I don't know why my email is angry with you. I am checking this...umm cut and paste in an email.
skye

skye, i dunno if ur checkin this
but ur e-mail keeps sending me my paper back...
uh oh

i prefer an out of class assignment, but multiple choice is fine with me too.

 The take home essay sounds good but I prefer multiple choice so I can at least have a chance at passing the final rather than write an essay I'm not good at.

multiple choice sounds good

both options sound fine but I vote multiple choice

Well, I support the multiple choice theory, but if the test were an essay format i would much rather have the questions centered around an in class essay, which is faster and less term-specific, and allows me to better incorporate all of my thoughts at once instead of going home and having to cite terms from the book in order to sound like i know how to communicate. either way is fine as long as they are equivalent in difficulty, which you (skye) didn't really specify.

I think multiple choice does sound quite nice because if you question your answer, you can ask for the advice from your group. It also goes more with what this classhas been about, everything we have done has been done with the group
All the way with the mutiple choice!

Yeah, I think I'd go with the multiple choice exam also, it makes sense as far as the scope of the class goes, and It'll be nice to get it done at school.

 would like to do the essay response because I think I could explain my answers better in words, then just choosing multiple ones, but either way im fine with it, as long as you dont jump out of the storage closet to scare us all.

the eassay dealie sounds pretty intresting.
i think its easier to explain oneself through written word like that, than filling in little bubbles... i dunno.... just a thought. but then again, the group multiple choice sounds fun, and leaves less room for error

I have been giving this some serious thought to this,but i am still undecided. I suppose either is fine.

I would prefer a multiple choice final just because i've always felt more comfortable and had greater success with them rather than having to do an essay question.

I think the group multiple choice sounds good!

I'm neutral...no choice in particular

I too, do not care if it is multiple choice or essay questions, but it seems to me the class is leaning towards multiple choice. The multiple choice does sound more like a groupthink type of assignment, which agrees with Madhu.

yeah...so multiple choice for sure. I agree with Jena, i dont think that we would have enough time to write a very good essay.

Im leaning towards group multiple chioce....I agree with everyone on, No in class essay! So the essay questions would be in class as a group, with notes and the book??? If we had short answer questions with open book and open notes, that would be the best bet for me!

I'm fine with either the multiple choice or essay as long as the essay is not an in class essay. Would the essay be an actual essay or just essay questions? Are we talking about an actual paper, cuz I don't thing there would be enough time to write a very good paper. But if it's just essay Questions, then I'm ok.

multiple choice sounds good to us!!

=D

I personally do not have any preference in this debate I find them both choices perfectly favorable for my interest therefore I am netrual I would execpt any alternative given to us in our final exam however I consider this action wonderful of your part skye gentile to take our opinios valid .thank you.

yeah multiple choice

i vote for the group multiple choice. i think that will be more fun than siting down and writing the paper alone. group multiple choice is another way to communicate with others in the group.

Edited by author 07-05-2006 05:54 PM
I vote for the group multiple choice idea. While either option provides us the appropriate time to answer the questions, it would be more simplistic as you said, I think for us to accomplish and maybe for you to grade as well.

Hmmm, that's a tough one. I think I prefer the multiple choice since that's always been my forte, but I hope you'll give advance notice if that ends up being the final decision since I'll need to cram a bit to prepare. I suppose essay questions would be fine too, as long as the group was willing to split them up evenly (although in my group's case that doesn't work as well since we only have three people). I think my overall vote is for multiple choice though.

The essay questions would be given to you in class when you view the movie (Tuesday) and they would be due to me either hard copy in class or emailed to me by 6:00 PM on Thursday.
skye

Edited by author 07-05-2006 01:37 PM
the key for me about this is when the essay is due. i'm a good writer but no so much on the spot. i really need time to collect and organze my thoughts. you mentioned, "I expect college level writing, typed, well edited text." which leads me to believe that's it would be due the next day or something?

so i guess my vote would be for either the multiple choice test or an out of class essay.

just please, for the love of god no in-class essays!

Edited by author 07-05-2006 01:33 PM
Web Presence Week III:

Okay: I need a consensus vote regarding your final exam. I will make my decision after weighing your responses. On Tuesday we are watching 12 Angry Men. Would you prefer to have a cooperative (group) multiple choice exam (not open book--open notes only) or would you prefer to have an essay exam consisting of 4 questions (open notes and open book, take home)?
Personally, I feel as though you would have more opportunity to support your answers with the essay exam, but I expect college level writing, typed, well edited text. I also can appreciate student affinity for the simplicity of a multiple choice exam.

The bridge was a perfect example of team work. It was several groups working, and brainstorming together coming up with great ideas. I agree with philip this was definitly a synergy, all our groups worked together to pull off a bridge that held 250+ lbs in an hour........

Edited by author 07-05-2006 06:24 AM
I think what Justin said about engineering philosophy was interesting- that cheaper and faster is often better. It really comes across as sort of a realist's take on engineering- what can we build that won't be a major pain in the ass or cost a fortune but can still get the job done? I guess that sometimes, you don't have to dot your i's and cross your t's to write great literature. Besides, who wants to be some pansy-ass goody-two-shoes conformist robot for "the Man" anyway? Screw the Man!

Madu: "balance" is the best single word summation of what let us accomplish what we did. I was suprised i didn't see it more often in these posts.

Working in small groups we were able to come up with four or five differnt methods of building the bridge. Then as a large unified group we were able to agree on a conprimise of two different approaches. The we devided into two more groups: the builders of the raw materials and the bridge builders. I have to admit the whole thing worked up much better than i ever could have hoped. It was deffinitly synergy in action.

I could have sworn Justin was gonna get a chairleg in the lung...

i noticed many concepts related to the book in our group activity involving straws, group roles were apparent in the different roles student played, the one who tested the final product (name?) was the primary leader. constructive competition was a big part, i definetely noticed the leader being psyched about a certain rigid bridge building technique, which sort of evolved somehow into the final product, which wasnt really related to the original design but worked really well. group cohesiveness was developed through evolution of idea, and the bridge building technique created a synergy which brought everyone into the design and creation of the bridge, although i tried to play devils advocate by pointing out some of the flaws and mostly i was ignored, which was ok because i wasn't too attached to building a bridge out of straws. i agree with justin about the brainstorming aspect which was our main focus, even through the building of the bridge because we never really agreed upon a plan, there were just some leaders who did things. i have one minute left! submit!

I also agree with Justin when he said it wans't the actual design of the bridge but the managment of people to complete smaller tasks because without the smaller groups helping with the straw stuffing and coming together with the ideas, the bridge would have never made it as far as it did

Jeri Spehar: nicely worded message. I like the idea of "informal roles." It's a way of getting things does with more creativity and insight. And the whole competition to completion thing... it was totally obvious that it motivated people to think of new ways to make a bride, even to the point of setting a new weight-holding record.

To start this off, I agree with Phillip. This project show a great deal of synergy. This in class project was a great way to get the whole class in involved. At first I htought it was going to be a group on gropu competition and we would be competing with the other gropus to see who's bridge could hold the most wieght. I thought is was good that we all were able to put aside everything and bring our ideas together It hsowed great leadership skills as Jeri had said before because there was not one specific leader but the whole class would come together ans shout out their ideas. Its was a good enviroment also because you could say your idea and this was such a crazy project that n one would put you idea down because it might just work. Throughout the project more people would build off the thers ideas and opinions and it made our final project even more better. We all showe great group effort by spliting up the work for each group and helpig the others out.

building the straw brige was so much fun. The whole class had not only brainstomed as philip teachout has said but also had been compleatly positive about the project and willing to compleate the goal. The synergy between poeple along with the power dimension was awesome. the three individuals who took the lead and then delagated all teh work to everyone else showed leadership in a non threatining way which was great.

 Phillip and nikki, I agree we didn't achieve our goal by staying in the smaller groups, our maximum potential came through when came as an whole an we let our ideas and minds flow and come together that is how we achieved our goal and in a sense we over achieved no one thought it would hold 255 pds. That shit was crazy.

So, this concept of synergy... it works. Although I do find it funny that people started taping the bridge when the idea wasn't originally mentioned in any design. In the end, the bridge proved to be stronger than I thought and it was thanks to the combination of genuis ideas from the students in our class.
Oh, and by now I'm sure that everyone understands the roles of productivity and cohesiveness in this experiment so I shall refrain from restating the obvious. =D

 First thing I saw when doing the straw project, was every group was competing to see who can come up with the most productive idea. Even though we were competing amongst our classmates. We came together an joined all of the ideas that seemed worthy enough to apply in our project and it worked efficiently. I also saw students listening to each other ideas which is a big part in a project like the one we did. All in all I thought we worked as a team.

I agree with nikki about the maximum potential because once everyone was working towards the same goal, we started to see new and different strategies of tieing the straws together for better strength for example the melting of the straws.

During the straw platform experience, synergy was definantly a part of the bridge experience because I dont think anyone was expecting it to hold 255 pounds. Also brainstorming and comprimise was a big part before the actual production of the bridge, because there was no idea on the board like what we constructed, but it was created by brainstorming some of the ideas and tied it all into one bridge. There was a good level of cohesiveness while constructing the bridge because everything went pretty smoothly with everyone building parts of the bridge.

Building the straw bridge was a product of several small groups brainstorming and coming up with a collaboration of ideas. I agreed with Walt’s post, specifically the part about synergy. I think that the class as a group definitely exceeded our own individual abilities. We engaged in competition when we drew up individual ideas and also compromised in order to create the strongest bridge.

It seemed interesting to me that James thought of the straw bridge design process as competition, but in the end it definitely makes sense because I figure even though we all wanted a project that worked great in the end, each one of us probably wanted the design used to be our own. It makes even more sense that he considered it constructive competition, because in the end the competition did definitely help the design process and enabled us to create such a great design.

I think that the straw bridge idea was a great example of synergy. Taking all those fragile plastic straws and coming up with a way to support 220lbs was pretty incredible in itself, but the idea process seemed pretty remarkable. I think each one of the groups had great ideas for supporting the weight, and each one on its own was synergistic, but we had an even better synergy with the whole class (although the fact that we had so many people in the design process almost seemed like it was going to prevent the bridge from ever being erected). I thought that was a great group project that really formed a practical example of group work.

Regarding the straw platform experience from class, I'm just glad no one got hurt...
As far as concepts mentioned in the book that were at work , it was pretty clear that a SYSTEM was at work. Our INPUT being our groups, the straws etc. We also had THROUGHPUT, which was basically the many groups by brainstorming ideas for possible straw structures. All this lead to our more than successful OUTPUT.

Madhu: I really agree with your message, there really was a good balance of individualism and collectivism from which we all benefited.

The Straw bridge experience was awesome! I liked observing the leadership skills during this project. No one was formally labeled a leader or was told to take charge; instead you saw the idea of informal roles emerging to get the job done. I believe this is essential in-group work with out some form of a leader nothing gets accomplished effectively. I think competition drove us to completion. We were driven to beat the previous class that held 195lbs, we wanted to hold that title of the best straw bridge and we seriously kicked ass!
I agree with Madhu that the voting possess was very democratic, which is safe and productive. (You don’t have to worry about stepping on anyone’s toes, majority rules lol listening to my role fixation) Nikki it is true that we had cohesiveness at that very moment of our final design of the straw bridge; but I also believe that we felt even more cohesiveness when the task was completed. I think feeling that success after the project left us confident and closer as a group. I give mad props to Skye for thinking of the chair idea, without that we wouldn't have gotten even close to 250 pounds.

nikki, i feel that you are correct when you talk about success through trial and error. In engineering there are two saying used in almost all design application. They are "better, faster, cheaper" and "go for the third best". The first saying is pretty self explanitory however the secend is not so, but it is exactly what we did. See the two best ideas for building the bridge either take two long to build or simply two complicated or expensive to make. What we built was a better, faster and chaeper design that proved to surpass the previous recor by about 60 pounds. It often does not require an engineer to design the best "straw bridge" rather it takes a group of people willing to constintly change the design given new information as well as the ability to look outside the box for new ideas.

Justin, I agree with you. I think we didn't acheive maximum potential until we left our smaller groups and joined forces as a larger team (the whole class). Through trial and error, like IDEO we failed only to succeed at the end.

Well I think we can all agree that the straw project in class was a fun one and a successful one. I believe we acheived cohessiveness when we finally decided on our final solution to the task. We all came together as a class to follow instuctions and work together to make the final result happen. I do think that there was some groupthink going on during our initial vote between 3 different choices. Once the combination choice (i think it was 4,3,1) was added to the vote the majority immediately went with the combination. This option came from Skyes mouth which I think prompted the majority to choose that choice. As we all know we didn't end up using that choice. After some communication as a class turned to critical thinking we came up with a better way of successfully completing the task.

walt Lile, i'm glad that you felt the same way i did.
i'm glad that u mentioned "There was however, a lack of apply “Murphy’s Law,” for we did not take into account the possibility that anyone could be hurt by standing on the straw bridge."

well, all was well just by mere probability.

the building of the straw bridge was a very intresting project. With all the brainstorming that we did and all the ideas generated it was very clear that our bridge was not the product of any one groups idea or design. Rather it was the combination of many different ideas that lead to the completion of a bridge that held up over 250 lbs. The development of this design took a great deal of work not only in the actuall design but also in the managment of people to complete smaller task that would eventually lead to the completion of the bridge.

Building a strong platform with straws was a difficult task especially coming up with an efficient idea. Even after coming up with the ideas, each group wanted its idea to be approved or atleast included; however, we(the whole class as a group) focused on achieving the task which paved way to We-not-Me orientation. I thought the voting procedure to select different groups' collaborated idea to be very democratic.
There was a nice balance between individualism and collectivism which led to the sucess.

C.J. that was an interesting and funny use of group potency. I do like Jena's comments on competitive competition because I really didn't think of it in that way. It does appear that we all agree that there was quite a bit of brainstorming goin' on to create such an efficient bridge.

I agree with Jesus about the success of our compromise for the better of the whole. While our "quadruple-stuffed straws" were thoroughly kick ass, we decided to relinquish our architactural genius for a more primitive, ugly, less refined, and yet, more successful idea.

There was certainly a lot of "group potency", both in believing that we could build a revolutionary straw platform, and also in smell. Our "autonomous" environment gave group members the freedom and liberty of choice between straw work, tape work, or knot work. Such demanding decisions were certainly a tribulation, but through our group's cumulative understanding of the deep "meaningfulness" of our architectural mission, we triumphed over argument, rebellion, failure, and thus- gravity!

Justin... The forced community service I had to complete was not school related in fact, but racism by our local government. I am constantly persecuted because of my ethnicity- a Drunkard.

I agree with Justin's post about not forcing students to perform community service. I think that all parties involved benefit more when the volunteer (or student) is doing community service because they want to. When the community service is a requirement to recieve a diploma, degree, etc. and not becuse the student has a genuine interest in the service, the quality of work is much lower than if the student chose to do the service on their own. I'm really glad that this class is showing interest in doing the service learning because I think the agencies and the community will benefit because we actually care and are making an honest effort to help, not just muddle through it to recieve the credit.

In our group we did a lot of brainstorming to come up with an idea (or several ideas) that might work for the bridge building. The final design benefited from the competitive competition of each project group because each groups brainstorm produced different results and as a class we were able to combine the best ideas from each project group to make a stronger bridge.

I think one person can make a differnce and in fact one act can make a differnce. But that is not to say it will make a large impact, maybe just a few will ever feel the warmth of the service. there are so many things going on in this life that a single act of community service might seem to be a just a little dent in this car crash of a life. it wont stand out on its own, but it all does add up. Its when groups and organizations work together that lifes can really change. For those being helped and for those who are putting out the effort as well. Nothing is certain, but change can change and it is natural to do so.
-on response to jesus comment on making up words, it makes every thing so much more scrumtrulesent and the learning experience is increased ten fold becuase we are the ones making it up as we go. some people may call us revoultionaries or some may just call us idiotic, but either way we had fun.

Each group built cohesiveness where the group member shared his/her idea and it seemed that everyone enjoyed other's company though at first,there was a bit of primary tension since we were grouped with different members and not with the original tribe.The group developed shared goals and successfully accomplished the tasks,where the assigned leader of the group went to the board and discussed and illustrated the group's idea.Every member was valued and cooperated in some way.
-- As what James observed, constructive competition was seen and performed.Each group exerted their effort to come up with the best idea.

We had “brainstorming” (zany ideas) going on in our groups. There was definitely “synergy” during the task for all of us had to cooperate to get the task done on time, and to accomplish our goal.

There was however, a lack of apply “Murphy’s Law,” for we did not take into account the possibility that anyone could be hurt by standing on the straw bridge. With that was a bit of “cynicism” because I thought the bridge was going to fail. It was amazing to see the teamwork come together with an achievement of setting a record.

Edited by author 07-01-2006 03:01 PM
Tim: nice job making conncetions between the class activity and the text terminology.
James--nice job incorporating Listening skills into the post:)
All we need is a perception check and we are solid!
Jesus--I am glad you you found the submit button before Sunday night at 9:00!!!
Well done.
skye

hahaah the whole "making up words" thing was great. but i mean, he got the point across and it worked great. it was a rad experience
through "cohesiveness" and "productivity," we actually did something rad. it worked, and it worked really wel. well also compromised and gave up ideas to make room for new ones (demonstred flexibily)
anyways, it was rad
<3 jesus

Edited by author 06-29-2006 11:50 PM
Well, its about 8:50 on Thursday night, so Tim, I'm going to talk trash about your post :). Tim, "I felt" very challanged by your post when you identified many terms and concepts. I would feel more at ease if you limited your answers next time. ;) heheh. see you in class man.

Constructive competition was the thing I saw first and foremost as we arranged ourselves into separate groups to "compete" for the best idea. Aside from that, we all "demonstrated flexibility" by combining ideas as well, which relates to the chapter on roles and leadership.

Edited by author 06-28-2006 02:34 PM
There were many terms/concepts from the book at work yesterday. Among the many that could be listed:

- we worked in "project groups" to complete this task

- clearly, the "complexity" of the group experience increased quite a bit when we went from our smaller groups to a group consisting of the classroom as a whole (one example- it became harder to make decisions due to disagreement, we had to take a formal vote)

- through "cohesiveness" and "productivity," we were able to contruct a record-setting straw platform

- I, among other people I'm sure, took part in a little "social loafing." The biggest reason for this in my case was that I found myself incapable of tying an effective knot with the straws, and knew my fellow group members could do it better ("social compensation")

- the compromise that led to the final idea came out of "constructive competition" between the contesting structural ideas which were proposed

- being that this was a somewhat unstructured exercise, our roles were largely "informal"

- proof of "credibility" exhibited by the use of engineering "argot" led to a "group endorsement" of "transformational leadership" offered by a few "charismatic leaders"

There are others of course, but I wouldn't want to take all of the relevant terms for myself.
;) <-- ("emoticon")

Edited by author 06-28-2006 01:58 PM
WEB PRESENCE WEEK 2:
Part One: 15 points. Answer the question fully. Be thoughtful and explain your answer, supporting your ideas with examples.
Part Two: 10 points. Respond to another person's blog post with thoughtful questions and/or comments.

______________________________

Using the straw platform experience from class (watching the IDEO video), brainstorming; working in small teams, etc... Identify concepts/terms from the textbook that you saw at work on Tuesday (in class). You can draw from any chapter that you have read (1-8 respectively). For example, can you identify group roles at work? Do not limit your answer to group roles--test other ideas as well.

yeah it sucks when it feels like our schools have to force students to go out and preform community service. i think that its obvious one person can make a diffrence, but sadly its never done. there is something out there for everyone to enjoy doing, we just gotta look. a nice sence of completion and the sence of doing a good deed (as corney as it sounds) is a good damn feeling. so im glad most of the students here are all about it, and willing to make the change and get the "hands on" experience.

Edited by author 06-26-2006 12:34 AM
.WEEK ONE WEB PRESENCE CLOSED. PARTICIPANTS EARNED UP TO 25 POINTS--

** I will not log any points for week one POST 9:31 PM 6-25-06 **

The difference between Service learning and community service is that service learning is more interwined with what you are doing academically and like rebecca said is more hands on, while community service is more to help out in your community. A lot of people are forced to do community service and most of the time community service is more for a selfish act. We are either forced into doing it or trying to raise money for something that we want or need.

I think you can make a small difference. I believe that if one person begins to do some kind of act that it will influence someone else. It may take awhile for it to make a difference but I do believe one person can make a difference

the differecnce between service learning and community service is that service learnig is A "HANDS ON" approach to issues concerning our society so we can use to get a better understanding about what it is were doing with a an acedemic instructioal approach. Community service is more like an experimantal thing, we try it and if we likee it then well do it again. say youll help out your community for a day or two , most likely youll leave it a that. you do it just for the experience.

What needs to be done, is there should be a much larger variety in the service learning or community service area's. If this were to happen, it would allow students to select a service that they were interested and passionate about, which would lead to a greater effort by the individual. Take Justin for example who's been coaching for 8 years! I doubt he would still be doing it unless he really enjoyed what he was doing.

In responce to C.J. post.

It truely is a shame that schools have to force students into completing community service in such a way where those who are involved end up having a bad experence. I was lucky that for my community service i was able to do my whole coaching thing. Many of my friends however were so opposed to that idea that there schools could hold something as valuable as a diploma over there head as movitation to complete 40 something hours. As much as I agree that students should be involed in the communities that they grow up in, I do think that the system that is in place now needs reform. It is very easy for me to say this because I know I will not be the one to change it, nor am I the person that works very hard to keep that systems working.

I like what Justin said about how one act of service learning isn't a bad thing, but to do that service regularly especially if it is working with the same people consistantly can really make a difference in a single person's life. I think that it also is more of a learning experience for the person actually doing the service if they do it regularly, not only are they helping others consistantly, but they are introducing a bit of humility into their lives which isn't an easy lesson to learn.

I agree with what most of the other students in this class have said about community service versus service learning, that it depends more on your motivation for doing the service or even your feelings about the service afterwards that makes it community service or service learning. Even if it is a forced act of service, it seems that if you enjoy it or can see that you are making a difference in others lives then it is a learning experience. One act of service can definitely make a difference, in a couple ways. 'Act' is a very general term, it could mean picking up a piece of litter or donating 10 billion dollars to a worthy charity. Also, just because the act may not be a large one doesn't mean that it wont make a difference.

The whole "stuck up girl" concept is just about perspective. It could apply to anyone who bitches about life when they don't have the slightest concept of how hard life can be. Consumer-driven America is entirely responsible for this attitude of me-me-me and how good or bad MY life is... Hopefully growth in service learning will help people with their perspective on life and seeing the big picture- Hopefully it will help grow a better community where people care about human life rather than plastic life... Sip... Sip... Chug... "Must... Stop... The...(Hic!) Tremors..."

Like most of the other responses I think I relate Community Service to punishment, which is a shame. I had the unfortunate experience of being forced into community service before and it actually turned out to be more like a service learning experience because I had a good time doing it. I worked a few days at the Second Harvest Food Bank in Watsonville, just helping out wherever. The first day was like torturous punishment, but by the last day I didn't really care if I left or stayed because the people were awesome and it felt good helping out. I learned a lot about my community- how some people struggle for food and what other locals are doing to help. So I would say the difference between community service and service learning is your attitude and outlook on what you're doing, because if you are learning then that one act makes a difference to YOU if not the people you're helping.

One act can easily make a difference. If no single act could make a difference, then it would follow that even many acts together would make no difference. I think that no one can convincingly argue that a thing will remain the same even if all the world endeavors to change it. Much of the power of a single act lies in its ability to “snowball,” if you will: to generate good will and inspire others to follow suit. Every act of charity exhibited has the chance of guilting some miser into looking at the impoverished with a more sympathetic eye.

Community service and service learning are powerful in their ability to influence the server. Jamie (and several others) alluded to this when painting the ‘stuck up girl’ in the soup kitchen scenario. Though ordered service might be beneficial, (giving a piece of mind to the mindless) it can also backfire. When a disgruntled juvenile is ordered to spread mulch in the blazing sun they may have negative sentiments associated with serving their community. Whereas community service is mostly imposed, service learning is more associated with voluntarily reaching out in order to better oneself and as such might have a better chance at making a difference in the long run. If the server has a positive experience (as Tim said in his first post) they will be more likely do more community service and quite possibly influence others to do the same.

I feel that several responces have delt with the aspect that the primary difference between community serviced and service learning is in the motivation of those involved in the activity. I have been a wrestling coach going on eight years now and I have always felt that what I was doing was a form of community service. I guess this stems from what my high school called the work that I needed to do to be able to graduate. I have always enjoyed giving back to the community that I have been so lucky to grow up in. This is why I believe that what I have been doing is service learning as I am not only coaching to benifit the community but also as a means of changing my wrestlers live which makes me feel wonderful about what I do. I quess this was sort of a round about explanition of what I feel that service learning is. With my coaching I have been able to share my knowledge of wrestling with a large group of people.

I agree that certain types of service learning can create a positive differnce even when they are small. However I strongly believe that to really make a lasting change in a community periodic acts work the best. This is especially true when working as a mentor or tutor where you see the same group of kids; showing up day in day out will instill responsibility in them. And i fell that is incredcibility important in this day and age

"Credit shouldn’t even be in the top 5 reasons someone engages in community service." (Mike)

Ideally, I think that sounds nice. People engaging in community service to really help the community, even beefing up your resume, or some other form of personal enrichment. However, I think theres a reason our service is being mandated. I don't think many of us would really participate in such service if it wasn't required. Unpaid work won't put food on your table, but it might give you an appreciation for the food on your table. So, I think its only appropriate to have the insentive of credit within our school systems to perpetuate such services in the future.

I hope that wasn't taken too much out-of-context.

in the high school i went to, we were required to do 40 hours of community service and/or service learning. how they defined service learning was tutoring our fellow students(which is a service learning) but they didn't look to much into it because they knew that we kids didnt want to do any of it. i believe the difference is that service learning does involve more learning than just community serivce. given, being a stuck girl in a soup kitchen as jamie said does give that girl a new view on life but who knows how long that impression will last and even if she do something with it. with service learning you are going there to learn something new about that organization and/or something new about your community. also with that new knowledge you could apply to your life that does have some influence in your community. now don't get me wrong, community service is a awesome thing but i do tend to agree with tim and mike that people do it from time to time because they are forced.

can one act make a difference? that is a lesson we have been taught since we were childern. you as a person can a make a difference in this world. so one day in your life you choose to do some service learning/community service you are making a difference to that certain enviornment or person and maybe making that one day for them a little bit better.

When I think of community service, I immediately think of someone getting in trouble and being sentenced to a certain number of hours of service doing something like picking up trash with one of those hand-held mechanical grabbers. Secondly, I might think of community service as that to satisfy academic requirements or volunteering to raise money for an organization. Community Service is defined in my 1998 Oxford American dictionary as “unpaid work performed in service to the community, especially as part of a criminal sentence.” So, I wasn’t too far off the mark. I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on the idea of service learning, but I do gather that participating in community service itself is only the instrumental part of it, and that it also involves “learning.” I think service learning requires that you recognize the impact of your service on the community and its future. Through “experiential education,” we might see how our services really affect society, and allow us to understand a broader view of our efforts.
 Can one act of service make a difference? I’m not sure. If you feed a homeless man, he may have a better chance of living for the next week. If you do office/receptionist work for a non-profit organization, you may help to keep their entity around longer to benefit the community. If you foster a kitten or puppy for a few weeks, you may have saved them from being euthanized. I believe our collective efforts will help preserve these facets of mercy to our less fortunate beings.

Edited by author 06-25-2006 06:52 PM
It's how the individuals provide an incentive to their particular action.This I think is the difference between community service and learning service.

In community service,it is the institution or community that gets the benefits of the service rendered by the participants through their own free will.Whereas in service learning,it is the actual participant that is benefited through the acquired knowledge or skills.

I believed that a single act of service makes a difference.Why?Because it provides knowledge that makes individuals improve or grow- mentally,emotionally,socially and spiritually.

Edited by author 06-25-2006 04:11 PM
Okay so I wish I never mentioned the carwash--I just happened to see several over the last few weekends...anyway back to business. Nice reflection and conversation. Carry on folks! I feel fortunate to spend my summer with such a great group of people.
Also be certain to use your group boards to check in with each other on a very REGULAR basis, and lastly--THREE activites per chapter. No late work--there is no time for LATE.
skye

First off, I agree with Tim about the difference lying in the motivations of the participant, but i don't believe the volunteer is providing a service to themselves or to the goals of others if they are serving another groups agenda, because they have no real desire to help others or learn anything from their experience, and most importantly, they have no desire to return. One act of service can make a difference if millions of people contribute one act, and that is why we have the public school system (am i joking?). I think the key factor making something an act of service to others is the adopting of the groups goal and the desire to make a difference, (or as Tim says, the goal of personal enrichment). The people that do that are the ones recognized for their work and the ones that return for more.

Although community service and service learning are very similar there are differences. Service learning is a conscious effort to help either your community, a group or someone in the community and to learn and grow from the experience as a person. The choice to do service learing is a choice solely made by you (except in this class) to better yourself and the lives of others. Even though Skye is calling this a service learning project, I believe it is actually a community service project until we make the choice to learn and grow from the experience. Community service can be done for many reasons. The law may require it, you sorority/fraternity may require a certain amount of hours, or possibly you are just looking to boost a your resume. These are all reasons people may engage in community service, but they may not be doing it for all the right reasons. Like personal growth or the desire to help others. I know that a single act of service can make a change. If not a change in the big scheme of things it should make you feel better about yourself and the things you have done for others, causing a benefial change in oneself.

2 questions....

1. How often is it that people are open about what they're doing a car wash for?

2.How often do we even bother to ask?

If nobody checks its easy to pass it off as "service."

I cannot imagine people trying to pass off a fund raiser as community service. People that participate in car washes are doing so to raise money for their own needs, not others. It is not community service if it is for your own needs, and not for others.

When I think of community service I do not think of those that are court mandated, but of other organizations that volunteer in community service. There are many that serve the community: Boy scouts, churches, criminals, interns, students of all ages, and the average citizen. People serve the community for many reasons. What is received is greater than the initial reasons for service, which is the heart condition of seeing how your community service helps people, and their gratitude for your help.
The difference service learning brings to our community service is learning not only how or even ways to serve the community, but learning how to work successfully in groups.
It is funny that you mentioned Pay It Forward, because it is on the USA channel this weekend. And with that I would like to say only in the movies can one service have such an effect on people. It is true that one service may encourage the volunteer to return for further community service, but it does not spread through America in such a dramatic fashion.

Mike, Tim, those are some awesome responses. I hate car wash guys because its always about a trip to mexico or something. Dammit i want to go. Why should i pay five dollars for them to take more shots on their trip and do a crappy job washing my car.

Tim you are dead on on the motivation behind the participant.

What do you think is the difference between community service and service learning?

The difference to me between service learning and community service is that service learning there is a goal or a over all projected learning experiece from what you are doing(and you are quite aware of it the entire time). For example if you are a stuck up broad who had to do service learning and your parents usaly pay for everything and the only thing you might have to do on a daily basis for work is a paper for school, service learning would be a great oppertunity to put yourself out there and experience something that has yet to be defined in the world which you surround yourself in. IE being the stuck up girl helping out the homeless at the soup kitchen might give her a appreciation for what she has and that she isn't sleeping in the gutter at night sucking down that bottle of acicent age to keep the delerium tremors away. Also, the satisfaction of helping out someone who needs it,in so many more ways than the individual. Community service is something from service learning that you have already experienced and want to do agian in as many forms as possiable if you truly enjoyed the first experience. To me the only difference between service learning and community service is a evolutionary step of one another.

Can one act of service make a difference? Why or why not?

I believe that one act , word, hug , smile, involentary gesture can make all the difference in this world. Its just like voting if everyone does it would be a lot more fair to get the best canidate for office. So no matter what you do its just wonderful, becasue if you didn't do it it would cause someone else to. So, every little step toward something bigger counts in this world.

That was pretty damn funny Mike.

"Next time you see scantily clad teens trying to get you to their carwash--some pass it off as service. Is it (Skye)?"

Meh, I guess?

They're doing the right thing for the wrong reason, you know? I mean sure it might be about credit to them or showing off whatever it is they think is a good body but if the money goes to a good cause, who cares?

You know what, now that I’m thinking about it, most carwashes I've been personally associated with had to do with raising money for ourselves; usually a school trip or something. So in that case, it's really more of a service to the pedophiles.......

Nice reflection Mike--I agree with you on the issue of credit. However in the local schools it is all about "credit" and students seek to log any thoughtless effort as service to "make their hours." Next time you see scantily clad teens trying to get you to their carwash--some pass it off as service. Is it?

A single act can make a difference; it just depends on the act. A beach clean up won’t necessarily make all the homeless that sleep there eternally grateful but it will make a difference nonetheless. People that are at the beach or even gaze at it from afar will remark to themselves how gorgeous it looks. Whether or not they realize a clean-up is the reason it looks the way it does is irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. Credit shouldn’t even be in the top 5 reasons someone engages in community service.

As far as the difference between service learning and community service, I tend to think it’s a difference between theory and practice. Beyond what Tim said about the spectrum of different reasons people engage in community service, service learning is an essential stepping stone to community service. How can we be expected to just jump right in to anything we’re even semi-experienced in? A certain amount of investigation needs to be undertaken along with the accompanying learning curve.

Edited by author 06-22-2006 04:39 AM
Thank you for the praise, and no I haven't seen "Pay it Forward." I suppose I should though huh?

As far as looking at this from a systems perspective- I think it's a shame that those who volunteer their time to perform community service don't receive more acknowledgement and gratitude from society as a whole. Sure, a record of community service can help your chances of getting into a top university and of being hired for certain jobs, but it seems as if your SAT scores, your grades, and the prestige/status of your college are more integral to the opening of doors of opportunity for self-advancement (at least in this country).

The reason for this, I believe, is that most private institutions and corporations (at least those who pay well) have a decidedly individualist orientation, and will generally prefer someone who is committed to working competitively rather than cooperatively. Undeniably, this is to be expected within a capitalist society, since competitiveness is, after all, a central tenet of our economic system.

I could go on here with a typical leftist rant about why I hate the uglier qualities of capitalism, but I'm really not all that well read on the subject, and I'm not sure the human race (with our petty self obsessed egos) is capable of much more anyway. I will say this though- the bottom line regards what our society values. Throughout history, humanity has made the decision (perhaps democratically, perhaps not) to place a higher overall value on money (the physical embodiment of the me-oriented philosophy) than on kindness and generosity, and until that changes, selfless acts such as volunteer work will never be rewarded as satisfactorily as selfish ones. Sorry to be such a downer but it's not like I'm saying anything we don't already know.

In all fairness though, those who subscribe to a captialist ideology often promise that the continual increase of production inherent in the system will have the incidental effect of creating solutions to many of our current problems through technological advancement and creation of wealth. I don't know if this is true, but I suppose time will tell.

Beautifully worded response Tim. I agree with your comments regarding motivation and the individual (BTW loved your examples here). I do think that motivation can also be an issue for service learning--for example a student could argue that I have taken the "volunteer" out of "volunteering" by mandating the service--which I think is precisely the point--the server should be out of the equation and the served should be the center.
I am most pleased and struck by the following comments made by you
"This will mean continued empowerment to both those who provide the service and those who reap the benefits of that service. However, if a participant does not feel that further community service is necessary or even beneficial to their own personal enrichment, it is likely that their service learning experience will become an isolated incident, thus reducing it's overall impact (Tim)."
I think that looking at service from a systems perspective is most interesting. Ever see the movie "Pay it Forward?"

Edited by author 06-21-2006 05:36 AM
The biggest difference between service learning and community service lies in the motivations of the participant. People do community service for a variety of different reasons- sometimes law enforement requires it as a consequence of someone's unlawful behavior (such as a DUI), other times someone may share the concerns of a community service organization and feel compelled to help out, and yet other times someone may only participate as a means to foster more social opportunities for themselves.

In the case of service learning, however, a person's motivation to perform a community service stems from the larger goal of personal enrichment. This is primarily ahcieved through a combination of academic progression, examination of self and society, and the development of related skills (which in our case are reading, writing, creative, and communicative skills within a small group context).

One act of service certainly does make a difference, but the real question regards the magnitude of that difference. Certainly, any service experience will be beneficial to the recipient/s of that service. If the service experience is a positive one for the participant, providing them with a feeling of fulfillment and helping them to realize their own goal of personal enrichment, there is a good possibility that they will perform further community service later on. This will mean continued empowerment to both those who provide the service and those who reap the benefits of that service. However, if a participant does not feel that further community service is necessary or even beneficial to their own personal enrichment, it is likely that their service learning experience will become an isolated incident, thus reducing it's overall impact.

-Tim Lippert

Edited by author 06-19-2006 08:18 PM
RULES:
1. Read the question/s.
2. Respond to all parts of the question.
3. Read comments written by your classmates.
4. Respond fully to another person's comments. Do not respond with simplistic or irrelevant responses..."like I totally agree..."
You will graded on both the content of your message and the relational component (read chapter 1).
________________________________________________________________ ________

What do you think is the difference between community service and service learning?

Can one act of service make a difference? Why or why not?

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