Vikidia: A Wikipedia encyclopedia for children

Last updated on 28 November 2023

Vikidia is an online encyclopedia designed specifically for children. It offers content adapted to their age and level of understanding.

An encyclopedia project for children aged 8 to 13 and all those who want a simple presentation of a topic. As for the project Wikipedia, it takes the form of an open search engine. But above all, it can be written and improved by everyone, regardless of age, thanks to the MediaWiki engine.

What is Vikidia and how is it different from Wikipedia? 

Vikidia is an online encyclopedia designed for children aged 8 to 13. It offers content and language adapted to their age by avoiding any content inappropriate and possibly shocking. Unlike Wikipedia, which targets a wider audience, Vikidia focuses only on topics that are relevant and interesting to children.

It was created on November 17, 2006 by Wikipedia contributors wishing to offer a similar site suitable for children.

Vikidia now has thousands of articles written by children around the world. The site has also evolved to offer a user-friendly and secure interface, ensuring the protection of younger users.

A quality educational resource

Vikidia is a really interesting and useful resource for teachers or parents. Here are some of the reasons that make it a valuable object:

• Vikidia is a free online encyclopedia for children
• It was created with the aim of offering a type of content adapted to their age and level of understanding.
• Vikidia articles are written by children and validated by adults
• Children can contribute to content enrichment by proposing articles or making changes
• Vikidia ensures online safety by filtering inappropriate content

How does Vikidia work?

Writing articles

Writing articles on Vikidia is open to all children. They can contribute by adding new information or modifying existing articles under the Creative Commons license.

To maintain the quality of content, articles must be validated by moderators before being published on the online space. Children can also participate by discussing the proposed changes and providing feedback.

Ideal for working with many skills:

• Children can learn writing articles in a clear and concise manner.
• They can also improving their research and writing skills.

Writing articles provides a unique opportunity for children to share their knowledge and learn from each other.

Adults are also involved in writing articles. It is even essential to regularly create relevant content and thus ensure the stability of the functioning of the wiki.

For most tasks on Vikidia there is no predefined role based on age. Rather, experience is taken into account.

 

Validation of articles

Before being published, articles are reviewed by a team of moderators who check their accuracy and relevance.

Moderators also ensure that articles comply with Vikidia’s editorial criteria. This validation procedure avoids the dissemination of incorrect or inappropriate information.

Here are the different steps:

1. Submission of the article by the child or by a group of children.
2. Review by moderators.
3. Possible corrections and suggestions for changes.
4. Final validation and publication of the article.

Encouraging children's participation

Children can therefore actively participate in Vikidia by contributing to the writing and editing of articles. They can share their knowledge and experiences with other children around the world. The free tool encourages children to express themselves and develop their writing skills.

For junior contributors, Vikidia offers several very clear tutorials to embark on the adventure. There is also a ‘hut’ to discuss between young ‘Vikidians’ or a forum entitled ‘chats’ to discuss how the encyclopedia works.

The benefits of Vikidia

This wiki is a great educational tool to get your students working on creating or improving an existing article. An excellent example of interactive encyclopedia for children

An encyclopedia adapted to children

Vikidia is specifically designed for children, making it a platform tailored to their level of understanding. Articles are written in a simple and concise way, with accessible language.

It offers many entries for readers who only want to view its content. Pages by theme, random pages, image bank, latest articles, so many invitations to wander through all these shared resources.

Articles are written in a clear and concise way, using simple and accessible language. In addition, Vikidia also offers images, diagrams and illustrations to facilitate the understanding of concepts.

Young people can ask the ‘Savant Cogitus’ questions if they have not found an answer in the encyclopedia. They can also leave their assessment of the tool on the guestbook.

 

Here are some examples of popular articles on Vikidia:

• The Solar System : An article that explains how our solar system works.
• Dinosaurs : An article that presents different species of dinosaurs and their way of life.

Vikidia offers diverse and informative educational content that allows children to learn in a way that is both interactive and fun.

Carry out an educational project in class with Vikipedia

The animators of the platform did things well. They propose a comprehensive chapter to help teachers and educators set up a pedagogical project using this collaborative encyclopedia.

It gathers useful documents to launch a project. You will also find concrete examples, people to contact and even a flyer ready to be used.

 

 

To discover. Vikidia is in French, but offers versions in several other languages. The platform is free and ad-free. Its resources come solely from donations from its users and readers.