Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/57337
CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY Teaching Business In an entrepreneurship course at the University of Arizona, student teams tap the power of wikis, blogs, and social networks to take their startups from idea to launch. by Tricia Bisoux In a Web 2.0 World W hen Jim Jindrick wants to check on the progress of the student teams in his entrepreneurship class, he doesn't need to make phone calls, send e-mails, or arrange meetings. Jindrick, a men- tor-in-residence at the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management in Tucson, simply goes online and logs onto each team's wiki space. There, he can see the full extent of the students' collaboration on their startups, including their latest research and assignments, meeting agendas and minutes, and updated business plans. He can leave comments on their progress and read the comments of other advisors. "In the past, there could be a week or two between a document's creation and its availability to instructors and mentors," says Jindrick. "With wikis, I can click on any team's wiki space and see the history of their work and exactly where they are today." Jindrick is among a group of educators at Eller's McGuire Center for Entre- preneurship using wikis—digital documents that allow multiple users to make edits, additions, and comments—liberally in their courses. They began to look seriously at wikis in April 2007 when center director Sharon Hoskinson asked faculty to look for ways to incorporate the latest communications technologies into the center's yearlong entrepreneurship course for undergraduate and MBA students. "We wanted to infuse and embed these technologies, not as add-ons, but as integrated parts of the course," she says. Hoskinson charged Randy Accetta, the program's business communications director, with the task of studying available technology. Accetta assembled a team of undergraduates to discover what cutting-edge communication tools and strategies students weren't already using to best advantage. Together, they decided that wikis were the way to go. "The wiki is such a dynamic Web site and data storage tool," says Accetta. "I thought there were great ways for students to run with this technology and learn to use it for any intellectual venture." Wikis help students in three areas crucial to starting a business, says Accetta: internal project management, opera- tional efficiency, and Web site design. Student teams have been using wikis since the course began in September. In many cases, Eller faculty have found that wikis enable students to do more in less time and work better collectively than they could using more traditional technologies such as course management systems and e-mail. In the process, students haven't just been using wikis to organize the large amounts of infor- mation involved in planning and launching a new business. They've also been getting a thorough introduction to the latest Web 2.0 technologies. The more students use such communication technologies in their business coursework, say these professors, the better they'll be able to navigate business in a Web 2.0 world. 28 BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008