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Wikipedia:WikiProject WikiFundi Content/Help:Suggested lesson plan

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The following is a suggested lesson plan for teachers. It was used to guide participating teachers of the WikiAfrica Schools programme in South Africa. The lesson plan is intended as a guide.

Please note: We strongly recommend that any articles your group creates are designed for a younger audience on Vikidia (www.vikidia.org) rather than Wikipedia. All the elements you are learning about here also apply for Vikidia. Of course, you can also design projects around contributions to WikiBooks and WikiVoyage (and we do recommend that you do so).

Session 1

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The video that explains WikiAfrica Schools

Configuration: working en masse ... Teacher preparation before the lesson:

  • Make sure the WikiFundi is plugged in and turned on. You can find the videos for this in the WikiPack Africa section.
  • Register (create an account) on the WikiFundi yourselves
  • Familiarise yourself with how WikiFundi works
  • Read through the links in this guide
  • Read through these articles Help:Schools and Wikipedia:NPOV

Lessons plan:

  • Show the video that explains WikiAfrica Schools - ask the students what they think of the issues raised in the video, and if they want to get involved. Points of discussion can cover ...
  • Looking through offline Wikipedia to see what is covered about your school, community, town or local cultures.
  • Asking what it makes the students feel to see (or not find) articles that reflect their lives.
  • Ask the students whose responsibility that should be, and what they can do about it.
  • Get the class to find WikiFundi on their devices. Show them offline Wikipedia, Wikiquote, Wikisource and Wiktionary. Ask them to find specific things or just let them explore.
  • Let them watch some of the videos in the Information and Resources section. Suggestions include the following:
  • This is Wikipedia
  • TV Spot Wikipedia Dance
  • TV Spot Wikipedia Maladie
  • The Impact of Wikipedia series

Session 2

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Review and discuss with the students this page about Wikipedia Essentials.

Look at the various sections and discuss the implications of each Pillar. Discuss why neutrality is important, why citations are required and why plagiarism is considered a very bad practice.


If your students have internet access, they can work through a game that teaches them how to : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:The_Wikipedia_Adventure

Session 3

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Configuration: working en masse ... Teacher preparation:

  • Set up and familiarise yourself with WikiFundi

Lesson plan

  • Setup the WikiFundi and ask the students to connect to the network using their devices
  • Once they have explored what is on the box, everyone in the class should register in the WikiFundi section - register (create and account)
  • Once registered, they should find their user page and click on the edit section to write a little introduction about themselves.
  • Ask them to find the Baobab page where they can ask each other for help.
  • Ask the students to read the following articles:
  • Review the article the articles below about schools …
  • Ask the class to look at how the information is arranged in those Schools articles. They should look at the kind of language (tone), how the article is constructed, what subjects are covered, and how the information is researched.
  • Together as a class, workshop the structure for an article on your school.
  • Divide the class off into groups and assign each group a section header to research and write up that information.
  • Ask the students to read the section on identifying reliable sources, Verifiability and no original research. Ask the students what these things mean. As them how they are going to gather information about their sections on the school - where the best sources for information will be.

Homework: research the sections about the schools. Look for sources to create the article that they are working on.

Sessions 4

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Resources needed:Chrome books and WikiFundi on Configuration: working in groups ... Lesson plan:

  • Look at the article that the class has been working on.
  • Ask the class to suggest improvements that can be done and who will do it.

Now, discuss the importance of research and citations:

  • Work through this page on Evaluating Articles and Sources
  • Ask the students to review the sources they have gathered so far for the article they wrote together.
  • Discuss whether these are suitable sources.
  • The class is now going to work on their own articles in smaller groups.
  • Split the class up into groups of 2-3.
  • Look at the list of possible subjects you want focus on. They might want to work from the following list of articles that could be written about your neighbourhood or immediate area …
  • Each group should decide on the focus of their article … and plan how to gather what is needed to write the article.
  • Each group should plan their research and the writing. They should set timeframes to the work they need to do.

List of possible articles and subjects to work on

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Please note: these are only suggestions and related to the local area, and should not be considered on a provincial or even national scale.

Examples of Wikipedia articles on local suburbs:

Possible structure of an article about your local area: History of the local area

  • etymology - what the name means and why it is called that
  • history - development … pre colonial, colonial, apartheid and colonial
  • historical events
  • historical politics
  • Demographics
  • population
  • housing
  • individual and household incomes
  • Race
  • Ethnicity
  • Language
  • Migration / Immigration
  • List of notable people
  • Government and politics
  • local government structures
  • representation at local and national government
  • service delivery
  • Urban planning, structures and governance
  • where is it geographically placed
  • neighbourhoods / suburb
  • transportation connections
  • spatial planning and developments (open space, vs business and residential areas)
  • notable buildings and institutions (?)
  • Geography of the area
  • climate
  • local geological features
  • location and characteristics
  • ecology and how affected by industry and urbanization
  • Economy
  • shopping district and centre
  • industrial districts and centers
  • Education
  • demographics of school-age children
  • secondary schools
  • tertiary schools
  • adult education and vocational centers
  • Society and culture (this could be divided among 3-4 groups)
  • arts and culture
  • cultural events
  • notable cultural leaders
  • local cultural features
  • entertainment
  • local people featured in popular culture
  • social institutions: libraries, museums, community centers, etc.
  • sports (including facilities and clubs)
  • media and broadcasting

Also look at how you could create a project within other Wikimedia spaces, like Wikibooks or WikiVoyage.

For Wikibooks, you could create a book about:

  • local cuisine
  • local arts and culture, featuring cultural heroes
  • [your community] : a history

For Wikivoyage:

  • a tourists guide to your community

Session 5-8

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Resources needed: WikiFundi and Chrome books; reading materials about local subjects Configuration: in groups ... Teacher preparation:

  • Assist with research options for students
  • Review the articles developing on WikiFundi

Lesson plan:

  • Ask the students to read this article: Wikipedia:WikiProject WikiFundi Content/Help:Evaluating Articles and Sources
  • give them a spot quiz:

Article quality quiz Which of the following is NOT a sign of a strong Wikipedia article? a. It has a "Featured Article" banner on the Talk page. b. The article represents multiple points of view, even though some perspectives aren't given the same amount of space in the article. c. The article draws heavily from a single source. d. It has a very long editing history, with multiple editors working on the same page for years.

  • Discuss the answers with the students.
  • Compile the list of articles that are being written - check these have not been covered previously
  • Article writing continues
  • Research continues as homework

Session 9

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Configuration: whole class

Teacher preparation:

  • you are going to organise a Wiki Takes photo tour (students can also take photos as homework if this is easier)
  • think about where the students can take photos to add to their articles
  • create a shared folder on Google Drive or Dropbox that you and the students can access. You will need this folder to upload to Wikimedia Commons.


Lesson plan

  • make sure there are enough camera phones or cameras of good enough quality
  • before you head out, the students should discuss what kinds of images they want to get for their sections of the articles.
  • they should review the "What can I upload to Wikimedia Commons" and "Taking better photographs" - Workshop guide by Zack MacCune" documents that can be found in the Resources Section
  • When they get back, they can review and select the images they need for the articles.
  • They should copy the selected images to a google drive or dropbox that you have set up for them. Important: the name of the person who took the photograph should be placed in each image name. A suggested file naming convention is: [article name_article section_image description_by_photographer_image number].jpg
  • Once they have selected the images they want, they can upload the images to WikiFundi using the "upload" tab.
  • Please note: when transferring the final articles to the online platform, all images and media will have to be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. You will need to include the name of each photographer (this is why the image naming convention is so important).

Session 10

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Configuration: groups ... Teacher preparation:

  1. Review the process of drafting articles on Wikipedia
  2. Review the articles developing on WikiFundi

Lesson plan:

  • Compile list of articles that are being written - check these have not been covered previously
  • Ask the students to review their articles.

Transferring articles to the online space

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When the articles are ready to be transferred to online Wikipedia, Vikidia or other Wikimedia project:

  1. Go to the article. Click on edit, and copy and paste the code.
  2. You might want to put the code onto a back up space, like a Google Drive document incase there is a problem with connection or the article has trouble being integrated on the Wikimedia project. A back up is always a good idea :).
  3. Go to correct language page of Wikipedia, Vikidia or the related project. Sign in.
  4. Create the article using the title of the article you are transferring.
  5. In the text box, paste the text code.
  6. Preview the document and make sure the formatting works.
  7. Once you are happy with the article, click on "publish article"
  8. Remember to include information in the Edit Summary every time you do so.
  9. Once you have created the article. Click on the "talk" section (it should be a red link at the top left hand side, next to the "article" tab). Click on "create this page". Write in the edit box something similar to this:
This article was created as a school project by the following students in [insert grade] at [insert school name, region and country] guided by [insert your name] or [insert username (written like this [[User:Teachername]])]. This article was first created on the [[Wikipedia:WikiProject WikiFundi|WikiFundi offline platform]].
  • Please note: if the article includes images or media, the media will have to be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons first. And then the final code placed in the relevant part of the article.

Additional video resources

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Some of these can be found in the Resources Section

Support reading

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Some of these can be found in the Resources Section

Licences:

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