Assignment

Requirements for the final draft of the blog are as follows.

Choose a free site and design an original blog. (Suggestions: tumblr, wix.com, wordpress.com.) Include the following 4 elements in your blog:

1. A summary of what the Service Learning experience has been like for you this semester: report what the class has done collectively and what you have done individually. Include your personal reactions to the experience-both successes and challenges. Refer to at least one scholarly article on service learning in your discussion, including quotes from the article. (A suggested list of articles will be provided by the instructor and, perhaps, the class.)

2. Find a scholarly article on one of our issues this semester (examples from past classes: homelessness or problems related to domestic animal care and resources or disaster relief / hurricanes). First, identify author and publication information (and provide link) . Second, offer a brief summary of the article. Third, analyze the rhetoric of the article. Talk about ethos (Google the author for his/her credentials), pathos (appeals to the audience's values and emotions), and logos (how logical the argument is) . Identify the target audience for the article. Discuss the language choices (technical or for the lay reader? any jargon used?). Fourth, include your own personal reaction to the article. Discuss your opinions. Add examples or counterexamples from your own experience that might continue the conversation begun by the author.

3. Images. Find images that you, the instructor, or a classmate has taken during community engagement activities or found online (in past face-to-face classes students have used pictures from bake sales and donation drop-offs; however, since this class is an online course you can include selfies doing work at your computer designing promotional flyers, images found online, etc. Be creative!). Provide captions that either explain what the image shows with dates or other identifying information and/or that offer general info or statistics about the subject being shown in the image (example: statistics about how many homeless are estimated to be in Miami, etc.)

4. Embed a video of some kind in your website related to one of our issues or filmed at one of our events (if any). You could choose a YouTube video like the one available online of a young man offering free haircuts to the homeless in New York City, or a more scholarly TEDTalks type video, or even an ad. Provide a caption or short paragraph with the video summarizing it or explaining its significance.