Inaugural ‘Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom’ workshop for Dagbani Language Teachers in Tamale, organized by the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group

As part of its annual programs, the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group held a training workshop to train Dagbani teachers on how to use Wikipedia as a teaching tool to facilitate teaching and learning as part of the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom’ program. Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom is the Wikimedia Foundation’s flagship teacher training program that seeks to help educators develop vital media and information literacy skills for the 21st century. This program helps secondary school teachers learn how to integrate Wikipedia into their classrooms to foster media and information literacy (MIL) skills. The curriculum of this program is aligned with UNESCO’s Media and Information Literacy Framework, and it connects different approaches and methodologies used in the classroom to leverage the power of Wikipedia. The Dagbani Wikimedians User Group is therefore using program to train Dagbani language teachers in and around Tamale on how to effectively utilize Wikipedia as a teaching and learning resource in their classrooms.

Fortunately for the User Group, three of its team members were privileged to have previously undergone a RWCR training of trainers’ program organized by the Wikimedia education team and have thus become certified trainers. The two of RWCR-certified trainers in turn organized a training workshop for the rest of the team members to ensure their effective participation in the upcoming training for teachers. The training sessions led by Abdul-Rasheed Yussif focused on three modules: how information is produced, accessed, retrieved, and evaluated on Wikipedia. 

as the projimplemented in collaboration with the Dagbani Teachers Association (DTA). The DTA assisted in mobilizing 30 teachers of the Dagbani language for training. The certified trainers from DWUG, with the help of other team members of the DWUG, commenced the main training session on March 30th, 2024, for selected Dagbani language teachers to equip them with 21st-century ICT and media and information literacy skills. In all, three sessions over three weeks (every Saturday) were held at the DWUG office to take participants through the three modules of the RWCR training manual. Below are the details of the training sessions for the various weeks and modules:

Week One

Participants were introduced to the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom program. Here, they were taken through the need for the program and its significance for teachers and learners. They were then introduced to the first module of the RWCR program, which focuses on ‘Accessing Information. Participants were introduced to Wikipedia, as most of them were new in the Wikimedia space. They were taken through what Wikipedia is, the common misconceptions people have about Wikipedia, why they should use Wikipedia, who does and doesn’t write Wikipedia, and how to navigate Wikipedia, among others. The team assisted participants new to Wikimedia to create their Wikimedia accounts. Participants could not hide their excitement at getting the opportunity to create their own Wikimedia accounts.

Week Two

This week’s focus was on Module 2 of the Teachers Guide, where participants were taken through the 5 pillars of Wikipedia and notability criteria guidelines, an overview of a Wikipedia article structure, references and verifiability, ways to evaluate a Wikipedia article, and facilitating access to quality academic sources on Wikipedia and more. Participants were especially shown how to search for articles on Dagbani Wikipedia relevant to their Dagbani lessons, so that the same can be used for teaching in their classrooms. A Dagbani teacher at Hanara Junior High School remarked, “This has been educative, and I will do the same with my students by teaching them what Wikipedia is and how they can use it. Together, we will be able to edit on Wikipedia and also help our language be recognized online“.

Week Three

In the final week of the training, participants were taken through Module 3 of the RWCR manual, which focused on ‘Information Creation’. This was more of a practical session for participants after two weeks of theoretical training. They were taken through the steps to create a user page for themselves and various ways of editing on Wikipedia. Participants felt excited for being able to make their first ever contribution to Wikipedia. They were also introduced to the various campaigns and programs organized by the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group. All participants after successfully completing week 3 of the workshop were awarded certificates of participation and were integrated into the Dagbani Wikimedia community. A participant shared; “Through the training, I have been able to create a Wikipedia account and learned how to search for information on Wikipedia. Also, I have shared the site (dag.wikipedia.org) with the parents of my students who find it difficult to help their wards with their Dagbanli homework. Another participant, a Dagbani teacher at Excel for Children’s Education, also shared, “The training has improved my digital skills, which will help me have a collaborative classroom. With regards to information, I will be able to access and analyze it on Wikipedia, this will help me deliver the lessons successfully.“.

We are extremely excited about our partnership with the Dagbani Teachers Association (DTA) and the generous support from the Wikimedia Foundation, and we hope to expand this program to cover the other 4 language communities that are currently being supported under the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group.

See more photos at Category:Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom, Northern Ghana