The purpose of this website is to demonstrate the usefulness of community service-learning (CSL) in the classroom.
CSL is defined as an educational approach that integrates community service into educational practices. Students and instructors work within communities outside of the class to work towards outcomes that are mutually beneficial for all involved.
CSL is a benefit to:
All three of these groups work together on projects that will improve the relationship between one another. By integrating these three audiences and creating sustainable long-term partnerships, CSL impacts individuals on a level that extends beyond their academic or professional careers.
CSL links communities to the classroom, establishing a connection between the two that reaches past mere acquaintance. Projects are generated, but lives and perspectives are changed. Students are asked to take on projects bigger than themselves, resulting in a level of detail and attention that often surpasses their own expectations. Many times they leave the class with so much more than a grade. Teachers and community partners act as collaborators with students, providing feedback and insight, but also encouraging students' to think outside the box and follow their own ideas.
CSL's link between the community and the classroom changes student, teacher and community partner perspectives by offering a different vantage point on how to view education.
CSL Inspires
- Volunteerism
- Long-term partnerships
- Community awareness
- Student engagement
About Community Service-Learning
Image: T. Smith, 2009. With consent.
About COMS 463
As students at the University of Calgary enrolled in the CSL course COMS 463, we are involved in editing, researching, and writing content for a website that is useful our community partners (Buffy and Erin-official names and links). The material that was used for some of this website is of our own creation and the rest is edited material passed down to students from previous classes at the University that focuses on service learning. We have full permission to publish these documents as the students who were involved signed consent forms so that we and others could have access to them. In this class we:
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Created our own Blogs
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Created our own Personal Websites
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Learned about web writing and the do's and don'ts
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Created this Final website for our community partners
The experiences in doing these tasks helped us to effectively highlight the benefits of CSL for students, instructors, and community partners on this website for others see and to gain knowledge and understanding of the perspectives of all involved in CSL.
