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Let's Connect and Capacity Exchange: a live demo of tools for peer exchanges

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Peer-Learning: A Collaborative learning method for lasting Knowledge!

Joint Foundation Community initiative founded in March 2022.
Peer-Learning Program: It is an open and safe learning space for any Wikimedian that is part of an organized group to share and/or learn different skills.

Why peer-learning and�What’s Let’s Connect?

Hi fellow Wikimedians,

My name is Bukola James. I am from Nigeria and the Let's Connect Liaison for Sub-Saharan Africa, it’s such an honour to be co-facilitating this session with Andi & my LC team.

Giving the title of our workshop, I believe these questions must have been racing through your minds.

What is peer-learning, why is it important and what is Let’s Connect?

To answer these questions I will begin by defining Peer-learning and provide you with a brief about what we do at Let’s connect.

Peer-learning is a collaborative learning method that allows people to learn from or and teach each other. It is important because it has proven to be a tool for promoting active learning, critical thinking, gaining better understanding, building confidence, and communication skills. Infact, it is so powerful that when we teach others what we know, it helps that knowledge to stick.

Now that we all understand its importance, let’s talk about the Connect!

Let’s Connect was founded in March 2022 as an outcome of a community consultation process to relaunch the grantmaking strategy for supporting grantees beyond funding. It is also aligned with the Movement Strategy recommendations to develop capacity-building opportunities within the movement.

It is an open and safe learning space for any Wikimedian that is part of an organized group to share and/or learn different skills.

The skills are categorised into 5 broad areas which includes; knowledge documentation, project management, organisational, Wiki-projected related skills among others.

The purpose is to help Wikimedians further develop their skills, share knowledge, promote human connections and mutual support between different groups and communities.

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Main Strategies:

Learning Spaces: Learning clinics & connectathons
Support Elements: Skill directory, resource center, & facilitating connections

Community Reach: 10 team members and 400 participants.
Impact So Far: 17 connectathons, 59 clinics, and still counting...

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CapX-Landing Page.gif, CC-BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

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Wikimedia Unified Login

Username

Earthling Wikimedian working to increase the sum of all human knowledge. Likes cats.

Worldwide Affiliates

Multilingual

Digital Nomad

#

Mobile-�friendly

Translate�Wiki

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The skills we need are mostly available among us

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Learning is always�a two-way street

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By the end of the workshop, �you will be able to:

Understand how to participate in the Capacity Exchange and Let’s Connect;
Be familiar with some good practices�to find peer connections and prepare to make meaningful knowledge exchange!

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Hands on!

Profiling your Skills
Finding Peers
Preparing for an Exchange

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STEP ONE�Profiling your skills

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STEP ONE

Fill out your User Profile
Choose up to 3 Skills �to learn and share
Stick your Profile to the wall

First you can add information about yourself, such as your Username, your Pronouns, the Languages you speak, the Territory you are from or is based in, your group affiliation and native wikimedia projects if applicable.

Note that all fields are optional. But the more information you give, the better it is.

In the second part, named Capacity Exchange, you’ll have to think about the skills that you either want to share or learn. You can choose that from the sticker sheet we gave you.

These are examples of items listed in Let’s Connect Skills Directory. You can browse the Directory though this QR CODE for the explanation of each presented tag. Note that we brought a short list of the skills listed in the Directory, to facilitate the demonstration. But in real life there’s a whole universe of skills that we employ daily in the wikimedian movement.

You can choose up to three skills you are willing to share, and also up to three skills you want to learn.

You’ll have 5 minutes to fill out your profile. Once you are done, please attach your profile the wall.

You can also ask for assistance of any facilitator here.

Is the dynamic clear for everyone?

The timer is set, and you can start now!

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STEP ONE QUESTIONS

How did you feel about filling out your profile?
What information did you think was missing?
What might be a barrier for people in the Movement to fill out their profile?

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It is important to be aware of things that may act as a barrier for connections and consider these. There can be:

Cultural barriers.
Language barriers.
Online/In person differences
Learning diversity

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STEP TWO�Finding peers

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Look for people who want to share the skills you are interested in learning or people who want to share the skills you are eager to share. You may find people with whom there are several skills you can learn and share from each other. This is great!
Check out any other information about their profile that would make this peer exchange interesting: for instance, shared experience, topics of interest, organizational size or context they are working in.

Here are some tips to help you search:

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Are there any differences or barriers that may need to be considered to exchange with this person? Think about any possible language, cultural, or technological challenges (such as internet connection). Might it be easier for this person to meet online or in person? What learning format may work better for them?
Sharing the same language may make connections easier, but don’t feel that this should be a limit. Interpretations services will be provided based on timely requests and availability.
Building trust and human connection is important. Before diving into skills, you should focus on building your connection.

Here are some tips to help you search:

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STEP TWO

Fill out the Exchange Template

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STEP TWO QUESTIONS

How did you feel about the exchange template? Was it helpful?
Was making the initial request for connection easy? Would this be easy on a virtual platform?
How would you prefer to reach out to people? What support might you need?

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STEP THREE�Preparing for an Exchange

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STEP THREE

Role play:

As a sharer: Describe how you would hope to share the skills
As a learner: Provide feedback

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Peer exchanges are important. However, it is not always easy to connect with others.
Having tools and support for it is also important.
Capacity Exchange and Let’s Connect can help you!

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This session was a collaborative effort between the Let’s Connect and Capacity Exchange teams.

Facilitators:

Andi Inácio (WMB)

Bukola James (WMNG)

Jan-Bart de Vreede (WMNL)

Support:

Beverly Jiang (WMF)

Cassie Casares (WMF)�Jessica Stephenson (WMF)