Wikidebates:Educational Use and Purposes

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Wikidebates logo on the right, pictograms of pros and cons topics on the left

If you are a teacher and are interested in debates and critical opinion-related topics, you might consider having your students contribute to Wikidebates by structuring and summarising a debate.

Who is it for?[edit | edit source]

  • Students aged 10 to 18
  • University students or any adult higher learning program

What are the tasks?[edit | edit source]

A complete or partial elaboration of a Wikidebates entry, the broad content of which includes:

  • An introduction;
  • A comprehensive and structured summary of the “pro” and “con” arguments;
  • For each of those, a short description and its dedicated page;
  • For each of those, corresponding refutals or objections;
  • For each argument or objection, one or more citation;
  • Referenced sources such as a bibliography, websites or videography.

How can it be done?[edit | edit source]

  • In classroom workshops
  • As homework projects
  • Part of school-sponsored internships/youth projects

What are the general goals?[edit | edit source]

  • Discovering the principles of democratic exchange and debate culture;
  • Learning critical thinking;
  • Learning to tackle complicated issues in all their complexity;
  • Learning to structure and summarise thoughts regarding a given problem;
  • Learning to deal with conflicting opinions.

What are the skills developed?[edit | edit source]

  • Learn how to research arguments amongst different sources and media;
  • Learn to analyse a given problem and breaking it down into different arguments;
  • Learn how to separate and organise pro and con positions, and their respective objections;
  • Learn to write concise and structured introductions and descriptions for each argument;
  • Learn to reference your sources;
  • Learn to use game-changing collaborative digital tools such as Mediawiki, Twitter, Slack/Framateam, Google Docs/Framapad.

Some examples (in French)[edit | edit source]

  • Should freedom of speech be limited? A page created during a cross-topical workshop including Literature and History by French middle school pupils aged 10-14, June 2017.
  • Are vaccines dangerous? Scientific sources added to the debate by undergraduate Biology students, September 2017.
  • Are professional Football players overpaid? Collection of arguments and objections written by French graduate students in Social Sciences, Evry University, November 2017.
  • Should borders be abolished? A page created by high school students of Tremblay-en-France, April 2018.

Helpful links[edit | edit source]

  • Using a wiki;
  • Structure a debate;
  • Write a page debate;
  • Table of contents of “help” pages.

About us[edit | edit source]

The governing body includes teachers, writers, engineers, students, health professionals; all members of the French “Laboratoire du débat méthodique”.

How we can help[edit | edit source]

  • Help you get familiar with Wikidebates’s tools and its method;
  • Provide guiding and counselling for contributors.

Contact[edit | edit source]

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