Kfred's Musings

In my last post, I mentioned the disconnect between faculty, staff, and students when it comes to service-learning.  I discussed the lack of excitement in our students.  Search for service-learning on twitter using your twitter search engine of choice.  If those don't suit your fancy, I suggest summize .   So much of what we see is students complaining about service-learning and how much they hate it.  How can we bring this excitement back to service-learning?

I have been looking at the Kano Model lately at work.  The model is based on customer service and satisfaction.  While it doesn't all quite fit education, there is still something to be learned.  We are missing the excitement factor in our approach to service-learning.  We need that extra something to entice our "customers" into wanting to come back for more service-learning.  But how?

If you are reading this blog, you already know the answer.  Social media! Social media is omnipresent in our world now, especially for the generation we are trying to reach.  We need to tap into that excitement and new energy and use it to reach our students and enhance their service-learning experiences.

How are we supposed to do this?  This is an especially key question for those who aren't comfortable with social media themselves.  A fantastic example of social media in higher education is Michael Wesch.  I have mentioned him in earlier posts.  His take on education and technology is fascinating!

His approach is overarching and would likely be too much for many administrations and faculty to accept all at once.  However, in pieces, social media can be integrated beautifully.  I highly suggest his YouTube channel.  He has more excellent videos explaining his viewpoint .

Ok so once you've decided to use social media, what do you use it for?  One key component of service-learning is reflection.  What is the point of reflection?  To think about what we have done, how it applies to our lives, how it makes us feel, and what we have learned.  This is where social media can step in.  Instead of one way conversations in the form of a diary or journal to a professor, students can now use platforms to not only post text but pictures, video, and audio!  This can enhance their creativity and allow them to post things that help express how they feel in a more complete manner.

We have all heard that two heads are better than one.  Well let's take that one step further.  By putting reflections out there in social media land, our students can get feedback from multiple sources: classmates, faculty, and (if shared in a public manner) the general public.  This provides the opportunity for connections and deeper learning experiences for our students.  It also gives more options besides the old (boring) standbys of papers and poster presentations.

Social media allows us all to share our experiences more fully and deeply with others.  The feedback we get enriches our experiences and our understanding of our projects and ourselves.  Let's open up new learning possibilities for our students and ourselves!

Now you know how I feel.  What do you think?

Ok so I know I should be fired for not posting in so long. I have really got to get better about this.  Halloween was a BLAST! Ali and I went to her friend's house to celebrate.  It was a good time.

The big news of course, Obama winning the election.  I have been following this election like I haven't in the past.  I was so excited to watch it play out. An historic night for our country. The expectations being placed on him are outrageous, as they are on most new presidents.  However, I hope the country and the world remember that nothing happens overnight.

On a different note, the job is amazing. I am getting to play with so many new social media applications.  That's part of the reason I haven't been writing. I get so distracted by everything else going on.  I've been trying to go to the gym more too. We were discussing blogs today at work and how many (like mine) don't have a point.  I started this more for myself, just to see how I liked it and what came of it.  I know I need a direction.  I am not sure what exactly yet, but it's something I want to think about for the future.

I've been learning so much about the social media stuff at work but I don't feel I have the expertise to really write about that. Maybe I can write about my Americorps year.  We'll see. 

  Steve came to visit me last weekend.  It was so amazing to see him!  It had been too long. We went down to the old market and out to dinner a few times.  We also discovered beertopia which just made his day:)  I am counting down the days till christmas and i will get to see him again. 

  This weekend I was in Lincoln to visit with the Consortium staff. I stayed with Gary and Karen again.  Always a pleasure to visit.  I got to see a brass concert and that was nice.  It was very relaxing.  I got to just chill out on the couch and watch football for a little bit too.  It's very homey there and I miss that.  I went out to Gretna with Joe and Chase for a weiney roast at Chase's uncles.  That was amazing too!  I miss being outside, especially this time of year.  The air here isn't clean enough for me apparently lol.  It was a really nice weekend and a great chance to see friends and recharge.  The new job starts tomorrow.  I think it will go well.  Wish me luck!

Well I found out where I will be moving to. My last day here will be the 17^th then it’s off to Lincoln to hang out with the Consortium Staff. I will most likely start at Clarkson on Monday. It will be a nice treat to go hang down there. I always have such a good time! Speaking of good times, BF is coming to visit this weekend! I haven’t seen him since July and I am so excited. I have no idea what we are going to do but we can figure that out once he gets here. I am so ready for the weekend. I have nothing to do at work since most of my projects are being halted. It will be a long time till the 17^th. We’ll see how it goes. I am feeling a bit sick so hopefully I’ll be over that soon.

Ali’s birthday was on Monday. We surprised her with cake and ice cream and balloons Sunday night lol. That was fun. Monday Whit, Ali, Paige, and I went to Red Robin for dinner and then off to see Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. That was so cute! I really enjoyed itJ I always have so much fun with the roomies and Paige is so nice as well. It was fun to sort of get away and relax after the stress at work lately. I am breaking out like it is nobody’s business! I hope life at Clarkson will be a little more settled. Hopefully less office drama…or at laest not the nasty type we have here. It will be nice to be able to work on S-L like I am supposed to. I am looking forward to working with faculty who are already familiar with the concept and using it! That will be fantastic. Well enough for now. Maybe more later<3

 

Ok so life has been rediculous. Just felt bad I hadn't been on here sooner.  Updates this weekend I promise!!

I attended the 5th annual Midwest Consortium for Service-Learning in Higher Education Conference in Brookings, South Dakota this week.  The consortium grants this year are involving the use of social media to help engage student leadership and increase service-learning. I find this stuff fascinating anyways.  Using blogs, facebook, twitter, wikis, etc to involve students is awesome.  I have  been playing around with a lot of these applications lately (jott, twitter, stumbleupon, diigo, digg, etc) to get a better feel for them.

 The conference was interesting because the majority of the people there are of a different generation. Many of them were ignorant of the technology and therefore very resistent.  I was fortunate enough to be involved  in a session where we had a few open adults. They were brave enough to ask what facebook was.  So we were able to show them on the computer and projector what facebook was.  We explained it in a way that was relevant to them and their work.  It was fascinating to see how excited they were when they started to understand its applications!

There was a man in the room who worked a lot with voice transcription software.  I was able to show jott to him.  I called and left one w/him on speakerphone and then pulled it up on the computer and showed him how it shows up online and how you can set up reminders, etc.  That guy left excited to get a facebook profile and a jott account. It was so great for me to see that transformation right in front of me!

In addition to all this fun stuff, I was lucky enough to get to see all my friends from pso and the other consortium VISTAs. We know how to have a good time!  These guys are my family here.  I love them all so much. idk what I would do without them!

 

Awesome video about social media in the classroom