John Wallace, in his writing about the impetus for service learning says, “Students want their education experiences to form an arc that aligns what they learn with their interests and passions, talents, ideals and values, and their role as agents in the world.” Cedarville University aims to be that kind of educational bridge. It’s goal is that every student discover what she was created to do in order that she best reflect the image of God to the world and help others in the world to do the same. And it hopes to equip every student with the knowledge and skills to do good in the world and bring about reconciliation. In the past Cedarville University has used venues like Christian Ministries and MIS to provide students with service experiences. It is exciting to learn that professors at CU are now embracing service learning pedagogies that directly connect academic learning with civic responsibility. http://etextb.ohiolink.edu/bin/gate.exe?f=doc&state=6v655i.3.1
Cedarville University’s own Sandi Harner published an article about the Service-Learning project she developed as part of her TPC class. She titled the article Technical and Professional Communication Majors Use Their Skills to Help Poverty-Stricken People. She writes the following:
During the Spring semester in 2010, a group of Cedarville University students majoring in technical and professional communication (TPC) partnered with a nonprofit organization [Opportunity International] to help poverty-stricken people in developing countries…. The goal of OI is that each client in these developing countries be able to have a web site that would advertise their services…The TPC students were asked to use their skills to bridge the [language] gap in this endeavor” by creating and publishing a content management system user manual for all the clients so they would be able to publish their own websites. Read the full article
I spoke with the Mrs. Harner about her experience and asked her if she had any advice for other Cedarville University professors as they meet the 21st century global expectations. She provided the following suggestions:
- Select your cooperating organization carefully. It is important they understand this is an educational/ learning experience for the students, not an opportunity for free services/labor.
- Articulate limitations and reasonable timelines
- Expect active and sustained commitment; Create and Sign Contracts
- Provide training for everyone involved
- Help the organization understand the academic process
- Help the students understand the mission and rules of engagement of the organization
- Front load necessary content so students are able to apply what they have learned, but also allow students to learn as they apply.
- Reflect and Assess regularly
For more information about Service Learning see this month’s CTL Spotlight. http://ctl.cedarville.edu/resources/
…now colleges and universities are seeing the work of the
world as inextricable from the life of the mind.Caryn McTighe Musil, senior vice president of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives, AACU
