Wikipedia:WikiProject WikiAfrica Schools/About

A simple introduction to the WikiAfrica Schools project.

The WikiAfrica Schools Project is a WikiAfrica project launched in 2017.

WikiAfrica Schools helps teachers to introduce online knowledge systems to their students and teach them how they work. The programme helps students to acquire key ICT skills and teaches critical thought through the emphasis on referencing, citations and writing for neutrality. Additionally, the students benefit by being part of a global movement and learn that their knowledge is both valued and valuable.

An exhaustive study shows that including Wikipedia-based assignments in the teaching programme provides students with valuable digital and information literacy knowledge, critical research, writing for a public audience, teamwork, and technology skills. The report found that students are more motivated by these assignments as they were proud of their work, spent more time, and saw the usefulness of the result beyond a learning task.

Using the existing curriculum as a base, the WikiAfrica Schools programme provides educators and students with an opportunity to use the WikiFundi offline editing environment to contribute to Wikipedia and thus develop and strengthen their curriculum-aligned teaching. WikiFundi was developed by the principals of Wiki In Africa to counter the challenges education organisations face with regards to data costs, consistent internet access and power outages.

In its current proof-of-concept phase in South Africa, the project is training and supporting the African School of Excellence (ASE) and Global Teacher Institute’s Future Leaders as they integrate the creation of Wikipedia articles into their teaching plans. During roll-out, each iteration of the project will be developed collaboratively with individual schools to ensure its effectiveness.

The programme provides in-depth training for teachers. The WikiFundi devices are donated to each participating organisation. On each device is a host of offline education resources, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, WikiSource and Wikiquote, in addition to the WikiFundi environment that mimics the processes required to contribute to Wikipedia offline. These knowledge resources are especially critical to schools that don’t have libraries or access to them. Partnering institutions receive ongoing support – both remotely and on-Wiki – for the first three months of the integration programme.

Mid-way through the proof-of-concept in South Africa, the WikiAfrica Schools programme has been enthusiastically received by the partners, teachers and students. The integration stage is taking place in Term 3 (August - September 2017), where the outcomes will start to flow. The project is deemed to be sustainable once the processes are fully integrated into the teaching plan.

WikiAfrica Schools is a project initiated by Wiki In Africa to support the next generation of the WikiAfrica movement. The 2017 proof of concept in South Africa has been collaboratively created with lettera27 in partnership with African School of Excellence and the Global Teachers’ Institute. WikiFundi was developed by the principals of Wiki In Africa, in collaboration with Wikimedia Switzerland and supported by the Orange Foundation. Al documentation for both projects is under CC-BY-SA 4.0.