As colleges and universities continue to engage in service learning and consider the role of civic engagement within higher education, the role of the internet and the associative digital tools that can be used to improve the world will continue to be part of the conversation. I have executed and guided faculty and institutes on how to design and implement service-learning projects that lean on digital tools to successfully serve the needs of different communities both locally and globally. Good tidings, Lance Lance Eaton he/him/his http://www.ByAnyOtherNerd.com https://twitter.com/leaton01 https://www.linkedin.com/in/leaton01/ ____________________ I wish I had all the answers; better yet, I wish I knew all the questions to ask.

1. Digital Service
Learning
LANCE EATON
LANCE.EATON@REGISCOLLEGE.EDU
20C COLLEGE HALL

2. Outline
▶ What Is It/What Can It Be
▶ Why do it?
▶ How to do it?
▶ Some examples
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS

3. What is it?
▶ Pulls together traditional philosophy of service
learning and couples with opportunities and
possibilities of the digital world.
▶ Contributing to the digital world in a way that
builds community, connections, and value to
people’s lives, globally.
▶ Does not have to be an online class to do digital
service learning.
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS

4. Why Digital Service Learning?
▶ Giving back to the interwebs.
▶ Leveraging technology to do more than entertain.
▶ Reaching people and communities that are
physically removed but may be just as relevant to
our lives.
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS

5. Advantages of Digital
Service-Leaning
▶ Flexibility of serving hours
▶ Potential for both local and global impact
▶ Offers creative ways to connect classroom learning with
serving the community
▶ Provides a tangible outcome for service-learning
▶ Learn new digitally-related skills
▶ Different types of students and time demands
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS

6. How
▶ How it fits
▶ Course objectives
▶ Learning outcomes
▶ Why?
▶ What’s the value to their learning?
▶ What’s the value to the community?
▶ Aspects of the project(s)?
▶ Required vs. Either/Or
▶ Value of their grade
▶ Support/Clear pathway
▶ Technical support
▶ Evidence of success
▶ Reflection Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS

7. How
▶ Gather your supports
▶ Instructional Designer/Instructional Technologist
▶ Reach out to organization/website
▶ Other campus supports (Librarian, Disability
Services, etc)
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS

8. What to Expect?
Things
can get a
lil crazy.

9. Examples of Digital
Service-Learning
▶ Development of web presence or social media
campaign.
▶ Critiquing/Editing/Develop website content.
▶ Creating educational content.
▶ Editing or adding of content on Wikipedia or other
wiki.
▶ Contributing to a crowd-source program/database.
▶ Providing closed-captioning for course related content.
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS

10. • Final Essay
• Librivox Contribution
• Wikipedia Entry
• Digital Presentation
• Open Option
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS
Final Project Options

11. • Contributing to American literature’s reach.
• Giving voice to texts that have been silent.
• Providing a voice for a text.
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS
Librivox Project

12. Details:
• Narrate 1 or more works of 15+ minutes of recording.
• Read a work in its entirety.
• Limit choices to works written by the authors explored.
• Don’t need to buy recording equipment for this project.
• Perform some research around the story and author to get a sense of its
history and significance.
• Write a 600+ word reflection essay that discusses their experience in
choosing, researching, and narrating the particular writing(s) and how it
changed their understanding and experience of the story.
Evaluation
• Clear, projective, and mistake-free recording of the written work.
• Proper introduction material (each Librivox recording has a brief
introduction).
• The recording has been added to a specific collection.
• A well-written reflection that provides insight on the process and
experience.
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS
Librivox Contribution

13. The Fight by Augustus Baldwin Longstreet
http://uploads.librivox.org/ruthieg/shortstory058_thefight_
df_128kb.mp3
Up the Slide by Jack London
http://www.archive.org/download/short_story_054_1302_l
ibrivox/shortstory054_16_uptheslide_cv.mp3
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS
Student Examples

14. • Contributing to writing in the public.
• Contributing to a new form of writing.
• Contributing to knowledge building.
• Engaging in public debate.
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS
Wikipedia Project

15. 1. Create/develop a Wikipedia entry on a writing, its content,
meaning, and importance. Students may also find a poorly
developed entry and further develop it.
2. Acquire the instructor’s permission before moving forward.
3. Must limit their choices to exploring works written by the
authors explored in this course.
Evaluation
1. Ability to research and gather credible sources
2. Discuss the text in clear, analytical, and articulate ways
3. Provide a solid and substantial contribution to Wikipedia of
some 1200-1500 words.
4. Use their own words entirely.
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS
Wikipedia Contribution

16. “Understanding how the story should sound, and trying to reflect that
into a recording was a much harder task, then I originally thought. I
found myself re-recording entire paragraphs, not just because I messed
up the wording, which happened to me with every paragraph, but
because what I just recorded did not sound like it went with what the
story was trying to convey.…I made careful note of the end punctuation
before I started reading the sentence, in order to make sure that I knew
how to annunciate it. I also took note of any commas that were in the
sentence to make sure I stopped at the right points, to read the story as
exactly written. I caught myself a couple of times, reading a sentence
like it had a period at that the end, instead of an exclamation point, or
question mark.”
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS
Reflective Essay Excerpts

17. “I was not really impressed with the plot of the story the first time I read
through the story, but the more I read the story in preparation for
narration, the more I began to understand why the story was written.
Reading it several times also helped me to gain more knowledge on the
ways in which many southerners viewed the rising tensions over slavery
in the United States."
"Doing the narration for this story gave me the ability to set my mind
back to that time period, and it allowed me to enjoy reading the story
much more."
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS
Reflective Essay Excerpts

18. Questions & Thoughts?

19. Thank you
Lance Eaton
Lance.eaton@regiscollege.edu
Resources: http://goo.gl/gwtuqS