Wikipedia talk:Wikimedia School Team

Wikipedia for Schools
This may be of interest, it is a DVD-rom and website aimed at British schools. DuncanHill (talk) 22:35, 28 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the link. However, our CDs will be more specific and at this stage, available to US schools. Geoff Plourde (talk) 20:56, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Quality Control
How are we going to make sure that the articles chosen for these CDs are high enough quality to reflect well on Wikipedia? The vast majority of school articles seem to be unsourced stubs and likewise with many local history articles. The articles chosen must demonstrate core principles like Verifiability, otherwise the project could be overrun with new editors adding unsourced information of local interest... well, more than it is already. --Gimme danger (talk) 22:51, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * The end resulting articles (once they are completed) are run through a professional who reviews the articles before shipment of the CD. Is that the answer you are looking for? Mitch 32(UP) 22:54, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Not really. What I meant to ask is: given the large number of low quality articles, how are we ever going to get a volume of articles large enough to make production worthwhile to the level of quality that reflects well on wikipedia. I would hesitate to send anything less than GA class out, personally. --Gimme danger (talk) 23:05, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Well, the idea is (once we have Foundation support), to have a volunteer group help expand these articles. It would be anyone who is interested in expanding articles and sending them to the hotplate for reviews. Also, the most we'd probably allow would be GA and such as higher quality. Unless there is not enough verifiable information, then we can make an exception. This would be a long process, but in the long run would be worth it. Mitch 32(UP) 23:17, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I definitely agree that it's worth it. I was just wondering what kind of scale y'all were thinking and what kind of time-frame we're looking at. Probably, given the rate of FA and GA promotions, 3-5 years. But that's just my estimate.--Gimme danger (talk) 23:35, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, but hey, we get more contributors, the faster it goes for production. Let's see what attention this is given. Mitch 32(UP) 23:33, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

WikiProject Chicago
I don't know much about the New York City area projects, but I do know that WikiProject Chicago is fairly prolific and has a reasonably large base of good articles to start from. Perhaps Chicago could be a test of the concept? --Gimme danger (talk) 23:08, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia has a NYC project, and Wikimedia NYC chapter to boost. However, Chicago is one of our planned ones. Mitch 32(UP) 23:19, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * The reason I bring up Chicago in particular is because there are already ~150 articles in the WikiProject Chicago scope that are GA class or above, whereas the NYC wikiproject has ~25. Several very active contributors are getting articles promoted left and right (I'm thinking in particular about . It would be much easier to figure out which articles are top priority for a school edition and nudge an already active Wikiproject toward working on those than to start from (near) scratch. --Gimme danger (talk) 23:28, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Ah ok - maybe two projects working at once wouldn't hurt - I'm sure things can be worked out - this is still in the beginning phases. Mitch 32(UP) 23:30, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Ja, definitely. I'm just throwing ideas out because I think this is a pretty exciting idea. --Gimme danger (talk) 23:33, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Format?
Should definitely think about what format the files that go onto the CD-ROM are going to be. Will these be PDFs, like the WikiReader concept? HTML files? Some sort of XML, parsed by a custom application (which would have disadvantage of having to be cross-platform, available to Win, Mac, and Linux at the least), or what? —Scott5114↗ [EXACT CHANGE ONLY] 08:25, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Right now we are thinking in terms of what to include. Format will be interesting and will require careful study and thought. Geoff Plourde (talk) 21:03, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Rename to "US Schools team"?
As is noted above there are a number of projects looking at preparing subsets of wikipedia for use in schools. If this team is looking at versions targetted at specific US local school boards then it might be appropriate to rename this project to reflect that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Filceolaire (talk • contribs) 13:01, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
 * This is an idea, although we are leaving ourselves open to expansion. Geoff Plourde (talk) 21:04, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Investigation into school needs
Since we want to make a positive impression on schools, we should also try to think about the project from their point of view - what will they think of it? what are their needs? how can we appeal to their values? etc. I would therefore suggest some investigation into the school systems where this is going to be released - what kind of information do the schools need? can we provide something they do not have, for example? If schools already have tons of material on the history of the area in which they are located, we should focus on something different, for example. Also, what age group should we focus on? I know that in some states, it is mandatory that students study their state in a certain grade - should we aim for that grade level? Can we somehow explain how contributing to Wikipedia is a good learning experience? Can we send lesson plans along with the information? There are lots of possibilities that can be explored here. Awadewit (talk) 14:21, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
 * You and I think along the same brainwaves. That will occur and has been referenced in the criteria, first we need to line up some ducks in a row. Geoff Plourde (talk) 21:05, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Where are the ducks? By this I mean, how can I help get this project underway now? --Gimme danger (talk) 21:10, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
 * See below. And you could help by finding more people to join. That would be a big help to start. Mitch 32(UP) 21:16, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

The good news
Cary Bass replied to my e-mail, he is fowarding it to Frank Schulenburg, the head of Public Outreach, and hopefully, if we can negotiate with him, this should work beautifully. Mitch 32(UP) 21:16, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Great! Van Tucky 02:12, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Hurrah! Geoff Plourde (talk) 03:36, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

(copied from the main page): Cary Bass told me (Mitchazenia) on IRC that as long as we follow the foundation's mission to go ahead with the project and we have, or will have, their support. So I can declaritively say, let's get started getting professionals and writers together. Mitch 32(UP) 10:53, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

First work: Sussex County NJ
I believe that the best place to start is to test our skills out on smaller, more rural schools. The area of Sandyston Township, New Jersey, Walpack, New Jersey and Layton, New Jersey has a couple of schools in the area of County Routes 560 and 645, which is mainly in the middle of nowhere in Sussex County. They would be the perfect choice the first CD-ROM, and would just be the right choice.

What I'd like to do is each person take a different job of what to do. The jobs are:


 * 1) E-mail the school (Do first)
 * 2) Start finishing the articles to GA or better (Next)
 * 3) Someone send the articles to a qualified reviewer.
 * 4) Someone write the lesson plans, particulary a teacher.
 * 5) Send the plans to the Wikimedia Foundation, and have it shipped to the Sandyston-Walpack District in Layton.

If all these can be done, we can prove that this'll work. Seeing there are very few articles in this area, it shouldn't take as long as something like NYC or Chicago. Please reply. Mitch 32(UP) 16:46, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * No problem. Mitch, are you emailing the school? I will start compiling potentially relevant topics. Geoff Plourde (talk) 07:15, 9 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I think it would be better if someone over age 18 would do it, personally. It may go to better use that way. Mitch 32(UP) 09:53, 9 July 2008 (UTC)
 * OK, I used What Links Here to pull up some preliminary stuff. Geoff Plourde (talk) 06:14, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Back to school?
Hi, I'm just wondering if any progress has been made since July in contacting schools? If we are hitting a brick wall of apathy from school districts, could we perhaps meet on IRC (we can use ) to brainstorm a solution? It would be a shame just to let this idea fade away because a few officials said no!

Meanwhile, people here should be aware that Version 0.7 has a tentative selection here. You're very welcome to use the data from that in order to rank articles for the school releases. Also, we at 1.0 work with other groups putting together kids materials. a new selection for schools is taking shape here, and once completed, those articles will have been hand checked that they are suitable for kids. The One Laptop Per Child project is also using the 0.7 selection as a foundation for their collection, see this page (only occasionally updated, as they are frantically busy getting the collection onto laptops going out the door).

Please let me know where you want to take the project next. Cheers, Walkerma (talk) 07:37, 12 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Problem is no one has had the time to contact the school district. Geoff Plourde (talk) 14:45, 12 September 2008 (UTC)