by Lin Davis-Stephens, instructor, Colby Community College
[Editor’s note: Don’t miss the author’s related lecture at the Axio Conference this week at K-State. The conference is free, but registration is required. See the conference schedule for details.]
Students are seeking the message, craving the experience of being alive and part of the world around them. Basically, life is a cycle of action and reflection. I explore the relation of service-learning and student-centered learning in the higher education setting.
At Colby Community College, several programs of study emphasize learning-by-doing in realistic situations, then reflecting on what students have done. We see this as “fostering ideas, facilitating learning”. We invite participation and connect learning to real-life experiences.
Typical ways of schooling include teaching, lecturing, term papers, objective testing, or essay writing. Students are in the mode of receiving knowledge in a passive sense. With service-learning as student-centered learning, students co-create knowledge in more active ways.
Our faculty experiments with various technological innovations to enhance the learning experience. Our task is balancing pedagogical goals with the appropriate technological tools. The strategies of our program focus on the needs of students — not as their passive/receptive role, but as their active/responsible role in their own education.
We transform the boundaries of the classroom. Class isn’t just in a box anymore. It is on the screen, on the road, in the field, and over the hill.
Several techniques have been incorporated into our classes, including the use of learning platforms, digital stories, and most recently, interactive game theoretic modeling. These tools have elevated the learning environment of the students and enhanced student retention of knowledge and skills.
The learning experiences have fostered student engagement in civic life and family life. Real-life experiences connect campus and community with a sense of connection among students to each other. Students participate in the process of their education — in life and the learning of things. Our program strategies have resulted in student retention and return to campus for more classes.
Service-learning involves students in relevant community projects while meeting classroom learning objectives. With educator guidance, students work with community partners to address community needs. Educators engage students in civic activities that tie the work they do to meaning and purpose in the local community and society. The educator is not so much the teacher, as more of the facilitator.
Examples of service-learning include working with local community groups to identify and address issues, to design projects, and to collaborate with social networks. Reflection as a key component of service-learning is accomplished by classroom and online presentations of student works of oral interviews, documentaries, dramatizations, site surveys, and digital archiving.
For more information about service-learning, see www.servicelearning.org.
