Term: Summer, 2006
Instructor: Tony Filipovitch, 106 Morris Hall, 507-389-5035, 507-388-2264 (home)
Office Hours: My office hours are posted here. I am available in my office at those times (or other times by appointment). I also check my e-mail daily (usually several times during the day), and have an answering machine on both my home and office phone.
There is no reason to flounder around, unsure of what “he wants” or confused about what you are doing; and even if everything is going fine with the coursework, there is more to learning than completing the assignments. I encourage you to visit me, in person or at a distance by phone or e-mail, many times during the course.
Morse, S.
2004. Smart Communities: How Citizens and Local Leaders Can Use
Strategic Thinking to Build a Brighter Future.
Due
date |
Topic |
|
Assignment |
5/22 |
|||
5/25 |
Leadership |
e-mail Service Learning specifics | |
6/1 |
|
||
6/8 |
Institutional Setting |
| |
6/15 |
|
| |
6/22 |
|
Smart
Communities, |
|
6/29 |
Civic & Ethical Values |
| |
7/6 |
|
Smart
Communities, |
|
7/13 |
Fostering Civic Engagement |
| |
7/18 |
|
Smart
Communities, |
|
7/20 |
Community Leadership |
||
7/24 |
|
Smart
Communities, |
|
7/28 |
Final week of
class-- Service
Learning Report &
course evaluation due |
The purpose of this course is to provide you with a comprehensive overview of community leadership in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, both through classroom work and through service learning. You will look at the principles and practices for managing community groups, and at the ethical and civic responsibilities of a democratic society. What makes this course unique is the students’ involvement with the community and its leaders. This course requires a high level of student involvement—volunteering, attending meetings, interviewing, working with both student and community teams, etc.
By the end of the term you will be able to:
1. Define and recognize leadership within the voluntary sector and compare/contrast this sector with the public and private sectors;
2. Understand and describe the significance/development of mission, leadership, resources, marketing, decision-making, and people development in institutional (public, private, nonprofit) settings;
3. Apply the criteria of civic and ethical values to behavior in public settings;
4. Demonstrate skill in fostering citizenship, representative government, collaboration, citizen participation, and citizen self-government;
5. Apply your knowledge and skills directly in community leadership.
In addition to the specific course outcomes, there are three additional outcomes that are common to most, if not all, courses at MSU:
1. Develop your creative and critical thinking powers in addressing problems and opportunities;
2. Develop personal communication skills, both oral and (especially in this course) written;
3. Improve your ability to work and interact with others in a team approach.
My teaching style in this course is based on an "adult-centered" model which assumes that you are active participants, each responsible for your own learning, and I am a facilitator and resource who helps you advance your project. My goal for myself as a teacher is to "take you someplace you would never before have gone alone."
Instructional
Management System & Communication Protocols:
· The course will use D2L as the instructional management system. Discussion lists, assignments, grade rosters, and other course management issues will be handled through that site.
· The software for this course will be PC-based Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, or compatibles. I prefer to receive e-mail and course submissions to my e-mail address (not to D2L), and I can only open Microsoft Word or text files (if you are using, say, WordPerfect, make sure to send any files to me in .txt or .rtf format).
· I will communicate with you using your official MSU e-mail address; if this is not your preferred e-mail provider, make sure you have set your MSU e-mail account to forward to your preferred address (instructions are available from the help desk at help@mnsu.edu or 507-389-6654).
· I generally will reply to e-mails within 48 hours (give me an additional 24 hours over the weekends), unless I have notified the class through D2L that I expect to be away from my computer (e.g., when I am attending a national conference). If you do not hear from me within that time, please resend your question or comment as it may have been lost.
· The library has a document delivery service, and can send books or other publications that circulate (i.e., no items from the reserve or reference collection) to you if you are an online student. Information is available at http://www.lib.mnsu.edu/lib/ILL/docdel.html Remember, it will take some time for items to arrive by mail (and even longer if they have to be ordered from another library), so give yourself enough lead time if you plan to use this service. The library also has a good link for other services offered for distance learning students. If you are having trouble finding appropriate articles for the course, you can get help from the University’s reference librarians.
There are a number of websites that can help you decide
whether or not an online course is for you (for example, Minnesota Online or Athabascan University or the University System of
This is a “service learning” course which requires
approximately 30 hours of volunteer activity in
the community. It is also a
“writing intensive” course, which means that you will be expected to do a fair
bit of writing and to edit and rewrite what you have
written.
Since we do not meet as a class, the closest thing we have to this is the discussion lists on D2L. I will pose questions to start out the discussion, and I will monitor (but may or may not respond) the discussion. Each student must post at least one detailed reflection for each of the 12 topics for the course, and at least one response to another student’s posting. It is important that you post your responses with enough time for your classmates to reply within the week allotted for each unit; do not get behind in your discussion work. For full credit, you must use examples, details, and credible support for your position, and refer to relevant readings (your text, at a minimum) using standard citation format (you cannot provide credible support without citing what others have written!). You will receive partial credit if you do not provide support for your responses. While I will not track whether or not you read all of the postings, I strongly encourage it. You have as much to learn from each other as from me.
There is an etiquette to online discussion. I want you to engage in open, frank dialogue; but I also expect you to be respectful of each other. Comments that are harmful, abusive, offensive, or vulgar will not be tolerated. If I sense any problems, I will intervene. Should you feel intimidated or not respected, please contact me so we can consider how to proceed. A few hints:
· Re-read your messages before you send them—once it is sent, you are committed.
· Never assume that an e-mail is confidential; they are easily copied and forwarded to others.
· Also, be careful with humor; absent body language and other contextual clues, it can easily be misinterpreted.
This course is structured so that you have the opportunity to learn about community leadership (as a concept, as a skill, and as a value) both in the classroom and “on the ground.” You are required to spend a significant amount of time (minimum 30 hours) as a volunteer for a community-serving organization. While there, you will have the opportunity to be of service, and to observe how those around you serve and lead.
This is a writing intensive class.
Writing affords you the opportunity to practice and convey what you have
learned including higher-order
thinking (analysis, synthesis and evaluation). There are six different writing
projects, which will give you the opportunity to practice writing for different
audiences and different purposes.
All writing assignments must be submitted electronically, using Microsoft
Word. You will be assigned to a
“writing group,” and you are expected to respond to each others’ writing. The author will then revised the text
and submit it to me. In writing
your projects, I expect you to refer to other people’s ideas and to footnote
your sources. You may use any
standard style manual (Harbrace,
Each of the six assignments are discussed in greater depth at their associated links. In brief, the assignments are:
1.
Elevator
speech: Write a 150-word piece
of persuasive writing (“Suppose you are caught in an elevator with someone you
need to convince….”)
2.
Institutional Analysis: Describe an organization and analyze
the role it plays as a community institution.
3.
Biographical
Story: Tell an interesting
story about how someone or some organization did something that made a
difference to a community in
4.
Editorial: Write an editorial suitable for a
local newspaper (this is a useful skill for a community leader to have).
5.
Book
Review: Write a review of a
book on community leadership for the newsletter for a community action agency.
6.
Service
Learning Report: Write a
reflective essay addressing the question, “What did your service learning
experience teach you about community leadership?”
For a full description of each of these assignments, see the corresponding links on the Course Calendar.
It is your responsibility to post your responses in a timely fashion, interact with your mentors, and engage in online class activities. I expect all the work for each week to be posted by the date listed in the Course Calendar. If there is an emergency which requires you to be away from your computer, please contact me immediately. I will give partial credit for assignments that come in during the next time period; assignments posted after that will not earn course credit unless there is a prior agreement. You are paying for this class—make sure to get your “money’s worth.” Most importantly, this is an excellent foundation of knowledge for future activities, and it is a chance for you to learn, teach, and grow with others.
Loss of computer connection or network services are not an excuse for not getting work submitted on time (if you lose your connection, go to another location to do your work—a public library, the ACC, a friend’s computer, etc.) You can get help with technical problems from the MSUM computer help desk at help@mnsu.edu or go the 3rd floor of the Library.
12 discussions @ 2 pts. 24 + 1 pt. for all 12
5 writing projects @ 10 pts. 50
Service Learning Report 25
The final grade may be based on a curve, but students can
expect at least an A if they achieve 90, a B with 80, etc.
All assignments are due on the assigned date. Partial credit may be given for
assignments that are less than one week late, unless other arrangements have
been made in advance.
Written
reports are expected to be free of grammatical, spelling, and content
errors. They should be submitted in typewritten, standard formats (APA,
MLA, URSI Style Sheets). You must familiarize yourself with the
University’s Academic
Honesty Policy. I encourage you
to draw on the ideas of others—but you must also identify when you do so (you gain “brownie points” for citing the
work of others!). Plagiarism is a
serious breach of academic behavior and will result in an F for the course.
I will help you in whatever manner humanly possible. However, once the semester is over, there is not a great deal I can do. If there is something that you don’t understand, are having problems with, or need help on, please get in touch with me as early as possible.
Every attempt will be made to accommodate qualified students with disabilities. If you area student with a documented disability, please contact us as early in the semester as possible to discuss the necessary accommodations, and/or contact the Disability Services Office at 507-389-2825 (V) or 1-800-627-3529 (MRS/TTY).
1. Leadership
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BOLMAN, L.G. and T.E. DEAL. 1997. Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
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2. Institutional Structure
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3. Civic & Ethical Values
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4. Fostering Civic
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5. Leadership in the Community
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© 2002 A.J.Filipovitch
Revised 15 May 2006