#service-learning

[gibbearish]

love when ppl defend the aggressive monetization of the internet with "what, do you just expect it to be free and them not make a profit???" like. yeah that would be really nice actually i would love that:)! thanks for asking

[facesofcsl]

Svetlana & Luba - Community Partners

Svetlana (she/her) and Luba (she/her) are community partners with CSL. They work with the Jewish Senior Citizen Centre which provides health, wellness, recreational, nutritional, social and educational programs and services to seniors.

What have CSL, and CSL students added to your organization? 

The students bring with them fresh ideas and different perspectives. We all have been working in this organization for a long time so sometimes we don’t notice certain things which a new person will. And they bring suggestions to those things too which helps us manage things better.

We are all used to seeing each other every day so when such young people walk into the facility, it lights up the place and everyone gets interested in knowing the person and learning his or her perspectives so it just makes it livelier having young blood working with us.

Why do you choose to incorporate CSL students into your organization?

Students always have a great perspective to share along with knowledge. So we love inviting them to share their knowledge with us. For example, if a student holds knowledge about a particular culture or topic, they can do a presentation about it for our seniors and share that knowledge with us. They are also a huge help around the place, like helping us serve lunch, work in the kitchen, clean up, set up programs and so on. They also help us with our social media by creating posters, organizing different campaigns on social media etc. And it has been quite successful. We enjoy that help because none of us here are fans of social media so it is a big help when someone else does it.

We all have our stereotypes about different generations. However, since we started working with the university, we have gotten more keen on working with young people than we were before due to our assumptions and stereotypes against them. 

What was your personal experience with CSL?

After working with CSL, you can say it changed our ways of thinking. It has opened our horizons to younger people. We are now more open to collaborating with younger people and incorporating them. I think that was eye-opening for us in a certain way because some of the students that have worked with us are absolutely brilliant and they brought so many new ideas to the table. Of course, not all the ideas are implemented but they still provide stimulation and motivation for us when somebody outside the organization notices something or suggests something because then we start thinking differently and try things in ways we never thought of before. 

The only thing we would say was negative about this experience is the start and stop of volunteering. Because they work for the duration of their semester, they grow on the people here and they do wonderful work but that suddenly stops when they are done with their semester. Sometimes the seniors would ask “Oh where did that young fellow go? Haven’t seen him in a while” and the reason for that is because that person is no longer with us. His internship has ended so he won’t be coming back. And this process continues. We get a new person, everybody gets attached and they leave forever. 

How would you sum up your experience with CSL in one sentence?

CSL promotes intergenerational connection.

[specialsaathi]

How Ananth and I Explore Digital Storytelling and Video Creation

Service learning 2 This is the second article in our series on service-learning. As noted in my previous article, service-learning is an approach for empowering neurodivergent learners by encouraging and guiding them in community engagement. One distinctive feature of service-learning is reciprocity. Reciprocity means an ongoing collaboration that is of value to learners and to the…

[justshipsandstuff]

The people want to see Mithrun’s second life (me, I’m people)

Inspired by this post. Mithrun having service animals is just perfect! Can’t believe I never thought of that. He always has a big team caring for him but in Melini, he needs to manage on his own at times when he’s not working and Pattadol is busy

[alluralater]

one time i got hit on by my urgent care doctor for like 15-20 minutes straight like between her checking me out (medically) and she ended up mentioning that she was gay and that she wished she’d met me somewhere else. i’m thinking about her now and listen— she was married and she was probably 15 to 20 years older than me (maybe more?) and i can’t stop thinking about all the things she said and especially ESPECIALLY when she had her hand on my jaw and had me say ahh to check my throat (cause i was coming off a cold) and she rubs my lower lip with her thumb and she kinda pulled my chin up so i was looking up at her and she’s like “mmm very good” THEN tells me i have very pretty eyes. i understand how it’s not okay like professionally to do this stuff because oooOoo what if i wasn’t into it, but you’re hilarious if you think i wasn’t into it. she was gorgeous and tall and my best friend was literally IN THE ROOM the entire time, so it’s not like she was doing it privately and in some creepy way. it was insanely hot and i had to ask my best friend if i blacked out and dreamt all of that because i had never been flirted with so intensely by a woman over twice my age and my best friend was like what the fuck that was insane she was hitting on you like the entire time. i’ve never felt so subby in all my life because she had SUCH a dominant vibe like i cannot explain it (i can but i don’t wanna ramble about this forever) and the way she spoke i almost wanted to give her my number but it felt like inappropriate but now im realizing she probably was wanting ME to give her MY number because her asking for it would possibly be illegal. i told her what bars i go to a lot and where i usually hang out and if she ever saw me to please come say hi and she was super into that but oh my god the sound of slight disappointment in her voice— you couldn’t pay me a million dollars to purposefully disappoint a woman i’m attracted to. i want her so bad. she did a LOT of touching me all over and it was hella unnecessary but i was really into it and it was incredibly hot. im not saying i have a total kink about this but im sorry, i have absolutely done doctor roleplay before with people. it was NOWHERE near as hot as what this woman was doing. i’m sick over this and the fact that it went nowhere. “you’re going to pride? maybe we’ll see each other and we can hang out afterwards” YEAH WELL WE DIDNT AND I STILL WANT YOU SO BAD. anyways

[starlithunter]

PSA

If you are in the US and do your taxes, use the official IRS site for free filing!

Many companies will advertise free filing and then claim you have deductions or needs that require their paid solutions, and they will not tell you until the end of the process when you are exhausted and want it to be over. These ones are fully free and approved by the IRS!

Save yourself money and stress.

[fatedroses]

I offer the frankly hilarious scenario of zenos and estinien having to work together (probably because of tataru) and a little bit of headcanon-ing I have in regards to the one main issue they run in to when theyre a duo.

[ew-selfish-art]

DP x DC AU: Danny desperately wants to find the explosion guy. Tim is really good at covering his tracks... he didn't account for ghosts.

The explosions make it onto TV as purported terror activity and most people haven't heard of that part of the world much less ever given a second thought to care about it. The only real reason it gets reported on has something to do with the Justice League and... Danny knows too much.

He's been in training for Clockwork's court (which he's suspicious of- feels like kingly duty bullshit- but Danny is playing along out of curiosity for now) and he's learned a lot about how the living and non-living worlds collide. That means learning about CW's usual suspects- one of which just happened to have a ton of bases around the area Danny was seeing on the news.

It didn't take long for Danny to try to piece together that whoever blew up Nanda Parbat was trying to fuck with the League of Shadows, and was doing it successfully. Less green portals in the world the better, same goes for assassins. But it gets Danny thinking... Maybe he can employ similar tactics on the GIW Bases that keep spawning on the edges of Amity Park. It would at least set them back while he and his friends navigated the help line desk to request Justice League intervention. None of them can leave Amity Park, so outreach is going to have to be creative.

So Danny figures he'll just find the guy. Call up some ghosts who were there, or er, came from there and get a profile and track him down. But the ghosts keep saying it was The Detective. Annoying!

Danny goes full conspiracy theory, gets Tucker and Sam involved, and begrudgingly asks Wes Weston his thoughts.

He hadn't expected Wes to garble out a thirty minute presentation (that had 100 more slides left to go before he cut it off) about how Batman totally trained with a cult and so did his kids. Danny kind of rolled his eyes but... hey, new avenue of searching in the Infinite Realms at least.

The ghosts confirm that Bombs is for sure not Batman's MO- But maybe his second kid would know? The second kid was already brought back to life though, so no way to easily reach him... Danny starts to realize that this might be the work of a Robin now. Wasn't the red one known for solving cold cases? (Sam provides this information- its a social faux pas to not know hero gossip at Gotham Galas- everything she's learned is against her will).

It all comes to a head when Danny goes about the hard task of opening a portal for the guy to come through at just the right time, explain the infinite realms so he doesn't panic and then describe what the fuck was going on with the GIW. It takes months, just over a full year, of random (educated guesses) portal generating- Finally, Red Robin drops into the land of the dead.

"So, you're the guy I've got to talk to about explosions right?" Danny enthusiastically asks.

Tim thinks he's died and landed in the after life following 56 hours of being awake and plummeting off the side of a building into a Lazarus pool. Nothing makes sense about the kid in front of him.

"Yeah, I got a guy for munitions." Tim answers cooly.

"How do you feel about secretly sanctioned government operations that violate protected rights?"

"Gotta get rid of 'em some how. Need me to point you in the right direction?" This might as well be happening.

[evercelle]

knifecat cafe where the cheerful maids are cute and the service is terrible ♫

you could always try your luck with the social anxiety maids instead, though...

[spicy-apple-pie]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN YALL

hope you guys have lots of candy and lots of supersons fluff

(don't worry, Damian is actually really enjoying himself, he's just too proud to admit it)

[boar-cry]

number one rule of working public transportation: you may be out of pokémon but never be out of options

[facesofcsl]

Ruby Lall - BA Undergraduate majoring in Political Science and minoring in Sociology

Ruby Lal (she/her) is a 6th year undergraduate doing a major in Political Science and a minor in Sociology. She took a class back in 2018 and was unaware that it had a CSL component in it. Since then, she has gotten involved with CSL and loves her journey so far.

Why did you decide to do a CSL course?

In my first year in 2018, I took a ENGL 102 course. I did not know that class had a CSL component to it. Therefore, every student did it and I had never done something like that before so it was very interesting. We got to engage with book authors or authors who write short stories. After doing that class, I realised that it was very cool and I wanted to get more involved in CSL. I wanted to do something with CSL, either by taking courses or getting with CSL. I applied for the CSL internship - the pathways program and I got my first summer internship in 2022. I worked with the Edmonton International Street Performers Festival and that’s one of the best work experiences I have ever had. I also got to learn that knowledge is reciprocal - that you get back knowledge when you give and that was an amazing thing 

What was your personal experience with CSL?

My overall takeaway from my CSL experience has been that whether you are working, volunteering or taking courses, just don’t take yourself so seriously. In the work we do, we should try and immerse ourselves in the fun of it rather than being serious about it. And of course, the interpersonal relationships that come with the work we do are what makes our work meaningful. In my CSL 370 course called “Uprooting Knowledge,” I learned the ways of knowing and how that contributes to such great and powerful knowledge for positive change. I learned that no one box has all the knowledge. This changed my perspective because before entering university, everybody makes sure that you have an idea that you have to be at a certain level to be knowledgeable. But what I learned is that you can learn a lot from people from all walks of life, rather than just a few people who are at that certain level that everybody talks about. 

What was your favourite CSL placement, and why?

While I enjoyed all of my placements, if I had to choose one, I would say the Old Strathcona Youth Society. what I liked about them is that I had that creative room to be able to make the welcome package that I made for them. which was which was a part of my final project. Everyone was very receptive, as well as encouraging, which is important because the environment encouraged me to do better and keep doing it. The welcome package that I worked on was to welcome new onboarding members. It was to help them know what to expect. It was done through a series of online videos and included information on harm reduction and helping youth as well. I was able to ask their opinion on what they like and it felt like a collaborative effort. That is something I truly enjoyed because that’s what makes it fun and a good work environment. I was also learning about different communities, people, groups and cultures that have a systemic barrier and working, supporting and building those equal relationships. I think that’s something that I took away, and enjoyed with the Old Strathcona Youth Society. I am happy that I was able to interact more with people there and learn about their perspectives.

How has CSL impacted your academic and/or personal life?

I have always wanted to be a counsellor and I think that I’ve always wanted to do that and I think CSL has reinforced and strengthened that. I wanted to take more CSL courses because it has compelled me to learn more again - learning doesn’t just stop at a dead end or a wall. I wanted to learn more so that I could take my learning outside of the classroom and it seems this is something that I enjoy. I will be able to use this knowledge later down the road in my counselling career where knowing what is service would be beneficial. ‘What is service’ is one of the first things we learned in one of our CSL classes. It is not about what is right or how much sympathy you have. It is about “Okay, I might not know what you’re going through right now but I’m gonna sit with you”. That’s kind of the idea I have.  CSL is helping me to learn more about that, get deeper into that and try to apply that in my everyday life, too. I’ve always known I wanted to do something where there’s meaningful change and there’s healing. I wanted to do something that supports others and brings some sort of healing you know with people. CSL has, therefore, helped me understand these things and gave me a perspective on life.

How would you sum up your experience with CSL in one sentence?

Through CSL, we are all powerfully connected.

[specialsaathi]

How Ananth and I Explore Service-Learning Together-1

Service-Learning series (part 1) by Dr.Dasaratha Rama and Ananth Raghunandan Over 25 years ago, I was the editor of a monograph on service-learning published by the American Association of Higher Education (AAHE). This monograph was a part of a series of monographs on service-learning published by AAHE. Service-learning integrated community engagement and academic learning. Integration of…

[balkanradfem]

I'm reading the 'Age of Surveillance Capitalism' book by Shoshana Zuboff, and it is haunting me, making me feel uncomfortable and making me want to move offline.

We've all been aware that google, facebook, and all other digital tech companies are taking our data and selling it to advertisers, but according to the book, that is not the end goal.

The book goes into the rise of google, and how it made itself better by constantly studying the searches people were inputting, and learning how to offer better information faster. Then, they were able to develop ways to target adverts, without even selling the data, but by making their own decisions of what adds should be targeted at what audience. But they kept collecting more and more data, and basically studying human behaviour the way scientists study animals, without their knowledge or consent. Then they bought youtube, precisely because youtube had such vast amounts of human behaviour that could be stored and studied.

But they're not only using that data to target adds at us. They've been collecting data in ways that feel unexpected and startling to me. And whenever they're challenged or confronted with it, they pretend it was a mistake, or unintentional, and it's scary how far they've been able to get away with it.

For example, during their street-view data collecting, the google car had been connecting to every wifi available and taking encrypted, personal data from households. When they got found out, they've explained it was not intentional, and a fault of a lone researcher who had gone rouge, and they evaded getting sued or being held accountable for it at all. Countries have created new laws and regulations and google kept evading it and in the end they claimed 'you know if you keep trying to regulate us, we'll just do things secretly'. Which is a wild thing to say and expect to get away with!

Another thing that struck me was that governments, which at first wanted to restrict data collection, later asked tech companies to monitor and prevent content connected to terrorism, and the companies didn't like the idea of being a tool of the government, so they claimed the terrorism data is being banned for 'being against their policy'. Which makes me believe they didn't want to remove that content at all, after all, they could have done it beforehand, they didn't feel any natural incentives to do so.

The entire story is filled with researchers who don't seem to experience the human population as other human beings. They don't believe we deserve privacy, or dignity, or any say in what is being collected or done to us. Hearing their quotes and how they describe the people they're researching shows clearly they consider us all stupid, and our desires for privacy, self-harming. They insist we'd be better off if we just accepted their authority and gave them any data they wanted without complaining or being upset it's being collected without our knowledge.

Even though companies claim at all times that the data is non-identifiable, the book explains just how data is handled and how easy it is to identify anyone whose private conversations are recorded; people say their names, their addresses, places they're going, friends they're meeting, they say names of their family members, their devices record their location and their habits, it is extremely easy to identify anyone whose information has been collected. It can be identified and sold to information agencies.

I believed when it was explained to me that most of the data collection was just for add targeting, and that it would be used only for advertisement purposes, but they're not only collecting data anymore, they're deciding what data is being fed to us, and recording our reactions, learning how they can affect and manipulate our behaviour. We know all algorithms feed us controversial, enraging and highly-emotional content in order to drive engagement, but it's more than that. They've discovered how they can influence more or less people to vote. The mere idea of that makes me go cold, but they talk about it like it's just another thing they can do, so why not? Companies who have experimented and learned so much about influencing human behaviour give themselves the right to influence it as they see fit, because why wouldn't they? Since they have the power to do it, and all lawsuits and regulations can't stop them, why wouldn't they make a game out of it?

I can't imagine how many experiments they did before feeling so confident and blase about this and casually influencing the elections, again, seemingly just for the sake of an experiment.

The book compares this type of behaviour manipulation to totalitarianism and surveillance state, and it shows how the population is slowly losing parts of their freedoms without realizing it is even happening. Human behaviour has changed due to online influence, and it keeps changing rapidly, with every new popular website that is influencing human behaviour. They've learned that humans are influenced mostly by behaviour of other humans, and they can decide what kind of content or influence to send our way to get desired results.

I love how the author of the book talks about humanity. She uses the term 'human future', as something we all have the right to, as opposed to future controlled by companies and influences. She describes how regular people were affected by the data collected against their will, and how they fought for their 'right to be forgotten', when google kept displaying their past struggles, damaging their dignity. She also explains the questions people should ask about how society is led: First question is, who knows? Second question, who decides? Third question, who decides who decides? She goes in detail about how the answers are held away from us, and what it does to us. She also touches very deeply on the idea of human freedom!

I recommend this book, even though it will make you feel far less secure and carefree to be online, and using anything google, facebook, twitter or any of their owned services. They are not free, and it's also incorrect to say that we're the product of them, but we are the source of the raw materials they collect in order to gain results.

[collectorcookie]

[unhetalia]

I think Nations are generally stronger than the average human. If an adult male can carry up to 80kgs without too much difficulty, a fully grown Nation can do around 3x that amount, no matter their gender.

Alfred is an abberation in that he could carry animals that weigh at LEAST 400kg as a child. This has nothing to do with the US' status as a superpower because it's been that way since he was a child (and also because my headcanon doesn't connect the Nations with their countries in that way).

Without delving too deep as to why, I've always liked the idea of Alfred's increased strength coming with a few caveats -

1) As he's gotten older, his strength has acquired limitations it never had when he was a child - the main one being that using it requires energy. If he wants to be able to lift a car, he absolutely can, but he needs to eat a lot, otherwise his blood sugar will crash. Alfred eats a lot and constantly, and this is part of the reason (the other part is that food is delicious).

2) Alfred is so used to relying on his strength, it's become his weakness without him even realising it.

Alfred views exercise the same way most modern humans view it: he exercises to stay healthy. He hikes, he bikes, he plays sports, and if he thinks he's gained weight he promises himself he'll go to the gym (he doesn't).

Nations like Arthur, Ivan, Erzsebet and Gilbert - to name a few - who don't have super strength, hone their bodies into weapons with purpose. I love to imagine (for many reasons) a sweaty Arthur, hands wrapped in boxing gauze and wearing a tank top ... erm. Punching stuff. I distracted myself there. ANYWAY. They're incredibly disciplined about maintaining their skills and fitness.

Alfred is reliant on his super strength. If it disappears one day, he's actually a lot less capable of defending himself than he thinks.