Disaster Pedagogy/Building Communities

Mercy College professors in Toledo, Ohio responded to Hurricane Katrina through a disaster pedagogy. Students in composition classes created research wikis and participated in email dialogues and exchanges with University of New Orleans students. A new course, Service in Action: The Sociological Impact of Hurricane Katrina, was also created involving an alternative, volunteer-based spring break trip. This reflection explores how communal engagement is shaped, augmented, and challenged by the use of emergent technologies, and how, through the lens of service-learning, students may find their own voices, coming to recognize that they have the power and where-with-all to effect change.