 Hello, hello everyone. Welcome. Okay, we are going to talk on transforming education in Nigeria. And presenting the paper with me is Bukola. Bukola, over to you. Hi, everyone. It's a great connection with you. And I feel so honored to be presenting our experience on how we use the Wikipedia in the classroom to transform education. Now, next slide please. Okay, so in the course of this presentation, we'll do an introduction and also talk about the education landscape in Nigeria, why we do Wikipedia in the classroom. And we'd also be talking about the steps that we took to grow the community. We'll talk about the impacts of this program on both teachers and students in Nigeria. And then we'd also talk about the challenges and then talk about what motivated teachers to be part of this program and also just share some of your success stories with you all. Thank you. Nigeria, just like many other countries, the growth of many nations depends entirely on whether economical factor, environmental stability, or even governance. And Nigeria, just like many other developing countries also affected by some of these challenges. And one of such is could be found in the educational sector. Next slide. Okay. So, proud to the pandemic, the Nigeria educational system was entirely centered around face to face teaching and learning method, and mostly traditional with the use of white boards and markers. And teachers and students were restricted from making use of smartphones in the classroom, most especially in public schools. Next slide. So with the advent of COVID-19 coming to play, a whole lot of things changed and we had to adopt the new normal. And in adopting this new normal, both teachers and students were faced with some challenge to quickly adopt to some of the new initiatives that come with the new normal, some of the new innovations. Next slide. So, because the school previously were not making use of some of these remote learning initiative and using interactive learning method, they had to really learn a whole lot of new things, and parts of which are limited their access to making use of digital learning or incorporating digital learning resources into their classroom activity. Also, sorry, I can't see the slide very well. Is there a way I could? Okay. So, there a way to zoom the slide. I can read. You're not seeing the slide. Yes, I can see. Okay, I can help you out in that. The third challenge we had was insufficient simulation for prioritizing ICT. In our country, Nigeria, there was emphasis laid on ICT instead of media and information literacy skills. You can go ahead. Okay. Okay, so we part of why we discovered that this was a challenge. It was because we had also reviewed the existing Federal Ministry of Education policy that was available in Nigeria. We discovered this policy, the strategic planning that was created by the Federal Ministry of Education from 2018 up to 2022. We discovered that media and information literacy skills of initiative that would advance media and information literacy skill and open education resources were missing. And most of their initiative that was adopted to adapt to the new normal was basically just to promote learning in the classroom. So it's what it did not incorporate any form of media and information literacy skill. Next slide. So moving forward, we thought that as certified trainers of the reading Wikipedia in the classroom, and in order to help change this narrative of bringing in or helping teachers to enhance their media information literacy skill. So we thought that a good way to be part of the change was to bring or implement the reading Wikipedia in the classroom, which Madame Obi would be saying, giving us more insights on that. Thank you. So the question is why reading Wikipedia in the classroom in Nigeria? We have so many reasons for doing that. You've heard our challenges post COVID and pre COVID challenges. So reading Wikipedia in the classroom did come with four points in helping us overcome that. One is reading Wikipedia in the classroom was introduced to become a pedagogical tool for teachers and students. Also, it has, it came with helping us to develop a curriculum in order to fit in to the new normal of digital education. Because previously we were not doing digital education. We were doing non digital education. Our educational system was the type student has to come to a particular designed location to learn. And there was a specific time assigned to learning. But with reading Wikipedia in the classroom, that has to change. Third, it's an avenue to promote media and information literacy, especially for teachers and students. On the case of the teachers, they were taught how to assess information, evaluate information, and create information on Wikipedia. It also created an avenue for having active contributors, especially teachers and students on Wikipedia. Now, the steps we took to do this. First, there was a module developed for the training. This module was called the teacher's guide. If you look at, if you observe, it has two colors. The one in the middle, orange color or yellow, was designed in 2022. It's incorporated local content, adapted local content as well, and was translated into Yoruba language. But in 2023, there was an upgrade and more adaptation of local content, and it was translated into Igbo language. So that's why you're seeing the two colors. And the one on the far right is the English module, the improved version. Now, this module was divided into three. Module one has to do with assessing information, module two has to do with evaluation of information, while module three has to do with creating information. And these modules were based on media and information literacy skill developed by UNESCO. If you observe, they have their learning outcomes as well for the teachers. Now, our impact in our country, Nigeria. First, we had a training which started in Quarra State that was in 2022 with 75 teachers selected from 35 secondary schools. The training was, the training was basically based on teaching teachers how to assess information, how to create information, how to be responsible for the information they've created, and how to transfer this new knowledge to students. Now, the thing is education now has moved from the new normal. You don't have to design a particular space for students to come and learn. Knowledge is being transferred to students. Knowledge is being transferred in any form, digital form, so that students can have access to them. So, in Quarra, we trained 75 teachers selected from 35 schools and certified, sorry, and certified 35, 60 teachers. That was in 2022. Below is the implementation team. In Abuja, we trained 70 teachers from 51 schools and certified 52 teachers, and they are selected from area councils in Abuja. Then in Lagos State, we trained 50 teachers from 36 secondary schools. We certified 36 teachers. Then in Anambra State, we trained over 50 teachers from eight secondary schools and certified 39 teachers. Now, this training is based on hybrid. Some were trained offline, some were trained online. The training was carried out along with the three models and some activities we are introduced to make sure that they understand what they are supposed to do and how they are supposed to do it. Also, the training involved incorporating Wikipedia in their lesson plan so that they can use it and teach students. Now, in Quarra, the first implementation was done on students. After training the teachers, we had to train the students as well. The students, 45 students were selected from three secondary schools and three certified trainers from the previous training we made carried out this training. So, in total, we have trained 245 teachers and 45 students from 135 schools in Nigeria. It's a far cry, but we are getting there. It's a gradual process. So, we have certified 187 teachers and 45 students as well. But in carrying out this implementation, we had some challenges. We all know Internet issue. It's a big problem, especially in Africa. We had a problem of low or no Internet connectivity. We had the global problem, which is the IP block. Some of the teachers were absent during the in-person training because some went for their promotion interview. That is teachers development promotion interview. Some we had currency change in my country, so it affected everything. There was removal of fuel subsidy, which also affected the movement. Then, securing partnership was another key problem because people believe that Wikipedia is a big, huge organization, so they don't need support. They have all the resources. Then we had limited funding, which also affected our training. There was also our school structure. We have public and private school structure in my country. The private school started doing digital education earlier, but this public school didn't until COVID happened and there was a kind of shift. So, for the public school that allowed their students to buy digital tools while coming to school, it was easy to transform from formal to the new normal. But for the public schools, it was a kind of struggle to transform. Now, inadequate ICT skills also affected our implementation because most of the teachers, they don't understand what assessing information is. Tools to do this assessment, tools to do this reading Wikipedia in the classroom. They really don't quite get tools like most of them don't even know how to use the Google Classroom, PowerPoint, Canva Classroom and all the rest. But in the face of the challenges, most of them were still motivated to carry on. One of the motivations that led to the success of the implementation is the teachers need to identify systematic and inclusive teaching method. Some want to change the style of teaching. Some want to acquire new skills. Some because the module, the teacher's guide was localized so it was easy to understand what is being taught. Then some for some the ability to assess reliable information, ability to get information online, ability to understand that there are so many learning tools they can use and they don't need to pay for it. That's some of the motivations. So for our success story, for us, because the teachers were able to implement, to teach and to transfer this reading Wikipedia ideology for the teachers, for them to be okay, it's because the teacher's method of teaching is in line with what they can agree with. So personal motivation led to the successful acquisition of skill for them and for us. The module has a kind of cultural relevance to our system and our environment. Using local language also was a good thing because they were able to adapt, they were able to understand. Then information utilization, easy access to diverse information, enrich the learning experience. That's okay. And secondly, we were able to set up a reading Wikipedia in the classroom clubs in three of the states that has participated in this program, even though it has not started running, but we have been able to establish it. So this is our partners that help us to carry out this information. We have the Federal Ministry of Education. We have the UNESCO Aspenet Schools. We have the National Library. We have the Education Research Council. We have the Teachers' Registration Council. Then we have the Non-Governmental Organization for Literacy Support Services. And we have the Mass Literacy Education Board. These are some of, mostly, our supporters during the implementation. Thank you. So if you have any questions? Hi. My name is Wu Yu from Taiwan. Thank you for the presentation. It's quite inspiring for us because in Taiwan the situation is like the whole educational system. I mean, at the school, teachers only teach in Mandarin Chinese, which also the language widely, most people speak Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan. But I'm from a Taiwan Wikimedia user group. Taiwan is one of the indigenous languages in Taiwan. So what we are going, we also try to bring Wikipedia or other Wiki projects into the educational system. So yeah. And my question is like, now like the policy of education or the local government, like did they all support what you are doing? Or if not, like do you have some negotiation with them? Or yeah, it's my question. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Yes. We, you know, in every organization, in every country, we mentioned earlier that education is very important. So if you're bringing in something new that you want to create a change, you have to let the organization know. And for you to do that, there has to be a kind of agreement. In our own case, we had series of meetings with them. We had to explain what reading Wikipedia in the classroom is, first of all, for them to understand the impact or the importance of it before they could support us. So if you can do that, yeah, because you can bring something new and expect somebody to follow you without understanding what the thing is all about. So that's what we did. We did and some supported, but some did not. Yeah. Okay. Just to add to that, I think another thing that helped was that we carried out some research. So we helped, we have to really identify where the challenge is because Nigeria, like every other country, when you are bringing something new, you also need to pack it up with research. So knowing that we are able to identify the gap and we presented it to them, then they knew that, oh, yes, this is actually a problem, and we are breaking the solutions to them. So I think research is a good one. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you Izelo and Bokula for the wonderful presentation. I've been wanting to learn about how you're working on, I mean, like how the situation is in your country in terms of devices. Okay. Are you done? Okay. Okay. It's time. So I was wondering. Yeah. I wanted to understand the situation in your country regarding devices. Okay. Because we're talking about reading Wikipedia in the classroom. How do you navigate that? I've been wanting to understand like how the project works. Is it something that after training the teacher, the teachers are supposed to engage the students to read Wikipedia in a classroom on devices or how does it work? Okay. First, you know, we said our educational system changed because of COVID. Now after studying, after training the teachers on how to use Wikipedia in the classroom, it's also involved introducing a lot of activities. It's no longer a teacher centered. It has to be teacher and student centered. Now you introduce a lot of activities during your, when you're writing your lesson plan. For instance, you can ask the students as part of the assignment or project to go to Wikipedia and find out a topic that maybe you want to teach them. We also use the different methods like notability method, five clicks away, how to find access information from different websites. It's not only Wikipedia. Then on other ones, and the one they prefer is the five clicks away where you ask students to go to a page on a topic and click on five hyperlinks. Then when you click on the five hyperlinks, you now write what the different learnings you got from the five links that you have clicked on depending on the relation to the topic you're doing. Also, it enables the teachers to ask the students to carry out projects, projects that involves collaboration because reading Wikipedia encourages collaboration. Now you don't tell students to be on their own and do assignment. They have to collaborate. You can share them in groups and now ask them to do something. Secondly, on the aspect of device, remember we said it was private schools that were asked to, parents are asked to buy devices. But now government has started introducing a recent curriculum, ICT, computer education is now compulsory. So schools do get some support from government to establish computer labs where students can now go and have access to computer. Though it's not all run, but they are working on it. So many schools now have computer lab where they can now go and use computer and now do what they are supposed to do. But we still don't allow them to come to school with mobile phones because they can misuse it, but computer is okay. I hope I answered the question. Gola, do you have anything to add? Okay, I think you've really responded clearly to the question. So another thing I just want to talk about, just to add to that is that because students in some public schools are not allowed to make use of mobile devices even after we had embarked on trying to really implement this program in their classroom. So as a solution, what we did was that we also reached out to the parents of these students so that when they get back home and maybe they are given an assignment, they can also make use of their parents' mobile devices to maybe provide feedbacks or respond to assignments that they have been given in classroom. Thank you. Okay. Oh, there's another question. I'll give you another time. I think, unfortunately, we're out of time already. Sorry, but we can meet and talk. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.