MonthlyReport-Feb2021
February 2021
Our team held some activitites that were follow up events of the previous month's webinars. As a follow up event of webinar for Health experts we organised a wikipedai training with intern students of a Medical School at Hatay (south of Turkey); and as a follow up event of webinar for Librarians we were invited by a school-librarian to a secondary school in Istanbul and had a chance to disscuss with the teachers and administrators of the school. On the otherhand upon the request of our partners we did have 2 edit-a-thons and two presentations. We considered those requests as a proof that that our activites create awareness and demand on learning more about Wikimedia projects and contributing to them.
Wikipedia Education Program
In February, most schools were closed but we had a university activity at Hatay Mustafa Kemal University; additionally we had two meetings with the teachers/administrators of high schools in Istanbul and meeting with Ankara University Faculty of Veterinary.
On February 10th, we organized a webinar session for the medical intern students of Hatay Mustafa Kemal University. It was the first time we had an Education Program in that university, but more importantly we introduced wikipedia editing to a group of medical students the first time. The suggestion for organising this webinar came from a professor after our presentation to Public Health experts in January. We were glad that a professor took action to take a step to start Wikipedia Education Training for their students in such a short time. There were 29 attendees. The intern students had been assigned projects about topics like family planning. After this webinar, we expect some students will edit related wikipedia articles as a part of their projects.
On February 12th, with the invitation of the school librarian who had been in the webinar for librarians in January, we had a meeting with the students of Ümraniye Gökkuşağı College in Istanbul. When the teachers met at the conference hall, we joined them online and presented the Wikipedia Education Program. Our presentation was focused on how editing wikimedia projects could be integrated in different courses and how students could benefit from reading Wikipedia more critically and making small edits. We asked them their suggestions on implementing Wikipedia editing in the courses of students at different age groups. We were surprised that rather than teaching their students how to contribute Wikimedia projects, the teachers were more interested in contributing to Wikipedia themselves. They've told us that after the pandemics Wikipedia has become the only source of information for many students and therefore they want to put time into contributing to Turkish wikipedia on topics that could be beneficial for their courses. We agreed to give a hands-on workshop on Wikipedia training with the volunteer teachers and the school principal supported the teachers for volunteering such work.
On February 18th, we had a meeting with the administrators of Ankara University Faculty of Veterinary. We talked with the dean, vice-dean and a faculty member about the possibility of integrating wiki-editing in the courses. Such talk was something new for us, because previously our group had always used a bottom-up approach in talks with education institutions. We directly talked with professors who are willing to integrate contributions to wiki projects in their classes. This was the first time we discussed the possibility of a top-down approach. The administrators of the faculty were excited about this program, as they see it as a novelty in education and as the oldest institution of Veterinary Education in Turkey, they see initiating new projects in education as the responsibility of their institution.
On February 22nd, an active wikipedian graduated from Mehmet Rıfat Evyap Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in Istanbul invited our group to meet with the school principal about introducing Wikipedia editing activity for the students. The principal was not sure if their students could contribute the projects but he was open to try this and more excited in teaching students to read internet sources more critically with the help of wiki projects. We have talked to organise a school-wide presentation around April. If the pandemic conditions allows, the school prefers organizing an in-person event, rather than meeting online; because since one year the students are very much tired of remote education.
Partnerships
With the request of our partners, our group organized 4 events where we made presentations about Wikimedia Movement and Wikipedia editing; two of those events involved a thematic edit-a-thon.
February 11 - First request came from a youth association called Gençlik Mevsimi Derneği (Youth Season Association). We organised an edit-a-thon with their members to share more knowledge on Turkish Wikipedia about the Erasmus+ programme of European Union. We discussed the opportunity of developing content about different cultures with the exchange student groups.
February 14 - We made a presentation about Wikipedia at Digital Activism Training Seminar organized by Lazuri Institute Association under the Endangered Languages Project supported by European Union. We received great interest from the members of the groups representing Circassian languages, Zaza language, Georgian language and Laz language. Some were interested in creating their language projects in wikipedia, wikiquote, wiktionary; whereas others were interested in producing content about their culture and language at Wikipedia. Many stated that previously they had some negative experiences about contributing to Wikipedia about their languages and were critical about policies of Wikipedia and found wiki projects not-welcoming. This was a great opportunity to discuss all those problems and change some negative feelings with positive ones. Since the participants were mostly from the departments of the related language's Literature Faculties or from several cultural institutions we believe this event opened the door to new collaborations.
February 15- With the invitation of Goethe Institut Istanbul, Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey became a part of the project called "The Practise of Commons" together with three other open culture organisations in Turkey. The project included organization of an online event every month during 5 months. The first event was made on February 15th. It was in the form of a panel where the representatives of all groups were panelists. This gave us an opportunity to introduce our group and discuss the meaning of "commons" with other panelists. The event broadcasted online at Youtube Channel of Creative Commons Turkey. (see the video here)
February 27- - We organized an edit-a-thon on Sustainable Fashion edit-a-thon in partnership with İmeceLAB ve ReflectStudio. The participants curated knowledge and created content for Turkish wikipedia about environmental and social concerns about fashion, recycled clothing, sustainable consumption practices, and the future of sustainable fashion.
Community meetings
In February, we had two online community meetings. The first was on February 2nd. It started with some disccussion related to WMF Community Board seats feedback; then a member of the community had presentation on how to contirbute WikiSource. The participants asked their questions about their copyrights concerns related to the project.
The second meeting was on Feburary 16th. The participants were informed about the lastes WMTR activities planned and the partnership talks and they were invited to join discussions about Universal Code of Conduct.
