The internet is a powerful tool for the younger generation, offering a world of knowledge, communication, and entertainment at their fingertips. But with that power also comes numerous risks and challenges. That’s why the Internet Society (ISOC) Ghana Chapter and Open Foundation West Africa (OFWA) took the initiative to commemorate Internet Safe Day by hosting a workshop at Labone Senior High School, to educate students on how to access accurate information online and stay safe while doing so.
During the workshop, over 500 students learned about the dangers of sharing personal information online, cyberbullying, and privacy concerns. But that’s not all! We also showed them how Wikipedia can be a helpful tool for accessing accurate information online. The students were amazed to learn that they could actually contribute to Wikipedia! Who knew?!
Before the workshop, we checked out the students’ Wikipedia knowledge and found out that most of them use Wikipedia, but didn’t know that just about anyone could contribute to it. Additionally, just one student identify himself as ever editing Wikipedia before and almost none of the students knew that Wikipedia has a global community of contributors across the globe. We even heard some hilarious myths about Wikipedia, like “Wikipedia information is not credible or relevant” and “Wikipedia takes its information from Google.” and I quote;
“A teacher told me that Wikipedia information is not credible or relevant” -Student 1
“Wikipedia takes it’s information from Google, It doesn’t have the information so it does the research on Google and gives it to us”- Student 2
But after the workshop, the students were enlightened and eager to join the Global Wikimedia community and learn how to write on Wikipedia. We heard comments like, “I never knew I could contribute to Wikipedia” and “How do I join the training programs to learn how to edit and contribute to Wikipedia?” “I thought Wikipedia was contributed by foreigners”.
In short, the workshop was a huge success, inspiring the students to become responsible digital citizens and to join the Wikimedia community to learn how to edit and contribute to Wikipedia. The school plans to continue the collaboration and provide more training for the students to equip them with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in the digital world.
Our sincere gratitude to the Internet Society Ghana Chapter President Francis Amaning Aquah and Maxwell Beganim a Wikipedian and member of ISOC Ghana Chapter for this fruitful collaboration.
Let’s empower our youth to become responsible digital citizens!
#OFWA #ISOC #InternetSafeDay #LaboneSeniorHighSchool #OnlineSafety #EmpoweringYouth.
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