 Good afternoon, my name is Ewan McAndrew and I work as the Wikimedia in residence at the University of Edinburgh So I'm here to talk to you about the last four years of the Wikimedia residency at the University of Edinburgh and our brand new booklet of case studies This is the first ever booklet dedicated to UK case studies of Wikimedia in education and you can access it via this URL open.ed.ac.uk forward slash Wikimedia in education It's taken a year or more in the making working with course leaders across the UK There are 14 case studies of all in all five from the University of Edinburgh 13 from higher education in total from the institutions listed here and one from secondary education and I just wanted to highlight that one in particular because what they've done in Anglesey should be a lesson to all of those working in the secondary sector that this is a free and impactful way for secondary students and higher education students too to learn digital skills understand how information gets online and do something amazing through publishing their scholarship online Something they've researched pictures. They've taken maybe of their local area and the cultural heritage there Getting that online is something they've created and can feel proud about that their efforts will have a lasting benefit for the common good. As a former secondary English teacher myself I know this could easily form part of a CPD activity day So this booklet I worked on with Dr. Sarah Thomas is the how-to guide I always wanted to produce Building on prior learning and showcasing brilliant work exemplary work being done by course leaders all around the UK Who are perhaps in the past too often self-taught or working in isolation Not anymore Working in the open is too important to work alone and in the dark. There's no social isolation online Wikimedia UK are keen to establish a network of wiki educators trainers ambassadors. Call them what you will We've all collaborated on this booklet to pull out all this workout into the open for others to see and be inspired by And to know where to go in making their own tentative first steps with wikimedia assignments And pointing anyone interested in the direction of scaffolded and self-directed resources they can make use of Importantly, we don't present. This is something additional for already time-pressed academics to have to learn Rather, this is something that can enhance teaching and learning swapping out existing practice where it's not delivering the learning outcomes required In preparing for this I initially called this presentation if you build it they will come after the 1989 american fantasy film field of dreams Where kevin costner's carefully quafford iowa corn farmer decides to listen to a voice to build a baseball field in one of his fields His family and all those around him think he's gone delightfully do lally But in the end he's proved right and the ghosts of the 1919 black sox baseball team do rock up to the baseball field And play there nightly and cars are seen streaming for miles and miles to come to see the spectacle Now I thought I was being clever going for this metaphor To applaud the visionistical approach melissa heightened took five years ago in seeking to host a wikimedia in residence And get the university of edinburgh engaging in conversations about its relationship with wikipedia and areas of mutual benefit that might arise Much has been said of the varying quality of wikipedia's content and its checkered history with academia after all Then melissa heightened reminded me They didn't come to me the core leaders. I worked with I went to them I presented to all sorts of events workshops and forums I engaged my academic colleagues in an open honest and frank conversation about wikipedia and academia And nine times out of ten we found common ground on which to collaborate So melissa thinks i'm more of a traveling salesman But with the best product in the world a free and open online encyclopedia the largest in human history Launa Campbell my brilliant colleague in the open education team here at the university of edinburgh has similarly reminded me The phrase if you build it they will come It's synonymous with stories of failure in edtech and that the wikimedia residency is perhaps a good example of a success story So if I may And in tribute to the late great max von sidao, I'd like to rebrand my talk To the 1991 steven king film needful things So this is needful things wikimedia in education Ladies and gentlemen attention, please coming close to where everyone can see I got a tale to tell and isn't going to cost a dime And you but you believe that we're going to get along just fine So in this example a new wikimedia sets up a needful thing stall opening up teaching and learning in the sleepy university town of edinburgh scotland sparking the curiosity of its citizens The proprietor is a charming gentleman who always seems to have an item in stock that is perfectly suited to any customer encounters The prices are surprisingly low Free considering the merchandise is this man the devil himself This presentation is seeking to outline the demonically persuasive conversations Undertaken in remat reimagining wikimedia in education as a needful thing in teaching in learning Because that's what the residency has been about Reimagining and resetting the relationship between academia and wikipedia Where we move away from an abstinence only approach that hasn't really worked for us and admit that just saying wikipedia is not a reliable source Doesn't make that true It's a variable source. Some pages are excellent I know because our staff and students have contributed to over 3000 articles on wikipedia And been scrupulously dedicated to sharing fact-checked verifiable knowledge online to make those sure those pages are excellent The reason the residency has worked because there are enough colleagues at the university who get it and acknowledge that wikipedia is the largest open education resource in human history And that our students and staff are using it now today And they find it incredibly useful In an introductory and clarificatory role as part of their initial digital research Not the end point and not something that should be cited But we need to be supporting them In developing good practice In having those conversations about what constitutes a reliable source and what good academic referencing looks like What's more our students and staff can edit wikipedia And are motivated to do so to help improve representation online And to communicate our scholarship our expertise and our passions and interests With the world openly and thereby help improve global understanding of our disciplines Part of our resetting is that the information that is on wikipedia spreads across the internet And what is right or wrong or missing on wikipedia affects the entire internet Now age 19 wikipedia ranks among the world's top 10 sites for scholarly resource lookups And is extensively used by virtually every platform used on a daily basis receiving over 500 million views per month from 1.5 billion unique devices And if we're not supporting our staff and students engage with how knowledge is communicated online And our relationship with these big digital intermediaries like google like facebook like youtube like amazon Who are all using the open license content in wikipedia Then we are all doing a massive disservice to them and the global open knowledge community at large Part of the resetting has also been a bit about actually demystifying how wikipedia works behind the scenes And running through all the different checks and balances that wikipedia has in place to aid its reliability Its verifiability its transparency and to nip any problems of potential vandalism in the bud And as the university of glass ago who research was published last year They found most instances of vandalism were Were reverted within five minutes on average And ultimately it's about realizing that wikipedia is not the max of one side out devil That has been made out to be but instead is so tim so tim burners lee said last year the best thing about the open web Is wikipedia? It's an amazing achievement and an act of generosity Volunteers all around the world helping to build understanding globally reframing wikipedia Is all about looking at it as a digital gateway which millions use to seek to access to knowledge A two-way gateway where you can read and you can contribute And the alt website defines learning technology is this The broad range of communication information and related technologies that can be used to support learning teaching and assessment wikipedia is learning technology We need to think of it that way The largest open knowledge resource in human history is free open and anyone can contribute Ergo wikimedeans are learning technologists And a wikimedean like myself is just someone who has learned how to train people how to edit and who facilitates editing events Ergo learning technologists are wikimedeans Or they should be because too often wikipedia is seen as a problem something to be consumed passively at your peril avoid avoid avoid When wikipedia and teaching and learning should really spin this on its head It's what you can also contribute as an institution staff and students get out of the teaching and learning experiences as a result When what we are advocating is what we want our students to be active informed and engaged We want them to be knowledge activists if you will Because it's working. This is a successful sustainable model. We've proved it We've increased our number of course programs year on year because engaging in these conversations Taking part in these learning activities is proving beneficial for our staff In delivering on the intended learning outcomes and for our students who have positive meaningful and enjoyable teaching and learning experiences We've grown from three course programs in year one seen here in red And kept those course programs involved and engaged and refined the teaching experience I'm told the board of studies for these courses are enthusiastic about and continuing this work And a new wiki component has been proposed by dr. Alex chow in divinity for another course program So we're expanding our portfolio of work The translation studies msc cohort has doubled in size last year And we introduced a new peer review assessment which the students excelled at Providing detailed meaningful feedback to their peers for for a previously unassessed independent study component where they translate 2000 words in their own time From year one. This is this grew to six course programs in year two and working More on data literacy with design informatics students Giving them practical real world experience working with a data set the survey of scottish witchcraft database And importing it as linked open data in wikipedia's sister project wiki data In year three, we grew to 10 course programs and work and are now working in refining More rubrics and working more with online course programs Scaffolding and structuring how to edit remotely both individually and in groups to chunk the challenge further And it does build over time The pace of change in academic context is slow But the important thing is to have the conversation engage in it Plant the seed of an idea and watch it grow over time as course leaders then come back to you with a suggestion for a collaboration Start slow or go big But understand the nature of what you want to achieve and work back from there to structure the teacher in learning The residency's key stats include a thousand over a thousand students have been trained 476 staff 315 members of the public And we've created or improved over 3,000 articles on wikipedia And we've hosted 84 editing events or editathons Get getting undergrads post grads phd students Staff and members of the public all in the same room to collaborate on improving subject knowledge together And there is evidence of both informal and formal learning occurring at these editing events These conversations that we're having are worthwhile And we have we have hosted 289 videos on our media hopper channel And 70 videos on our youtube channel, which have been watching around about 168 countries around the world And that's it really Engaging in the conversation about wikipedia's relationship with academia and providing pdfs WordPress tutorials video tutorials workshops online and in person Which demystify how to navigate and contribute to the free and open wikipedia projects correctly Has real potential to do real educational and societal good, which is impactful and lasting Having a dedicated wikipedia In residence alongside your other digital skills trainers can be a real change maker and a focal point for activity To facilitate this work. There is after all a learning curve to contributing But the residency and wikipedia UK have also trained others to support and lead editing events Either in a volunteer capacity or as an aspect of their job role We've also empowered many students and staff to lead and co-lead editing events Again chunking the challenge works well here and can have a real lasting good in terms of sustainability For example, Ruth Jenkins here went from not knowing how to edit to helping others edit for work to editing herself for fun to preparing an editathon And learning how to train others and now she feels empowered that she can take that knowledge and train other people on her own Now i've created a timeline of the major plot points Uh, punctuated the Edinburgh residency along the way such as the first editathon or celebrating the Edinburgh 7 back in 2015 and some of the studies and core statistics But the most important one is probably the last one here Where the University of Edinburgh is pivoting to online and remote teaching in light of the coronavirus outbreak and social distancing measures Our wikipedia in the curriculum activities bring benefits to the students who learn new skills and have immediate impact in addressing Both the diversity of editors and the diversity of content shared online So the wikipedia editing event or editathon is a model which seems to have found its tipping point moment the 14k studies All highlight the positive reactions of staff and students alike But they all have Other areas of commonality also in that the wikipedia assignments help support critical thinking And improved digital research skills The wikipedia assignments also offer an opportunity for students to take on the role of the expert Learning their subject well enough to share their scholarship with others Such as sixth formers in Anglesey working with junior students at wikipedia lunchtime clubs Or post grad or phd tutors working with undergrads on reproductive biology assignment wikipedia assignments also offer students to communicate to a lay audience in a published meaningful way But particularly in science communication law medicine and more. Well, this is an important Skill that they don't often get a chance to engage with in a university context wikipedia assignments also teach students a more informed understanding of how information is created curated and contested online Copyright literacy neutral point of view academic referencing and what actually constitutes a neutral reliable source wikipedia assignments Intrinsically motivate the students to address areas of inaccuracy or underrepresentation Particularly around equality and diversity Knowing that their work will do some lasting good lasting well beyond the assignment And for an audience of millions all around the world also wikipedia assignments develop help develop data literacy through working with and visualizing real world open datasets like the survey of Scottish witchcraft database In closing the wikipedia and activist Aaron Schwartz Once said what is the most important thing you could be working on in the world right now? And if you're not working on that, why aren't you? The corona virus pandemic and the world's response to it must be the most important thing to work on in the world right now Just as it happened during the 2014 Ebola outbreak as soon as the crisis kicked off People flocked wikipedia to read about the virus and its potential risks Turning to the online encyclopedia for bits of trusted information Ensure wikipedia has become central to how the ongoing health crisis is processed and discussed online Just like in 2014 wiki project medicine editors take this incredibly seriously And scrupulously check the verifiability of the information being added to the corona virus page Using only review literature were available And working with volunteer translators to get the health information shared in many different languages possible Ultimately, you have to cite everything you write James Heilman of wiki project medicine noted that wikipedia has a structural advantage over the big social networks It takes more time and effort to disrupt wikipedia than it does to restore wikipedia to a reliable level It's the exact opposite on twitter and facebook where it takes a second to spread false news While gang those lies removed will take a lot of time and effort Many countries are now looking to online solutions while people social Social isolate and the sharing of fact-checked verifiable knowledge and working collaboratively And productively for the common good has never been more vitally important Academic publishers are now making articles on respirators open access Recognizing that open access and open knowledge can help save lives I'm proud that we worked with professor devi sreeda At the university of emerald one of the case studies featured in the book M on the masters of public health course program That case study empowered students to take their research And synthesize the review literature to improve global health related topics on wikipedia She has been a cool calm head providing important updates on the developing corona crisis So do follow her on twitter We now have a growing number of people all passionate for the sharing of open knowledge A network of open knowledge nodes Both students and staff feel empowered and motivated motivated to suggest collaborations And the number of positive quality interactions that a collaboration with wikipedia forwards makes i think Working in this space the most exciting in education right now because it is so emergent But it also has so much potential to make and i'm quoting the university's mission here A really significant sustainable and socially responsible contribution to the world So far from wikipedia being anathema in academic context it really is a case of if you build it They will come Thank you We all know that our students are using wikipedia and we're all using it ourselves So i think that being familiar with it is really important and it's a really important part of information literacy and digital skills and just understanding of the resources that we and our students are using um, it's been really um A really interesting and exciting experience for me because it's not something i've been involved with before but um as a librarian i think it's It's something really important to get our students using wikipedia and contributing to it Especially in medicine where it's often a first port of call for people for finding medical information So contributing to that is really exciting because the students can actually Before they are doctors they can actually contribute to the medical knowledge base