Mher Bekaryan

Active editors of the Karvajar WikiClub have been participating in the most interesting summer wiki event – WikiCamp for the last 3 years. In this article, they tell us about their impressions, new acquaintances and the knowledge they have got.

A 13 year old Elen Gevorgyan, has already been participating in the Summer WikiCamp for the third time.

“When I first heard about WikiCamp, I didn’t know what it would be like, but I liked it from the very first minutes”, Ellen shares her impressions about the WikiCamp. The young editor thinks, that during the camp she and her friends get the opportunity to gain knowledge and share it with others.

“Free communication with other WikiClub members, with the children from various cities, villages, and even foreign countries, with different Wikiteam members and Group leaders is also important. Even newcomers who do not know Armenian letters learn to edit with the Armenian keyboard here.”

A 14 year old Lena Ghazaryan, another young editor from the same WikiClub, has been a participant of wikiCamps since last year. She also highlighted the opportunity of receiving and sharing knowledge during the WikiCamp.

“Most of us learn working with some editing tools right here at the WikiCamp. And many children learn editing here. It’s great to see how many of your friends who can’t work with the Armenian keyboard master it a few days later”, says Lena and adds, that there were children in their group who didn’t know Armenian letters, and returned home from WikiCamp fully having mastered the Armenian keyboard.

The participants of the Summer First WikiCamp during their leisure time, photo by Ashkhen Muradyan, CC BY-SA 4.0

Marietta Vardanyan, 13-year-old editor of the Karvajar WikiClub, participated in the WikiCamp for the first time this year: “I learned a lot at the WikiCamp. I learned how to work with some new computer tools,” says Marietta.

When sharing their impressions on WikiCamps, children emphasize learning through games and several important meetings that have also become a source of knowledge for them.

“During this first Summer WikiCamp we met with representatives of the Hovhannes Toumanian Museum. They told us about Tumanyan. And we tested our knowledge with a quiz game dedicated to the life and works of Hovhannes Tumanyan. At the end of the meeting we also played some developing plays created by Tumanyan.” says Lena.

“During WikiCamps we get a lot of knowledge through games. Every year, guests from different places visit us at WikiCamps. We had different guests this year as well. The days in WikiCamp went fast and were full of fun,” said Liana Ghazaryan (age 13).

Summer First WikiCamp participants’ badges, photo by Ashkhen Muradyan, CC BY-SA 4.0

“I really liked the event organized by the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Armenia, during which I learned what to do in an earthquake, fire and flood. The videos they showed were very interesting․ I want to find them and show to my little brother, too”,- says Marietta.

“We spend such wonderful days in WikiCamps that noone wants to return home. I learned a lot during the WikiCamp and I know for sure it will serve me a lot for many years to come”,- says Ellen.

Tamara Grigoryan, Karvachar Wikiclub Coordinator
Dato Abuladze, Communications Coordinator
Violla Mosikyan, Wikimedia Armenia Intern

This year’s Summer WikiCamps were marked by a great number of applicants and participants. Wikimedia Armenia has received around 300 applications for both camps. The majority of the participants had applied for the first Summer WikiCamp for students ages 9-15. The first camp was also marked by a great number of payable participants ever – 30 participants who were equally distributed among groups.

The learning and editing process in Wikimedia projects were organized with the help of 12 experienced wikieditors (Wikiteam). The participants were editing in 3 Wikimedia projects – Armenian Wiktionary, Wikisource and Wikipedia. The Wikiteam was also responsible for quality checking of the content written during the camp. The organization team used a new method for the newbies’ teaching process. The experienced editor students of each group who expressed willingness to share their knowledge with their groupmates, taught the editing tools and rules to their fellow friends. The usage of this method made the teaching and learning process more smoothly and effective as it is always more comprehensive when the students of the same age explain the editing tools to each other.

During the workshop at Summer Wikicamp 2019 (I), Ashkhen Muradyan, CC BY-SA 4.0

One of the achievements of this camp was Armenian Wiktionary moving 2 lines up in the list of all Wiktionaries – now we are in the 21st place.

Non wiki life of the camp was full of interesting and entertaining events. Besides playing sport and intellectual games the camp hosted Hovhannes Toumanian museum Education program team who represented Armenian writer Hovhannes Toumanian’s life and literary works. After the presentation the guests organized a small quiz during which the campers answered Toumanian related questions. As many of us know Toumanian has also created a number of games for children. The campers were happy to play those games with the help of Toumanian museum staff.

During the quiz game organized by Hovhannes Toumanian Museum at Summer Wikicamp 2019 (I), Ashkhen Muradyan, CC BY-SA 4.0

The other memorable event of the camp was the educational-informative event by the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Armenia. The Ministry staff organized training-games which were aimed at increasing the level of awareness during emergencies. The small actors of the “911” children’s theatre of the Cultural center of the State Academy of Crisis Management presented the “Disaster” musical-educational performance to the campers. After the presentation the campers watched educational cartoons prepared by the Ministry of Emergency Situations and “Save the Children” organization about earthquake, flood and fire, after which a quiz game was organized. The winners were awarded with certificates.

During the evacuation training organized by Ministry of Emergency Situations of Republic Armenia at Summer Wikicamp 2019 (I), Ashkhen Muradyan, CC BY-SA 4.0

An evacuation training was also organized for the campers. Firefighters and rescuers arrived after the alarm was reported and began to work immediately on the area of the rest house evacuating those campers who had not managed to leave the building. The training was conducted under the supervision of major Samvel Davtyan, Commander of the Hrazdan N 44 department of the RA Ministry of Emergency Situations.

At the end of the day, the children were also taught how to provide first aid in different situations.

Lilit Tarkhanyan,
Wikimedia Armenia Education Program Coordinator

In November Wikimedia Armenia received a collaboration offer from Armenian Educational Foundation. It is a non-profit organization based in Glendale, California. Founded in 1950, it renders financial assistance to Armenian educational institutions, and assists students of Armenian parentage to study in Armenian Higher Education Institutions.

The scholarship recipient students have an obligation to do a volunteer work during a year and for diversifying the students choice the organization has decided to apply for a volunteer opportunity where the students can invest their intellectual abilities. The parties agreed to involve students in editing Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Therefore AEF announced about the volunteer work which interested around 50 students. It was a new and interesting experience for the organization. After an introductory workshop 25 students continued volunteering for WMAM until July 1.

The students have translated articles from Russian and English Wikipedias. Those students who did not have translation skills had proofread works of Armenian classic writers in Armenian Wikisource. The working process was coordinated mostly online via emails. The students have worked in their Sandboxes and after checking the translation quality, the articles were created in the Main Space.

As a result of the collaboration 104 articles were created or improved in Armenian Wikipedia and 150+ pages proofread in Armenian Wikisource. The most active 15 students have been awarded with Certificates.

Wikimedia Armenia gave feedback to the Armenian Education Foundation summarizing the results of our collaboration and received a positive reply from our partners who emphasized their highly appreciation of our educational-scientific activities which was closely related to their ideaology. Both parties have expressed willingness to have a continuous collaboration.

Lilit Tarkhanyan, WMAM Education Program Coordinator

The tasks set in the school are often aimed at testing the student’s knowledge. For the student, however, more interesting and motivating is the task, after which he/she also sees the result. One of the successful examples of an effective task is the assignment of students to create an article in the Armenian Wikipedia as a practical work.

In the second term of the 2018-2019 school year David Yeghiazaryan, teacher of social studies in high school after William Saroyan in Karvachar assigned the eighth grade students as a practical experience to write articles about individuals and events of public importance in the Armenian Wikipedia. The students completed the task in cooperation with the WikiClub in Karvachar .

“As a practical work, I have repeatedly assign students to conduct research on various topics. In their course they often used the materials of Wikipedia. Armenian Wikipedia is scanty in the issue of articles on some areas and it was a good occasion to combine several important things; the study of material, research, work with sources, translation, etc”, says teacher of sociology David Yeghiazaryan. Assessing the work, the teacher mentions that it was really effective.

“But in future there is a need for some improvements. One of the main problems is poor knowledge of languages which interferes with effective translations. It is also important to give students critical and analytical skills at school. This will help them not only in editing Wikipedia, but also in future life., says David Yeghiazaryan.

It should be noted that children told their articles in the classroom, thereby sharing additional knowledge with their classmates. Both the quality of the article and the ability to reproduce and analyze the material were evaluated.

“For children, the work they had done was very interesting. For most of them it was the first editing in Wikipedia. At school they were very excited to present their work and many of them later became active editors in the WikiClub”. the teacher notes and emphasizes that as a result of this experience, many children acquire a useful habit of editing Wikipedia.

David Yeghiazaryan assures that such an event will be of a long-term nature and in the near future he will definitely assign such works. It contributes to both the study of the subject and the acquisition of related knowledge, the development of critical thinking.

“Such assignments are also very encouraging for the students themselves. Many articles concerning the subjects being studied at school are going to be translated into Armenian. The pupils can contribute to the increase of public knowledge in the Armenian language while receiving great pleasure and skills”, David Yeghiazaryan believes.

Tamara Grigoryan, Karvachar Wikiclub coordinator
Violla Mosikyan, Wikimedia Armenia intern

The WikiClubs of Wikimedia Armenia Scientific-Educational Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) operate in numerous communities, mostly In rural communities of Republic of Armenia and The Republic of Artsakh. The aim of the WikiClubs is to support the educational process of the local schoolchildren.

The WikiClub in Karvachar in The Republic of Artsakh was opened in May 2017. It’s one of the three WikiClubs in Artsakh (the other two are in Stepanakert and Togh). There are 83 participants in the club, from which 30-35 attend the club actively every month. Most of the editors are 9-16 years old schoolchildren from the secondary school in Karvachar. In the past year, the club members created 530 articles in Armenian Wikipedia. Besides working in Wikipedia, Wikisource and Wiktionary, which enhances their literacy, helps more clearly formulate thoughts and develops the ability to translate texts into Armenian from foreign languages (mainly from Russian), the WikiClub is also a destination for self development, communication skills development, sharing knowledge with friends and useful leasure for the schoolchildren in Karvachar. All of these activities are supported by a series of events organized in the WikiClub in Karvachar.

This month the meeting titled “Meeting with Art” in the WikiClub was dedicated to Armenian writer Vardges Petrosyan. Svetlana Nalakyan, who presented the speech, mentioned that after reading some of the writers works she wanted to tell and advise her friends to read them as well, because Vardges Petrosyan’s works are mainly for schoolchildren. The previous series of such events were dedicated to actress Siranush, composer Komitas, writers Yeghishe Charents and Paruyr Sevak.

Some of the favorite activities of the editors visiting the WikiClub are intellectual and logic games, such as “In other words”, “Brainy”, ”Art”:

“Unfortunately we don’t have enough time to play, as we are mostly editing when in the club. Only one day in a month we spend playing, which is so pleasant. We relax, communicate with each other and also get knowledge. Due to the game “Art” recently I got acquainted with the works of painter Ashot Hovhannisyan, which I liked a lot. In near future I will read and tell my friends about his works”, says one of the young editors of the club Liana Mkrtchyan.

Karvachar WikiClub members in the cave of Tsar

As Karvachar and generally the Shahumyan province needs to be presented more widely on the internet, the club members do not miss the opportunity to take pictures of the attractions in their hometown and upload them into the Wikimedia Commons. The club members have visited Zar, rich village in the province, have taken pictures of the local churches and have uploaded them into the Wikimedia Commons for free use.

Especially in rural communities schoolchildren and their parents are worried that their right to receive quality education is not fully implemented. Today, besides schools non-formal educational projects are very common in the world. The presence of well known institution, such as Wikimedia Armenia in Artsakh once again shows, that every child has the right to receive quality education regardless of his/her place of residence.

Working in the Wikimedia projects the teens living in Karvachar understand and feel that they are a part of a huge process in the world. The best editors have the opportunity to take part in WikiCamps, which are often international. Here the school children from Karvachar meet their peers from different countries, communicate with them, share their experience and knowledge and they do not feel isolated. Editing in Wikimedia projects also brings recognition. As Wikipedia is famous all over the world, has editors from different corners of the world, when our club members meet editors from other countries, they will have something in common. It may be difficult to explain where Karvachar is, but they can proudly say they are part of the global movement.

Tamara Grigoryan, Karvachar Wikiclub coordinator

Violla Mosikyan, Wikimedia Armenia intern

13 year-old Lena Ghazaryan joined Karvachar’s Wikiclub since the day of its opening in March 2017. She did her first wikisteps in Wikisource and Wiktionary. Lena’s first articles in the Armenian Wikipedia were dedicated to different villages in Atrsakh.