Wikipedia & Education User Group/2024 Annual Report

The Wikipedia & Education User Group' spent much of 2024 in a planning stage. We engaged in discussions around the potential of migrating our group to a thematic hub, secured funding for and began planning the EduWiki Conference 2025, launched a new version of our Mentorship Program, and hosted a series of EduWiki Knowledge Showcase meetings of our membership and others interested in Wikimedia projects and education.

Governance

Our board went through a small transition in 2024. In April, vice-chair Susanna Mkrtchyan stepped down from the board. In October, we hosted board elections at our General Assembly, which we host every two years. Our membership elected the following board:

• LiAnna Davis, chair
• Bukola James, vice-chair
• Filip Maljkovic, membership admin
• João Alexandre Peschanski, treasurer
• Shreya, secretary

Ziko van Dijk graciously agreed to continue serving as a special advisor to our board.

Our board met monthly throughout 2024 to pursue our activities.

Membership

Our user group has experienced an increase in its membership. It now has 444 members and has had the support of 29 affiliates.

Activities

The Future of Wikimedia & Education Planning

As the Wikimedia movement more broadly discussed the concept of a "hub", we spent a fair amount of time discussing what it would look like to migrate our user group into a thematic hub. We finalized a research project that had begun in 2023, with a Theory of Change document that we published in February 2024. This document based based on focus groups and research from our broader community.

Chair LiAnna Davis attended the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin in April 2024 on behalf of our user group, and encouraged edits to the Movement Charter to better ensure thematic hubs were represented as well, not just regional hubs.

At the conclusion of 2024, the discussions around a hub were still ongoing.

EduWiki Conference 2025

A major part of our work involved planning for the forthcoming EduWiki Conference in 2025. We identified Wikimedia Colombia as a host for the event, which is scheduled for May 30 - June 1, 2025, in Bogotá. We successfully secured funding for the event through the Wikimedia Foundation's Conference and Events Funds and began the application process. We received more than 200 applications to attend the conference. Our Scholarship Committee graciously reviewed each applicant according to our matrix, and we were able to offer scholarships to 56 people by the end of 2024. We also have an extensive waiting list of highly qualified applications to whom budget concerns has kept us from awarding scholarships. We will spend much of 2025 engaged in planning for this event.

Mentorship Program

We re-engaged with our Mentorship Program in 2024, after a reset of our own work around it. We were pleased to have 39 people apply to be mentors and 35 people apply to be mentees. By the end of 2024, we were able to successfully match everyone and mentorship conversations began.

EduWiki Knowledge Showcase

EduWiki Knowledge Showcases are designed as a community support space to provide an inclusive and equitable community gathering platform for members of the Wikimedia and Education User Group and EduWiki practitioners across the globe. This plan revolves around Global Open Meetings hosted by affiliates within the movement with support from the Wikipedia + Education User Group members. The goal is to foster a sense of belonging and connectivity and inspire diversity within education programs. These meetings focus on sharing accomplishments, expert talks, interactive discussions, Q&A, and networking. They provide a space for thematic programs that are successful in different regions to share the stories with our global community members. Our aim with the EduWiki Knowledge Showcase is to support the Wikimedia community to make an impact in the education sector and innovate new ideas.

We hosted four EduWiki Knowledge Showcase meetings in 2024:

• Bukola James and Rocío Aravena presented their work on the Theory of Change document referenced above during a February 2024 meeting. Watch the recording here.
• We celebrated Open Education Week in March, spotlighting numerous contributors to Wikimedia and education. Watch the recording here.
• We welcomed Ricky Gaines from the Wikimedia Foundation and our own Ziko van Dijk to explore the Wikimedia Foundation Child Rights Impact Assessment, how it affects education programs, and reflect on the challenges and opportunities ahead. Watch the recording here.
• In November, we welcomed Florecnia Gustavino from Wikimedia Argentina, who presented some research on generative AI and Wikimedia. Watch the recording here.

We look forward to continuing these in 2025.