Пројекат:Акредитовани семинари за наставнике/Accredited course Report 2015/16 - Summary

Accredited course report Summary of feedbacks from participants September 19th, 2016 Written by Nebojša Ratković, Education Program Manager

What was good?

Seminars were given a general assessment they were successful and with a lot of interaction. Participants' expectations were largely fulfilled, since they handled significant topics. According to the participants, quick search and up-to-date information are what makes Wikipedia attractive. It was also concluded that Wikipedia is encyclopedia which systematically collects and processes the content and that the role of editor creates a sense of contributing to a better quality of articles in native language. It was pointed out that the advantage of Wikipedia is the fact it is not limited to paper, so articles can be extensive till they are in accordance with the theme. Participants emphasized it is good that Wikipedia content can be linked. In this way the text can not only be read linearly, but it can create a kind of walk through the related key terms. It is concluded that the support of Wikimedia Serbia, which existed from the very beginning, was very important, because the participants were offered a range of options; students and pupils were offered to come to the Wikimedia Serbia office whenever they need help, Wikimedia trainers were prepared to come to schools to hold additional trainings and to interact through Facebook group that was intended for this purpose. Communication is also assessed as positive and the general conclusion of the participants is that communication exceeded all expectations.

What could be better?

It would be good to have more active Wikipedia editors involved in seminars, who would meet with the participants and tell what they do, what motivates them to write articles, how they select topics, how they prepare investigation before they start writing articles and how much time they invest in. Certain amount of dependency in the work after the seminar, or more precisely the lack of confidence is something that we should work on in the future. Participants should be encouraged to learn by doing and they should be more conscious that making a wiki article implies patience in following the instructions which are quite clear, but it also requires a number of consecutive attempts to come up with a result. Experience has shown that the support must be dosed, just to motivate participants to remain in stand-alone operations. Among obstacles which should be overcomed in the future is the fact that a small number of students had understood their editorial work as copying content from Google translate service. For those who are not accustomed to respect deadlines, timeliness was a request that has been the most difficult to fulfill.

The general conclusion

Participants were satisfied with the cooperation with Wikimedia Serbia, and they think Wikipedia in Serbian language can be used in teaching at different levels. The conclusion is that the dramatic lack of information in literature can be substituted by the following content and articles on Wikipedia. Wikipedia has been seen as a platform which encourages students to develop technical and communication skills, but also the shaping of a neutral point of view and opinion. It has been noticed that students and pupils shown greater responsibility and greater motivation of editing Wikipedia when they know their work will be public and available to everyone. Therefore, it can be concluded that the result of the seminar was multiple because it included three levels - knowledge, skills and education.