Wikipedia:WikiProject United States Public Policy/Update/15 March 2011

Wikipedia featured at teaching and learning conference
Georgia Southern University hosted the annual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Commons conference in Statesboro, Georgia, last week. The Wikimedia Foundation ran a booth in the exhibit hall, talking to about 100 professors from around the world who are attempting innovative teaching. Public Policy Initiative Research Analyst Amy Roth and Communications Associate LiAnna Davis also gave a presentation on the learning points from the fall term of our experiments with Wikipedia in the classroom. Learn more about the SoTL conference.

Students land on main page in Did You Know
The first three students from the spring batch of classes have had their articles appear on Wikipedia's main page in the Did You Know section. When students create a new article or expand an existing article more than 5X, they're eligible to have their new article featured on Wikipedia's main page. See the list of articles that have appeared on the main page and those that are in the process of development at the Trophy Case.

Wikipedia Ambassador Program starts in Europe
Wikimedia Foundation Head of Public Outreach Frank Schulenburg, Education Programs Manager Rod Dunican, and Campus Team Coordinator Annie Lin traveled to Germany last week to meet with European Wikipedians and share information about starting Wikipedia Ambassador programs in other countries. Several chapters have expressed interest in following the example set by the Public Policy Initiative by training Campus and Online Ambassadors. See the full interest list of Campus Ambassadors around the world.

Check out the progress of spring's 31 classes
The 31 classes participating in the Public Policy Initiative are all in different stages -- some students haven't been introduced to the Wikipedia portion of the assignment yet, while others have already made substantive edits to Wikipedia. Learn where each class is with our mid-term spring wrap-up. See the mid-March progress summary for each class.