CUSP blogging

This blog is connected to blogs of other students, mostly undergrads, who also participate in CUSP program. I was helping Richard Kiely to set up this online communication for the purpose of better communication among students during this summer, especially for learning from each others about their experiences and ideas about community service. However, over time this idea have transformed to having blogs mainly from a communication tool to a reflection/learning tool. It seems that many students appreciate this opportunity to share about their learning and also learn about progress of other students. Below I wanted to list some benefits or outcomes that we expect that blogging would provide for students:

Practice writing
This is a good opportunity for students to practice writing for the public. This makes them think for whom they are posing their messages to and why. I think this is quite a challenging task because most students used to post something like diaries on their own blogs, and they have limited experience of posting thoughts about their learning.

Documenting experience
By typing their blogs students will be able to better remember and learn from their experience.

What information to post?
We are asking CUSP students to post the following types of information: their learning, social/justice issues in communities that they serve, information about their agencies, their contribution to serving NYC people and their organizations, lessons learned, assumptions, questioning, self-evaluation, what things surprised them and why, their “aha!” and “wow” moments, and what triggered their thinking.

Giving feedback
We are also asking students to post feedback on each others blogs whenever possible, and to be encouraging and supportive.