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Registration is now open for the 2008 California Service-Learning Leadership Institute. The Institute has become the home conference for service-learning practitioners, school administrators, and CBO folks who either partner with schools in service-learning projects or would like to do so.

Some tantalizing details about the Institute, not yet made public–yes, you’re reading it here first. Don Hill, of the YSCal staff, is going to address the participants on the state of service-learning in California. Known fondly as “the godfather of service-learning,” Don is probably in touch with more s-l practitioners in this state than anyone else. And he’s smart and has good insight, so I’m interested to hear what he has to say. Seems to me it’s time we took a few minutes and though about the state of s-l in CA. Where are we? Where are we going? How do we get there? Your thoughts welcomed….

We’re also talking with Joe Kahne and Joel Westheimer about addressing the Institute. You may know them as the authors of a whole series of articles on teaching for democracy and civic education. They made a big splash in the service-learning world in 1996, with an article in the Kappan entitled, In the Service of What? The Politics of Service-Learning. They examined the ideological and political underpinnings of service-learning, and not everyone was pleased with what they found. Read the article–it’s still worth your time. And hearing them talk about the opportunity gap (some kids have all kinds of opportunities that other kids don’t–and there are more consequences to that fact than we might think) will also be worth our time, I suspect. I hope they still know how to rouse some rabble.

This guy is fascinating, and he just may be single-handedly changing the political process. James Kotecki is a senior at Georgetown who posts short videos on his YouTube site that rate how the presidential candidates are using YouTube and the rest of the internet in their campaigns. He’s smart, hilarious, and really insightful, and he’s pushing the campaigns to be more responsive to individuals. It’s an antidote to the slick, spun, focus-grouped juggernauts campaigns have become. A couple politicians have even come to his dorm room to make videos. It’s all very low-tech high-tech.

To see an extension of Kotecki’s concept, check out CommunityCounts.us where people post video reponses to candidates’ videos, and try to get the candidates to answer their questions. Highly participatory.

For an oldster like me, to watch Kotecki’s videos is to wonder if I’m seeing the future. It’s the first time I’ve understood the power of sites like YouTube. It makes me wonder how we in the youth service field could be harnessing this technology to make a difference.

Ideas, anyone? Let’s brainstorm together…

Michael Cheng, 18, a senior at Irvington High School in Fremont, recently organized the 2007 Summit on Student Civic Engagement, held in Hayward.

The focus of the summit was on learning how to work with legislators to get laws passed that are important to young people. Cheng said it’s important to show young people the ways in which laws affect them.

Civic engagement and advocacy are important forms of service to the community, especially if we want to create long-lasting change in the world.