This has been reposted with permission from DigiLit Leicester. The original post can be found at http://www.digilitleic.com/?p=889
We are really excited about our latest project, which will produce games based resources to enhance Year 9 learners (13-14 years old) engagement with, and understanding of, Wikipedia.01.
The tender is open until 30 June 2015, and interested organisations and individuals should register with the East Midlands Procurement Portal to access full details.
The project has come out of last year’s BSF ICT Innovation and Learning Group consultation, which worked with schools in the context of the DigiLit Leicester survey findings to identify high impact projects to take digital literacy forward. School leaders in Leicester recognise the valuable role Wikipedia plays in education, but are also aware that formal provision of support and expertise to help young people use the collectively produced online encyclopedia could be improved. This project is designed so that staff and learners can help create challenging and engaging resources that will ensure school communities know how Wikipedia works, and will help learners understand how to check for accuracy and bias. Schools recognise that being able to critically engage with information learners access online is an important part of staff and student digital literacy.
Josie Fraser, who leads for the council on the project, said: “Wikipedia is a really important and useful source of information for everyone, and especially so for learners. Being able to question and evaluate the information we find online is now an essential skill for all learners and citizens. This project will empower learners to critically engage with Wikipedia – one of the most frequently visited sites both in the UK and globally. They will be able to make use the skills they develop in relation to Wikipedia to other websites and information sources.”
The project supports Leicester school communities in the context of the city’s digital literacy programme – DigiLit Leicester. Resources will be shared under an open license, so that they can also be used and adapted by learners worldwide.