Wiki Week

This week we had the opportunity to learn about wikis. Initially I thought this just meant Wikipedia, but what I have found out is that there are numerous wikis throughout the web. A wiki is a web site that allows users to edit its content and structure. Many wikis require its users to register before they edit, which helps the webpage monitor who posts what. A wiki that I found is called Green Wiki. This wiki focuses on the environment and its members share how to live sustainable.

In addition to learning about wikis we have had to edit a Wikipedia page. To do this we had to create an account with Wikipedia and then find a stub. The stub I found was one on zero-carbon cities. The process of finding a stub was quite time consuming, as there were many interesting topics to choose from. Once I selected a couple stubs I did minor research to see how much information I could find on each. When I thought I had enough information I settled on zero-carbon cities. 

The most difficult part of this assignment was finding references that had what I needed. There was lots of information about each city that was becoming zero-carbon, but each already had a page. Eventually I found some papers to pull information from. What I found to be the most useful in the papers were the abstracts and introductions; these gave general ideas about the topic. Here is a picture of my Wikipedia page.

My Wikipedia Page

Patterson, J. (2012). Zero-carbon city Wikipedia Entry (Screen Capture). Retrieved on: March 22, 2012 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-carbon_city)

In doing this assignment I realized how much I rely on Wikipedia as a starting point to find sources and information. A problem with Wikipedia is its accuracy, a classmate of mine discusses this problem. 

Career Profiling: A Post About Where Our Choices Can Take Us

The thought of life post graduation is both exciting and terrifying. Many graduates have anxiety when faced with having to search for a full time job. It can often be difficult to find a job that applies to your degree and that you are qualified for, as many places require at least two to three years of experience. A good idea for soon to be graduates is to keep an open mind when it comes to career options, doing so helps make every chance seem like an opportunity. In this blog post I will look at two potential career opportunities for myself.

The first potential job I will look at is an Environmental Educator. This job requires educating others about conservation, preservation and sustainability. The opportunities are vast because environmental education does not just apply to one demographic; children, teenagers, adults and seniors need to be educated. Some roles that an Environmental Educator takes on are planning programs, such as outdoor schools, and organizing and delivering presentations. This type of workplace would require strong oral communication skills. A great employee would need to be able to capture their audiences’ attention in a way that would make them passionate about the topic.

Giving an inciting presentationPresentation Agency. (2012). New research: Presentation slides make more of an impact than words. Retrieved on: March 8, 2012(http://www.presentationagency.com/)

The other potential job I will look at is an Environmental Communications Officer. This job involves informing the public about environmental information on behalf of a specific company. Communication styles in this type of work would be verbal and written. A job posting that I found states that a viable candidate must have excellent communication skills. In this job communication is very important because the future employee will be leading a team. When an individual is leading a team they not only communicate with the team, but they also must convey findings to their employers. In my opinion this type of job should also require a degree in communications or public relations.

The role communication plays within a workplace is astronomical, because of this a fellow classmate of mine points out that it is important to always stay caught up with new forms of social media. By doing this blog post I have learned that there is a wide variety of career opportunities in my field and more than one suits me.