Wikimedia UK is excited to announce that Toni Sant is joining our team as our Education Organiser. Toni will be starting work during the week beginning 18 March. Toni is already known among active Wikimedians in the UK as well as globally as he has been active with Wikipedia education programmes for the past couple of years. Below Toni introduces himself in his own words. We’re sure you’ll join us in extending him a warm welcome.
“Hello fellow Wikimedians, I’m Toni Sant. I have long been an admirer of the global Wikimedia movement and have integrated work from my teaching in Higher Education with the English Wikipedia.
“I am currently also employed at the University of Hull’s Scarborough Campus as Director of Research in the School of Arts and New Media, where I’ve been based since 2004. I have been a teacher or lecturer at different education levels since 1993. For the last three academic years I have integrated a Wikipedia assessment in my undergraduate university teaching for all my students and I have also introduced other teaching colleagues to adopt Wikipedia as a resource for some of their assignments. You can view a presentation I gave at EduWiki about some of this work here
“I came to know many other Wikimedians in person by attending the WikiConference in Mumbai, India in 2011, through a scholarship from WMUK. I have also attended a number of other events such as WikiMania 2012 in Washington DC, the EduWiki Conference in Leicester and GLAMcamp at the British Library in London. At these events I have met many of the amazing volunteers that make all the Wikimedia projects possible.
“I will be based in Scarborough but plan to be at the WMUK office in London as frequently as possible. The are a number of things I’ll be working on in terms of Education at WMUK, but the two main things that will very likely take up most of my time in the first few months will be the Wikimedian-in-Residence programme within a UK university, and this year’s EduWiki Conference. I will be at our open day on 23 March and look forward to meeting Wikimedians face-to-face, particularly anyone interested in Education issues within the context of Wikimedia.”
As one of the interview panellists, I just want to publicly welcome Toni and express my delight at having him on board in this crucial area of Wikimedia UK’s work. The field of applicants for this post was very, very impressive. I wish we could employ more of the talented, dedicated people who came and talked to us. However, Toni’s experience as an educator and a builder of relationships with education institutions; his active involvement in Wikimedia (in multiple languages!); and his experiences of designing, running and disseminating Wikipedia assignments in Higher Education make him an excellent person for the education organiser role. I think Toni’s appointment, and the goodwill created by last year’s EduWiki conference, are a chance for our education outreach to really take off and I hope the rest of our community are excited too.
Welcome Toni! Looking forward to working with you, on behalf of the WMF education team!
Hey Toni, congratulations on becoming education organiser at WMUK! I am working on international education matters for WMDE and will be happy to get in touch to share thoughts and ideas. You might remember me from the EduWiki conference in Leicester last September.
Will you be able to join the Education Program Leaders Workshop 2013 (http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikipedia_Education_Program/Education_Program_Leaders_Workshop_2013) on the 18 April 2013 in Milan? It would be great to have you there too.
Cool! Looking forward to work with you!
How great Toni! I’m working with education in Sweden at Wikimedia Sverige. I’d love to get in touch with you to hear more about your ideas for this year in education within WMUK. Lovely with Scarborough, it’s such a great place with the beautiful beach.
Many thanks to all for your warm welcome!
Cornelia, I’m unable to be in Milan on 18 April 2013, but I am planning to attend the Education Program Leaders Workshop 2013 virtually.