Welcome
Welcome to LEAP! This site is for teachers who want to inspire students to make a difference in their community and in the world! LEAP! is a resource site for teachers who believe students LEARN through experience and who want to EMPOWER students to ACT for change and PROVOKE change in others.
The Integration of Service-Learning and Technology in the Elementary Classroom
In the current environment of outcomes-based education, teachers recognize that it is futile to set standards if students are not motivated to meet them. There is strong evidence indicating that both service-learning and technology increase student engagement and motivation in school.
Service-learning is an approach to teaching and learning that engages students in applying classroom learning to solve real community problems. True service-learning purposefully links academic goals to social action and can provide answers to the popular question, "When am I ever going to use this in real life?". Service-learning has the potential to impact student academic achievement and social and personal development, promote civic responsibility, and foster citizenship skills and values.
Technology such as blogs, online discussion forums and video chats, can support critical reflection, a key component of service-learning. Technology can also expand service-learning from local to global involvement, helping students to view community issues in their broader societal contexts. Reciprocally, service-learning provides a meaningful context for technology integration in schools.
