Community Collaboration:  Utilizing a Wiki as an Innovative, Collaborative Tool for Writing Jill Gannon, MA Candidate

School of Communication, SDSUPatricia Geist-Martin, Professor

School of Communication, SDSU

COM 428Communicating Health at

Work Create new course in Health Com degree

program Focus on how communicating at work can

contribute to sustainability Define sustainability as “the possibility that

human and other life will flourish on the planet forever” (Ehrenfeld, 2009, p. 6).

Ehrenfeld, J. R. (2008). Sustainability by design: A subversive strategy for transforming our consumer culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Students will assess their own behaviors in their work lives that promote or restrict workplace wellness and employee sustainability.

Students will identify the policies that local organizations have in place that promote or restrict workplace wellness and employee sustainability.

Students will devise strategies for improving communication in ways that promote workplace wellness and employee sustainability.

Students will collaborate in teams to construct a wiki for their chosen topic.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser.

A wiki invites all users to edit any page or to create new pages within the wiki Web site, using only a Web browser.

A wiki enables communities to write documents collaboratively.

A wiki involves visitors in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the Web site landscape.

WIKI AS COLLABORATIVE COMMUNITY

A single page in a wiki website is referred to as a "wiki page", while the entire collection of pages, which are usually well interconnected by hyperlinks, is "the wiki".

A wiki creates a learning community, a group of people that share common values and beliefs, are actively engaged in learning together from each other.

Wiki (continued)

Students investigate the meaning of a sustainability topic of their choosing.

Students analyze information about their sustainability topic to discover information for their wiki.

Students design a wiki page, making decisions about the placement of information about their sustainability topic.

Students create links to information that supports the home page of their sustainability topic.

Students present their wiki to the class in a systematic and engaging manner.

 

Wiki Assignment Learning Objectives

Written=250 points; Oral= 50 points

Each team’s wiki must include the following elements:

A home page that includes the information and layout specified by the design team.

A unique and engaging title for their team’s topic (optional but encouraged is a logo that symbolizes the team’s topic)

A clear definition of the team’s topic on the team’s home page

 

Wiki Assignment Components

A minimum of six additional pages cross linked from the home page (e.g., a page that highlights organizations’ practices of engaging in the team’s topics, a page that includes photos of events that represent the team’s topic, a page that includes a more elaborated definition and sources [#5, required], a page that reveals the international interpretation of the team’s topic, etc.)

A cross link to a more elaborated definition and a list of 10 or more sources related to their topic (at least five should be from academic journals or books).

A minimum of six hyperlinks to other websites related to the content covered in the team’s wiki.

Assignment Components

Designs for Life http:

www.wikispaces.com/t/c/7HdQzK4ipwEJcD3VjW87SP//

Creating the Wiki Phase 1: Working with Suzanne Aurillio (ITS)

Phase 2: Meeting with Design Team Students

Phase 3: Assisting in Content Insertion

Phase 4: Follow up with Wiki Design

Wiki as Writing Unique form of reflection

Able to see different perspectives of the community-based service learning process

Active engagement

Continuous involvement of content updating

Wiki Work Thus Far SDSU Service Learning Wiki

◦ http://sdsuservicelearning.wikispaces.com/

Health Communication Program Wiki◦ http://healthcommsdsu.wikispaces.com/

Health Communication (COMM 421) Wiki◦ http://comm421healthcommunication.wikispaces.c

om/