Call for active student volunteers

Hi Eekim,

I was wondering if you ever host (or know of) any "live" discussions (IRC, etc)? There is quite a bit of information here, so as I look into how I can best help, it would be nice to see what is actually currently going on.

I am particularly interested in calling on schools (high schools and colleges) to have student volunteers modify and add content to wikiversity as they take courses. It seems to me that these are the perfect people - if someone adds content "just for fun", it is a massive time expense. If a student adds content WHILE taking a brick and mortal course, adding the content to wikiversity is actually extremely beneficial to them, as "teaching is the best way to learn". Rather than stare at a book the week before an exam, they could verify and write content on the wiki pages!

Of course, this is "allowed" already, but I think we should actively seek out this type of participation. It seems that in only a few semesters of this, we should be able to completely capture everything that is taught in common high school and college classes.

What do you think? What can I do to get this rolling (or continue, if something like it already exists)?

Hi Daviddoria,

Thanks for your question, and welcome! We used to host live IRC office hours, but our last one was today unfortunately. There's a chance that people may self-organize more in the future.

I'd start by looking at List of proposals#Schools, and if you don't see anything that jives with what you're thinking, to make your own proposal. I think it's a great idea, and I'd love to see people organize around it.

As engineers without borders is an organization with strong roots in education and development, I think their student groups could play a key role in educating and assissting less technicaly inclined student in their editing. As a project like this is takes form, I think it would be a good idea to have this in mind, and to contact them to see if they are willing to help.

I have tried to encourage teachers to use Wikipedia to drive student "ownership" of local issues. For example, I created a Wikipedia stub for Northkill Creek, contacted relevant, local teachers and suggested that they might develop student projects to study the creek and update the article. I think that would drive students to realize they are not just data consumers and hopefully develop interest in the local asset. Unfortunately, I never received any response nor have I noted any local input to the article.--Rpclod 16:36, 8 July 2010 (UTC)