As more and more faculty are moving courses to a hybrid and online format, it presents a challenge to not only find a way to better connect students to the classroom, but also to connect them to real-world learning experiences. Many faculty may think that because they are unable to meet face-to-face with their students, they are unable to provide these experiential opportunities. This session presents the experiences of a faculty member that has successfully set up service learning experiences in online environments.
A service learning component to any course adds a more engaging application of learning to real-world experiences. According to Schoenfeld (2004), service learning helps students fulfill the course goals on a more meaningful way as well as engage students in the important work of serving the community. This relationship between service learning and online learning has existed for many years (Bennet & Green, 2001), yet there are still many lessons that can be shared and learned. Recent research is just beginning to define and describe the details of how to use a variety of information and communication technologies to transform individual activities into social-sharing activities and to build a collective wisdom that transcends individual wisdom (Rosen & Nelson, 2008).
One primary experience that will be shared during this session includes the restructuring an online course: Classroom Applications of Educational Technology, to include a service learning component. As the title suggests, the overarching goal of this teacher education course is to provide experiences which are designed to help preservice teachers understand how to apply technology with their future students. This one credit course previously attempted to do so without any interaction between students and teachers in K-6 classrooms. Revisions to this course required having teacher candidates consult with teachers at a local school throughout the semester to learn more about technologies available to them and to collaborate with them on how they can best be integrated into the curriculum.
This project not only met a need for my students, but also for the teachers of a local elementary school. This service learning project developed a partnership between university education students (teacher candidates) and inservice teachers at a brand-new school less than 10 miles away from the university, who were in need of learning how to properly integrate technology into their teaching. Although new technologies had been installed in each room, the school administration offered very little professional development. When approached with the idea, many teachers mentioned they would love to receive assistance with using the technology.
Early results from the survey given to assess the project indicate that teachers benefitted greatly from the consultations. Faculty evaluations and Blackboard Discussions also indicated a large degree of success in the project and suggestions to improve the project in the future.
The second project included having students in the elementary program consult with faculty members at the university to help the faculty members set up their courses in Blackboard. Many K-12 teachers are expected to have experience with a similar type of course management software, so to meet both the needs of his students and PNC's faculty, the campus' Information Services department provided the students with access and basic training in Blackboard in order to better understand how a to setup a course in such a system. Next, the students in the course were paired up with full and part-time faculty members to provide a one-on-one consultation at a convenient time and place determined by the faculty member.
An evaluation tool was created to measure whether students and the faculty benefitted from the service. Faculty reported that the most significant reason for choosing this form of service was the "one-on-one consultation". One hundred percent of the faculty receiving consultations reported that they would elect to receive future services. Students only received limited amount of training on Blackboard, yet 86 percent of them reported that it was an effective project in" learning a course management system from a teacher's perspective" and 94 percent recommended the project for future students.
[Due to the nature of the word limitations to the proposal, a brief outline of the session is presented below.]
I. Welcome and Intro (video of millennial students)
II. The paradigm shift (more can be taught by ‘doing')- Activity
III. Research associated with pedagogical advantages of service learning
IV. The natural fit of online and service learning (win-win situation)
V. Background and description of projects in teacher education
a. Technology course- helping faculty with Blackboard
b. Applications of technology course- helping local elementary school teachers with implementing new technologies
VI. Lessons Learned
a. Restructuring an existing course (must replace other assignments NOT add on)
b. Connection between learning goals and service activities
c. Locating and securing appropriate partners to work with
d. The balance between structure and flexibility (offering multiple opportunities to participate but rigid requirements regarding services rendered)
e. Legal issues
f. Assessing the student and the experience (share rubrics)
g. How to secure funding
h. Other lessons: everything takes longer than you would expect
VII. Results of Projects- Adapting projects based on results.
VIII. Question and Answer
References
Bennett, G. & Green, F. (2001). Promoting service learning via online instruction. College Student Journal, 35, 4: 491 (7).
Shoenfield, R. (2004). Service-Learning Guide and Journal. Higher Education Edition.
Rosen & Nelson (2008). Web 2.0: A new generation of Learners and Education. Computers in the Schools 25 (2008): 211-225.
