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Reading
Wikipedia
in the Classroom
Localization guidelines

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Localization guidelines
Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom
What is this document about?
In this document you will find guidelines to help you adapt the educational resources of the
Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom program to your own context.
Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom is the Wikimedia Foundation’s flagship teacher training
program, helping educators to 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 MIL framework and it connects different approaches and
methodologies used in the classroom to leverage the power of Wikipedia. This training program
can be delivered online with a combination of synchronous training sessions and asynchronous
activities throughout 9 weeks, demanding a commitment of 3 - 5 hours per week from
participants. To offer a certificate of completion, teachers participating in the program must:
attend all scheduled training sessions (or watch the recordings), share their answers to the
activities included in the curriculum in a dedicated online platform (in the pilot, we used
Facebook Groups), and present a final assignment demonstrating how they would incorporate
Wikipedia into a classroom activity that trains students on MIL skills.
You can find all the published resources of this program under Category:Reading Wikipedia in
the classroom, such as:
- Teacher’s Guide - Module 1: Accessing information
- Teacher’s Guide - Module 2: Evaluating information
- Teacher’s Guide - Module 3: Creating information
We encourage you to use these guidelines as a starting point to contextualize these resources
and training program. You can add your own resources and complement the methodology and
delivery according to the opportunities and limitations present in your locality. If you publish
adapted versions of these resources, please include them under the same category.

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If you have any questions about these resources or the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom
program, please reach out to the Education team at the Wikimedia Foundation via email:
education@wikimedia.org
Localizing the Teacher’s Guides
Methodology:
- The teacher’s guides consist of 3 modules aligned with the components of UNESCO’s
Media and Information Literacy framework: access, evaluate, and create (information).
- Each module consists of a number of sections that present the knowledge about
Wikipedia using text, videos, images, and hyperlinks to continue exploring.
- Each section ends with a practical activity or reflection questions that allow teachers to
connect previous knowledge with the new skills and information they are acquiring in the
training, this allows the learning experience to be more meaningful.
- After teachers work individually on these activities, they are invited to share their
thoughts, reflections and questions with the cohort to make for a highly social experience
and to foster a learning community that grows together. This sharing also helps the
coordinators/instructors to keep track of the teachers’ progress through the program,
identify common patterns, and respond promptly to questions or issues that might be
arising.
- You can host this exchange through a Facebook group, a course on Moodle, a channel
on Discord, or any other online/offline spaces that you see fit. The needs assessments
tools will allow you to know the platforms your participants are already using and you can
make your decision based on that and other connectivity factors.
- Make sure the order and language you use in these forums is the same as the ones in
the Teacher’s Guides. This will allow for a smooth navigation of these spaces and
guarantee a consistent learning experience.
- Set clear boundaries to moderate the discussion space you will use. For example,
review posts before they are published to make sure everything stays on topic (no
automatic posting from participants).
- Interact with participants in the forums often, even if it is only with a “like” reaction to their
answers that will acknowledge their work. Bring information from

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Context:
- In the Teacher’s Guides you will find references to Wikipedia policies, examples, and
discussion spaces that might not exist in your language Wikipedia. It’s important that you
adapt these Teacher’s Guides with accurate and meaningful information about the
language edition of Wikipedia most used in your locality, include examples that represent
your cultural and social context, and modify any images accordingly.
- Make sure that the screenshots of Talk pages or View History pages do not contain IP
addresses, only user names.
- Try to keep the examples of Wikipedia articles and screenshots on topics that are
relevant to teachers: youth, education, general knowledge, regional culture, etc.
- Review the links included in the Teacher’s Guides to make sure they link to articles in
your own language, both from Wikipedia and any other external sources.
- As of March 2021, these teacher’s guides are available in English, Spanish, Arabic, and
Tagalog.
- Below, you can find a checklist with further suggestions for the localization of the English
Teacher’s Guides into another language:
Section Recommended adjustments
1.3 What is Wikipedia? ❏ Include data relevant to the language Wikipedia you
will be focusing on.
❏ Change the link to UNESCO: Open Educational
Resources’ page to your corresponding language
1.5 Why use Wikipedia? ❏ Two articles on moderately controversial topics that
are semi-protected or protected on Wikipedia to
illustrate civil disagreements (for example:
Christopher Columbus, TikTok, the Falkland Islands,
etc)
1.8 Navigating Wikipedia ❏ Include examples of different languages in your
country/region in which Wikipedia is available
2.1 Wikipedia’s Pillars ❏ An academic article/blog/newsletter that talks about

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learning communities, the classroom as a
community, building community in the classroom. If
not available then link to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_community in
the corresponding language
2.5 Talk pages and other
communication spaces on
Wikipedia
❏ An article/website/blog post about digital citizenship
in your corresponding language (preferably from
UNESCO).
3.2 Your first contributions ❏ Link to a page/resources that you recommend to
newcomers who want to learn the basics of
Wikipedia editing in your own language
3.3 How Wikipedia editors
organize contribution
❏ Include two active WikiProjects that you think could
be of interest for teachers. Provide a link and a brief
description (2-3 lines).
❏ Include two active local Campaigns or Contests that
you think could be of interest for teachers. Provide a
link and a brief description (2-3 lines)
❏ Provide a link and a small description of your local
User Group: when it was funded, the kind of
activities you focus on, a bit about your community,
etc.

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Localizing the training sessions
- The synchronous training sessions allow facilitators to introduce teachers to the new
content, foster socialization between teachers, provide examples and set-by-step
guidance, and allow teachers to ask questions and demand clarifications before they
dive into the content themselves.
- We recommend a total of 5 training sessions along the 9 weeks of the program, one
every other week. This results in: two training sessions corresponding to the content of
Module 1, two training sessions corresponding to the content of Module 2, and one
training session corresponding to the content of Module 3.
- Each training session follows a similar structure: welcome words, introduction, agenda,
learning goal, participation principles (or friendly space policy), get-to-know-you
questions/activity, development of first topics, quick break, development of more topics,
pop quiz to review new knowledge, announcements and next steps.
- Modify the slides and lesson plans to correspond to the content localized in the
Teacher’s Guides: Wikipedia policies, examples, images.
- You can incorporate new sections into the training sessions to better engage with your
audience. For example:
- Invite guest speakers from the local education or cultural sector who already
work with Wikipedia.
- Invite a Wikimedian to share about an inspiring education project they have done
with teachers or students.
- If needed and time is available, you can schedule office hours for teachers to get
additional support as they move through the program or to learn additional
practical skills if they’re interested.
Final note
If you have questions or would like to learn more about this program, contact the Education
team at the Wikimedia Foundation education@wikimedia.org and let us know how we can help.
If you would like to share the adaptations you have made to the Teacher’s Guides please use
this category on Wikimedia Commons and tag us on social media! You can find us on Twitter as
@WikimediaEdu and on Facebook as @WikimediaEducationTeam