NYLC Blog

This September the Alliance for Excellent Education released a digital civic learning toolkit as part of its Digital Learning Day campaign. The Alliance developed this resource with the input of leading civic education groups which included NYLC, National Council for the Social Studies, the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools and others.  The purpose of the toolkit is to support teachers and students by providing resources that demonstrate how technology can connect students to active civic learning experiences.  The resources in the toolkit, divided into three categories—digital simulations, media, and service-learning—help to combine the vast potential of technology with the limitless potential of students to make contributions to their communities and the world. 

Technology can transform the way students communicate, research, and learn. Technology has opened doors for students that would have been unimaginable just twenty years ago.  It is then no surprise that more teachers, schools, and community organizations are utilizing technology and digital learning to facilitate stronger service-learning and civic education experiences. 

The rate of change and the vast opportunities for students today is astounding.  This is most apparent to me as I reflect on my own service-learning experiences as a student 20 years ago. As part of a middle school civics course, I completed a service-learning project that analyzed the strengths of community organizations serving youth.  The local library wasn’t comprehensive enough to facilitate my research; it lacked a microfiche machine that would allow me to access media and journal articles. Therefore, my parents had to drive me half an hour to the library in the next town. At the library, my ability to conduct research was limited to a four hour window that stood between my work and my parents’ honking car.  When it came time to make the connection to a local community organization to do the service aspect of my service-learning, I had to use the Yellow Pages to find an organization, drive there during the weekend to meet people, and then complete the project.  To students today, this may sound like a description of education in the 1930s.  In reality, this seemingly old school educational experience was the norm for students in the 1990s. Fortunately, technology has significantly changed this reality. 

Technology provides students opportunities to engage in a whole new world of learning possibilities.  Today’s middle school students don’t have their research time limited by static texts or parents coming to pick them up.  Students today can do more than just research online—through digital simulations they can attain a better understanding of social issues and experiences encyclopedia texts could never provide.  Students no longer use microfiche machines to access media. Through digital media they can access media from around the world—as well as create their own through blogs and video.  Lastly, students are no longer limited to using the Yellow Pages to locate community partnerships; they can use the Internet to connect with partners in their community, and across the country and the world. Through these opportunities, technology empowers youth to find projects that meet their interests, ensures those projects are tied to important learning outcomes, helps identify higher quality partnerships, and supports deeper learning experiences. In these ways, this strategic use of technology reinforces the K-12 Service-Learning Standards of Quality Practice. 

Much like any other resource, technology is not a silver bullet and acquiring and using it isn’t an end in itself.  In other words, this isn’t just about giving kids iPads and calling it a day.  Teachers, schools, and community partners have to make strategic decisions on which investments in technology  best support student learning. Thoughtful investments in technology can create high quality learning opportunities that help students master the content and develop the skills essential to success in the 21st century.  The resources identified in the toolkit are just a few examples of high quality learning opportunities. We hope you find the resources in the toolkit useful and that you continue to help us add to the list so that more students can access these 21st century learning opportunities.   

Ace Parsi is a Policy and Advocacy Associate at the Alliance for Excellent Education

Colorado Campus Compact (CCC) is a membership organization of 21 college and university presidents dedicated to promoting the public good through engaged campus work. CCC is part of a national coalition of more than 1,100 colleges and universities that are passionately committed to preparing students to be active, committed, and informed leaders and citizens. At CCC, we know that when students get involved in community-based projects, they’re not just building houses, or tutoring kids, or cleaning trails, or registering voters. They’re feeling what it means to be an active member of their community. And in the process, they’re seeing that there is as much to learn as there is to give.

Our mission can be accomplished through many avenues, but certainly one of the most powerful is service-learning. One of CCC’s core endeavors is to expose faculty to this powerful pedagogy through high quality professional development opportunities and then provide them ongoing resources and support as they implement and grow their service learning courses. It only makes sense then that we would support the National Service-Learning Conference. Without Limits, hosted here in Denver in 2013, offers a fantastic opportunity for the faculty and staff with whom we work to network with other service-learning practitioners from across the nation (and world!), attend workshops to help them deepen their practice, and present themselves on the good work they’re doing on their campuses and in their communities. In addition, and equally exciting, it offers this same opportunity to their students. What’s not to love?

Recently, CCC has begun work on an Engaged Campus Initiative. This initiative seeks to aid our member campuses in infusing community engagement throughout campus culture so that community is taken into account not just in the classroom or in the volunteer office, but in alumni relations, business decisions, purchasing practices, etc. NYLC’s approach to the National Service-Learning Conference provides an excellent model for these ambitions. When NYLC made the decision to host the conference in Denver, it brought in community stakeholders to assist with planning efforts. As a result, the conference will feature Colorado-based talent, employ the resources of local volunteers, and offer participants a chance to experience Denver through local service projects. Our investment is high because we’ve been invited to collaborate in the process. At its broadest level, the conference helps us illustrate the multiple and mutual benefits of true reciprocal community partnership. With energy and enthusiasm around these ideas building on our member campuses with each passing day, the National Service-Learning Conference’s arrival in Denver couldn’t have come at a better time!

It was back in the spring of 2001 that I attended the National Service Learning Conference for the first time in Denver, Colorado. As a staff member for the National School and Community Corps, an Americorps program run by EducationWorks, I was asked to attend the conference as a representative of the organiation and to present information about a program I was facilitating at Girls High of Philadelphia. I was so excited to travel to my first work conference and learn more about service learning. Attending this conference was no doubt a turning point in my career. I remember very clearly the event that made me realize that youth have the power to change the world. It was in a workshop lead by Cathryn Berger Kaye and her daughter Devorah. Devorah had written a book about how to have conversations with senior citizens. She stood in front of the room, well spoken and confident, and shared her experience with a room full of adults and youth. At that moment I remember thinking….one day my kids will do this.

One year later, I had just finished my first year teaching at New Foundations Charter School, and in the mail arrived an application to present at the National Service Learning Conference 2003 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I worked diligently over the summer to gain the support of my administration and colleagues to submit two workshop proposals—which were both accepted! This is where NFCS’ involvement with the National Service Learning began. In March 2003, NFCS students, staff and parents made our first journey to the land of service learning.

Over the past 10 year, NFCS has been involved in the conference on a variety of levels. We have served as workshop leaders, on-site service project coordinators, youth MCs, and the official “Conference Film Crew”. Unofficially, the NFCS crew has become part of the NYLC family and conference staff, often referred to as “Shira’s Kids”. You can always find us at the conference, in our matching gear, in the video room, or roaming the exhibit hall getting participants involved in our projects. No matter where you look, you will find us.

I can honestly say that being part of this conference has changed the way NFCS engages students in service. It has given hundreds of NFCS students a chance to grow, mature, and become young adults by traveling cross country to participate. The National Service Learning Conference is the only place where adults and youth can dialogue on an equal level, work together toward a common goal, and learn from each other. Just like in years past, NFCS will be in Denver this spring. We’ll strut our stuff, involve others in service, pass on our knowledge, and hopefully grow up a bit.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Shira Woolf Cohen is the Vice Principal at New Foundations Charter School in Philadelphia.

As someone not entirely unfamiliar with issues related to diversity and inclusion, I was excited about this year’s Overcoming Racism Conference and surprised at how much I didn’t already know. This was the fourth annual conference hosted by the Facing Racial Equity Collaborative, and the theme “Decolonizing Minnesota & Beyond: Historical & Current Struggles” drew attention to the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Dakota War of 1862.

After everything I learned from the workshops, keynote speakers, and in talking to a small sample of the 350 conference participants during the two days, there were five things that stuck with me:

1. There are First Nation people still fighting to get their land back. For some of you, this may be nothing new. But for me, a white twenty-something year-old male with a public school education, the fact that I knew nothing about the U.S. Dakota war was a wake-up call. I was stunned when I heard Dr. Waziyatawin describe 10 reparation strategies in her keynote address, but also inspired by her courage to share the struggles of American Indians and offer ways for us to help.
2. Holidays are a good time to build bridges. I was reminded that by being curious and asking questions, like how others celebrate holidays, I can build trust between myself and others from different cultures. This may seem like a no-brainer, but as someone who lives and works in a fairly homogenous community, it can be difficult and uncomfortable to reach out to different groups. This fact, however, doesn’t make it any less important.
3. Traditional knowledge is as (or more) important than academic knowledge. You know those timeless words of wisdom you’ve heard your whole life from older relatives? “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you”; “Practice humility.” Well, one presenter referred to these as traditional knowledge, or oral history. He argued that there are subtleties in traditional knowledge that get missed if you don’t put in the face to face time to speak with elders, and that these subtleties can’t be captured with the written word.
4. Academics should spend time in the community. I was pleased to hear Dr. Rose M. Brewer address the audience frankly after her keynote address when she stated that academics need to share space and create a reciprocal relationship with community members if any progress is to be made. When it comes to race, we all need to have a seat at the table.
5. Historical trauma affects all of us. Many of our ancestors fled their country because of famine, arrived on slave ships, as refugees, or were here originally and became displaced. Many of those experiences were traumatic for our ancestors and that trauma was passed down. It’s up to us to do the healing it requires to live up to our potential.

While this conference gave me many perspectives to reflect on, what I — or any of us — decide to do with this information will determine how our society begins to overcome racism.

Oh, and if you’ve never heard of the U.S. Dakota War of 1862, I highly recommend you do some research and then watch the movie Dakota 38.