Thinking of a Service-Learning Course with Latin America

September 3, 2010

Topics

–        Defining Service-Learning

• Conceptualizing Service-Learning
• The Limits of Service-Learning
• The Possibilities of Service-Learning

–        Why Service-Learning

• Studies showing the positive aspects and downsides of service-learning.
• Impact of service-learning
• Who benefits from service-learning
• How to make a lasting impact?

–        Global Perspective

• Asia
• Europe
• Australia
• Africa

–        Hemispheric Perspective

• United States
• Canada
• Mexico
• Venezuela
• Argentina

–        Local Perspective

• Survey of local organizations that do service-learning

–        Service-learning in Argentina

• History of Education in Argentina
• Service-learning in Argentina
• Solidaridad – Past, present, future.

–        Developing a service-learning project

• Need for improvement, what social problem are they addressing?
• Bottom up development of the project by students – student centered
• Student run and the need to link the program goals to the curriculum.
• The need for linkages and the influence of other institutions and community organizations for the success of a service-learning project.

–        Differences and similarities between service at different age levels

• Primary school
• Secondary school
• Higher Education

–        History of Latin America

• Colonial Period
• Independence
• Relationship with the United States
• ISI
• Neoliberal Policies
• Leftist Wave – Present

–        The growing influence of technology in society and education and its possible applications to service-learning

• Overview the digital divide
• Globalization and its implications with education and technology.

–        Service-learning at the classroom

• Volunteer at a Hispanic or immigrant group in Minneapolis
  • List of programs
• Worldwide growth in the study of the English language – an opportunity to help Argentineans with their English through Skype and related programs. (Eluminate, Livemocha)

–        Preparations for visiting Argentina

• Logistics of the trip
• Context – differences between doing service-learning in your own country or another

–        The Future of Service-Learning

Assignments

–        Critical Reflexion assignments from service-learning hours

–        Guest speakers (from Mano a Mano, Clues, Centro and other Hispanic related NGOs in the community)

–        Reading quizzes

–        Audio-visuals, video clips, power points, documentaries

–        Class blog – Forum style, sourcing documents.

Service learning at the U – Partner organizations with strong Latino linkages.

September 3, 2010

Casa de Esperanza: Mobilizes Latino communities to end domestic violence and to eliminate violence against women and children.

Mano a Mano: Creates partnerships with impoverished Bolivian communities to improve their health and increase their economic well-being by building clinics, schools, and housing.

Centro: Serves the Latino and Chicano community to minimize and eliminate barriers for self-sufficiency. Offers support programs in education, health, culture, and wellness.

Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES): Provides linguistically and culturally appropriate services for the Chicano/Latino community, including mental health, chemical health, employment, education, and elder wellness.

La Conexion: Empowers the Latino community throughout the Twin Cities by providing and connecting participants with resources and educational, economic and community engagement opportunities.

La Escuelita: Works to create and implement developmental strategies that help increase Latino youths’ academic success through their after school, summer academic enrichment, and leadership development programs.

La Oportunidad: Provides bilingual and bicultural family-centered educational and supportive programs to help Latino children, youth, and adults achieve greater capacity, develop practical skills, nurture healthy relationships, and build a stronger community.

Linea Legal Latina: Provide efficient advice and referrals to Spanish-speaking individuals who have little or no access to legal advice.

Still Trying to Convince Jim to Go Online

August 23, 2010

Jim, you need to fill out the parts of this page. Nothing anyone else can write will do it justice. For now, while nothing else is written, I am glad to be part of creating this memory of your classroom. Having had a great number of teachers, you where the teacher in whose class I experienced the most vivid moments. From visiting the school board, to learning about cognac, painting, public speaking and sex, you broadened our minds to new horizons. It was in your class that a class period could vanish in daze but be remembered longer than a day. Thank you for believing in us, as people, and instilling in as a desire to feel, absorb life and live an adventure. You shared your life and insights with us and left in us an array of unforgettable moments.

Hopefully through the passing of time, many of us will live out your suggestions. Many of us will travel, pick passionate teachers rather than subjects, stay in shape, enjoy our lives, and threat others with the dignity and respect that you showed to us.

Thank you Owens! Best wishes to you and Park.

You are one of a kind.

Enrolling in or visiting Mr. Owens classroom at Gainesville High School is a trip worth making. For those that enroll in his class, these students learn not just academic material, but various lifelong lessons through a nonconventional curriculum.

————

September 8, 2010

O, I hope you are doing well. Things in Minneapolis are starting to turn a bit chili. At least last week was a bit colder than usual. I hope the first two weeks went well. Here the school semester is about to start. Hopefully it is worthwhile going back to school. In some ways I which I had obtained a different experience before returning to the institution.

Jim, I have been thinking of the idea of recording your class and I am planning on emailing the tv production teacher this week as you suggested. However, I wanted to hear from you what appears most feasible. More than anything aside from the pedagogy aspects and implications of information and communication technologies, it would be nice to simply create an area where student can remember and revisit the sanctuary. With that in mind I wanted to hear your opinion. I was thinking that perhaps we could start by digitalizing previous class materials. Would that be possible?

Among changes that are taking place, I recently started working with a professor who specializes in service-learning. ZI truly enjoyed becoming more familiar with this literature. The integration between teaching and serving provides an avenue for students to make a direct impact in the community. It reminds me a lot of SURE and later STOMP, and how at times students can develop a project and bring about change.

The goal of the class I am working with him in developing for next semester focuses on Global Change and Youth Leadership. In Argentina they have a very successful project called Solidaridad. The government since 1997 and more recently in 2006 started to promote the integration of service within the school curriculum. Since 1997 the president has given an award to the most accomplished examples. My goal as an RA is to help him set up this class and help teach it in the spring. We will also be travelling to Argentina so that the undergraduate students can themselves work hand in hand with some of these groups in Argentina and learn

Educacion Gratuita – Tratando de Convencer Profesores 

Agosto 23, 2010

Educación para todos – Una alternativa de educación gratuita que puede servir para complementar a la educación tradicional, para proveer de educación a gente que no pueda atender a una Universidad tradicional y

Este programa se enfoca por ahora en individuos que viven en países extranjeros que hablen español. Grabando estos videos utilizando

Tomando en cuenta la naturaleza wiki innata de la red. (donde todas las personas quisieran tener una voz y aportar a la acumulación general de la cultura).

Contáctanos

El hecho, es que con la acumulación de diversas versiones de cada clase, tenemos que ser realistas y darnos cuenta de que en un futuro en el internet los estudiantes no solo podrán ver la clase que grabo el profesor en la mañana, si no que también abran muchas otras versiones de la clase disponibles para servir de tutores para el estudiante. Todas las personas somos distintas y demostramos distintas preferencias no solo con la ropa y la música, si no que demostramos aptitudes distintas para distintos tipos de aprendizaje. No todos los zapatos lees cabe el mismo pie. Por ello, porque no ayudar a que se desarrolle esta recolección de clases y conferencias para que estén disponibles a todas las personas que tengan el acceso al internet.

Este ano, la profesora Tania Cordova, profesora titular y jubilada de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, podrá nuevamente aportar a Venezuela con su especialidad, su tutoría y extensivos conocimientos en el área de la química orgánica y computacional.

Por problemas económicos, políticos y sociales durante los últimos anos, no solo en Venezuela sino en otras áreas de Latinoamérica, han dejado a sus países para ir a terrenos mas verdes. O a un lugar donde pueden desarrollarse intelectualmente o realizar sus sueños de ser un deportista olímpico o profesional.

Las razones porque la gente emigra son muchas y diversas, y tienen una amplia tradición histórica. Desde que el hombre salió de África, el se ha trasladado de campo a campo, de colina a colina, de montana a montana, atravesando ríos y mares y poblando seis continentes y transcurriendo los 4 océanos.

Sin embargo, aunque el hombre se han trasladado de un país a otro, el hombre, principalmente en su primera generación, se mantiene fuertemente atado a su cultura. Aquella cultura la cual se define principalmente por el lenguaje.

Latinoamérica es una con

Acerca de EGV – Educacion Gratuita en Videos

August, 23, 2010

Esta organización fue creada con el propósito de promover el OpenCourseWare en español por Alfonso Sintjago y Ellie Sintjago. Alfonso Sintjago es actualmente un estudiante de doctorado en educación de la Universidad de Minnesota en los Estados Unidos en el área de educación comparativa. Ellie Sintjago termino recientemente su maestría en Estudios Latinoamericanos en la Universidad de Florida, Estados Unidos.

Al ver que existían muchos recursos de universidades altamente reconocidas de manera gratuita en el internet, incluyendo 1800 clases publicadas por el MIT, pero las cuales en su gran mayoría existen solo en el idioma ingles, y que a la vez existía un número mucho más limitado de clases disponibles en español, se propusieron la meta de reducir esta diferencia y contactar a profesores universitarios para promover la grabación y distribución de clases en video de calidad universitaria en español, gratis por el internet.

Utilizando espacios virtuales y canales en línea gratuitos para subir videos en el internet en sitios como Youtube, Dailymotion, Vimeo entre otros, se propusieron a difundir material educativo en multiples canales a la vez para aumentar el número de personas que los pueda encuentra y beneficiarse de este material educativo.

Hoy en día, muchas personas con acceso a internet están cada día aumentando la cantidad de material disponible de manera gratuita para cualquier persona, ya sea a través de wikis, blogs, ebooks, programas, archivos de texto, audio, imágenes o videos. Desde la evolución a la Red 2.0, estas nuevas herramientas han sido utilizadas de manera incremental mundialmente por educadores para complementar la educación tradicional. Utilizando estos nuevos recursos, grades innovadores como el creador de Khan’s Academy, Salman Khan y sus más de 1600 videos en Youtube.com han mostrado que es posible complementar la educación de muchas personas en el internet por medio de videos gratuitos.

A su vez, mas y mas universidades han publicados texto, imágenes y videos de sus foros y sus clases en el internet de forma gratuita a través de Youtube EDU o ITunes U. Sin embargo, la división digital entre los países desarrollados y los países en desarrollo continúa siendo tangible, y son mayormente los países desarrollados los que promueven y distribuyen OpenCourseWare. Aunque la división digital se reduce cada día,  el uso de la tecnología por la industria educativa en español es inferior al uso dado a la tecnología por los países desarrollados. Es nuestra meta reducir esta diferencia a través de la iniciativa EGV.

A través de EGV esperamos poder afectar positivamente esa división e incrementar el OpenCourseWare en español. Con el tiempo, más y más cursos estarán disponibles gratuitamente en el internet. Los motivamos a que se unan a lograr esta meta y aumenten las herramientas educativas para los estudiantes del futuro.

Mission EGV

August 22, 2010

EGV, Educación Gratuita en Videos tiene como misión promover el crecimiento del material de OpenCourseWare, o material libremente accesible de educación de nivel universitario a cualquier persona con acceso a internet en español. Mientras que el OpenCourseWare se ha expandido rápidamente en años recientes, la mayoría del crecimiento ha tomado lugar a través de material publicado en Ingles. Aunque el español es el segundo lenguaje más hablado en el mundo y hay un número creciente de usuarios de internet en países de habla hispana, las tecnologías de las Red 2.0 todavía no se han expandido a la educación del público en general.

Dentro del OpenCourseWare en Español, actualmente hay una cantidad limitada de material en campos como las ciencias naturales, la ingeniería, la arquitectura, entre otras. Como uno de los idiomas mas hablados en el mundo, es importante incrementar el acceso de esta información en español.

EGV espera que en el futuro, estudiantes podrán elegir que profesores escuchar en línea para o suplementar sus estudios o servir como el método primario de diseminación de información educativa de alto nivel. Todos los estudiantes tienen diferentes maneras de aprender y estudiar. Mientras unos aprenden principalmente por el estimulo visual, otros internalizan el material con más facilidad al escuchar y otros kinesteticamente. EGV cree que al incrementar el acceso a distintos instructores enseñando diversos temas o el mismo tema pero con un estilo de enseñanza distinto, los estudiantes van a tener más opciones para encontrar un tema de su interés y encontrar una serie de videos que utilice el estilo de aprendizaje que más les llega.

El objetivo de este proyectó es disminuir la falta de material y promover el desarrollo de material de OpenCourseWare en español. Para hacer esto una realidad, este proyectó pretende trabajar en equipo con profesores universitarios, vigentes o retirados, para que ellos puedan compartir su conocimiento y experiencia académica con el resto del mundo.

Education – Quotes

August, 18, 2010

Studying During the Summer: Preventing the Summer Slide

August, 15, 2010

In a recent MPR broadcast, the audience discussed the implications of a research project by Johns Hopkins sociology Professor Karl Alexander concerning the importance of eliminating the summer gap and finding a way to increase the school year so that students can practice math, science and reading year round. This would prevent students from suffering from the :summer slide” or losing a substantial portion of what they had learned during the previous school year, having then to be re-taught this material the first weeks of the following school year.,

The study argues that the “summer slide” accounts for two thirds of the achievement gap forninth grade students as the disadvantaged students are not continuing to study or have enriching experiences during the summer equivalent to their more advantaged classmates from elementary school until ninth grade. While statistics show that students improve at the same rate as their peers during the school year independent of the students’ background, a gap develops during the summer months. Better off children appeared to take greater advantage of public services such as libraries, parks, as well as taking more books home than at-risk students. Johns Hopkins University has written extensively on this topic, having started the study in 1982 when it began to follow 800 students throughout their academic careers. Yet, despite their conclusive findings, it is much more difficult to successfully implement a solution.

During the current recession, schools have been faced at times with difficult decisions such as whether to drop subjects, fire teachers, drop afterschool and summer programs, or even reduce the school week from five week days to four days (a Monday through Thursday week), as has been the case in some areas of Hawaii, California, and is being considered in a number of other locations. Faced with the current economic climate, how then will the state meet the goals of increasing access, quality, and effectiveness of education? Some districts in Minnesota also discussed possibly shortening the school week to four days in some locales. Facing these issues, how will America meet the goals of having 60% of its students graduate from college by 2020 and once again lead the world in graduation rates? (the USA is currently ranked 12 in graduation rates according to a College Board study of 36 countries).*

However, according to a recent article by Education Innovating (8/11/2010), maybe the situation is not as dire as it first appears. While the cuts decrease the productivity of education, the article argues that some of these changes may, in certain cases, not be highly detrimental and, in addition, may be providing a space for innovation to flourish as parents search for alternatives. New spaces and online learning options have allowed some communities to provide their children with an alternative to the traditional educational system and a space for students to explore and continue their education in other fields.

Yet, various well respected and helpful education programs have recently been cut in Minnesota and elsewhere. Programs such as TRIO, other government run programs and non-profits are increasingly competing for scarce funds and many of these programs are the ones that focus on decreasing the achievement gap. In the end, hopefully innovation will triumph, some web 2.0 technologies are promising in their innovative approach and cost decreasing ability, yet it will also take community involvement and a concerted effort to ensure that every student has the opportunity to develop their talents regardless of their social class.

* – Research in Brief: Summer Can Set Kids on the Right or Wrong Course http://www.summerlearning.org/resource/collection/CB94AEC5-9C97-496F-B230-1BECDFC2DF8B/Research_Brief_02_-_Alexander.pdf

* – Obama aims to lift college graduation rates, but his tools are few http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/0809/Obama-aims-to-lift-college-graduation-rates-but-his-tools-are-few

* – The big payoff of the four-day school week: Unplanned innovation? http://www.educationinnovating.org/2010/08/big-payoff-of-four-day-school-week-unplanned-innovation A family enjoying a trip to a Minnesota Zoo – Photo taken from Flickr under Creative Commons license – attributed to acopperpenny

OpenCourseWare – A Free Education for All

August, 9, 2010

MIT OpenCourseWare was recently recognized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for their work in providing free educational material to anyone with internet access in over 1800 courses and was named the recipient of the Scientific Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE).

USA now 12^th in number of graduates: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/opinion/07herbert.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y