Generating SEG Wiki articles to improve student geoscience content and literacy

From instructional tools to devices used in the laboratory or in the field to facilitate student interactivity and data collection, the use of technology in the higher-education geoscience classroom is not new. However, as the 2014 Summit on the Future of Undergraduate Geoscience Education stated in its summary report, the geoscience community has not fully embraced existing and emerging technologies to engage students that already are connected with digital information and tools. It is not that technology is viewed as an ineffective tool for teaching and learning, but that the pedagogic challenges lie in technology adoption and raising awareness of the educational impacts with individual faculty, as well as within departments. One opportunity to broaden student experience with technology is through a classroom assignment designed to utilize several technologies as tools to improve student geoscience content as well as overall science and information literacies. Challenging students to author a new "geology 101" article for the SEG Wiki addresses these components. In addition, an SEG Wiki article-authoring assignment serves as an opportunity for students to perform digital outreach by providing a reliable resource that can be used by geoscience professionals, K-16 teachers and students, and the general public. Through contributing to the SEG Wiki, students also satisfy a university's mission of service learning and engaged scholarship.