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MU classes use popular Web site in curriculum

Laura Bryant

As mid-semester approaches, tests are beginning to clutter the weeks of college students and term papers are creeping just around the corner. But for some Miami University students, term papers are taking on a whole new meaning.

Instead of handing in the usual 10-page paper, never to be seen again, imagine a class collectively writing a term paper that, once finished, is posted online. Or consider the idea of contributing to an online resource that will eventually allow you to become a class of co-authors for a future book.

That is just what Miami professors and students are doing, as they begin to explore the use of Wikipedia-like pages. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that provides links to information through a network of pages and allows its users to freely change the posted information.

Carl Dahlman, an associate geography professor at Miami, has put together a Web site through Blackboard for his political geography class, GEO378.

Dahlman uses the Wiki pages for posting concepts he defines in class that students, in term, expand upon outside of class. Students then make postings and connections through linking Web pages.

"My hope is that they will get excited about topics they have and take an interest in ways they are writing them," Dahlman said.

The students will write three entries throughout the semester relating to political geography: one defining a concept, one discussing a specific non-state territory and one discussing the geography of a specific boundary. Students will then come up with ways to connect each of their entries with one another.

Senior Claire Hart, a student in Dahlman's class, is looking forward to using this assignment.

"I actually do think it's going to be a good tool," Hart said. "In a class like this, it's so complex with how many terms can be used to define different borders and concepts."

As of now, only students within Dahlman's class can access the site, but he hopes to make the site public so users outside of the class can refer to it.

Laura Mandell, an associate English professor at Miami, is also using the Wiki idea for her narrative and digital technology class. Her class's site is from the same software as Wikipedia, but has been downloaded into the Miami system.

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Mandell's class is using the site as more of a place to collaborate notes to help students complete their final project. The class is focusing on the idea of the intersection of literature and game design.

Last spring was the first time Mandell used this resource. The students from that class will be named as co-authors of a textbook based on the collaborative notes online.

Mandell's current class's Wiki site is accessible to anyone online.

Mandell thinks that the use of technology in this digital era is important to education. "Understanding our media environment is best done by immersing ourselves with those who know it best, which is you guys," Mandell said.

Both Dahlman and Mandell think this is an excellent tool to allow students to connect what they are learning with one another. The sites can also serve as study guides that are constantly built upon throughout the semester.

The students using the sites seem to appreciate the technology as well.

"I definitely think it'll be worth while using it in other classes too," Hart said. "It's primarily a good place to go to if you have a question outside of class."