Service learning is the Rodney Dangerfield of education. Students say that it’s an “annoying requirement.” Parents say, “My kid will learn more in the classroom than in the community.” Teachers say, “It won’t improve test scores.” Principals say, “It’s a feel-good mandate that kids aren’t capable of understanding.”
Read this article to find out about the six myths and the real facts about service learning. Done right, service learning benefits students both academically and socially, creates opportunities for learning citizenship, empowers youth, and benefits schools and communities. And that’s no myth!
“When middle school students Alison and Nat confer with their teachers, it’s to talk about the lessons the students are preparing for student teachers as part of a new Generation www.Y program. The young people are part of a growing group in schools across the country who are sharing their own expertise to help make prospective teachers more aware of how students learn and the best ways technology can be used to support their learning.”
Edutopia, the website of the George Lucas Educational Foundation published this story and video on the GenYES program in Olympia, WA. The video is from a while back when the model was called Generation www.Y. That was a bit difficult to pronounce, so we changed the name to GenYES.
This video was created during an interesting time period – the GenYES students not only worked with teachers at their school, but formed teams with their teacher and a pre-service teacher. These 3 member teams learned and taught each other technology, and prepared lessons using new technology. Just another way students can be involved in improving education for all!
This is an exciting announcement! We’ve been working with a terrific group of folks on an initiative called START – Service & Technology Academic Resource Team. All the members of the team are working to combine service learning and student-led support for technology in schools.
Led by the Corporation for National Service (CNS) with financial support from Microsoft, groups such as Generation YES, MOUSE, CREATE, SWAT, and others have been working together for a couple of months. Our mission is to figure out how to create more visibility nationwide for student service learning in technology
START today announced that six schools will form a core team to experiment and determine what this will mean (press release.) GenYES school Winston Churchill Middle School from the San Juan School District in California joins Tupelo Middle School (Tupelo, MS), Lower Eastside PS 515 (New York), East Garner MS (Garner, NC), Parkway West HS (Philadelphia), and Forest Park HS (Woodbridge, VA).
The announcement today in Washington DC featured a talk by Karen Cator, the new director of educational technology for the US Department of Education. She then led a student panel in a discussion about how powerful the intersection of technology and service learning can be. GenYES teacher Jeff Darrow, from Winston Churchill MS flew out from California to participate and we are extremely proud that Jeff and his students are representing us in this effort. His district, San Juan, has several GenYES schools, all doing wonderful work and so Jeff was not only representing his school, but his district and all the GenYES schools across the country.
We are calling on educators and web professionals to join our new effort – the 2010 MLK Day Technology Challenge. The idea is simple: to connect schools with technology needs to IT and web professionals, developers, graphic designers and new media professionals who are willing to volunteer their skills for good, take on these technology projects and give back to a school in need.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others?” We ask that you answer his call in 2010 by participating in the MLK Technology Challenge.
Why not turn this around – how about students offering services to the community or their own school? Why rely on the help of kind-hearted outsiders when there is a tech savvy crew right on campus who just need some guidance to get busy!
The Day of Service website has some great suggestions for projects -
Enhance the school’s website by creating blogs or discussion groups for various student groups, such as student council, chess club, drama group, dance troupe, or varsity and intramural teams.
Create a Facebook Fan Page for your school or for your Parent-Teacher’s Association, Student Government Association or Alumni Association.
Create a NING social network for your school or a school organization.
Of course, all of these things could be done by students.
Even if you bring in outside expertise, include students. You can register your school’s technology need and ask for help by registering your school’s technology need as a “volunteer opportunity” with one of the partner websites listed here.
When you create your volunteer opportunity, be sure to:
Use a descriptive title and make sure to include the “MLKTech” keyword – the keyword is necessary for search.
Set the date as January 18, 2010
But remember, when you do get volunteer help, include students in the meetings. Let them apprentice with the volunteers so that once the volunteers go back to their real jobs, you still have students who know what to do. Building local capacity pays off in the long run!
In an ongoing effort to promote youth empowerment in education, we’d like to offer this research synopsis. This one pulls together several of our favorite subjects: youth development, project-based learning, and technology.
Best Practices for Integrating Technology and Service-Learning in a Youth Development Program by JoAnn R. Coe-Regan, PhD and Julie O’Donnell, PhD, MSW.
Community-based programs that are meant to promote youth development have been around for quite awhile. Numerous studies indicate that youths benefit from these programs in many ways: a more positive self-image, a reduction in risk taking behavior, improved school behavior, etc. Because research illustrates the success of after-school programs, federal funding has increased from $40 million to $1 billion in recent years. A ubiquitous and recurring challenge these programs face is how to recruit and retain teens despite the potential barriers of boredom, family responsibilities, and spending social time with their friends.
In 2006 the YMCA Youth Institute of Long Beach, California developed a service-learning program to help overcome these barriers which “…uses technology as an integral mechanism for promoting positive youth development and enhancing the academic success and career readiness of low-income, culturally-diverse high school students.” (Coe-Regan & O’Donnell, 2006)
The YMCA Youth Institute research is unique in the fact that it focuses on the mutually supportive benefits of technology and service-learning. It also supports the idea that effective technology learning is more than skill acquisition, but is built into collaborative, authentic projects.
Overall, the study found that service-learning which emphasizes technology not only increases positive youth development, it also retains and sustains the service-learning program. Participants were particularly attracted to learning new technology skills and saw this as increasing the likelihood of being successful in life.
The participants spent the entire year working in teams to develop projects including digital storytelling, graphic design, 3D animation, and how to troubleshoot and use computer networks. Additionally, curriculum was developed to link the project content to school content standards.
Coe-Regan and O’Donnell identified five best practices to implementing a service-learning program that emphasizes technology to enhance positive youth development.
Focus on under-served youth. The study found that ‘nesting’ such programs in low-income, diverse communities helped youth connect with a wide range of other cultures as well as helping reduce the ‘digital divide’ that many youths must overcome to be competitive in the 21st Century job market.
Use collaborative, project-based techniques to teach technology. The study found that using projects to teach technology not only increased interest, but participants also gained better planning and problem-solving skills than traditional, specific skill acquisition. Youth also gained more confidence by learning from ‘trial and error’ and from working in teams to develop ‘real world’ solutions to problems as they arose.
Emphasize the usefulness of technology skills in the workplace/higher education. It was found that many youths are well aware of the expectations teachers and employers have in regards to technology competency. Therefore, participants had an authentic desire to learn about new technology. It was found that the program retention increased due to the youth’s determination to succeed in college and the marketplace by developing their 21st century skills.
Stress the importance of service to the community. The study found that 90% of participants found their service learning experience to be positive. Many of the youths continued their service learning beyond the program by participating in internships, volunteering, or helping teachers in their school with technology.
Focus on personal growth and development. “The data suggested that this technology program appeared to have the ability to do more than simply influence technology outcomes. Many participants mentioned the technology skills when asked about the overall general knowledge and skills, but the majority of participants talked about other things they learned about themselves and life skills that went beyond technology skills and knowledge. These included: developing leadership skills, making friends, getting along with others, speaking in front of others and voicing their opinions, balancing life and gaining the motivation to continue with their career goals.” (Coe-Regan & O’Donnell, 2006).
Overall, the study found that service-learning which emphasizes technology not only increases positive youth development, it also retains and sustains the service-learning program. Participants were particularly attracted to learning new technology skills and saw this as increasing the likelihood of being successful in life.
Reference: Coe-Regan, JoAnn R, & O’Donnell, Julie. (2006). Best Practices for Integrating Technology and Service Learning in a Youth Development Program. Journal of Evidenced-Based Social Work, 3, 210-220. Retrieved from EBSCO Host Database.
(This synopsis was written by Steven Hicks, Generation YES grants and special projects coordinator.)
The National Service-Learning Partnership has announced a challenge to those interested in service learning. October 5-11, 2009 will be a week of special events and community outreach that will raise awareness and build support for service-learning across the United States.
Students involved in GenYES and TechYES programs across the country and around the world are providing service to their schools and communities, and this is a great way to show students that they are part of a growing movement of citizens stepping up and working for change.
Yes, I know the title of the Edutopia article says RURAL students reap academic gains from community service, but really, there’s nothing here in this article that wouldn’t apply to any student service, rural, urban, or suburban.
The service learning examples in this article are terrific, and there is a nice video accompanying it. In this district, academic scores are up, attendance up, and all kinds of other good schooly information is connected to the service learning.
But really, it all comes home for me when the students articulate what service and learning mean to them.
James (not his real name), a student who received many Fs his freshman year and who was a chronic truant until he moved to the Fowler district, surveys his shed with pride. “We accomplished something for the little kids,” he says. James, who is graduating from Casa Blanca, attributes much of his success to service learning. “Every day, this is what I love coming to school for — doing projects and building stuff for the community,” he explains.
James also points out that it’s more critical to do work right the first time on a construction project than on a math worksheet, where he can easily rework mistakes. “If you mess up on the real project, you can’t just erase it. You’ve got to buy more wood. It’s not cool.”
James is pointing out something that should be such a obvious principle of education, but often gets lost in the achievement/assessment/accountability shell game: Learning only matters if it matters to the learner. Achievement can be measured in pride, not wasting wood, and helping little kids–not filling out worksheets. The only reason anyone would be surprised that a “chronic truant” cares about his work or about little kids is that we rarely ask students to demonstrate their human capacity for caring for others while in school.
Hope everyone reads this terrific article and congratulations to the profiled school district in Fowler, California!
The numbers are interesting – the percentage of K-12 schools who say they “recognize” or “arrange” student participation in community service remains high. Although down slightly from a whopping 92% in 1979, it increased from 83% to 86% in the nine years since the last survey. But the study confirms a downward trend in school service-learning, from 32 percent in 1999 to 24 percent in 2008.
Community service is different from service-learning. Service-learning has clear curriculum and learning objectives, and is integrated into classes and subjects. So for a school, service-learning is a bigger commitment that requires funding, resources, and attention, all of which are in short supply these days.
Peter Levine blogged this past week about this crisis in the service-learning movement. Peter is director of CIRCLE, (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) out of Tufts University which conducts research on the civic and political engagement of Americans between the ages of 15 and 25.
He says,
“It’s my sense that the movement for service-learning has reached a crisis point. It isn’t included in federal education law; it isn’t a priority in an era of concern about reading and math; the federal funding has been cut (in real terms) since 2001; and the quality of programs is so uneven that outsiders could be reasonably skeptical about its value.”
Dan Butin of The Education Policy Blog blames this directly on NCLB, “In such an age of standardized accountability, of course service-learning offerings would be minimized and marginalized. And especially when a reform effort at the K-12 level is not rooted deeply, it becomes a casualty of another innovative pedagogical and curricular offering left behind in an age of all too many things left behind.”
Of course, every crisis brings the opportunity for creative solutions. Peter goes on:“On the other hand, the best programs are superb; they fit the outlook of the incoming administration; and there is strong support for service-learning in the Kennedy-Hatch Serve-America bill that both Senators McCain and Obama promised to sign. That bill would direct most resources to poor districts, which today are much less likely to offer service-learning. So we could be poised for improvements in quality, quantity, and equality. Or else service-learning could falter if Kennedy-Hatch isn’t fully funded and the grassroots movement continues to shrink.”
Yes, we can! The time could not be better to reinvigorate service-learning in schools. Schools can become centers of community redevelopment, eco-awareness, technology support, and service. With support and funding, service-learning could transform lives of youth and bring community benefits — especially in poor neighborhoods where the need is greatest and these programs have the most impact.
Today’s students are increasingly savvy about the role technology plays in modern life. Yet schools are not keeping up. Students can be valuable resources in the areas of training and support. Five models have emerged that balance the benefits of service learning and leadership with the needs of schools struggling to integrate technology: students as committee members, students as trainers, students as technical support agents, students as resource developers and communicators, and students as peer mentors and leaders.
Unfortunately, most of the articles aren’t online, just the abstracts, although you can buy the articles.
As I’ve said before, Educational Leadership is one of the best publications dealing with K-12 education. Published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), every issue focuses on a single broad topic. The November 2008 issue is “Giving Students Ownership of Learning” and features some terrific articles about aspects of student-centered education from active learning, formative assessment, student voice, developing student expertise, the power of audience, and more
As I’ve said before
