Writing Wikipedia Articles in Technion Courses Integrating Social Impact:
A combination of making professional knowledge accessible to the community and a tool for learning and promoting teaching
The Wikimedia Israel non-profit association, in collaboration with the Technion’s Social Hub and the Center for Advancement of Learning and Teaching, invites lecturers from all fields of research to join the project of writing Wikipedia articles as an academic assignment.
The project has several combined goals:
- Contributing quality knowledge from various fields to Wikipedia – the most widely used source of information in the world and in Israel.
- Students’ experience in writing an article relevant to the course, a new entry that needs to be written or expanded. Students gain experience in general academic skills (such as finding information sources, critical reading, knowledge analysis, and more), contributing to the development of independent learning abilities. The assignment requires students to develop their writing and expression skills, since clear, concise, accurate, and accessible writing for the general public is required.
- Writing the article (usually in pairs) is equivalent to one assignment in the course. It promotes active learning and dialogue between students and the course staff.
Year after year, we witness that lecturers and students participating in writing initiatives feel a great sense of satisfaction as a result of contributing high-quality and free academic content for the benefit of the general public. They undergo a meaningful and exceptional learning and teaching experience that facilitates deep knowledge acquisition and reinforcement, thanks to the writing process.
The project is open to lecturers from all fields of science, engineering, and technology – particularly the fields of biology, chemistry, and all areas of engineering and technology, where there are significant gaps in the Hebrew Wikipedia.
A few examples of the activity at the Technion: ‘Sociology for Planners’ at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, guided by Dr. Mirav Aharon and Arch. Dafna Levin. ‘Analytical Methods in Biotechnology and Food’, at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, guided by Prof. Ayelet Fishman, Dr. Omer Yahezkeli, and Omer Sabach. ‘Molecular Design of Biological Materials’, at the Faculty of Chemistry, guided by Profs. Nadav Amdursky and Yuval Agam. As part of these courses, about 70 Hebrew Wikipedia articles were written and edited. The articles gained great popularity shortly after being posted on Wikipedia.
On Wednesday, 3/27/24 from 12:30-1:30 PM we will hold an online exposure meeting for the project.
The meeting will host:
- Opening remarks: A representative from the Center for Advancement of Learning and Teaching, and Dr. Yael Danin-Poleg, the project coordinator at the Social Hub.
- Lior Dolev Yari, Coordinator of the Academia and Education Department in the Hebrew language at Wikimedia Israel, who will present the writing workshops and support provided for the course.
- Prof. Nadav Amdursky, who will share his experience.
For further enrichment, you are also invited to visit the Wikimedia in Academia website.
For information and a recording of the previous meeting, click here.
To register for the meeting, please fill out the form below. A Zoom link will be sent to registrants.
