Group Post:
As part of our service-learning project, we created a Facebook page called, Supporting North Shore Agriculture. There are many benefits in supporting the local farmer. Buying local agriculture supports the local economy. Also, there are fewer emissions to the environment since the food does not need to be transported, helping our global community. Finally, the food is harvested when it is ripe and sold immediately, so it is better for you and tastes better. As a group, we chose this particular venue for a number of reasons. First, Facebook is a huge social networking tool. We felt it has the capability to reach thousands of people. Second, Facebook is where people go to get information and to connect to the community, so the two go hand in hand. We hope to provide information on local agriculture, locations of farms and farm stands in the area and breaking news regarding local agriculture and legislation.
Christine’s reflection:
I believe this Facebook page impacts the greater good by providing a “one-stop” information station for North Shore agriculture. This page serves as a community service and I hope it brings people to their local farmer in some capacity to help bring about change in how we feed ourselves. Although I enjoyed this service-learning project, I wished it had been incorporated at an earlier stage into the curriculum. Given the demands of Junior Block, it was difficult to juggle the project and block. Had I had the project in Premise, I would have been able to delve deeper into the subject. I believe that community service, in any capacity, is an important part of a young person’s life and is important to incorporate community service within the curriculum.
Leo’s Reflection:
For this assignment I think that our choice of a Facebook page fits perfectly with today’s day and age. People check Facebook everyday sometimes more than once. In this society the social media networks have such a major impact on people that it seemed like the perfect solution to get all the information we needed out there. I think that this was a good project that could have a very useful outcome if there was enough time to really make it perfect. I think with all of the other work we had to accomplish this kind of fell off the radar and did not gain the effort it deserved. I think doing something like this in the classroom would be very beneficial for students to get them involved while learning everything they can.
Erika’s Reflection:
I believe that our blog and the way we made it easily assessable had an impact on the greater good. If we never posted this via Facebook and just did a presentation to our Block class it wouldn’t have reached our other friends and family members that have ‘liked’ our page and now get updates related to our topic. I wouldn’t do this again or at least the blog aspect of it because the blog only circulates through our class and not reach more of the public like Facebook does. I mean I’m friends with my aunt on Facebook and she ‘liked’ our page and now she is buying more locally and is more aware of supporting her local farmer. I would however, have my own students create their own service learning project because it would be beneficial for them to be aware of the issues that they will be faced as adults and have to deal with it because of a past generation’s mistake.
