Tennessee Campus Compact

I attended the second meeting of the Tennessee Campus Compact yesterday and was so thrilled to be in their midst. Meeting folks from campuses across the state and hearing their energy and passion for service learning was so inspiring. So inspiring, in fact, that I've decided to pitch a conference for those interested in learning more about technology in service learning, with particular attention to P-16 initiatives. I've spoken with Bob Bradley of the Digital Media Sandbox Consortium and we're going to start work toward a conference in October to coincide with the 2009 Governor's Challenge Podcasting Tournament.

Often, folks equate technology training with aspirations to become a computer programmer or software engineer, but that's no longer true. I often use the analogy of a parent saying, "My child doesn't need to know how to write; he's not going to be a writer when he grows up." Of course, we all know that basic reading and writing skills are critical to any field but many are just now realizing that digital mastery is as critical to success in high school, college and career as the fundamentals of reading and writing. From this article about the promise of a highly interactive, tech-savvy Obama administration:

“Most people from the 20th century think of technology as a separate issue from others like healthcare or energy, but it’s not just one of many issues [like one of many slices of a pie], it’s the pan that supports innovation and change for all of the other issues,” says Andrew Rasiej, copresident of techpresident.com.

We want to highlight this elemental relationship and to highlight nuts and bolts approaches to program design, best practice program models and assessment/outcome potentials that are all enhanced by existing and emerging technologies.

I welcome the TNCC members to this Web site and promise that beginning in January you will see it begin to flower with resources and information regarding technology tools to help you with your work. I remain available to consult with any of you on your program or administrative models and to provide the information you need to cultivate resources and to develop your own technology resources in pursuit of service learning program excellence.

It's important to remember that from an administrative standpoint, Internet technology has the capacity to lower costs (especially important in these days of severe budget cuts), to attract funders (technology funding is very hot right now!) and to enhance and maintain more cohesive partnerships and collaborations.

Please contact me if you have any special needs for information or want to share news of projects combining technology and service learning (I have quite a few I'll be sharing soon!). And please stay tuned for more information on the conference we hope to bring to you in the fall of 2009 which will bring together academic technology and service learning for educators from Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. You won't want to miss it!