Service Learning Faculty Group meeting

Four faculty members plus Mary P. met in the CTL on Thursday afternoon to discuss current service learning projects. Each faculty member shared their syllabus and demonstrated how the service learning component fit in with their learning objectives for the course. It was a very impressive demonstration of the teaching excellence and dedication at BCC! Projects ranged from a community theme, to an immigrant project, to exploring inequality in society. Faculty report that there has been an enthusiastic response by students to the SL option – even from non-trads who have intense work-life balance issues. Stay tuned for more on how these projects progress through the semester. And kudos to Mary and Deirdre, who is tireless in making this all happen, with student stipends offered, and has devised a system (inc. Blackboard) for keeping everyone in touch and on track.

Pics from the Summer Institute!

Many, many thanks to Colin Adams for these great photos!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carafox/sets/72157618512289507

Summer Institute, Part 2

Please click the link below to read the evaluation of the session

SI2009evalresults

Summer Institute, Part 1

The Summer Institute, “Learning Outside the Classroom/Learning 2.0″ was held May 20-21. There was a tremendous amount of information shared, and that is still being processed. Here are some reflections from the participants to start things off:

Reflections at the end of Day One (Learning Outside the Classroom – Service Learning, Experiential Learning, Field Trips, Study Abroad):

Students can be their own best teachers

Involve students more, allow them to give more feedback – needs trust

Students committing time

It’s never perfect; desire to impart knowledge vs. giving more responsibility to students

Peer work with guidance and goals

Time for reflections with students who are doing service learning

Role of accidental learning – willingness to let go and trust that good learning can take place

Students doing service learning felt that they had support

Issue of students’ time availability

Students are often focused on the arrival, not the journey – how to inspire them?

Students can inspire each other

Recording effective work is useful to support service learning

Service-learning stretches boundaries – other realities are out there. We need to open those boundaries up in Berkshires, become more global for competition and life

Reflections at the end of Day 2 (Learning 2.0):

Mesmerized by and tempted to use techniques

I want more life to do all of it well

Walking into dark woods, scared, pandora’s box

Delighted, learned about web 2.0, will start blog

Wondering about assessment for service-learning, how to do that, important

Day 2 only: I liked it

Still playing catch up with technology

Good flow, want to cover more but don’t know what to ask

Synchronizing instructor tech literacy with students

So many ways to use tech to expand LOTC – tech’s overlap

Could fill up summer with this

Feel more confident in ability to pursue tech

Excellent acoutrements

Exciting to integrate into classes, show off how techie I am

New goal to excite service learning by integrating newly learned tech

Welcome to the future

Useful. Transparency of students’ work to other students – stuck with me

Constructive and innovative teaching and learning materials and methods to enhance active learning in the 21^st century

Excellent intro to topics I have heard about; surprise to see how many are in similar boat; we’ll have to keep playing with it

Inspirational useful and reaffirming the fact that we need more balance in our workload

From tech nightmare to mini-nightmare

So many options, so little time

I learned a lot of action verbs that I experienced: blogged, wiki’d, facebooked, served, surveyed, blindfolded

Shifting the emphasis on the teacher, to community – need support group in September

Power of the group to learn

Besides learning and technology, chance to be among colleagues, very enriching

Summer Institute – Day One

Learning Outside the Classroom was the focus for SI Wednesday. With 25 participants and 11 guest speakers (six of them BCC students), a lively dialog ensued. Highpoints included:

- John Reiff’s presentation on the five elements of service-learning: preparation, action, reflection, evaluation, celebration

- Participants with blindfolds walking the trust line to get an experiential feel for the obstacles students encounter at community college (led by Louise Hurwitz)

- Carol Hilderbrante and Tom Troiano talking about their work at Salvation Army’s juvenile life skills course

- Visions of study abroad and field tripping with Graziano Ramsden of MCLA and Lois Cooper and Tom Tyning

- Five BCC students and two Crosby Elementary Students talking about math tutoring as service learning

- Faculty at round tables engaging across disciplines about student learning and teaching approaches

Tomorrow we shift to “Learning 2.0″ – where technology becomes the medium for getting outside the classroom… more soon

Summer Institute starts today!

Soon 28 BCC Faculty and Staff will arrive shortly for Learning Outside the Classroom & Learning 2.0 – will report on the outcomes later today…

Benefits of Service-Learning: For Faculty!

• Enriches and enlivens teaching and learning.
• Builds reciprocal partnerships with the local community.
• Creates new areas for research and scholarships, and increases opportunities for professional recognition and reward.
• Extends campus resources into the community and reinforces the value of the scholarship of engagement.
• Fulfills BCC Missions:

Community Engagement: Encourage all members of the college community to actively participate in the fulfillment of the college mission.

Respect for Differences: Foster an environment that respects and supports diversity and assures equity within the community.

Service: Maintain a community that demonstrates respect for growth, responsibility, and leadership through service to others.

FAQ on BCC Summer Institute

FAQ on the BCC Summer Institute, May 20-21

Q. Is it all about technology?

A. It’s all about learning outside the classroom: first day focus is service learning, field trips, study abroad, experiential learning — pretty low-tech! Day 2 will focus on web 2.0 technologies in the context of supporting student learning

Q. Can I come to just Day 2?

A. The two-day program actually is a complete experience. Email me if you have questions; it may be possible.

Q. Day 2 might be way beyond my level…

A. We have a guest speaker who will put the technology in a classroom context: doable and potentially time-saving. The workshops will be focus on 1-3 easy things you can do to incorporate the tech in a pedagogically sound way. 

Q. Will there be outside presenters?

A. We will have presenters from HCC, GCC, HVCC, Boston College, and UMass Amherst. We will also have presentations from our own faculty and staff.

 

BCC to offer Learning OTC & Learning 2.0

Learning outside the classroom/Learning 2.0 will take place at BCC on May 20-21. See attached pdf flyer for information!

si2009announcement

Service Learning Workshop #1

The first in a series of Service Learning Workshops was held on Friday, Feb 15. Led by Charles Crowell, our new service learning coordinator, the workshop was attended by 6 participants. A timeline showing differenct concepts of service learning was shown, which indicated that there has been an evolution from volunteerism, to civil engagement, to service learning as an integrated, experiential component of a student’s course or program process. A lively discussion ensued about what we can expect in our service learning approaches, how to engage students, and how to integrate service learning in our curricula. A second workshop, scheduled for Friday, March 7, 12:15 – 1:30pm, will focus on concrete examples or service learning from colleges around the country, and a discussion of mini-grant possibilities for service learning projects.