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Using technology to enhance service-learning reflections.

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Abstract

The purpose is to describe a 15-hour classroom and web-based service-learning intervention offered Fall, 2002 to volunteer registered nurses studying for advanced degrees in a publicly supported university located in Manhattan, New York. Students were enrolled in at least one of two different theory courses that required a clinical practicum experience in a community setting. By using in-person and web-based strategies, students who were new to the use of technology, could be coached and encouraged to reflect on their clinical experiences using service-learning as an organizing framework.

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Service-learning has been described as structured learning experiences with a balance of service and learning that combines community service with explicit learning objectives with an emphasis on critical reflection about the service work and its relationship to professional education (Gelmon, Holland, & Shinnamon, 1998). The foundation of service-learning is a balanced partnership between communities and health professions schools and a balance between serving the community and meeting defined objectives (Seifer, 1998. Service-learning in nursing education is a curricular strategy for preparing nursing students for their roles as nurses and citizens, changing the way faculty teach, changing the way nursing education programs relate to their communities, enabling community organizations and community members to play significant roles in how nurses are educated, and enhancing community capacity to improve health (CCPH, 2000). The service-learning model fosters critical thinking and builds civic and social responsibility within a democratic framework.

Service-learning must: a) be experiential in nature; b) provide opportunities for students to engage in activities that address human and community needs via structured opportunities for learning; c) incorporate reflection; and d) embrace the concept of reciprocity between the service-learning and the person being served (Bailey, Carpenter, & Harrington, 2002). Reflection enables the student to make connections between service learning in the community and their learning experiences in the academic setting along with the opportunity to examine their attitude and value systems in relation to others (Bailey, 1999). Reflection also helps students to discover for themselves how the lessons of their service learning experience can be applied on a broader, deeper and more conscious level (Miller, 2001). The purpose of this article is to describe a 15 hour classroom and web based service-learning intervention offered during...

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