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 =Writing The World: A Wiki for Collaborative and Interactive Writing Across Borders=

(from Ruscelli, Girolamo "Carta Marina Nuova Tavola", Venice 1561?, as found at "Contemporary Maps of the World", //Alabama Maps//**,** Cartographic Research Group, Department of Geography, University of Alabama. last updated: 28 August 2008; accessed 2 September 2008 http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/index.html)

Preface:
Time and space collapse with each new advancement in technology. As these two entities dissolve, we find we are neighbors with nations and groups that for centuries were considered foreign, exotic, and unapproachable. Even enemies.

As the internet has brought the world into our living room, we find too that it, like any technology, can be used either as a weapon against those we do not understand, or a tool for uniting and getting to know other cultures. The latter is the purpose of this wiki. It makes its own small attempt to initiate contact between students in two different countries. Teachers and students in the early 21st Century can't even begin to imagine the technologies that this age will usher in; however, one thing is certain: young people today need to understand other perspectives and ideas, and need to be able to communicate across cultures. Diplomacy and empathy need to emerge as required skills, in order for our world to survive peacefully.

The union is between students in an Anlaytical Writing class at [|Medaille College], in [|Buffalo, New York], and students in the Department of [|American Culture and Literature] at [|Kadir Has University] in [|Istanbul], Turkey.
 * The Schools Involved**:

Instructors involved with this wiki are: in Buffalo, Dr. Mary Louise Hill; and in Turkey, Dr. Mary Lou O'Neill, Ms. Hande Tekdemir and Mr. Hardy Griffin.
 * The Instructors:**

Instructors bios :

The students involved in the project include 2008-2009 freshman class at Kadir Has; during Fall 2008, they were enrolled in Mr. Griffin's and Ms. Tekdemir's Rhetoric and Composition classes and Dr. O'Neill's Analysis & Argumentation course. During Spring 2009, the same group continued to work with Mr. Griffin.
 * The students:**

In Buffalo, the students were enrolled in Dr. Hill's ENG 200 Analytical Writing courses, during the Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 semesters. The students were different each semester. Those students are:

Medaille students

Kadir Has students

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Assignments:
During the different semesters, students have been given a few different assignments to encourage inquiry, research, and sharing. Please follow the following links for actual assignments:

Medaille College Assignment Fall 2008: Medaille College Assignments Spring 2009:

Kadir Has University Assignments Fall 2008: Kadir Has University Assignments Spring 2009:

=Going into Spring 2009:= It seems that we will be continuing the project in Spring! Right now, the goal is for this to become very much a site for students to publish articles for each other, and to learn together and from each other. A difficulty occurs, though, when working across cultures, because we have two different academic calendars. For your information, here are the links to the calendars for each school (including information on starting dates and breaks:

[|Kadir Has Academic]Calender (note to American students: the dates on the Kadir Has calendar use the European system, with this order of elements: day/month/year. Thus 20/2 = 20 February.

[|Medaille Academic]Calender (follow link for Day Spring Classes) Medaille begins classes on 20 January (Inauguration Day), and Kadir Has begins on 6 February. The new Medaille students will post their bios two weeks later. =How students can get in contact with other students on this wiki:= Our [|blog] at Wordpress. Watch here for updated discussion questions. This is an Open Blog. Our group on [|Facebook]. If you are a member of Facebook, search Writing The World Wiki. Request to join; if you are in one of the classes involved, you will be admitted. Then you can look for other wiki collaborators who are members of Facebook. Or you can simply contact Mary Louise Hill via this wiki, and I'll invite you to the group.

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As of 2011, this page is no longer active. At the end of the semester, students were asked for permission to leave their work on this wiki. Only those who granted that permission remain on this publication.

Writing The World is protected by a Creative Commons License. Please see the link below for information about use of material found on these pages. For Further information about this wiki,and the materials on it,please contact the instructor at DrMLHill@gmx.com media type="custom" key="9332436"