Presentation submitted for Computers and Writing Online 2005
Co-authored by Olin Bjork and John Pedro Schwartz

Abstract

E-service learning is our term for an emerging form of composition and service learning (CSL) in which students produce Web sites with and for service organizations. Our e-service learning model stresses the importance of a contractual, reciprocal relationship between students and members of the organization. By contractual, we mean that the organization agrees to accept delivery of the Web project. By reciprocal, we mean that the students agree to consult members at every stage of the Web writing process. In this presentation, we discuss the potential benefits and challenges of this approach to incorporating Web writing and service learning in composition courses.

In traditional service learning projects, students engage in community service and then write about their experiences. We propose an e-service learning model in which students serve the community through their writing. In this paradigm, students first familiarize themselves with an institution or organization that serves their campus or larger community. Familiarity can be achieved through interviewing the organization’s members, observing its activities, touring its facilities, and reading its literature. Students then evaluate the organization’s Web site, if it has one, and seek to answer two questions: Does the Web site accurately represent the organization? Does it merely promote an agenda or does it also seek to foster a network of individuals with common interests and goals? Student writing can serve the organization, and thus the campus or larger community, in one of two ways. Students who have experience in accessible Web design, or have an instructor who is prepared to train them, can build a new Web site for the organization or make their old Web site more representative, accessible, and interactive. Students who have no such experience or training but have been introduced to principles of Web design, rhetoric, and networking, can write a detailed proposal for the construction or re-construction of a Web site and send it to the organization. In our presentation, we will discuss projects that, we will argue, fall under the rubric of e-service learning.