{"id":4464,"date":"2012-10-26T08:19:08","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T15:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=4464"},"modified":"2012-10-28T06:42:34","modified_gmt":"2012-10-28T13:42:34","slug":"new-social-sciences-class-encourages-positive-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/10\/26\/new-social-sciences-class-encourages-positive-change\/","title":{"rendered":"New social sciences class encourages positive change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa Calling, which started out as a class project at Camosun in January of 2011, has inspired a new social sciences class at the college while quickly growing into a not-for-profit organization aimed at delivering cell phones to rural villages.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur three main goals are all about saving lives,\u201d explains Kevin Davis, a Camosun College student and one of the group\u2019s founding members. \u201cThey are: helping people in rural villages in Africa, helping people in North America, and keeping phones out of the landfills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the college is offering a first-of-its-kind class at Camosun: Social Science 203: Service Learning and Global Issues, taught by sociology professor Francis Adu-Febiri. Adu-Febiri says the course is intended to be an interdisciplinary course: it\u2019s not just for social science students, it\u2019s for anyone interested in making a positive change in the world. The course will be credited at other postsecondary institutions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun student Kayla Woodruff distributing the cell-phone love in Kenya (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSo far we have managed to get transfer credit for UVic, Simon Fraser University, and UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan,\u201d says Adu-Febiri. \u201cThey will transfer as general social science credits.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new course will be available to take in January and will contain online and in-class components. Adu-Febiri says he\u2019s also interested in developing the idea into a whole program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have other courses that we are also trying to develop, such as Introduction to Africa, which will be an online course, and there will be another course on geography,\u201d he says.
\n\u201cThe broader plan is to eventually have a diploma or an applied degree in global studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adu-Febiri also acknowledges that it\u2019s important to keep the course open so its chances of being cancelled are lessened.<\/p>\n

To get the project off the ground Adu-Febiri and Francis Yee, a fellow Camosun professor, received the $5,000 Camosun President\u2019s Fund, allowing them to develop the concept of the course.<\/p>\n

After the idea came to fruition Adu-Febiri and Yee were presented with $50,000 in BC Campus funding from the provincial government to further expand the course and have it accessible online.<\/p>\n

While the aim of putting the course online is to have it accessible to everyone, some students are recognizing that the online component isn\u2019t always a good fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnline courses definitely work for some people, but I\u2019m not sure that this idea where there are so many online courses and everyone just assumes that everyone will be okay with it is the right way to go,\u201d says Matthew Helliwell, a first-year university transfer student.<\/p>\n

Davis thinks what\u2019s important is focusing on what the course is aiming to accomplish.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the course will focus on is picking an issue and a place, and work on solving it. It doesn\u2019t need to be a huge thing,\u201d says Davis. \u201cCamosun is going to change the face of education. This is about interacting in the real world, not just learning about it.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa Calling, which started out as a class project at Camosun in January of 2011, has inspired a new social sciences class at the college while quickly growing into a not-for-profit organization aimed at delivering cell phones to rural villages. \u201cOur three main goals are all about saving lives,\u201d explains Kevin Davis, a Camosun College […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue","category-news","category-october-17-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4464"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4466,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4464\/revisions\/4466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}