Thomas Cunningham Service Learning at TTIX

Here are my notes on Dr. Cunningham's presentation on service learning (online):

Challenges: involving students beyond reading and discussions; solution, service learning; but how do you make it meaningful

Did study at SUU in the ESL endorsement program.

Needed to adapt what they were doing in face-to-face
Required RTF since people were using a variety of platforms.
Adpated othe materials (DVD, etc.)

Fostering community of learners through discussions (student to student and with instructor and other assignements)

Adapted the practical experience for peopel in a variety of settings (they could do work with english language learners to tutor, others could could work to create new materials). grouped people with the variety of experiences so they could share thier experiences with each other. Made allowances for people to tutor adults that wanted to learn english (not just k-12 students).

data used for the study: observations, instructor notes, assignments completed by students, student-student interactions, teacher-student interactions, email conversations, semester project proposals, final proects and reports

Results: students who didn't particpate in service learning said they would if they could do it over again. students had difficulties, some didn't particpate in discussions, some had the people they were going to tutor back out, met face-to-face wiht those they tutored 5-10 hours but a lot of preparation work went into that.

continued research: * how can he improve it further? * more in-depth analysis of existing data needed

Questions:
Did you get feedback from those who were tutored? Good idea!
evaluate the effectiveness of the tutoring.