Midwest Consortium for Service-learning in Higher Education

6^th Annual Conference on Service-learning

Millennials Making a Difference

September 23 – 25, 2009

Scott Conference Center

University of Nebraska at Omaha

Omaha, Nebraska

Submission Deadline: June 1, 2009

The Midwest Consortium for Service-learning in Higher Education (MCSLHE) invites presenters and participants to its sixth annual conference on service-learning to be held September 23 - 25, 2009 on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The theme for this conference is “Millennials Making A Difference.”

Faculty, staff, administrators, students, K – 12 partners and community partners are invited to submit proposals. All submissions should contribute to the knowledge base of the service-learning field and be presented in one of five formats: Project Cameo Presentations, Interactive Workshop Sessions, Comprehensive Sessions, Poster Sessions, or Round Table Discussions. See descriptions and time allocations, linked below.

All proposals will be reviewed by two or more peer reviewers.

Featured keynote presenters for this year’s conference:

1. Mark Milliron (Catalyze Learning International) will focus on new generation learning, social networking and the application of technology to service-learning and promotion of student voice.

2. Shelley Billig (RMC Research Corporation) will focus on the implications of the new standards for service-learning in K-12 education for Higher Ed/K-12 service-learning partnerships.

Proposals should address one or more of the following conference themes:

· Innovative use of Social Media to develop, promote and manage service-learning projects.

· Academic Service-learning – Best practices of integrating service-learning into curricula, in methods of assessing learning in the experiential context and in strategies of project evaluation.

· Professional Development – Best practices in research-based, collaboratively planned, ongoing professional development for

o Faculty and staff

o Community partners

o Student leadership

· Community Partnership Development – Best practices in engaging and sustaining reciprocal, collaborative partnerships focused on addressing community issues.

· Research –

o Best practices in developing collaborative community based participatory research projects in which students and faculty apply research methods to community identified and guided studies.

o Best Practices in applying research to the pedagogy of service-learning for continuous improvement.

The conference presentations will be based on the following format options for presenters. Applicants are asked to state their preference, though the conference committee may suggest a format other than the presenter’s preference.

Project Cameo Presentations (Click for description)

Interactive Workshop Sessions (Click for description)

Comprehensive Sessions (Click for description)

Poster Sessions (Click for description)

Round Table Discussions (Click for description)

Submission Selection Criteria:

• Content Related to Goals: Proposal articulates established learning goal(s) and expectations for participants of session.
• Content Relevance to at least one of the five Conference Themes, described above.
• Session Contribution to Knowledge of Service-Learning: Presentation builds on or facilitates an application of existing knowledge and/or research in the field.
• Audience Engagement: Proposal demonstrates plans to involve audience in active participation and discussion of session material based on presentation format.
• Diverse Perspectives of Participating Audience: Focus of presentation accommodates a diversity of constituents in the field, which could include community partners/leaders, students, higher education faculty, staff and administrators and K-12 faculty, staff and administrators.

Submission Deadline for Proposals: June 1, 2009

Notification Date: July 17, 2009

Go to the Online Proposal Application