photos by CC-BY-SA [0]
During the past three years, I have been privileged to be a part of the Wikimedia Movement as staff of the Wikimedia Foundation. [1]
I admire its vision. I believe in its mission. I uphold its values.
Many projects have inspired me very much.
* Working with the community advocates to keep our community safe from threats of harm. [2]
* Working with the community liaisons to communicate the rollout of VisualEditor. [3]
* Working with the legal team to design a user-friendly trademark policy. [4] [5]
* Working with the grantmaking team to give grants and foster movement diversity. [6] [7]
* Working with the program capacity team to encourage evaluation and assess impacts. [8] [9]
* Working to encourage regional cooperation in Eastern Europe and Asia. [10] [11]
* Working to promote the Wikipedia Library and the Wikipedia Adventure. [12] [13]
* Working to grow the Wikipedia Education Program. [14]
* * *
The Wikipedia Education Program is especially near and dear to my heart. It is a means of educating readers, recruiting contributors, and creating quality content. Since 2005, the Wikipedia Education Program has made an enormous contribution to Wikipedia. [15]
Since 2014, when I joined the team, the number of education programs around the world has increased by 36%. [16] [17] And now 25% of all education programs are in one of the regions that I supported. [18]
Wikipedia is being used as a teaching tool in education around the world in more than 80 countries. [16] The idea behind the Wikipedia Education Program is simple: educators and students around the world contribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in an academic setting.
In some parts of the world, this happens in a traditional classroom and the editing is done for a course assignment. In other places, this is an extracurricular activity done for community service, as part of a club or a camp, or at campus edit-a-thons, hackathons and workshops.
In some countries, teachers learn Wikipedia editing as part of their teacher training. And in some countries, there are government partnerships [19] between Wikimedia affiliates and academic agencies that legally mandate learning about wikis and Wikipedia as part of the local, regional, or national curriculum.
Almost 5,000 educators and almost 50,000 students in more than 500 cities and at almost 1,000 schools have added almost 150,000 articles to Wikipedia and have contributed more than half a billion bytes of content to the free knowledge movement. [15]
I am so proud of what the Wikipedia Education Program has accomplished. And I am enthusiastic about what great things it has yet to achieve.
* * *
As a regional education program manager, I worked with local program leaders as their colleague, their coach, their advocate, and as an ally for social change.
I traveled to 12 countries 18 times in 2 years: Mexico, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Armenia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Germany, and the UK.
It was a great gift to get to travel the world in service of free knowledge.
I am profoundly humbled by and am sincerely grateful for every opportunity I've had, every place I've been, everything I've learned, and every person I've met.
I want to thank my teammates, past and present, from whom I have learned so much.
I want to thank the Wikipedia Education Collaborative [20] for sharing their experience and expertise with the greater global education community.
And I want to thank the education program leaders, past and present, with whom I had the pleasure of working closely, especially those whom I had the privilege of visiting. To be able to support their great work was a tremendous honor and a lot of fun.
I couldn't be prouder of the work we have done together. We sought to make the Wikimedia projects a better place to volunteer, to share our learning, and to change our world.
* * *
Now it's time for me to move on and to return to my true calling: teaching.
Recently, the perfect opportunity presented itself, and I have accepted an offer that I am truly happy about and looking forward to. Later this month, I will return to the classroom. I will teach high school students who are struggling academically to learn English.
I will help my students become better readers, writers, thinkers, and communicators so they are more prepared for their adult lives, so they may become better people, and so they can make our world a better place.
* * *
I will always be one of Wikipedia's biggest fans. No matter where I go or what I do, I will continue to advocate for its value to humanity. I love Wikipedia. I believe that Wikipedia belongs in education. And wherever I teach, I will work to make it so.
Wikipedia is a miracle, a monument to altruism. It is vital to the internet ecosystem, and it is vital to the education system. I hope that more young people especially will find their way to Wikipedia and help out. And when they do, I hope that they are met with wise mentorship from veteran community members, just as I was.
I intend to remain a Wikipedian now that I am no longer a Wikimedia Foundation staff member. And, with that promise, I’ll see you on the wikis. [21]
* * *
[0] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2013-2016_Anna_Koval_Wikimedia_Foundation.JPG
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:AKoval_(WMF)
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Threats_of_harm
[3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor
[4] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Trademark_policy
[5] http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/10/29/designing-a-user-friendly-trademark-policy/
[6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG
[7] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Diversity_Conference
[8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Capacity_and_Learning
[9] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation
[10] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Central_and_Eastern_Europe
[11] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Asia_Project
[12] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library
[13] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Adventure
[14] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education
[15] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Historic_data/Table
[16] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries
[17] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Education/Countries&oldid=70367
[18] https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ACEE_2015_State_of_the_CEE_Movement_Presentation.pdf&page=28
[19] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Government_Partnerships
[20] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Wikipedia_Education_Collaborative
[21] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Msannakoval
I admire its vision. I believe in its mission. I uphold its values.
Many projects have inspired me very much.
* Working with the community advocates to keep our community safe from threats of harm. [2]
* Working with the community liaisons to communicate the rollout of VisualEditor. [3]
* Working with the legal team to design a user-friendly trademark policy. [4] [5]
* Working with the grantmaking team to give grants and foster movement diversity. [6] [7]
* Working with the program capacity team to encourage evaluation and assess impacts. [8] [9]
* Working to encourage regional cooperation in Eastern Europe and Asia. [10] [11]
* Working to promote the Wikipedia Library and the Wikipedia Adventure. [12] [13]
* Working to grow the Wikipedia Education Program. [14]
* * *
The Wikipedia Education Program is especially near and dear to my heart. It is a means of educating readers, recruiting contributors, and creating quality content. Since 2005, the Wikipedia Education Program has made an enormous contribution to Wikipedia. [15]
Since 2014, when I joined the team, the number of education programs around the world has increased by 36%. [16] [17] And now 25% of all education programs are in one of the regions that I supported. [18]
Wikipedia is being used as a teaching tool in education around the world in more than 80 countries. [16] The idea behind the Wikipedia Education Program is simple: educators and students around the world contribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in an academic setting.
In some parts of the world, this happens in a traditional classroom and the editing is done for a course assignment. In other places, this is an extracurricular activity done for community service, as part of a club or a camp, or at campus edit-a-thons, hackathons and workshops.
In some countries, teachers learn Wikipedia editing as part of their teacher training. And in some countries, there are government partnerships [19] between Wikimedia affiliates and academic agencies that legally mandate learning about wikis and Wikipedia as part of the local, regional, or national curriculum.
Almost 5,000 educators and almost 50,000 students in more than 500 cities and at almost 1,000 schools have added almost 150,000 articles to Wikipedia and have contributed more than half a billion bytes of content to the free knowledge movement. [15]
I am so proud of what the Wikipedia Education Program has accomplished. And I am enthusiastic about what great things it has yet to achieve.
* * *
As a regional education program manager, I worked with local program leaders as their colleague, their coach, their advocate, and as an ally for social change.
I traveled to 12 countries 18 times in 2 years: Mexico, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Armenia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Germany, and the UK.
It was a great gift to get to travel the world in service of free knowledge.
I am profoundly humbled by and am sincerely grateful for every opportunity I've had, every place I've been, everything I've learned, and every person I've met.
I want to thank my teammates, past and present, from whom I have learned so much.
I want to thank the Wikipedia Education Collaborative [20] for sharing their experience and expertise with the greater global education community.
And I want to thank the education program leaders, past and present, with whom I had the pleasure of working closely, especially those whom I had the privilege of visiting. To be able to support their great work was a tremendous honor and a lot of fun.
I couldn't be prouder of the work we have done together. We sought to make the Wikimedia projects a better place to volunteer, to share our learning, and to change our world.
* * *
Now it's time for me to move on and to return to my true calling: teaching.
Recently, the perfect opportunity presented itself, and I have accepted an offer that I am truly happy about and looking forward to. Later this month, I will return to the classroom. I will teach high school students who are struggling academically to learn English.
I will help my students become better readers, writers, thinkers, and communicators so they are more prepared for their adult lives, so they may become better people, and so they can make our world a better place.
* * *
I will always be one of Wikipedia's biggest fans. No matter where I go or what I do, I will continue to advocate for its value to humanity. I love Wikipedia. I believe that Wikipedia belongs in education. And wherever I teach, I will work to make it so.
Wikipedia is a miracle, a monument to altruism. It is vital to the internet ecosystem, and it is vital to the education system. I hope that more young people especially will find their way to Wikipedia and help out. And when they do, I hope that they are met with wise mentorship from veteran community members, just as I was.
I intend to remain a Wikipedian now that I am no longer a Wikimedia Foundation staff member. And, with that promise, I’ll see you on the wikis. [21]
* * *
[0] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2013-2016_Anna_Koval_Wikimedia_Foundation.JPG
[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:AKoval_(WMF)
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Threats_of_harm
[3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor
[4] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Trademark_policy
[5] http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/10/29/designing-a-user-friendly-trademark-policy/
[6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG
[7] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Diversity_Conference
[8] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Capacity_and_Learning
[9] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation
[10] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Central_and_Eastern_Europe
[11] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Asia_Project
[12] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library
[13] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Adventure
[14] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education
[15] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Historic_data/Table
[16] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Countries
[17] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Education/Countries&oldid=70367
[18] https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ACEE_2015_State_of_the_CEE_Movement_Presentation.pdf&page=28
[19] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Government_Partnerships
[20] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/Wikipedia_Education_Collaborative
[21] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Msannakoval
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