Integrating Service Learning Online

Integrating Service Learning Online

F. Brockmeier J.D., Ph.D. Faculty, Northern Kentucky University Practitioner Faculty, University of Phoenix

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

Service Learning is a course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students (a) participate in an organized service activity that meets a community need and (b) reflect upon their service activity as a means of gaining a deeper understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, an enhanced sense of civic responsibility, and/or a greater interest in and understanding of community life.

►

Definition adopted by NKU SHAPE committee and presented to NKU community in January 2006. Adapted from Bringle, R. and Hatcher, J. A Service Learning Curriculum for Faculty. The Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Fall 1995, pp 112-122; and Student Action for a Change .

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

For a course to be designated as a service learning course at NKU, it must:  Directly and explicitly link the service experiences to the course learning objectives  Engage students in reflection aimed at connecting lessons from the service experience(s) to course content and life experience  Assess the learning that occurs as a result of the service experience(s)  Require the service experience of all students enrolled in the course (assessment of student learning for the course includes completion of service learning activities)  Demonstrate reciprocity between the students in the course and the community agency or population being served

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

Student philanthropy  A teaching strategy that provides students with funds to learn about and invest in nonprofit organizations.

Integrating Service Learning Online ►

Service learning has four component parts:

   

(1) preparation, (2) action, (3) reflection, and (4) celebration.

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

Preparation  Learning activities may take place prior to the service  Students understand expectations

►

Preparation components:  Identifying the problem  Selecting a project that is either direct, indirect, or advocacy

Integrating Service Learning Online ►

Action is the service

►

Criteria:  Be meaningful  Have academic integrity  Have adequate supervision  Provide for student ownership  Be developmentally appropriate

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

Reflection enables students to critically think about their service experience.

►

Students reflect on their  experiences,  feelings, and  insights, and  share them with others.

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

Students learn from the experience and transfer learning to new situations.

►

Three questions are important in reflection :  What?  So What?  Now What?

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

Celebration  recognizes students for their contributions  provides closure to an ongoing activity.

►

Ways of providing recognition are:  Certificates of Recognition  Joint celebration with service providers  Recognition at special assemblies

Integrating Service Learning Online ►

Using a constructivist theory of education, online is now past the threshold of acceptance with the Academy (Ravai, Ponton, & Baker 2008).

►

The learning that occurs is equivalent to that of faceto-face courses (Zhao, 2005).

Integrating Service Learning Online ►

Best practices in online delivery involve self-discipline with respect to all participants in the learning. ► The instruction is Socratic in facilitation and ► active engagement in learning by the student requires discipline in undertaking and accomplishing the work with little if any deadlines and verification of progress by the leader. ► Learning is the responsibility of the learner. and is imposed from the learner’s internal motivation, not an external loci, imposes commitment and dedication.

Integrating Service Learning Online ►

The major accommodation to online work has to do with the asynchronous aspect and the ► necessity for frequent contact and ► prompt feedback (Bernard, 2008). Since much online communication occurs in written form, the ► written communication encourages the use of composed and thought-out communications.

Integrating Service Learning Online ► ►

►

► ►

The multi-media availability enhances the communication process (Zhang, 2005). There is likewise a technological capability for synchronous, face-to-face communication through media of Webcams and television. There is also streaming video with the added effect that the video can be reviewed sufficient number of times to allow for refreshing of information and recording of decisions to satisfy the needs of individual learners. The discussions can also be archived for future reference. There is available freeware, for example: WiZiQ, e-mail with expanded capacity, and SharePoint. Podcasts can be created and delivered on smart phones.

Integrating Service Learning Online ►

►

While a computer-generated search has revealed 43 articles dealing with the topics of service learning and online environment, only six of those articles deal with the use of the online learning environment in a service learning project[1] (Skill & Young, 2002; Watts, 2003; Trait & Sauer, 2004; Poindexter, 2009; Burton, 2003; Bennett, 2001). Two were calls for the promotion of service learning via online instruction (Bennett, 2001; Trait & Sauer, 2004). The call was echoed in a chapter of a recent book expressing future considerations for service learning (Strait & Lima, 2009). Three of the articles described face-to-face service learning courses in which communication was done online as an enhancement and add-in in a hybrid mode. The final article focused on a variable credit, first-year course that required students complete two hours per week working for an agency in the community and report that work through the online media (Watts, 2003). [1] Using keywords “service learning” and “online course,” databases searched were Academic Search Premier, PsychINFO, Teacher Reference Center, and ERIC for books or monographs..

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

►

It is the learning that is the primary objective

IT’S THE LEARNING, STUPID

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

FOUR PHASES    

Preliminary Phase Initiation Phase Execution Phase Assessment Phase

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

PRELIMINARY PHASE  Institutional Review Board  Student buy-in for Service Learning and relationship to Los  Type of Agency Partner  Conflicts of Interest  Project chunks

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

INITIATION PHASE      

Written statement, agreed upon by all stakeholders Build and maintain community online Communication regularly Trust Alternative forms of communication established Conflict Resolution process

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

EXECUTION PHASE  Asynchronous  Communication norms: ► Subject

of the email, ► Purpose of the communication, ► Content of the communication, and ► Specific individual responsibility

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

ASSESSMENT PHASE  Progress of the Project  Satisfaction of Stakeholders ► Reflection ► Logs

– Individual and Team

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

Identify areas for more concentrated work on the Learning Objectives

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENT  Multiple User Virtual Environments (MUVE)  Skype  Wiki  Freeware ► WiZiQ ► Dimdim ► VoiceThread

Integrating Service Learning Online

Integrating Service Learning Online

Integrating Service Learning Online

Integrating Service Learning Online

Integrating Service Learning Online

Integrating Service Learning Online

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

Journal  Self Reflection

►

Celebration

 Agent of Change

Integrating Service Learning Online

Blog

Integrating Service Learning Online

NKU in Second Life

Integrating Service Learning Online ►

Interest in Course

Integrating Service Learning Online ►

Your functional life skills (communication, assertiveness, problem solving).

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

Critical Thinking  Investigation  Analysis  Analogies  Synthesis

►

Learning Outcomes/Objectives  Team Work  Leadership  Cultural Diversity  Communication

Integrating Service Learning Online

►

Final Product

►

Future  Additional evaluation  Leadership Development  Succession Planning  Organizational Culture Assessment  Strategic Planning

Integrating Service Learning Online ►

Examples:

 BRAC  Afghan Institute of Literacy  The Citizens Foundation

Integrating Service Learning Online

BRAC is a development organization dedicated to alleviating poverty by empowering the poor to bring about change in their own lives.

Integrating Service Learning Online

The Global Service Practicum service learning project to provide to the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) a plan to "figure out a way to bring the message of need” by the AIL Learning Center students who want to learn how to grow their own food, use medicinal plants, and revitalize the natural beauty of their surroundings. In furtherance of that end, AIL has asked us to help them create a method and procedure to bring that need to the attention of the people in the United States communities and seek financial contributions to help Those students.

Integrating Service Learning Online ►

The Citizens Foundation was started by Pakistani businessmen concerned about their country, and it builds terrific schools for needy children there. We’re seeing American- Pakistani relations spiral downward, and billions of dollars in American military aid to Pakistan haven’t accomplished much. The best way I can see to moderate Pakistan and defeat extremists is to bolster secular education. When I travel in Pakistan, I see radical madrasas built by Wahhabi Muslim fundamentalists from Saudi Arabia and other countries, offering free meals to entice students. Fundamentalists donate because they understand the power of education to change a country. And we don’t even compete. Information is at thecitizensfoundation.org.

Integrating Service Learning Online

QUESTIONS?