Community-Based Learning in Action

Head over to the Office of Community-Based Learning’s blog to see posts by students in Prof. Angela Paradise’s Mediated Communication Theory course.

The students in this senior capstone course are working at the Davis Commons to teach the kids there about media literacy.  Different students from the class have been posting to the CBL blog about their experiences:

We sparked more conversation as we showed other clips; these discussions were based on the research we covered in our CO419 class about “high risk” and “low risk” depictions of media violence. Such high-risk depictions of media violence can potentially lead to three negative outcomes (the learning of aggression, desensitization, and fear) among audience members. We showed clips where violence was rewarded and where it was punished. By the end of the lesson, the kids were telling us about desensitization (one of the three documented effects of media violence exposure) and how they see it in their schools and communities. At this point, it was clear to us that they not only understood what we were conveying but they completely comprehended and were then able to apply the lesson to their own lives. Another successful day at Davis Commons!

Read the full blog posts at the Office of Community-Based Learning blog.

CBL Open House Sept 15

Head over to the Office of Community-Based Learning’s blog to read about their upcoming Open House, being held September 15th at 3:00 in the Cleary Dining Hall.

Come learn more about community-based learning and meet some of the community partners interested in working with Stonehill faculty to enhance students’ learning and bring greater resources to the community.

Faculty Guest Posts on CBL Blog

Check out the blog for the Office of Community-Based Learning, where you can read guest posts by two Stonehill faculty, Margaret Boyd and Angela Paradise.

You can read about Margaret’s partnership with the Avon School District as part of her Sociology of Education class.  And Angela writes about her partnership with Davis Commons as part of her Mediated Communication Theory capstone.

Community-Based Learning Summer Institute

The Office of Community-Based Learning is pleased to announce its first CBL Summer Institute (held June 2 – 4, 2010).

The Institute will give faculty an opportunity to team up with a community partner and student leader, and work closely with OCBL staff to design a new CBL course or revamp an already existing CBL course.

The three days will include a tour of Brockton, team building exercises, some nuts and bolts presentations on CBL, and ample time to create projects/syllabi in team groups and then workshop ideas in larger groups.

Applications are due April 9, 2010.

To learn more and to access the online application form, visit the Office of CBL’s website.

CFP: “Race and Pedagogy” Conference (due March 8)

The University of Puget Sound is hosting its second “Race and Pedagogy” Conference October 28-30 in Tacoma, Washington.  The call for proposals’ deadline is quickly approaching on March 8th.

This year the conference theme is “Teaching and Learning for Justice: Danger and Opportunity in Our Critical Moment”:

This Conference is conceptualized and planned through the Race and Pedagogy Initiative, a collaboration of the university and the South Sound community, particularly the Initiative’s Community Partners Forum.

We invite proposals for papers, panels, and other presentation formats, including, but not limited to, round tables, posters and performances, and visual art and interactive sessions from a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional, and diverse range of participants, including scholars, teachers, students, and administrators in higher education and K-12 education, along with those involved in educational practices in a variety of civic, artistic, and community-based organizations. All proposals shall be refereed and shall probe the overarching Conference theme along the lines of one or a combination of the following subthemes:

1. Understanding the Critical Moments of Possibilities and Pitfalls in Education, the Arts and Society
2. Innovations in Partnerships for Educational Justice
3. Dilemmas and New Directions in Pedagogy about Race

Read the full call on the conference website.

Service Learning at Tulane

This week’s Chronicle of Higher Education features an article about Tulane University’s move to require all students complete a service learning course before graduation.

In it they describe how a variety of disciplines have found ways to incorporate community-based projects into their courses:

The number of service-learning courses at Tulane has jumped from about 30 per semester before Katrina to 132 this year. About half are new, and half are classes that were revamped to include a service component.

In “Loot, Plunder, and Pillage,” an associate professor of classical studies, Susann S. Lusnia, had students participate in digs in the French Quarter, where they discovered 18th-century pottery, buttons, and other personal items. The digs uncovered information about the early history of New Orleans, which she related to the lessons learned in digs in ancient cities like Pompeii.

Come Learn More About Community-Based Learning!

Want more information on how you can turn your course into a Community-Based Learning experience for your students?

The Office of Community-Based Learning is offering a workshop for faculty interested in learning the nuts and bolts of creating a community-based learning class.  Last semester, we focused on conceptualizing CBL and what our day-to-day work in the office entails. This semester, the workshop will focus on best-practice methodologies and how you can address issues of course contact, community partnerships, student reflections, etc.

After getting some feedback from many of you in terms of dates and times, there will be two sections of this workshop:

Wednesday, February 17 4:00-6:00pm and Friday, February 19, 1:00-3:00pm in Duffy 135.

If you would like to attend but have not RSVP’d yet, please email krafey@stonehill.edu or call 508-565-1959. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Kate Rafey or Corey Dolgon.

Workshop: “Supporting Community Engaged Scholarship” (2/17)

The Office of Community-Based Learning is offering to cover registration costs for any faculty who would like to attend the following workshop on “community engaged scholarship”:

Supporting Community Engaged Scholarship
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
10am – 3pm (lunch provided)
College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA

Faculty community engaged scholarship offers opportunities for deeper community partnerships and research experience for students. Community engaged scholarship is part of the same institutional mission as service-learning, and can benefit from the expertise of campus service centers and offices.

Facilitated by Margaret A. Post, Director of the Donelan Office of Community-Based Learning, this session will cover how service centers and offices might support and benefit from this aspect of community engagement. This workshop is intended for teams of staff members and faculty who work on community engaged scholarship initiatives in collaboration.

Contact Stonehill’s Director of Community-Based Learning for more information: cdolgon@stonehill.edu

Service Learning Resources

Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse has developed an online database of syllabi and other resources related to community-based learning.

Find the database here:

http://servicelearning.org/slice

Is Service Learning Effective?

Head over to the Office of Community-Based Learning blog to read their take on a couple recent articles about the effectiveness of service learning and its impact on the community:

http://communitybasedlearning.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/is-service-learning-effective/