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'''[[Appropedia]]'s service learning programs''' helps to create an essential knowledge base for the world via a learning experience for individuals and classes. The [[Appropedia Foundation]] and the [[Appropedia community]] work with universities and learning programs to create these opportunities. Appropedia has been shown to be a particularly useful tool for educators to provide [[service learning]].<ref>Joshua M. Pearce, "[http://jsd.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/3/1/45 Appropedia as a Tool for Service Learning in Sustainable Development]''", Journal of Education for Sustainable Development'', '''3'''(1), pp.47-55, 2009.[http://hdl.handle.net/1974/5306 Q-Share pre-print]</ref> | |||
This can be considered a Constructivist<ref>[[wikipedia:Constructivism (learning theory)]]: "The Constructivist (e.g. Dewey; Montessori; Kolb) learning process is experiential learning through real life experience to construct and conditionalize knowledge. The type of learning is problem based adaptive learning that challenges faulty schema, integrates new knowledge with existing knowledge, and allows for creation of original work or innovative procedures."</ref> approach, as the students learn by doing. | |||
== Science, engineering, health and humanities == | |||
= | :''<font color=darkorange>Under construction</font>: Please excuse the unfinished bits. Planned to be tidied up by 21 March 2012.'' | ||
From [[soil]] science and sustainable [[food production]] to physics and [[energy efficiency]], to [[life cycle analysis]], science provides the basis for [[A:Rigor|rigorous]] | From [[soil]] science and sustainable [[food production]] to physics and [[energy efficiency]], to [[life cycle analysis]], science provides the basis for [[A:Rigor|rigorous]] |
Revision as of 04:22, 17 March 2012
- Announcement: Appropedia has internship positions open for 2012.
Appropedia's service learning programs helps to create an essential knowledge base for the world via a learning experience for individuals and classes. The Appropedia Foundation and the Appropedia community work with universities and learning programs to create these opportunities. Appropedia has been shown to be a particularly useful tool for educators to provide service learning.[1]
This can be considered a Constructivist[2] approach, as the students learn by doing.
Science, engineering, health and humanities
- Under construction: Please excuse the unfinished bits. Planned to be tidied up by 21 March 2012.
From soil science and sustainable food production to physics and energy efficiency, to life cycle analysis, science provides the basis for rigorous Physics of Energy and the Environment
Environmental sciences - Environmental Impact Assessment and Life Cycle Analysis
Education. Study this service learning program, and/or develop enhancements for it. Develop an engaging and short online course for a relevant subject (e.g. a permaculture, green building or climate action topic).
Built environment, including construction, architecture and urban planning.
Engineering Engineering for Sustainable Development - materials, industrial ecology renewable energy, water and sanitation, and the relationship between technology and the environment - and of course construction, mentioned above under "built environment".
Engineering and appropriate technology classes develop much of the hands-on material on Appropedia, describing the making of natural paints and construction using alternative building techniques. More conventional applications of sustainable design are planned for expansion.
Health: Medical technology and public health information has been growing rapidly on Appropedia starting in late 2011, through the Global Health Compendium.
Solar Photovoltaic Materials, Cells and Systems Engineering Alternative Energy Systems permaculture design course
Design, Introduction to Design
There is also an important place for the humanities in our service learning programs. For example:
- Languages. Translating Appropedia pages has been motivating for students, knowing that their work can make a difference in the world, compared to artificial translation tasks.
- Communications. Raising awareness of Appropedia is an important part of our strategy to have an increasing positive impact. This includes extensive use of social media.
International Mass Communication
- Anthropology and sociology. A unifying theme in Appropedia is appropriate technology, emphasizing the importance of context and cultural understanding in every sustainability action, every development program and every application of technology.
- Economics, finance and commerce. Development economics, from microfinance to international policies, is a central part of international development.
Not all classes fit into these categories. For example, permaculture classes span food production, sustainability, design, appropriate technology, water and sanitation.
See the suggested topics for content interns for examples of specific topics intended to be developed.
Programs
The main streams are:
- Service learning, also called "Work Integrated Learning."
- Internships
- Informal courses organized through P2PU (proposed)
Appropedia works closely with classes at several universities, so that students help to create a knowledge bank for a rich and sustainable world as part of their course, and are inspired to learn and contribute.
- Our program
- Appropedia has a number of university classes in the United States and Canada using the wiki as a platform for service learning, and we plan to expand this to other universities and other countries. Programs include written research reports, writing up field projects, and translating pages. See also Category:Service Learning and Portal:Service learning.
- So far
- This has received very good feedback from instructors and students. It's a boost to motivation, it showcases the work of the class and the university, and contributes to a global body of knowledge to solutions in sustainability and development.
- The future
- We are expanding the program and are ready to work with new partners.
- We are adding new functionality to Appropedia, first and foremost to serve service learning programs.
- What we offer
- We've had experience with running various kinds of wiki service learning programs, starting with students who've never used wikis. The founder of Appropedia is an engineering instructor at Humboldt State University in California, and a major contributor has been an engineering professor at Queens University, Kingston.
- Ease. Similar to a hosted solution, where the technical load taken by us, the framework already provided and under constant development in response to classes' needs.
- Security. Records are available as a site dump updated weekly, and at any time as an export of all relevant pages with revision history (go to Special:Export and enter the name of any category of whose pages you wish to download).
- These programs teach the students wiki literacy, and let them see how their work is used by others (pageview counter, and potentially comments and messages from other users).
- An experience in collaboration. Pages are rarely developed by just one person.
- A flagbearer for service learning. Whether or not you're working directly with us, the results of these programs can help you overcome resistance to change. You can point to these programs and say "look, it works!"
We're ready to work with people interested in this kind of learning and sharing, from around the globe.
Service learning and internships
There are many ways that students and academics can and do contribute to Appropedia, as well as benefiting from the site:
- Classes can work on Appropedia as part of their assessment:
- Academics and researchers can share what they are doing, describing their work (whatever they are willing to share under our free license), and collaborate with others on the site.
- Students (or any suitable person) can intern with Appropedia, focusing on:
- Knowledge sharing, e.g. through porting work
- IT-related work, helping to manage, troubleshoot and/or develop the site.
- Engagement and/or publicity
- Fundraising
See Portal:Service learning, and don't hesitate to get in touch. We'd love to work with more classes and are keen to support the needs of students and educators!
Platforms
Appropedia's main platform is MediaWiki,W the knowledge sharing software used by Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation websites. Additional functionality is provided through extensions.
There is also a WordPress site which can be used for specific applications, including blog posts.
Our platforms are under continual development, subject to resources, and specific feature requests can always be considered.
Examples
- Clarion University: Clarion students have an international impact for the environment: "The Clarion University student project was a collaboration between the physics department, which routinely uses sustainable technologies to teach physics, and the department of modern languages and cultures, chaired by Dr. Eleanor ter Horst, to expand the information to a global reach. Students worked throughout the semester to develop content in German and French on the mostly English-language website, which features projects that are sustainable and environmentally friendly."
- Humboldt State University
- Queens University, Kingston
For a more complete listing, explore the categories:
.
Service learning programs to date
Courses - Undergraduate and graduate programs include:
- ENGR115 Intro to Engineering
- ENGR215 Introduction to Design
- PH261 Physics of Energy and the Environment
- ENGR305 Appropriate Technology
- JMC330 International Mass Communication
- ENGR308 Technology and the Environment
- MECH370 Materials Processing
- ENGR410 Environmental Impact Assessment
- MECH425 Engineering for Sustainable Development
- MECH820 Solar Photovoltaic Materials, Cells and Systems Engineering
- ENVS353 Alternative Energy Systems
- Tacomepai permaculture design course
- Copyediting
- Languages (page translation):
- Abroad programs:
- Summits and groups:
Internships - Working closely with Appropedia's experienced team, as well as with their academic supervisors, Appropedia interns gain valuable experience:
- Appropedia:Internships describes the various programs.
- Appropedia:Current and past interns describes some of the people and their work.
Postgraduate students - Working with their academic supervisors and with the Appropedia Foundation and Appropedia community for support, postgraduates do valuable work on Appropedia, often focused on deeper research. Topics to date include online collaboration and Open Source Appropriate Technology. These include Masters students at Queens University, Ayon Shahed (past student and continuing Appropedia contributor), and Ivana Zelenika (current student, 2010) of the Queens Applied Sustainability Group.
Examples of content
Students create valuable pages on a wide variety of subjects - which remain as part of this living open knowledge resource, to be improved further. Just a few examples:
- Charcoal Cooler
- Design of a low-cost household water treatment system
- Laser surface texturing
- Solar resource measurement for PV applications
- The solar resource
- Zeer pot refrigeration (design)
- Arcata Marsh (follow links to sub-topics)
Particularly valuable and high quality content is regularly highlighted on Appropedia's main page as well as through our social media channels.
See also Highlighted service learning pages
Guide for teachers
We ask the teachers to:
- Ensure students use an in progress tag to mark each page, if they don't want the pages edited by others yet.
- Highlight the best pages from each class, e.g. by listing them at Appropedia:Highlighted pages
- Marking very low quality pages (e.g. copyright violations, no substantial correct and useful content) with the {{delete}} tag.
- Let us know when a class has finished, so "in progress" tags can be replaced by class attribution tags (we have a bot that can help with this).
- Please consider asking your university to support Appropedia financially. Although the Appropedia wiki platform and our help are completely free and open, we need and appreciate funds to continue our work.
Note that if a page is low quality (such that you don't want to associate with your class) but still has even a little useful content, then the preferred solution is to:
- Remove class tags ("in progress" or attribution)
- Remove problematic material (e.g. copyright violations or incorrect information)
- Add a relevant tag, e.g. {{stub}}.
Appropedia's role
The Appropedia community:
- Works on the wiki platform and the help pages, to make the service learning process as smooth as possible
- Is available to assist with questions and editing needs
The Appropedia Foundation:
- Plays a coordinating role
Call for service learning partners
Join us to improve the experience and quality of education of your students. Any questions, please leave a message on the talk page, or contact us directly.
References
- ↑ Joshua M. Pearce, "Appropedia as a Tool for Service Learning in Sustainable Development", Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 3(1), pp.47-55, 2009.Q-Share pre-print
- ↑ wikipedia:Constructivism (learning theory): "The Constructivist (e.g. Dewey; Montessori; Kolb) learning process is experiential learning through real life experience to construct and conditionalize knowledge. The type of learning is problem based adaptive learning that challenges faulty schema, integrates new knowledge with existing knowledge, and allows for creation of original work or innovative procedures."
Blog posts
Posts from our blog, tagged with service learning:
<rss>http://blogs.appropedia.org/tag/service-learning/feed/</rss>
Read more
- Portal:Service learning
- Service learning posts on the Appropedia Foundation's blog.
Beyond Appropedia: other wikis
As well as the classes using Appropedia, other wikis have students working with them, creating content:
- WikiProgress[1] and WikiGender[2] (both OECD initiatives) have a service learning program involving university classes in France.[verification needed]
- Wikipedia has had several examples of service learning, including:
- WikiProject Murder Madness and Mayhem
- Public policy initiative, supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, reported August 2010.
- WikiProject Classroom coordination on Wikipedia. "Provide guidance to educators who incorporate Wikipedia writing assignments into their classrooms."
See also
- Portal: Service learning
- Portal: Learning
- Category: Service learning
- Category: Service learning members
- Category: Education
Interwiki links
- Service learning - another index of service learning projects on various wikis.