Disseminating Disability Resources: Constructing a Statewide Wiki

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Disseminating Disability Resources Constructing
a Statewide Wiki

• Lauren Cifuentes, Ph.D.
• Sanser Bulu, Graduate Assistant
• Laura M. Stough, Ph.D.
• Amy N. Sharp , Ph.D.
• J. Aaron Resch, Graduate Assistant

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• People with disabilities, their families, and
  their support systems can click on a region to
  locate resources according to categories of need

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Agenda

• Center on Disability and Development and its
  partners
• Rationale for creating the Directory
• What is a wiki?
• Theoretical and philosophical underpinnings
• The Resource Directory
• Contributing to the Directory

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Center on Disability and Development

• One of 63 University Centers on Excellence on
  Developmental Disabilities that focus on
  research, education, and community service
  related to the needs of individuals with
  disabilities and their families
• Texas AM University is one of the newest centers
  funded in October of 2005 by the U.S.
  Administration on Developmental Disabilities

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Center Partners
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Texas Cooperative Extensions Role

• TCEs collaborative role with the CDD is to link
  families with disabilities and/or special needs
  with information, education, and resources.
• This is accomplished via dissemination and
  education.

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Rationale

• Problems the CDD encountered
• Texas Cooperative Extension Agents lacked a
  fundamental awareness about disabilities and
  were, therefore, limited in their ability to be
  advocates.
• Awareness involves understanding the special
  needs individuals with disabilities have.
• Advocacy involves being able to refer people to
  resources that address their needs.

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The Solution

• Through a Directory of Community Services by
  region and category of need, county agents and
  future teachers and service providers will be
  able to-

• describe the types of services needed by people
  with disabilities
• describe systemic services that constitute best
  practice
• describe services that are and are not available
  in urban and rural geographic regions or regions
  populated most by minorities
• generate ways that they as educators might fill
  gaps in services and supports for families
• evaluate the effectiveness of a resource,
  determining what is worthy of being posted to the
  Directory

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How do we broadly facilitate awareness and
empower stakeholders to inform each other of
resources as they identify them?

• By creating a Statewide
• Resource Directory
• using wiki technology

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First of all, what is a Wiki?

• Wiki wiki (or wiki for short) is a Hawaiian word
  meaning fast.
• The backronym What I Know Is.

Wiki Wiki shuttle at Honolulu International
Airport Taken from wikipedia.com
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What is a Wiki

• Collaborative software first designed by Ward
  Cunningham. (WikiWikiWeb, 1994)
• Online workspace where visitors and collaborators
  can add and edit content that has already been
  published on the web.

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Controversy

• Most people, when they first learn about the
  wiki concept, assume that a website that can be
  edited by anybody would soon be rendered useless
  by destructive input. It sounds like offering
  free spray cans next to a grey concrete wall. The
  only likely outcome would be ugly graffiti and
  simple tagging, and many artistic efforts would
  not be long lived. Still, it seems to work very
  well. (retrieved from wikipedia, Lars Aronsson)

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Philosophical Framework- Community
Transformative Potential

• Everyone together is smarter than any single
  person
• Soft security conducted by the community who
  cares
• Halavais (2004)- It took 2 hours for his 13
  intentional errors to be fixed.
• BY, FOR, AND OF THE COMMUNITY

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Learning Theories

• Distributed constructionism (Papert, 1991
  Resnick, 1996)
• Distributed cognition (Saloman, 1994)
• Connectivism (Siemens, 2004)
• Assert that learning can be achieved by creating
  meaningful products in collaboration with
  diverse, geographically separated members of a
  learning community

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The CDD has created A workspace where, using
wiki technology, individuals with disabilities
and their families, educators, and other
professionals are constructing a statewide
resource directory.
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The Resource Directory is Divided into 12 Regions

• Panhandle
• South Plains
• Rolling Plains
• North
• East
• Far West
• West Central
• Central
• South East
• South West
• Costal Bend
• South

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Intricately Defined Resource Categories

• Advocacy and Support
• Autism
• Health and Medical Services
• Early Intervention and Early Childhood Education
• Primary and Secondary Education Services
• Post-secondary Education Services
• Employment and Financial Assistance
• Daily Living Support
• Housing
• Mobility and Transportation
• Psychological and Counseling Services
• Recreation and Leisure
• Summer Camps
• Communication
• Assistive Technology
• Additional Listings

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Contribution Facilitators

• Laura M. Stough, Ph.D. Texas AM, College
  Station
• Amy N. Sharp, Ph.D. Texas AM, College Station
• Marty Harris Texas AM, Texarkana
• Barbara Morganfield Southern Methodist
  University
• Silvia Ramirez UT Pan American

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Overview of Contribution Experience

• WIKI directory project presented to the EPFB
  Field-based class as an assignment
• Objective 1 was to orient the students to the
  taxonomy of services that may be needed by
  families as well as the broad area the state of
  Texas covers (urban, rural, suburban)
• Objective 2 was to expose areas of the taxonomy
  and of Texas that are lacking in supports
• Secondary objective was to pilot the directory

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Process

• Students were presented a grid vertical axis
  composed of the taxonomy, horizontal axis
  composed of the Texas regions identified by the
  WIKI
• Students were able to select an area and a
  support area to find five suitable supports
• Students were then required to enter the data
  into the WIKI
• This process gave the students ownership of the
  area/support they self-selected

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Results

• Pilot data was entered successfully and the WIKI
  became partially populated
• Many students were forced to identify 2nd and 3rd
  areas due to lack of supports for the area they
  initially selected (good for students to realize
  that some areas lack supports)
• Entry process was confusing for those who did not
  pay attention to detail
• Double entries were possible

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Verifying and Expanding the Directory

• A graduate class in special education was
  assigned regions to evaluate the information
  posted by the undergraduates in the directory
• Graduate students were asked to find a minimum of
  15 resources per region
• In addition, to vet the existing resources and
  provide feedback on the quality of entries

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Learning from the Experience

• Students summarized their findings in a short
  report
• A presentation was given to the graduate class
• Students in the class discussed regions of
  concern in the state
• The final exam asked students to locate resources
  as part of a case study of a person with multiple
  disabilities

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Coastal Bend

• Angela Wills
• Laura Doehrmann

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Overall Impressions

• A variety of services available to individuals
  with disabilities
• Information regarding services is easily
  accessible
• A lot of services are geared towards children
  with disabilities i.e. camps, recreation

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Examples of General Categories

• Services to the Blind and Deaf
• Housing
• Support Groups
• Advocacy Groups
• Health Services
• Educational Programs

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Service Providers

• State Mental Retardation Facilities
• MRA Gulf Bend MHMR Center
• The Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental
  Retardation (TDMHMR)
• Corpus Christi Area Council for the Deaf
• Blind and Impaired Services
• LMS Concepts Inc Group Homes
• Coalitions of Texas
• AUTISM PARENT MENTORING GROUP
• FAMILIES WITH ILLNESS SUPPORT GROUP
• Driscoll Children's Hospital

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Service Providers

• 11. Pops (Parents offering Parents Support
• 12. Corpus Christi Disability Education Coalition
• 13. Coastal Bend Autism Advocacy
• 14. Local Refugee Voluntary Agency Offices
• 15. City and County Health Department
• 16. Delmar College
• 17. Corpus Christi Regional Transportation
  Authority
• 18. Coastal Bend TopSoccer Program

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Service Providers

• 19. The Rise School of Corpus Christi
• 20. Bay to Bay ECI Program
• 21. Warm Springs Rehabilitation Hospital
• 22. Muscular Dystrophy Association
• 23. Coastal Bend Down Syndrome Advocates
  (CBDSA)
• 24. The Center for Independent Living
• 25. Advocacy Inc.
• 26. The ARC
• 27. Corpus Christi State School
• 28. Aid to Disabled Children
• 29. Family Counseling Service Corpus Christi
• 30. Camp Aranzazu

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Making the Wiki Grow

• Texas AM University students identify and
  contribute resources to the Directory.
• Forty-six special education faculty members of
  colleges around the state
• Special education specialists in the states
  twenty Educational Region Service Centers
• County Cooperative Extension agents
• Stakeholders
• Now You

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Lets Contribute a Resource!

• http//disabilityresources.tamu.edu/

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Evaluation and Testing

• Usability testing has been conducted on the
  Directory through one-on-one, small group, and
  field testing formative evaluation procedures.
• Findings are that users enjoy learning by
  studying, using, and contributing to the
  Directory.
• They find the content to be accurate and
  applicable to the curriculum and find making
  directory entries straight forward.
• The graphical interface is attractive, bug free,
  and effective.
• Because the Directory uses wiki technology, the
  developers and the community who cares most are
  able to keep track of the evolving nature of the
  Directorys content and use by visitors.

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Evaluation and Testing

• By using one of the functionalities of the wiki
  software, we keep track of created links (pages)
  in a given time period.
• This gives us an idea of how quickly the
  directorys content is evolving.
• We also keep track of visitor information by
  using Google Analytics.
• Google Analytics gives use information for any
  given time period (hours, days, months or years)
  about overall and specific hits of the Directory.
  
• It also provides information related to visitors,
  and overall statistics about total page visits.

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Evaluation and Testing

• During the month of January the site had 87
  visits and 1254 page views.
• 86 of the visits were from Texas and there were
  also 3 separate visits from European countries.
• During the month of January, 34 new pages were
  added to the Directory, evolving from 505 pages
  to 539 pages.

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Evaluation and Testing

• During the month of June the site had 99 visits
  and 445 page views.
• 70 of the visits were from Texas and there were
  also 5 visits from European coutries.
• During the month of June, 22 new pages were added
  to the Directory, evolving from 697 pages to 719
  pages.

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The Future of the Directory

• Several issues have arisen from use of the wiki.
• For instance, although the Directory is visited
  by many users per month and hundreds of people
  have been invited to contribute to the site, the
  broad learning community is not contributing
  resources to the site to the degree that we
  hoped.
• The developers recommend an investigation
  characterizing members of user communities and
  identifying both how members of a community use
  the site and what barriers interfere with
  interest in making contributions.

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Wiki Maintenance

• There are two types of maintenance that need to
  be done for the wiki-based Directory.
• Maintenance of wiki software on the server to
  ensure security and efficiency
• Backing up and editing directory content to
  ensure safety and accuracy

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Wiki Maintenance

• The Directory was developed using PM Wiki
  software that is regularly updated every three to
  four months as additional functionality is added.
  
• Optional functionalities include password
  protection, discussion boards, responsive
  comments, or different styles and formats.
• Keeping the software up to date and bug free is
  very important to avoid security problems and
  software errors.
• Since there is always the possibility of loosing
  Directory content due to uncontrollable server
  problems, it is important to backup directory
  information that is continuously updated by
  users.
• Users can create unwanted links and content in
  the system that should be managed to eliminate
  spam, provide for better user experience, and
  control information accuracy.

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Conclusion

• The goal is to build awareness and provide access
  to resources
• The power of community
• A faith that we can collectively create high
  quality services entrusted to only a few in the
  past
• Each entry is collaboratively produced through
  negotiation on correctness, meaning, relevance,
  etc.
• You have power to edit the Directory and make it
  better

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How You Use and Contribute to the Directory of
Community Services?

• Open the following website address in your
  browser http//disabilityresources.tamu.edu.
• Click on the Directory for Individuals with
  Disabilities and their families in Texas
• If you can recognize your region from the Texas
  map, then click on your region to locate
  resources or to add a resource to your region. If
  you cannot recognize your region, you can locate
  your region by county name or zip code by
  clicking the search for a region by using county
  name or zip code link at the top of the map.
• Once you are on a region page, you see a list of
  categories of resources. Click on the category
  under which you want to enter information.

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Instructions Continued

• (1) To get started-
• Check the current resources already posted to
  make sure the one you want to enter is not
  already posted.
• You can add information to the category by using
  the edit option from the main menu at the upper
  right of the category title.
• Enter the password region.

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Instructions Continued

• 2) To add the name of the new resource to the
  list of available resources
• Place the cursor directly after the category
  heading (e.g. Advocacy and Support groups) and
  hit return
• Type and then the new resource name between
  double square brackets resource name
• Please do not delete previously entered content.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the
  save button once you type the resource name
  between the double square brackets.

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Instructions Continued

• 3) To enter information about a resource
• You will see a page with a new link to the
  resource you just entered just after the category
  title, for example Advocacy and Support Groups.
• Click on the new link that you created.

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Instructions Continued

• Enter resource information by first typing the
  list below for each resource. For each new line
  that you want to start, press return/enter twice.
• Address
• Phone Number
• Web Address
• Hours
• Cost of Services
• Eligibility
• Spanish Speaking Staff Member, yes/no
• Description of services

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Instructions Continued

• Press the save button.
• Repeat this process for each resource you want to
  enter.
• To view your entry you have to go to the region
  and category you visited to enter information
• To enter new information, go to the region you
  want to enter information either going back to
  your region from the menu at the left or using
  the Texas Resource Directory Regions menu item
  at the top of the category under that region.