{"id":994,"date":"2019-03-12T14:49:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T14:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/?p=994"},"modified":"2019-03-12T14:50:40","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T14:50:40","slug":"women-and-wikipedia-open-learning-and-a-hobby-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/women-and-wikipedia-open-learning-and-a-hobby-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Women and Wikipedia\u2026.Open Learning and a hobby for life!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>This post is the seventh in a series of blog posts for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.openeducationweek.org\/\">Open Education Week<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Karen Bowman, University of Edinburgh<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3792\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:We_Can_Edit.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3792\" src=\"http:\/\/open.ed.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/we_can_edit-232x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"232\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Public Domain Image, Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>I am Karen, a member of the <u><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/University_of_Edinburgh\">University of Edinburgh<\/a>\u00a0<\/u>administrative staff. I spotted a new open learning experience for staff and students in <em>Creative Learning Week 2018<\/em> with \u2018no experience needed\u2019 \u2013 Wikipedia <u><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Edit-a-thon\">edit-a-thon<\/a><\/u> for Vote100 centenary anniversary of (some) women\u2019s right to vote <sup>[1]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>To my amazement, I found that I could quickly:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>create <u><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia_articles_about_women\">Wikipedia article<\/a><\/u>s in a fun, educational and empowering afternoon,<\/li>\n<li>learn from great teachers, with cakes and coffee on hand,<\/li>\n<li>be part of a community of (mainly) women making a difference <sup>[2]<\/sup>,<\/li>\n<li>access a range of research, references, materials to hand, discussions and sharing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedian_in_residence\">Wikimedians<\/a><\/u> Ewan McAndrew from the University and Alice White from Wellcome Library made it all so easy!<\/p>\n<p>Now with a bit of an \u2018addiction\u2019 to editing Wikipedia (for women, especially for the amazingly brave suffragettes), I have been known to<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>wear \u2018We can edit\u2019 T-shirt, sport a \u2018Deeds not Words\u2019 sticker on the laptop,<\/li>\n<li>meet, share ideas with Wikimedian Roger, co-founder of \u2018<u><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Women_in_Red\">Women In Red<\/a><\/u>\u2018,<\/li>\n<li>repeat the \u2018refresher\u2019 training, but never feel inadequate in my skills,<\/li>\n<li>find constant support as a volunteer and aware of joining a global effort,<\/li>\n<li>listen to a University archivist sharing the history of our University,<\/li>\n<li>see an original letter to <u><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Christabel_Pankhurst\">Christabel Pankhurst<\/a><\/u> in prison, from one of University of Edinburgh\u2019s few female students,<\/li>\n<li>read the handwritten register of the University Womens\u2019 Education Group from an era when \u2018we\u2019 could study but couldn\u2019t graduate <sup>[3]<\/sup>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A joyful open learning community is truly collegial and uplifting, and even has cute messages of support.<\/p>\n<table width=\"1115\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"213\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3793\" src=\"http:\/\/open.ed.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/cupcake.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"152\" height=\"114\" \/><\/td>\n<td width=\"902\">== A cupcake for you! ==Many thanks for coming to our International Women\u2019s Day editathon today, Karen.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3794\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3794\" src=\"http:\/\/open.ed.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/vote100_editathon.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"488\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vote 100 Editathon, CC BY, Karen Bowman<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>A hobby for life<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3795\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Processions_Karen_&amp;_Suzanne.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3795 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/open.ed.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Processions_Karen__Suzanne.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"172\" height=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Processions Karen &amp; Suzanne, CC BY SA, Kaybeesquared, Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Now I am proud to tell family and friends of my new (though limited) editing skills, made so easy in <u><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/VisualEditor\">VisualEdit<\/a><\/u> and with great Wikimedians there to help!<\/p>\n<p>So I re-joined the <u><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Edinburgh_University_Library\">University Library<\/a><\/u> and local City Library to track down <u><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Secondary_source\">secondary sources<\/a><\/u> to cite on our suffragists and suffragettes<sup>[4]<\/sup><sup>[5]<\/sup>, joined events on the topic and was part of the <u><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/PROCESSIONS_(artwork)\">Processions 2018<\/a><\/u> artwork with thousands of women acknowledging the success and the suffering and sheer persistence of notable (and less known) women who led the way and as a result\u00a0now have my own picture in Wikimedia Commons, and a hobby for life!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Open Learning from history<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Open Learning<sup>[6]<\/sup> has helped me enjoy learning from the past and creating materials again to acknowledge the women who made it possible for me to march, to have a political voice, complete graduate education, and have a long, varied and satisfying professional life.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.ac.uk\/lifelong-learning\">Open Learning<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/\">Ewan McAndrew<\/a>, University of Edinburgh <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:University_of_Edinburgh\">Wikimedian in Residence<\/a> \u2013 Inspiring Women!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3797\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3797\" src=\"http:\/\/open.ed.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/wikimedia_award.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wikimedia Partnership of the Year, CC BY SA, Stinglehammer, Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1\u00a0 <strong>^<\/strong> <u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.ac.uk\/information-services\/vote-100\">\u201cVote 100 home\u201d<\/a><\/u>. <em>University of Edinburgh Vote 100 homepage<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>2\u00a0 <strong>^<\/strong> Leonard, Victoria (12 December 2018). <u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/2018\/dec\/12\/female-scholars-are-marginalised-on-wikipedia-because-its-written-by-men\">\u201cFemale scholars are marginalised on Wikipedia because it\u2019s written by men\u201d<\/a><\/u>. <em>The Guardian<\/em>. Retrieved 17 February 2019.<\/p>\n<p>3\u00a0 <strong>^<\/strong> <u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk\/oua\/enquiries\/first-woman-graduate\">\u201cBodleian Oxford University re First Woman Graduate\u201d<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n<p>4\u00a0 <strong>^<\/strong> Rosen, Andrew (1974). <em>Rise Up, Women!<\/em>. Routledge &amp; Kegan Paul.<\/p>\n<p>5\u00a0 <strong>^<\/strong> Atkinson, Diane (2018). <em>Rise Up Women: the fascinating lives of the suffragettes<\/em>. <u><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/International_Standard_Book_Number\">ISBN<\/a><\/u>\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Special:BookSources\/9781408844045\">9781408844045<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n<p>6<strong> ^<\/strong> <u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.ac.uk\/lifelong-learning\">\u201cCentre for Open Learning at The University of Edinburgh\u201d<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the author<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Karen Bowman is Joint Director of Procurement at the University of Edinburgh, FCIPS, now part-retired. A former NHS Scotland procurement leader and hospice pain research nurse,\u00a0she started and led the University staff\/student Fair Trade steering group and was awarded the Principal\u2019s Medal for outstanding service in 2011. She has continued to learn throughout\u00a0her life including with Dame Cecily Saunders, OM, DBE; with Harriet Lamb CBE and since joining in Open Learning events and with \u2018Women in Red\u2019 is now starting to wiki-edit (a little).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post is the seventh in a series of blog posts for\u00a0Open Education Week. By Karen Bowman, University of Edinburgh Public Domain Image, Wikimedia Commons I am Karen, a member of the University of Edinburgh\u00a0administrative staff. I spotted a new open learning experience for staff and students in Creative Learning Week 2018 with \u2018no experience [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[885,820,882,884,883,713,715,525,10,369,144,886],"class_list":["post-994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-deeds-not-words","tag-dlam-feed","tag-karen-bowman","tag-oeweek","tag-open-education-week","tag-processions2018","tag-scottish-suffragettes","tag-suffragettes","tag-wikipedia","tag-wikiproject-women-in-red","tag-women-in-red","tag-womens-suffrage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":998,"href":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions\/998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinking.is.ed.ac.uk\/wir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}