While it is true that people in general, and in particular pupils and students, as teachers, trainers and researchers, use Wikipedia, it is not yet clear what role it plays, or can play, for example, as a pedagogical strategy. Indeed Wikipedia is a key resource in digital contexts, specially when doing an online search on the internet. But can it also be a resource in educational, training and research contexts? How can wikis, and mainly Wikipedia, be a catalyst for the development of ICT skills and digital competences?
The WEIWER Wikis, Education & Research project aims at training pupils and students, along with their teachers, in ICT skills and digital competences, namely by: developing informational and communicational literacies; enhancing collaborative writing and work.
The project has a strong pedagogical and social basis, relying on voluntary work, in an innovating empowerment spirit. So far, open sessions, with and for international audiences have taken place, along with seminars and workshops for both pupils, students, teachers and librarians. We are already planning to continue to expand it to contexts, and further replicate it, in response to requests of local communities, for instance, like schools.

http://www.weiwer.net

• Lisboa , Portugal

• Youth
• Teachers, Researchers, Trainers, Trainees, Educational actorsin general, and citizens in general.

After the project was applied in the Lisbon district, Portugal, it was acknowledged that it could be applied to other (inter)national communities. In fact, it was already tested for example in other schools and universities, both in Portugal and Brazil, and thus its impact has reached wider and broader educational audiences (including academics).
This implies the existence of institutional networks, sometimes relying on personal/professional networks, and the implication of the different educational actors, so as to enhance the results of the project, in a continuous and sustainable basis. It also implies a prior study of the local educational settings and curricula, for instance, or of the regional/national policies for education, training and qualification.
More in-depth analyses will be carried out to better evaluate the project’s follow-ups and updates, if needed, as well as with regard to supervision, mentoring and tutorship practices, to support specifically the trainees. Therefore, it is assumed that the project should be further applied in other local/national/international learning, teaching, training and research scenarios, so as to foster the development of digital skills and competences, including ICT and informational, on an individual or global-society scale.

Having a strong pedagogical and social background, and relying on voluntary work, in an innovating empowerment spirit, the project has proved to be self-sustained. However, the core team has already been granted some scholarships, which have helped to cover some of the travel expenses. Besides, and due to the institutional networks and partnerships we have been able to establish so far, some resources (like classrooms) for the training we have been delivering have also been catered for (in most cases, they have been provided by those inviting us to share our work in those open sessions, meetings and training workshops).
Moreover, and with regard to the pedagogical and training resources, these have been developed under creative commons licenses, in the framework of open science, open access and open education. Therefore, they can be defined as open educational resources that contribute to aid us in implementing open educational practices. These principles are aligned with the Portuguese national strategy for digital skills (Portugal INCoDe.2030) and with the SDG 4, at an international level. In this context, particular attention is focused on open access and open software, using free and license-free digital repositories and web technologies. Hence, not only we’ll continue to advocate for openness, but we will continued to be inspired by it in our educational actions, practices, training and work.
So, to guarantee the sustainability of this project, we’ll keep on working as volunteers, and will, at the same time, try to get access to other forms of funding, grants, patrons or scholarships that may help to overcome any need or constraint that might be felt. We will also try to develop a data basis for volunteers willing to participate and collaborate in the project, in their own communities, locally/regionally. Moreover, we’ll foster too that some of the work can continue to be developed by post-graduation students, embracing the project’s values and mission, in their thesis/dissertations/academic researches.

Digital literacy and information literacy skills are fundamental in a network society and educational institutions should consider them effectively and across the curricular areas. The WEIWER project emerges exactly to address this need, through the access to information online sources, in particular Open Educational Resources, like Wikipedia, and thus foster and enhance the development of collaborative work, ICT skills and communication procedures, critically and autonomously, in the different scientific fields. The values and mission of the project have been inspired by the principles such as those currently advocated in various national and international initiatives - among others: Portuguese Program for Digital Skills (INCoDe.2030), Portuguese National Profile of Students Leaving Compulsory School, Referential Learning from the School Library, Portuguese National Open Science Policy, which stems from the definition of an European Agenda for Science and Innovation, based on the statement that “Knowledge is of All and for All”, and the United Nations Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. By contributing to the acquisition and development of multiple skills and literacies, we have been promoting the WSIS values in the educational communities that we have already been able to train, ranging from basic and secondary school levels, as well as higher education and adult education. Although we have also provided training for librarians, at the Portuguese National Library, our main focus starts with pupils (and their teachers), because, as literature and our experience has shown us, if we start to develop ICT skills and digital competences at an early age, it will have an important social impact and a strong benefit on society, currently and in the future, leading to a better, more conscious and participatory citizenship. In a word, ultimately we believe to be contributing to “Imagine a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.” (Wikimedia Foundation vision statement).