Education Toolkits for Liberal Studies

From Wikimedia Hong Kong, the Local Wikimedia Chapter in Hong Kong

Education Toolkits for Liberal Studies is a project which set up a set of toolkits for secondary schools students, to promote correct usage of Wikipedia as a knowledge gateway, and to encourage them to share their knowledge to Wikimedia projects eventually.

In the new syllabus of Hong Kong High School, Liberal Studies has been added as the compulsory subject. The Liberal Studies is a subject that requires students to find the information themselves and without the help from teachers as much as possible, a.k.a. Independent Enquiry Study (IES).

As Wikipedia is the 4th popular website and a major site for user to share and get knowledge for free, it is really necessary for us to teach Hong Kong students how to use Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Projects wisely, to get the information beyond the Wikipedia articles, by clicking to the links in the footnote, and using the current tools of the Wikipedia itself to analyze information.

In other words, such toolkit is to promote the message, don’t just believe in Wikipedia, please use it to search and analyze.

Our target users are secondary school students and teachers. And it is impossible to launch this project without the annual fund from the Wikimedia Foundation.

目錄 1 Outreach Material and Pilot Toolkit 2 About Liberal Studies 3 Further Objectives 4 Sponsorship Opportunities 5 What is Wikimedia Bookshelf?

Outreach Material and Pilot Toolkit

the Outreach Material with the Pilot Toolkit (PDF)

About Liberal Studies

Liberal Studies, as one of the key components of the current education reform, aims to achieve objectives include developing students’ critical and exploratory thinking in order to prepare them for life-long learning. The curriculum highlights “multiple perspective thinking” and requires students to develop critical thinking and make judgments. For example, the core curriculum aim explicitly notes that the curriculum needs to “enable students to develop multiple perspectives on perennial and contemporary issues in different contexts”. The assessment indicators clearly note that the students need to “discern views, attitudes and values stated or implied in any given factual information”. The marking rubrics note that a top grade candidate needs to “evaluate various viewpoints and synthesize their own opinions and suggestions on the basis of logical arguments and sufficient examples”.

In general, LS requires students to develop multiple perspective thinking and make quality judgments, sounding very much like a cultural studies or social studies curriculum. Moreover, the curriculum requires students to conduct an “Independent Enquiry Study” (IES).Students are encouraged to choose inquiry topic that they are interested and they are allowed to use different media forms to present their findings. LS covers six modules, namely

1. Personal Development & Interpersonal Relationships
2. Hong Kong Today
3. Modern China
4. Globalization
5. Public Health
6. Energy Technology and the Environment

Further Objectives

We also expect when a handful of students understands such message, and the way Wikipedia works will eventually, knowing that editing Wikipedia will be helpful to their Liberal Studies, and start doing so.

In order to make this happen, the Chapter is also planning a Liberal Studies Article Prize, offer prizes to those students who write new feature/good articles related to Liberal Studies topic in Wikipedia. Previous the British Museum had offer similar prizes to those who wrote new feature articles about their collections.

 

Sponsorship Opportunities

This project received a minimal one-off kick-off grant from Wikimedia Foundation which enables us to create the first English version of the toolkit. Only a limited number of the toolkit will be printed. Your donation will enable more students in Hong Kong to properly understand the resources that they are already using every day.

With more donations, we can design a tool-kit with more variations, more elements to raise reader’s interest, and even a tool-kit in various format. Also with sufficient funding, we can even have better support to schools, like providing more materials to support teachers to using such toolkit with students.

As we mentioned above, a Liberal Studies Article Prize will be held. We are looking for sponsors to provide prizes for the winner of the event.

It is possible that names and logos of sponsor to show on the toolkit, as well as in relevant events. If you are interested in supporting or/and sponsoring the project, please contact with

Rover Wong
Outreach Commissioner
Wikimedia Hong Kong
+852 6193 2642
rover@wikimedia.hk

What is Wikimedia Bookshelf?

The Wikipedia Bookshelf Project is creating a core set of public outreach materials designed to allow easy assimilation of new Wikipedians into the community. The materials aim to increase new contributor awareness and interest, foster excitement towards Wikipedia, and provide key training tools.

The materials are being developed in English. However they are to be designed for easy translation, localization, and customization by volunteers, chapters, and educational institutions such as schools and universities. Bookshelf materials are being developed by Wikimedia project team, community volunteers, and production experts.