Resource:Wikipedia: A Teachers' Primer

==== Wikipedia: A Teachers' Primer ====
:''by [[w:User:witty lama|Liam Wyatt]], Wikimedia Australia member and Wikipedia editor.''
::''Text below has been quoted from <span class="plainlinks">[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaau-l/2008-November/001977.html wikimedia-au mailing list] post on 2008-11-29</span>.''

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*'''[[meta:Image:A teachers primer to wikipedia.pdf|View the presentation slides (meta)]]'''

I gave a presentation to the annual NSW English Teachers' Association conference loosely based on the fact that Wikipedia is  
now an optional HSC text. You can search for the full details from the association's website here: http://www.englishteacher.com.au/

There were about 20 teachers attending the workshop which lasted for an hour. Rather than trying to give a detailed discussion of how Wikipedia can be studied in the context of the HSC I did three things: a "why you need to know", an "anatomy of a page" and some examples of how Wikipedia can be used to start conversations in class (such as how to be critical of texts).

As an outcome of this presentation I have learned that there are a couple of schools intending on taking the Wikipedia module at the HSC for their students in the next year. Most notably a catholic school in Maitland (near Newcastle). I promised those teachers that were interested in introducing Wikipedia into their school - either as a module for study or just as a way to discuss things with their students (such as how to be critical of texts, how to write collaboratively etc.) that Wikimedia Australia would try to help however we could. I gave them our website and I have every intention of going to visit these schools if invited to talk to staff and/or students. Hopefully several of us would be able to go on these kinds of visits.