Students Service Learning Projects in Information and Communication Sciences
Service learning (SL) is a teaching strategy that integrates meaningful community service with academic learning. Through service learning students learn not only how to connect course theory and practice, but also how to help others, give of themselves, and enter into caring relationships with others in their community. The goal of service learning is to assist students to see the relevance of their new knowledge in the real world.
Service learning was introduced in the final year of graduate study in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the largest faculty of the University of Zagreb (Croatia), in 2006-07.
Up to that point, students of information sciences learned the theoretical concepts and applied them to imaginary or simulated circumstances, but rarely managed to apply the acquired knowledge to the real world. The service learning projects provided them with structured time to rethink and implement ideas that they had during their 5-year study, but never had an opportunity to transform them into “hands-on” experiences and observe the results.
In the first two years, about 50 SL projects in the IT field were completed and evaluated. After the successful project outcomes in the test phase, service learning was introduced into the final year of undergraduate study as well, as a part of a new curriculum in the Academic Year 2007-2008.
As of 2008-09, a stand-alone elective course “Service learning” (led by Nives Mikelic Preradovic, full professor) has been offered to all students in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb.
In 2009 SL was added as a regulation of the Croatian National Youth program 2009-2013 approved by the Government.
Below is the list and description of the service learning projects that were directly related to a community need.
The Future of Information Sciences (INFuture) is a series of biannual international conferences aimed at researchers and professionals from the broad field of information and communication sciences and related professions. The objective of the conference is to provide a platform for discussing both theoretical and practical issues in information organization and information integration.