Do you want to turn your students from consumers of knowledge into knowledge creators? Wikimedia Israel runs an educational program to develop essential academic skills for the 21st century, including the ability to navigate the digital knowledge world, critical thinking, and academic skills such as informed reading and source-based writing. As part of the “Students Write Wikipedia” program, students create entirely new encyclopedic articles on Wikipedia!
In addition, we also offer programs for outstanding and gifted students, and run various Wikipedia writing projects in collaboration with gifted classes and academic youth programs across the country.
- The program is especially suitable for alternative assessment tracks for 30% of the matriculation grade (בגרות) in humanities subjects.
- The guidance and support from Wikimedia Israel for participating teachers creates a novel learning experience for students and teachers, and allows students to produce high-quality outcomes in a collaborative and empowering way.
- The program is recognized by the Ministry of Education and is included in the GEFEN system (Program No.: 23985)
- The program is also suitable for a hybrid teaching model and can be conducted remotely.
- To see examples of program outcomes already published on Wikipedia, we would be happy to send you a link to the program’s Wikipedia page.
“The knowledge industry (high-tech), as well as knowledge services (medicine, law, etc.), need knowledge creators, independent thinkers, people who experience themselves as a source of meaning and authority.” (Yoram Harpaz, educator and founder of the “Thinking Schools” network in the 1990s, 2013).
The goals of the “Students Write Wikipedia” program are aligned with the 21st-century learner competencies defined by the Pedagogical Secretariat of the Ministry of Education of Israel. Additionally, the program provides students with a meaningful and experiential learning opportunity that addresses ministry standards.
The program transforms students from passive Wikipedia users into active contributors. It cultivates the following skills and competencies:
- Information and knowledge skills – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, is one of the most viewed websites in Israel and worldwide. Wikipedia serves as a primary source of information for students and is perceived by them as a reliable source. We aim to teach students to create and consume knowledge actively, consciously, and critically through Wikipedia. Students are exposed to the possibility of editing Wikipedia and using it wisely. The dialogue with students enables discussion about the importance of knowledge and knowledge accessibility, along with critical consumption of information.
- Digital literacy – Developing independent learners who are skilled at searching for information sources and collaborative writing, as well as the technical aspects of writing and editing on Wikipedia.
- Academic writing skills – Students are required to assess the quality and reliability of information sources, to integrate information from various sources, to write in proper language register, and to ensure proper citation of sources. Integrating digital tools (in this case, Wikipedia) helps students optimally acquire the necessary skills (Israel, 2011–2012).
- Teamwork and collaboration – Students learn about the proper use of collective intelligence, as well as about collaborative work, collaborative writing, and peer feedback skills as facilitators of quality learning. Students work on the article, receive feedback, and improve their writing as part of the work process. See, for example: Vygotsky (2004), Bozo-Schwartz and Harpaz (2013), and Shinfeld (2017).
- Contribution to society as added value – Students who publish articles on Wikipedia gain a significant boost in self-efficacy as well as satisfaction from publishing articles and contributing to society by expanding the quality knowledge accessible to the public. Publishing and publicizing student products strengthens student motivation and reduces the sense of invisibility that can occur in traditional frontal learning. It also enhances the visibility of students in the classroom, school, and beyond. These feelings help strengthen student engagement in learning, commitment to success, and sense of belonging (Azoulay, 2015).
- Possibility for interdisciplinary work – The project enables interdisciplinary learning and collaboration between teachers from various fields such as Hebrew, literature, history, Bible, Talmud, sciences, and more.
- Relevance – The project allows for the application of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and meaningful discussion about the future of knowledge. For example, discussion about human knowledge versus machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).
