By Izunna Okafor, Onitsha

A group, the Wikimedia Foundation, has organized a training for secondary school teachers in Anambra State, on how to use Wikipedia as a resource for various knowledge-based exercises and educational-related endeavours.

Tagged “Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom”, the month-long program, which its opening ceremony held at the Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha, attracted teachers from different secondary schools across the state.

Addressing the participants, the Certified Lead Trainer, Mrs. Oby Ezeilo said the event was aimed at helping secondary school teachers to develop vital media and information literacy skills for the 21st century, which, she said, would enhance their capacity to teach and impact knowledge on the students, among other benefits.

She explained that Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom programme was an initiative and flagship education programme of the Wikimedia Foundation, adding that it will also assist teachers and students to improve their ICT skills, content writing skills, and reading culture.

“It will provide them with an alternative format for learning new things outside the regular school curriculum, while improving Wikipedia. The program also addresses teachers research skills, such as the ability to make sense of information, the ability to verify, evaluate, and sift reliable information from information chaos, and the ability to use the information to create new knowledge.

“By tying Wikipedia to the components of UNESCO's Media and Information Literacy (MIL) framework, it assists instructors to understand and use Wikipedia as a learning tool. In addition, this training will help to bridge the digital gap by encouraging collaboration among teachers and students and foster better relationships,” she said.

While noting that they target to train over one thousand teachers, Mrs. Ezeilo also gave a brief background of Wikipedia and its uses, while urging everyone to take good advantage of the initiative.

She said: “Wikipedia is a free online multilingual encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers through open collaboration and a wiki-based editing system. It is the largest and most-read reference work in history. It is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, an American non-profit organization, funded mainly through donations.

“Since its creation on January 15, 2001, Wikipedia has grown into the world's largest reference website attracting over a billion visitors every month. Generally, Wikipedia helps different communities to tell their story, document its struggles, achievements, history, heroes etc. It has given humanity access to a great pull of reliable information and created a platform for every single person to have access to free knowledge.

“To support education and learning, Wikipedia initiated the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom Program. This is a professional training program designed for teachers. It helps them to integrate Wikipedia as a learning tool into their classrooms.”

Speaking on some of the gaps they filled through the training, a Co-trainer in the program, Achukwu Onyinye Jane, said the participants who did not initially know how to use Wikipedia, were taught what Wikipedia entails, and how the principles of Wikipedia can help curb misinformation and fake news.

On further significance of the training, she added that “The use of Wikipedia will encourage students to critically analyze the information they find and consider multiple perspectives on a topic. It enables teachers and students to look for neutral and well-supported information.”

On her own part, another facilitator of the program and Certified Wikipedia Trainer, Dr. Ngozi Osuchukwu, who harped on the need for government to partner the initiative to improve effective teaching and learning, also called for collaboration among teachers through sharing of ideas and resources; even as she also called for a more supportive and conducive learning environment for both teachers and students.