Hi All,
As Chris Koliba mentioned in his initial inquiry, one of our disappointments with the electronic discussion as reflection vehicle for service learning was that students did not engage each other very often, and then only superficially (i.e. descriptive in nator or informational requests). To address these concerns, we have decided to use much smaller groups, say of 5-6 students in an electronic circle, and to recruit a faculty moderator for each circle. We have a bit of money to pay for the faculty moderators (say $100 per semester) and they will be responsible for putting out the lead questions (roughly once every two weeks) and providing feedback and follow-up questions to each student. The students will be required to engage at least two other students' comments each time, and to make sure that they converse with everyone else at least once during the semester. We have the "prompting" questions that we'll give to the faculty moderators every two weeks to launch the next round
of discussion.
Just thought you all might be interested in how we have decided to address the perceived weaknesses of our experience this year with electronic reflection attached to the Service Learning Credit (formerly the Fourth Credit Option).
peace,
Sam
Sam Marullo, Ph.D.
Director, Volunteer and Public Service Center
Georgetown University
St. Mary's Hall, B-01
Washington, D.C. 20057
phone: 202-687-3703; fax 202-687-8980
>>> Campus Outreach Opportunity League COOL <homeoffice@COOL2SERVE.org> 05/15 12:16 PM >>>
I've got to say that I strongly agree with Michele, Dave and others about
the increased value list-serv's can provide academic service-learning
classes. On other fronts though I'd like to encourage folks to consider how
list-servs might be used within CO-CURRICULAR service-learning programs as
a way to introduce, or even expand, service-learning OF ALL KINDS on your
campuses.
While many of these co-curricular SL programs introduce regular reflection
into their content, they often have trouble involving all of their
volunteers. Lacking the obvious "carrot and stick" of grades, and dealing
with many more students, each with vastly different class and work
schedule, reflection is often a difficult thing for these programs to
facilitate. List-serv's on the other hand (structured around either
specific issues, or a commonly shared service project, etc.) could perhaps
serve as a vehicle to allow more students to experience some sort of
reflection and benefit from its educational advantages. Additionally, these
kinds of lists (or similar technology) could greatly help further the
development of both the co-curricular and academic SL on campus.
POTENTIAL BENEFITS TO THE STUDENTS:
* hearing and sharing ideas and thoughts with their peers on community and
social issues.
* getting practical help on common challenges in the field (particularly
useful if you have folks working at the same site but during different
days,shifts, etc.)
* sharing resources with one another (books, articles, films, quotes, etc.)
* allowing volunteers who may be working alone at certain sites to get
inspiration and help from their peers.
POTENTIAL BENEFITS TO YOUR SERVICE-LEARNING EFFORTS:
* providing you with a mechanism to specifically promote relevant academic
courses (service-learning or other) to students just begining to explore
certain issues through their work.
* providing you with ideas for the development of new SL courses that are
relevant to emerging student interests and curiosities.
* Providing you with timely information about the effectiveness of specific
service-learning placements
* Potentially a great way to (informally) introduce faculty or
administrators to the potential power of service-learning and reflection.
(i.e., by getting them to "listen-in" to the discussion; soliciting their
participation when an issue emerges that mets their expertise and
interests; or even by getting them to facilitate the discussion.)
I'd be curious to hear what others on this list think about this idea?
Perhaps some folks out there have even been using such a strategy already?
In Service,
-Lloyd-
Lloyd Jacobson
National Programs Director
Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL)
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