studies on the primary schools systems and current relevant projects in the field of education in Italy, Cameroon and South Africa. The Africa Centre based in Cape Town is currently developing trainings in Africa for Wikipedians in residence. SUPSI University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland and University of Cape Town, in collaboration with Wikimedia Switzerland and the Africa Centre based in Cape Town have applied in March 2013 for a Swiss South African research project related to Wikipedia Primary School within the SSAJRP programme (supported September 2013). Presentation proposal Wikipedia Primary School at Wikimania 2013 by Iolanda Pensa.