User:Esh77

This user is an instructor for the course Wikipedia:Wiki_Ed/Tel_Aviv_University/WikiMed_Elective_at_Tel_Aviv_University_(Yearly).

Welcome to my page!

Who am I

Hello, Wikiverse! My name is Dr. Shani Evenstein Sigalov and I am an educator, lecturer, researcher and Open Knowledge advocate, interested in the intersection between Education, Technology, Innovation and Openness.

Academia

Currently a Research Fellow at the Center for Public Humanities at TAU, and wrapping postdocs at the School of Education, TAU, and the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, Technion. Also serve as a Visiting Fellow at the Digital Humanities Research Hub, University of London.

Research projects include: Generative AI's impact on knowledge consumption and creation; Digital Humanities & Linked Open Data, as a means for preserving Cultural Heritage and Academic data; Self-Regulated Learning; and Critical Ignoring.

Currently teaching at TAU's Business School and about to start a new course on GenAI from a Humanities perspective. Have designed and direct for a decade the 1st for-credit elective courses globally to integrate Wikipedia & Wikidata into higher education.

PhD explored the Semantic Web, specifically Wikidata, as a learning platform. Honored to have been a Research Fellow at the Azrieli Foundation PhD Research Fellows Program. Before, I worked for a decade as an EdTech Innovation Strategist at the School of Medicine. Interested in how technology & pedagogy can improve the way we learn and teach, leading to a positive and long-lasting experience. Also interested in integrating elements from the Open movements into Academia, and seeking new ways for academic work to advance gender equality, knowledge equity and a positive social impact.

Open & Free Knowledge Advocacy

I have been a passionate advocate for Open Knowledge as a basic human right for over 20 years now. I have initiated and supported Open Education and Culture, Open & FAIR Science and Open Data initiatives, specifically focusing on projects that highlight gender equality and equity.

I serve as a member of the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees, and served as Vice Chair for 3 years (2021-2024).

Am also Chief Editor & Chairperson at Project Ben-Yehuda, the largest open online library for Hebrew writings, and also serve as a Board member at the Public Knowledge Workshop.

Have been heavily involved in governance, strategic design & implementation in complex environments with multiple & diverse stakeholders, have experience in fundraising and advocacy, and excel in partnership building, volunteer mobilization and community capacity building. I frequently speak on and lead workshops worldwide on various topics related to my academic and Open knowledge work.

Happy to join forces with individuals and organizations whose work advance humanity and aspire to have a positive impact in the world.

What I'm doing in the wiki-world

My main focus contributing to our movement has always been Wiki outreach, on both the local and global levels.

After attending Wikimania Haifa, I joined the Hebrew Wikipedia community and became a member of Wikimedia Israel. Since joining, I've served as WM-IL's National GLAM Projects Coordinator, leading collaborations with the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, the National Library of Israel and the Israeli Cartoon and Caricature Museum (to name a few). I've also been been a WM-IL board member for about 2 years. On Jan 2014 I resigned both roles to focus on my M.A. My thesis focused on a new course model I've developed for implementing Wikipedia into the curriculum. I keep being involved with the chapter and supports GLAM-Wiki, EDU-Wiki, WikiWomen & Wikidata initiatives, as well as serve as a He-Wiki Admin.

Internationally, I've been involved in Wikipedia & Education, Wikipedia & Medicine, GLAM-Wiki (including initiating a collaboration with TED), Wikipedia & Libraries, WikiWomen & Wikidata. I am also a victim of the "100 Wikidays", (though I failed miserably).

I lecture about Wikipedia and its sister projects frequently, lead various workshops teaching Wiki-literacy and wiki-editing for newcomers, and support fellow faculty in adding Wikipedia-related assignments into their curriculum. In recent years, I've become especially interested in Wikidata. I am conducing my PhD about the new learning opportunities it enables and have opened the first academic course in the world that features Wikidata, called "From Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, from Wikipedia to Wikidata".

Special Wiki-Milestones and Official Wiki-Roles

On October 2013 I opened the Wiki-Med course at the Tel-Aviv University^[1]. This is a for-credit elective course, the first course of its kind, which gives Med students academic credit for editing Wikipedia and its sister projects. So far, my students wrote about 10% of medical-related articles in Hebrew that have gained over 6 million page views.
On October 2015, I opened a second for-credit course at Tel Aviv University called "Wikipedia: Skills for Consuming and Producing Knowledge". The course focused on contributing to Wikipedia and was available to all undergraduate students on campus from every discipline.
On September 2017, a new Wiki-Med elective was launched at the NY/American Medical Program at Sackler School of Medicine, where American & Canadian Med students learned to contribute medical-related information to En-Wiki.
On October 2018, I've opened a new for-credit course at TAU called "From Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, from Wikipedia to Wikidata". This is the first academic course in the world to feature Wikidata and is available to every undergraduate student at TAU.

I am a Founding member of the Wikipedia Library User Group.
I am Founding member of the Wikipedia Education Collaborative since its conception, and during 2017 have initiated and worked towards this group becoming an official affiliate called "The Wikipedia & Education User Group". Between October 2018 - August 2018 I served as this User Group's Chairperson.
I've been a board member of the WikiProject Medicine Foundation since January 2017. Between August 2017 - August 2019 I've served as a Chairperson, and led the group to be recognized as a Thematic Organization, Wikimedia Medicine.
I served as Chair of the Program Committee for the GLAMWiki Conference 2018.
I served as a Space Leader for both the Education Space and the Health Space during Wikimania 2019 in Stockholm.
As of August 2019, I serve as a member of the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees.

Contact info

Please feel free to reach out to me with anything relating to my role at the BoT via this email: shaniwikimedia.org, or through my official BoT username: user:Shani (WMF). For other issues relating to my volunteer work at the Wikimedia movement, such as outreach, please feel free to leave a message via this username.