Promoting sustainability literacy for students using a 'wiki'
STARS has a credit in the Education & Research category for a sustainability literacy assesment to reconize those insitutions that are assesing the sustainability literacy of their students. In looking for some campus examples, I recently came across a paper from Lisa Payne, who is on the faculty of Coventry University in the UK. Her paper, Using a Wiki to Support Sustainability Literacy struck me as a somewhat novel approach. The paper looks specifically at the ways to engage and motivate IT students in the development of their sustainability literacy. Although it is not completely clear from the paper how succesful this strategy was, it does seem to conclude that the delivery method of information is a key part to engaging IT students in sustainability.
I found this approach interesting considering the recent experience AASHE has had in developing a wiki for climate action planning.
Have any other campuses experimented using a wiki to advance sustainability literacy? Any other ideas for types of delivery methods that engage and motivate students to learn about sustainability?
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Academically, it is an exciting time for sustainability as a field and as a practice. There is a great deal of discussion about what sustainability is, and I have heard accounts at various professional conferences about the range and number of definitions being used.
This poses a challenge, but can be met with faculty discussions and sharing across disciplines. Often the definition revolves around examining present needs and opportunities while enhancing the ability of future generations to meet their needs; Taking the long view; Journey as much as destination; and sense of place.
Interesting to note the evolving state of the field.. Disciplines have a range of history and length of time. Sustainability is often understood to be interdisciplinary, and some call it trans-disciplinary. I have found that complementing sustainability with existing disciplines is particularly exciting from curricular and research perspectives.
The Chronicle for Higher Education lists "sustainability" as one of the top five emerging majors (2009). According to AASHE, there are several sustainability programs in the country for undergraduates, and the number is growing. According to the Princeton Review, 66% of incoming students would like to have information on universities’ commitment to environmental issues, and 24% said it would strongly or very much contribute to their decision on a school. The Department of Labor includes environmental science and protection technicians among the top 30 fastest growing occupations with a projected 28% increase in employment from 2006 to 2016. The New York Times reports that over one-fourth of Fortune 500 companies have a Vice President for Sustainability (likely this number has increased since their spring report) and the majority are expanding these divisions and creating new divisions. What do these trends suggest for curricular development? Students need to be able to meet these new trends… and they can if they pair the study of sustainability with other disciplines such as business, English, communications, chemistry, etc. they are likely to be well informed and engaged. There are several approaches campuses can take, and identifying the best curricular fit (general education requirements, infusing sustainability across all majors, co-curricular focus areas, majors, minors, certificates, and the like) is particularly exciting for campuses across the country. At Furman, we are infusing sustainability across existing courses, have a general education requirement, and considering a range of other possibilities. It would be a delight to continue to collaborate and share across institutions best practices, experiences, and lessons learned... -- Angela Halfacre, Director, Shi Center for Sustainability, Furman University and Associate Professor of Political Science