WikiChallenge Francophone

Presentation of the WikiChallenge Francophone

The WikiChallenge Francophone is a writing contest that creates a fun way for students (11-17) to learn how knowledge is built by contributing to Vikidia (the little sister of Wikipedia) as well as Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. It will operate during the school year in 2022-2023. Essentially, the WikiChallenge is a spin-off of the WikiChallenge Ecoles d'Afrique.

The contest challenges schools to compete by writing Vikidia articles about something of importance in their area. Due to their poor or missing internet connectivity, they can use the WikiFundi platform to share knowledge about their unique city, town, village or suburb, a local landmark or a notable individual. The competition is a fun introduction to writing Vikidia articles, a content that can be transferred and will add information about Africa to Wikipedia. It also provides young Africans with an opportunity to learn more about their communities, cultures, role models and environments.

Links

• Main page of the contest (in French): https://fr.vikidia.org/wiki/Projet:WikiChallenge_Francophone. This page will host all texts written by the students as well as images submitted.
• The contest will be relayed on the WikiAfrica Facebook page
• There is also a Facebook page dedicated to the contest: https://www.facebook.com/ConcourswikiChallengeEcolesdAfrique/
• Finally, the images related to the context will be hosted on Wikimedia Commons : c:Category:WikiChallenge Francophone

Tags
Education, Offline, WikiFundi, Vikidia, Writing contest, French speaking Africa, Benin, Haiti, Nigeria

The Challenge in 2022-2023

Presentation of the concept, through the WikiAfrica Schools video

It is meant to be a WikiAfrica pilot project, running in 3 countries, Benin, Haiti, and Nigeria.

More information about the contest in Benin

In Benin, it will be running in 4 schools, one north of Benin, one center, and two south of Benin.
User:Fawaz.tairou, from the Wikimédiens du Bénin User Group will be the co-project manager of the contest.

More information about the contest in Haiti

In Haiti, it will be running in 12 schools, four in each of these cities: Jacmel, Petit-Goave, Hinche. Programme will be lead by Handgod Abraham (Kitanago)

More information about the contest in Nigeria

Whilst Nigeria is primarily an English speaking country, the local manager will be a French speaking Nigerian, and the contest will be run either in French classes of regular schools, or in French-speaking schools. In Nigeria, it will be running in 5 schools. 2 lycées français in Abuja and Lagos, and 3 regular schools in Lagos. Potential partner: Alliance Française and Heritage Bank.

The 5 schools:

1. Lycée français Louis Pasteur - Lagos
2. Lycée français Marcel Pagnol - Abuja
3. The Methodist Primary School, Ewu-Tuntun - Lagos
4. Aregbe Primary School, Mafolukwu - Lagos
5. Babs Fafunwa Millennium, Ojodu - Lagos

Project will be lead by Ceslause Okechukwu Ogbonnaya

The contest

Online: a portal will be created on Vikidia, to host all information related to it. It will be the place where we will rules and guidelines to participate to the contest, list participating schools, showcase articles produced, give news of the project etc.

Offline: the wikimedians will work with xx schools during the school year. Some schools will be equipped with offline material from Kiwix and WikiFundi, on a raspberry PI. Teachers will be trained and students will write articles. Wikipedians will ensure those are integrated to Vikidia (and as much as possible, relevant content to Wikipedia as well) with media content added to Commons.
At the end of the school year, a jury will select the best articles, and rank schools ! They will receive certificate and prizes !
The contest will be promoted on social media.

Coordination will be managed by Florence Devouard from Wiki in Africa.

Calendar

• Project set-up and fundraising: August 2022-February 2023
• Contact with schools : Sept-Dec 2022
• Training the trainers : before April 2023
• Contest : April - June
• Jury : June
• Celebration : July-Dec 2023

How this project will make a difference ?

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The project is a training and writing program designed for schools. It is targeted at the education communitu in Benin towards using wikimedia tools to acquire and share knowledge to develop skills of the youth and of their teachers.

The program will help the kids to gain new skills, such as digital skills (using technology), collaborative writing, knowledge sharing, or information searching.
Additionally, they will experience critical thinking and peer review. This should also be the opportunity to get an initial understanding of intellectual property rights and open source. It is hoped that this project will participate in helping the students grow up as informed and active e-citizens.
The project team will provide training the trainers activities, hence bringing new skills to the teachers as well.
Finally, the project will result in the production and publication of Benin information on the Internet, under a free license, for use by the greater public. This will participate to the visibility of Benin, Haiti and Nigeria on the Internet, and will bring a feeling of pride to under-represented and poorly-served communities.

The program will address equally to male and female and a leadership training component will enlighten thems to invest in their future.

The project will use, but to mention a few:

• Vikidia: the children encyclopedia. Whilst not a wikimedia project, this is an active project in our ecosystem. The kids and students will contribute pictures, videos about the project and the town onto wikicommons
• Wikimedia Commons : The kids and students will contribute pictures (and possibly videos) onto wikicommons
• WikiFundi: the schools will set up an offline operational plateform including the use of rasberry Pis, Wikifundi and Kiwix resources.

Benefits for the kids
The contest encouraged students to work together to create an article about their area. This could be an article about their village, suburb, notable person or a local historic or geographic feature. The contest was designed to provide students with hands-on experience in collating information and working collaboratively to contribute knowledge to one of the world’s most powerful information platforms. The contest was meant to specifically:

• Train students in how to write an encyclopédique article on a wiki;
• Give students key online skills that includes, but is not limited to, navigating an editing environment that mimics Wikipedia’s online version, and researching and citing correct sources;
• Provide media skills with regards to constructing articles, using categories, and taking photographs or creating other media to fully illustrate the article they submit to the contest.
• Contribute articles about Africa by Africans to Vikidia and Wikipedia, thus broadening the coverage of Africa.

People and structures involved

The team Florence Devouard, co-project manager User:Fawaz.tairou, co-project manager User:Mah3110 User:Ji-Elle Kitanago, co-project manager Ceslause Okechukwu Ogbonnaya, co-project manager Organizations Wiki in Africa and WikiAfrica Wikimédiens du Bénin User Group Wikimedia CH Community Wikimedia User Group Haïti etc.