Service Learning: An Act of Participatory, Democratic Learning

One of the problems facing public schools is disconnect between the school, student and the surrounding community. Districts are continuing to be underfunded, and many struggle to get referendums passed, and this is largely due to the fact that local residents are unable to see how the school and community are interrelated. Further causing the current education crisis is the disengagement of students as a result of not seeing school as being important to the community they live in. When asked about their disinterest, many adolescents reply that they view the education they are “receiving” as meaningless. With this sort of perception, the high number of students that drop out of school is not surprising. One component of a remedy to this problem is to develop, promote and incorporate curriculum that is participatory and democratic that encourages students to be active in the learning process. Such curriculum can certainly be multifaceted and take on many different forms such as service learning.

Service Learning connects student and community in a process that greatly benefits both. It makes education an active process by engaging students with content and the opportunity to explore and experience the real world. It has been the discussion of much research in the past decade as many K-12 schools and universities have recognized its value and have mandated it within curriculum. Both quantitative and qualitative research suggests that incorporation of service learning programs can enhance the social, emotional and intellectual growth of students.

In Service-Learning: Thinking Outside the Box, for instance, a study regarding an undergraduate course at the University of Glasgow, Susan Deel, proposes that service learning can trigger personal and intellectual transformation. Because students can work/volunteer in places that they have never been part of before (even in their own community), they can be challenged and tested emotionally and socially. These challenges encourage critical reflection, knowingly or unknowingly. As students reflect on their service situations and experiences they are likely to investigate the situation or problem that they are working with, and discover policies, laws and choices that have created the situation. In this process, students are likely to develop opinions and understanding of their communities and others, and certainly likely to begin questioning and exploring—a goal that all educators have for their students.

Kathy Payne and Betty Edwards in their essay, Service Learning Enhanced Education for Young Adults share the same positive sentiments when it comes to cheering service learning. According to Payne and Edwards, “service learning can reinforce learning for middle grade students, launch themselves into the process for independence in a prosocial manner, and develop the competencies and civic skills they need as they move towards adulthood.” For Payne and Edwards, service learning offers the opportunities for adolescence that are at the threshold of adulthood to have new experiences, develop leadership skills and develop an interest in their communities by building passions. In the service learning process, students develop 21st century skills as they work in teams, problem solve and share and experience rich dialogue that crosses generations, genders, races, cultures, and experiences. As this occurs the learning process becomes an exciting, inviting experience for the students. They are not isolated in a classroom of thirty students but are part of the community that they live. Learning becomes relevant!

As a high school student I was fortunate to participate in a service learning program that brought me to places in my community that I never experienced until my service opportunities. Each year, I volunteered in a different setting, and by graduation I worked with children with special needs, academically struggling youth, local homeless and elderly with dementia. During these experience I sometimes worked with other students from my school and other times not. Throughout the year, while completing my service, I participated in discussion with faculty and other classmates to reflect on the experiences. Aside from just discussing how we felt about the situation we were encouraged to research and present information about the issue, problem, organization, etc. that we were working with. In the process we researched policy, laws, debates, etc. Today, I can testify that I was truly lucky to have such an active, engaging learning experience throughout my four years of high school. In retrospect, I could certainly state with confidence that that these experiences helped in developing my appreciation for public service and being aware of laws and policy.

As teachers and librarians we can aid in working to develop service learning programs. We can provide the literature to administration and school districts about the value, as well as provide information to students of opportunities in the communities. Further, we can even serve as a service opportunity, knowing the wonderful impact it will have on our students and patrons!

Should we be concerned?

"Parent or Pal" seems to be an ever-present question for both parents and educators. Should we be concerned about virtual teen behavior any more than we are about their behavior in the "real world"? Have we given as much thought to the many positive online behaviors of teens? Even a cursory glance at news articles brings several areas for concern to the forefront. An essential question is what is our reaction to these concerns, and what is reasonable action to take in order to address these concerns.

Some of the topics in the headlines include
-Teens are prime targets for marketers but they are not necessarily "consumer savvy." This brings out the issue of financial vulnerability.
-Teens and issues of health is a multifaceted problem. Obesity, bullying, pregnancy, sex, drinking, depression, and risky behaviors are affected by digital influences and media use. Teens do not always consider long term consequences of behaviors, but are more than capable of engaging in those behaviors.
-Teens and digital/media peer pressure is an interesting topic. Several articles and studies refer to media serving as a peer influence. typically teens are influenced by what they think other kids are doing, and how they behave. The media may be "helping shape the social script for teenagers." ( American Academy of Pediatrics) Teens may be getting a distorted view of what's acceptable from their "digital friends".
-Teens and their parents may be growing farther apart, giving new meaning to the term 'digital divide." Parents often do not understand or monitor the online behavior of their children, or underestimate what their children are doing. Parents are very often left "out of the loop" because teens can easily go online for information, guidance and friendships. They can avoid parental involvement by using wireless access through their cellphones.
-Teens and cheating has become a major education issue. There has always been cheating, but now the tools are more powerful and accessible.

The impact of students in the market place cannot be treated lightly. A great deal of money and effort has been spent on studying the influence of teens and how marketers should capture the teen segment.

As a school librarian I see a huge obligation and opportunity to educate students, teachers, and parents about teens and technology, especially in the areas noted above. Next year I will be teaching a media literacy course at the high school and although it will not reach every student, I think this is a great chance to begin the process in our school. Nothing like this has ever been offered there. Part of our technology plan is to provide parent education and communication. The website www.commonsensemedia.org provides terrific and very usable educator resources for addressing many of the concerns listed above. You can register at that site as an educator, and receive free materials.

I'll keep you 'posted' on how the curriculum for this class shapes up.

Fear and the Internet

I have been really interested in the topic of fear as it relates to the internet and media in general. Whether fear is of violence in video games, chatroulette, or creepy cyberstalkers, I was particularly struck by how much of the coverage I found on LexisNexis regarding teens, children, and media used terrifying terms. Many of the headlines included terms like risks, addiction, safety, danger, and violence. There were the occasional stories of the way that technology has allowed teens to do new and great things, but the overall effect I got was the need for protection and limits for addition.

As my earlier post explained, I am not a huge personal internet user. However, throughout this class and with the new media-friendly glasses I am trying on, my first instinct when I hear teens and media is definitely not fear for their safety. Instead, I think that with so much of our society in the U.S. and across the world participating in work, social interactions, and consumer purchasing through internet mediated programming and resources, it is only fair to educate and expose students to effective ways to create and participate in the media filled world around us.

In so many of the articles written, the everyday aspect of many internet and media uses is ignored for the sensationalized dangers of the internet age. For example, my internet use on a daily basis involves visiting the UIUC website to check on my classes, checking my e-mail, reading a few articles at the New York Times site and catching up on an occasional television show on hulu. None of these things causes me any fear and is in fact pretty mundane. (I am even embarrassed to type it because it is so boring.) I am not trying to minimize the real risks and dangers that are present with the internet and other media outlets, however I am just trying to point out the differences between the stories that are prevalent and the realities of many user's experiences.

I am realizing that I am converting to the ideas of this class particularly the idea that media use is already a pervasive part of daily interactions in 2010 and teaching children and teens useful, productive, and playful ways of participation will be of great benefit to them as they navigate their future. An approach that is so concerned with safety will quickly be encountering fear from all sides with little hope for the ways media can positively impact and engage children. From my own experience, if I had ignored all the things I was told to fear as a child, I would never live in the city of Chicago, ride the train to work by myself, read any books that looked at religion in a critical light, or travel out of the country. I understand that there are real safety concerns and issues, but there are also great ways of communication, learning, and interaction with a world that is no longer limited to our physical locations, but can span miles in a single click.

Always use protection?!

The question of fears and concerns surrounding the safety of youth through their interaction and participation with various information and media is one that has been in the back of my mind ever since I started taking classes geared towards working with young adults. Below are a few general questions, in no significant order, that have popped up in my mind when I think about the risks and safety issues surrounding youth and their participation with media, followed by my own thoughts/reflection about these questions.

As a librarian, what role do I play in protecting and keeping youth safe when the very nature of my career is to encourage patrons of all ages to seek any information they please without fear of judgment, impediment, or censorship?

All situational and environmental dependent factors aside, such as what type of library one is working in and whether or not that library has rules and regulations in place concerning the approach to safety for youth, is it really my job as a librarian to keep youth safe when it is my job to provide them with information and encouragement to seek it using various avenues for educational or personal purposes? I mean I’m not saying that I don’t care about the safety of youth, but hypothetically speaking, I can’t be true to the core belief system and goals of librarianship and protect youth from potentially dangerous information or situations at the same time. I can be open and honest about what’s out there and educate young adults on how to be safe and aware, but ultimately I can’t protect them.

And should I want to in the first place?

Education is everywhere and people can and do learn from things and situations both directly and indirectly whether they are fully aware of it or not. There are risks and safety issues involved with everything in life and realistically speaking one can never really be safe from anything. So that realization in mind, how should we feel about the notion of protection? As a librarian, am I doing more harm to the learning opportunities of young adults by trying to protect them or am I simply enticing them with forbidden fruit that they will seek out and taste no matter what if they are motivated to do so? Don’t they get enough protection from their parents and teachers? I’m not saying that librarians are necessarily supposed to be the one’s that young adults come to on the sneak for all the juicy stuff, but in a way I am: we are in the business of serving the organization, preservation, and access of information, not in the business of judging it or impeding it’s flow.

Why can’t and don’t we put more trust in the ability of young adults to protect themselves?

They aren’t as stupid and naïve as they look when it comes to being safe and if they are then it means that their educators--whether that be parents, teachers, librarians, friends, or other people in the community--have failed to educate them and that is the fault and responsibility of their educators not them. I keep thinking about the saying “we learn from our mistakes.” Allowing young adults to freely explore learning through the use of various media without censorship opens up the possibility for both positive and negative opportunities—we shouldn’t always focus on and fear the negative aspects lest they stop us from seeing the positive aspects and potential for learning no matter the outcome.

I keep thinking about my own experience with various forms of media as a young adult both in school and out. We had access to the internet on the few computers that we had in the library, but we were never warned about potential dangers posed by the information found on the internet or taught how to be safe while online. The computers did have firewall protection and we couldn’t access instant messaging services or chat rooms, but other than that we were free to access our personal e-mail accounts and anything else that our hearts desired. I was in high school from 1999-2002, long before social media and sites like YouTube and Chat Roulette, but just because sites like this didn’t exist didn’t mean that the web was any less dangerous or tame.

I convinced my parents, for the sake of my education of course, that we needed a computer and we finally got one when I was a junior complete with dial up internet and housed in my room since I would be the only one interested in using it. After all my homework was done and my parents went to bed, I would join the conversations in random Yahoo chat rooms and just chat. Nobody warned me about the potential dangers of chatting or even said I shouldn’t be chatting in the first place. That being said, nobody warned me that I shouldn’t give out personal information online or agree to meet someone offline who I had been chatting to online. It was all common sense. Not that I’m saying I didn’t benefit from the firewall at school or that I couldn't have benefited from some knowledge about the dangers of the internet and chatting and how to protect myself, but I survived and more importantly learned without protection (this is just my experience and I can't speak for every person or situation).

Some Questions Around Media Concerns

The conversation around the Chatroulette web site (discussed in an early post and comments) and the Daily show’s satirical look at the media’s exaggeration of the web site as a “craze” tied into questions I have had relating to how discussions of fear around media are framed.

I have a particular interest in the debate about violence that surrounds video games. I’m not so much concerned here with the legitimacy of claims about the negative effects of video game violence, but more so interested in how much that debate has framed discussion around video games, to the exclusion of many other discussions.

I don’t dispute the fact that violence is a serious issue. I personally dislike watching violent movies (can’t handle Tarantino) and would definitely prefer not to have youth I work with be violent. However, I’m not quite sure what the long-running debate around video games and violence is supposed to accomplish. If it is conclusively proven that video games cause violence, is the aim to then restrict people from playing these games? To ban the industry from creating violent games? To restrict just young people? Or something else?

Whether or not we researchers, educators, parents come to the conclusion that video game violence is detrimental, video games are already deeply imbedded in our culture – and the video game industry is larger and more pervasive than perhaps even the movie industry in the United States. And it is the most violent video games that are also the top sellers, not necessarily just because they are violent but because they are often the most complex, largest in scope, open-ended and interactive, and generally the best-funded games. So what do we do? What discussions should we be having? And why is the violence debate so often the only discussion the mainstream media seems to be having?

Participatory culture and classroom transformation--easier said than done

Although the video from Dan Brown posted by Anna had its weak points—for example, most of my and my children’s university experience has involved much more than the memorization of facts, and I’m also not convinced that increased access to facts by more people is what drives society forward, his general argument that the nature of institutional education needs to be transformed is one that I have been reading about, thinking about, and agreeing with over the past several weeks.

In Digital Literacies: Social Learning and Classroom Practice, the book I critiqued for my second assignment, editors Victoria Carrington and Muriel Robinson argued passionately that it is not especially useful to view new digital technologies simply as nifty new methods for getting the attention of children so that we can teach them the same old facts; if we want to educate children for media literacy, the very nature of education will have to be transformed from a model in which teachers impart information to students who lack it, to a model in which teachers act more as guides and facilitators and classrooms become communities of co-learners and creators of knowledge. This is a familiar concept to readers of Henry Jenkins's white paper which argues that as digital technology encourages and enables an increasingly participatory culture, the challenge will be to shift the focus of literacy education from one of individual expression to one of community involvement. Ross Todd, in his article “Youth and their Virtual Networked Worlds: Research Findings and Implications for School Libraries”, speaks of the need both to re-conceptualize the school library as a knowledge commons and to shift the goal of instruction from the imparting of information to the development of knowledge.

These scholarly and research backed arguments conform to my own experience as a homeschooling mother. I rarely told my children what they had to learn and I never gave them tests or grades. I was not their chief source of information. They pursued their own interests, learning from books, from TV, from each other, from friends, from other adults, from the internet, and occasionally, even from their father and me. We truly did function as a community of co-learners. I learned along with them. My most important tasks were to facilitate their learning by making resources available to them, to encourage them to think critically about what they learned by asking questions or suggesting additional sources of information, and to help them learn how to accomplish what they wanted to do when they were stuck. All of them have remained enthusiastic and competent learners as they have grown into adulthood.

Having expressed all of this agreement, however, I have to say that I think that transforming how we approach education is a lot easier said than done. My positive experience with homeschooling was dependent upon a household in which there were two parents, there was enough financial security for one parent to be unemployed, and there was one parent who preferred home to career. For many families, public school is the only option.

It may be easy enough to argue persuasively that the nature of education needs to be transformed, but actually achieving those changes is another question altogether. The Jenkins white paper offers a few concrete suggestions for activities that could be used to promote the various competencies that, according to Jenkins, need to be taught, and these are reasonable starting points. But they are still just a beginning step on the road to transformation. Anyone I have ever talked to who has taught in the public schools has spoken of the difficulty of effecting change in the classroom. With more and more emphasis being placed upon test scores, learning standards, complying with various federal and state mandates, and increased “accountability” for teachers and schools, there is precious little room for a teacher to introduce a new way of doing things, and precious little time for a new practice to take root and produce the sort of verifiable positive results that would allow it to be continued.

Transforming how we think about education will take more than persuading teachers of the need for change. In fact, persuading teachers of the need might be the easiest part of promoting change. The greater task will be achieving the social and political change that will need to occur in order for teachers to have more freedom to experiment and try new ways of conducting their classes. I have to admit that this strikes me as a rather daunting obstacle. I would be interested in others’ ideas about what can be done to make it easier and more acceptable for teachers and librarians to transform how education is carried out.

commonsensemedia.org

Commonsensemedia.org is a fascinating web site, there’s so much to look into with reviews and articles about all the various media that young people use or could use but with a parent or educator’s point of view. One feature which I felt was really a smart thing is the things “families can talk about” section of each review featured here. My wife and I frequently will check out a Christian web site provided by Focus on the Family to get movie (and sometimes other media) reviews to see if it’s something we want to see and they provide positive and negative elements as well as other considerations but no specific area that shows how the movie, etc… can be used as a point of conversation between you and your children. (www.pluggedinonline.com) I hope that the people at Focus on the Family might add something like the above to their reviews also.

It was also nice of this site’s creator to have the green, yellow, and red indicators with age appropriateness on each review as well to indicate the level of appropriateness. It was strange then though to see that some of the green ‘go’ and yellow ‘’ labeled sites still came with some pretty strong warnings of inappropriate features especially with web sites. I want to not be an alarmist when it comes to the technologies of web 2.0 but, some of the sites I found here were a bit disconcerting from what the reviews told me and I could understand a little better why some parents are a little gun shy on this topic. I’m glad I’ve taken courses like this and other similar ones as its good to have reminders that there exists a whole plethora of constructive and creative outlets for young people and adults for that matter.

This web site is simply so useful to both public and school librarians alike can use this as a kind of advisory tool to locate web sites to suggest to teens which, they can use to meet their information and entertainment. It could also be a helpful resource to the librarians themselves when doing collection development so they select those media which best meets the patrons of their library. As a school librarian I also liked that they have resources which appear to help you develop an appropriate media policy for your school that’s sensible but, it’s hard to say much beyond that about it as you have to buy the educator’s kit to really learn more.

Lastly, I’ll just comment a little on the resources for parents. This incidentally is something that librarians at either public or school locations can recommend to parents who express concern about their kids using the Internet. There are some really good videos and articles for them to take in and think about with regards to the many media inputs in their children’s lives. It’s great that the developers of the site thought to make this information accessible by age range and topic as obviously, what’s suitable information for one age of the youth spectrum may not be for another. The advice too isn’t preachy and leaves room for the parents to decide, it just gives them points to consider. I think I can best sum up my thoughts on commonsensemedia.org by saying; this is one site I think I will add to my delicious account for future reference-good stuff!

Rheingold and Levine Inspired WebQuest

I thoroughly enjoyed last week's readings, especially the selected articles found in the Civic Life Online book from Rheingold and Levine. I had decided to put together a WebQuest on blogging for our second assignment and was substantially lost on how I was going to organize and present it because I'm not an active blogger whatsoever and making myself blog for this class has been quite the challenge--I'm cut from the same cloth as Katie L--I like to keep a very low/non-existent profile online and admit that I don't participate in anything online ever including blogs, social media, commenting, etc.--so I didn't know how I was ever going to convince young adults why they should start blogging themselves. But after I read the readings for last week, I realized that I could essentially build a WebQuest around Rheingold and Levine's notion of civic engagement through exercising one's public voice via blogging. Hopefully this WebQuest will not only introduce teachers and students to their ideas but actually motivate students to blog by utilizing the suggested activities that Rheingold outlines in his article for blogging. It will probably just die undiscovered in the vast expanses of the internet, but I just thought I would share it with you guys and I welcome any feedback that you might have if you feel so moved to comment ha-ha! (You can link to it below or click on the title to this post).

http://questgarden.com/100/35/6/100409000556/

Chat Roulette

I don't know why, but you'll have to manually put the URL into your browser from the first paragraph of my post if you want to watch the video on Chatroulette. Sorry!

Chat Roulette...the new conversation??

I have a creepy feeling about Chatroulette.com. Of course, it takes me awhile to warm up to any new technology so I am going to try to be objective about this new phenomenon. I get a kick out of being a voyeur as much as the next guy but Chatroulette is too “in your face” for me. For background, watch http://vimeo.com/9669721 informal, funny research on this new use of the web cam.

My gut reaction is that there is something weird about wanting to chat with a stranger who probably has no expertise in anything I’m interested in and whom I will never talk to again and will never meet. I like to meet people that share one of my interests or with whom I can have a relationship. And, of course, there is the pervert factor. Every article I’ve read and news report I’ve seen warns of the sexual implications of this form of entertainment. On Chatroulette one can see masturbation, private body parts, psychos with nooses around their necks, men in bras…need I go on?

Is the right to patronize this site in the same league as the right to read books on sensitive subjects? My opinion is no, it is not. While I am all for freedom of the press and freedom to express your opinions and to talk about the taboo, I think there are some things that do not need to be witnessed. I might join in a conversation about sexual perversion, what is perverse, what the attraction is and why some people like it and others don’t. But it is a whole new ballgame to witness sexually explicit acts. For example, to change the context, it is one thing to read about a grisly murder but it is quite another to witness one.

This is definitely a concern when thought of in the same context as youth. Teens would be the most likely age group to be attracted to this technology. First, some of them have more leisure time than adults and more of their time, leisure or not, is tied to the computer. Secondly, even if a teen is leery of whom they will run into, persuasion of peers will be a big factor. And, most importantly, trying new technology is as familiar as breathing to teens and that, combined with natural curiosity and a sense of daring, might be a dangerous combination.

It’s not that I don’t trust the kids (God, how many times have you heard THAT one!) Seriously though, my concerns are with whom they will start chatting in Chatroulette and what that person will do on camera or ask the kids to do. Older teens have probably seen much more sexually than adults want to recognize but the younger teens and tweens that might get on Chatroulette.com could see things that they are just not ready for. Another concern for me is that the more we see and accept sexual behavior, as well as other outer-limit behavior, the more mainstream it may become, although I think we may have crossed that threshold already.

I would like to say that perhaps there is some educational value in meeting new people from different areas of the world but from what I have read and seen, that is not even possible. Participants move from one to the next partner so quickly, this process is called nexting, that if you are not a beautiful, young girl or naked, you will be nexted faster than you can say hello. This new use of internet technology is purely for entertainment. The point is simply to sit there and see what completely strange thing can be seen. The point is not to chat so much as to be shocked.

To quote Cliff Kuang at Fastcompany.com, “Self-published entertainment has officially moved into territory I can barely comprehend. Parents: One more reason to lock up your daughters.”