In search of credit for Place-based projects
If you had the curriculum and the technology tools to manage student service learning projects in far-away places, would your school offer credit? Are you, or some school you know about, already awarding place-based learning credit? Help me discover and learn all about you!
My project this week is to discover if there are any groups of students who, for some significant chunk of time, spend more time learning and earning credit outside of a classroom than inside.
December 17th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Dear Sue,
This has been a pedagogical goal of our school since its inception. At the moment, we are
working with a local machine shop who will be offering a full-time apprenticeship beginning in January. Ideally however, we would like to expand these kinds of opportunities beyond the traditional “vocational Ed. model” into more diverse fields such as public service, communications, financial services, etc.
Also, I wanted to complement you on your concept of “technological stewardship.” I think this idea is vital going forward. Emerging technology can be overwhelming and it’s important that we direct it in a way that most directly benefits student learning. Should we prove unable to do so, I feel that it’s more likely to become just another digital distraction in a world already full of them.
Anyway, I guess I’ll talk to you soon.
Love the blog. Keep it up!
-Ned-
p.s. If you’d like to engage some of our students on these issues, our school blog would
make an excellent forum: rivercityleadershipacademy.blogspot.com
December 18th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Thanks for commenting Ned, I am anxious to hear more about the projects River City students take on, so I will check out their blogs.
I learned the concept of technology stewardship from Nancy White . With several of her colleagues, she defines technology stewards as: “people with enough experience of the workings of a community to understand its technology needs, and enough experience with technology to take leadership in addressing those needs.”