Submissions/Innovate learning through Wikipedia – WikiClubs in Armenia
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This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2017. |
- Submission no. 2049 Subject - C5
- Title of the submission
- Innovate learning through Wikipedia – WikiClubs in Armenia
- Type of submission (lecture, panel, tutorial/workshop, roundtable discussion, lightning talk, poster, birds of a feather discussion)
- panel
- Author of the submission
- Susanna Mkrtchyan
- Language of presentation
- English
- E-mail address
- susanna.mkrtchyan@gmail.com
- Username
- SusikMkr
- Country of origin
- Armenia
- Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)
- Wikimedia Armenia
- Personal homepage or blog
- Abstract (up to 300 words to describe your proposal)
Our mission at Wikimedia Armenia is to foster creative learning skills and habits among the youth, particularly through Wikipedia and its sister projects. We have set the goal to transform the mindset of Armenian youth. In these days’ Armenian young people, especially in rural areas, often lack motivation and have hard time to find an occupation that will help them to develop. Sadly, they don’t see quite bright future for themselves in their country and start developing migration mindset from early years on. The idea to open WikiClubs in different regions of Armenia was born out of the concern to provide youngsters with a meaningful activity and make learning a pleasant and rewarding habit. We started opening WikiClubs in small cities, villages, schools where there are experienced Wikipedians who wanted to help newbies and actually become coordinators for WikiClubs. (WikiClub is a comfortable room with laptops and Internet connection, usually situated in a space provided by the village council or center of culture. Visitors are typically school students, young people, who learn Wiki editing tools and start contributing to the Armenian Wikipedia and Wiktionary.) Establishing WikiClubs is especially vital in the villages where children and young people don’t have much of a choice to organize their leisure and entertainment. Hence, WikiClubs become a unique place to get together, learn and edit on wiki platforms. It is a well-known fact that a person acquires 70% of her or his knowledge by doing a specific task and the research on memory shows that it gets stronger when there is a meaningful activity attached to the knowledge. Our survey shows that once WikiClubs teache students to sit and work with knowledge, students greatly improves their ability to learn at school and bring up their performance. More importantly, WikiClubs develop learning as a habit, which than impacts all aspects of their life. So, WikiClubs turn learning into fun and continuous experience. Currently, there are 12 active WikiClubs established by Wikimedia Armenia and our goal is to have WikiClub within the reach of every Armenian student.
- What will attendees take away from this session?
Attendees will take our experience to home countries to outreach Wiki projects to rural regions and attract sponsors in establishing of Wikiclubs.
- Theme of presentation
- For workshops and discussions, what level is the intended audience?
- Length of session (if other than 25 minutes, specify how long)
- 25 minutes
- Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
- yes
- Slides or further information (optional)
- Special requests
- Is this Submission a Draft or Final?
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This is a Completed submission for Wikimania 2017 ready to be reviewed by a member of the Programme Committee. |
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