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Submissions/Experimenting with Wikipedia at a Mexican university

From Wikimania 2012 • Washington, D.C., USA

This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2012.

Submission no.

107

Title of the submission
Experimenting with Wikipedia at a Mexican university
Type of submission (workshop, tutorial, panel, presentation)
presentation
Author of the submission
Leigh Thelmadatter
E-mail address
Username
Thelmadatter
Country of origin
Live and work in Mexico, American by origin
Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.)
ITESM-Campus Ciudad de México, Wikimedia México
Personal homepage or blog
Abstract (please use no less than 300 words to describe your proposal)

While other web sites and other Internet tools have been used to teach foreign language and cultural knowledge in university classes, multilingual Wikipedia has been largely ignored. Much of the reason for this is that universities and other schools shun Wikipedia not only for fear of students copying and pasting its content but also because its open-source ethics and collaboration among non-experts can run counter to the ethos of many academic disciplines. Despite this, there has been some study of Wikipedia's usefulness for information search and evaluation, especially for its “teachable moments" or the ability to provide real world examples of information management and expression in one's native language. Along these lines, Wikipedia’s Global Education program has focused on encouraging the writing of Wikipedia articles in place of term papers, traditional in U.S. and Canadian universities, but this model has limited usefulness in university setting which do not stress the term paper.


An alternative model for encouraging systematic and (teacher) supervised contributions to Wikipedia is to use the web site and the vast global community behind it for foreign language students. Instituto Tecnológico y Estudios Superiores de Monterrey- Campus Ciudad de México (ITESM-CCM) is the first campus in Mexico to become systematically involved with Wikipedia’s Global Education program and the first to work with Wikipedia as a tool to teach foreign language principally English. Wikipedia and the “wiki-world” are used as a platform to allow students to use the target language to reach aims other than the mere production of language, such as translating articles and working with other, non-student Wikipedians to find information and get feedback on contributions. This is called authentic communication. Student participation with Wikipedia has ranged from article creation (of various lengths), article translation, GLAM work (principally with the Festival International Cervantino) to having the entire course based on participation in Wikipedia as an “immersion” experience.



Track (Wikis and the Public Sector/GLAM - Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums/WikiCulture and Community/Research, Analysis, and Education/Technology and Infrastructure)
Research, Analysis, and Education
Length of presentation/talk (if other then 25 minutes, specify how long)
25 Minutes
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
Yes
Slides or further information (optional)
Special request as to time of presentations (for example - can not present on Saturday)


Interested attendees

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  1. --ProtoplasmaKid 00:48, 19 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  2. --Frank Schulenburg 16:59, 24 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  3. NaBUru38 15:44, 5 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  4. CT Cooper · talk 20:42, 14 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Alin (WMF) (talk) 21:40, 5 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  6. HstryQT (talk) 16:28, 8 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  7. --Lpagola (talk) 17:03, 17 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  8. GastelEtzwane (talk) 23:05, 18 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  9. --Brest (talk) 01:14, 19 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  10. --K.fontecha (talk) 17:50, 20 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  11. Alanlzd (talk) 21:54, 20 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  12. Andrea Vega AndiieVga (talk) 22:33, 20 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  13. --Tlilmiztli Tlilmiztli (talk) 01:00, 21 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  14. Ldavis (WMF) (talk) 23:09, 21 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  15. IbrahimPsy111 (talk) 18:05, 23 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  16. Graham87 (talk) 10:49, 31 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  17. SupaplexTW (talk) 03:32, 2 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  18. Dmitri Lytov (talk) 14:44, 6 June 2012 (UTC) (if it does not collide with another presentation I want to attend)[reply]