Service-Learning Award

November 16, 2023
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This morning, the Rector’s Office hosted the award ceremony for the 3rd Service-Learning Teaching Innovation Awards of the University of A Coruña, which are jointly funded and managed by the Office of Cooperation and Volunteering (OCV) and the University Centre for Training and Educational Innovation (CUFIE).

We are delighted that the Service-Learning project “A través das ondas coa radio LibreMente”, which we, the ECIGAL lecturers, developed with students from three modules in collaboration with the inmates of the Monterroso Prison Radio, was awarded as a teaching innovation initiative.

Service-learning is “an educational proposal that combines learning processes and community service in a single, well-articulated project in which participants learn while working on real needs of the community with the aim of improving it” (Puig, Batle, Bosch and Paus, 2007). It differs from volunteer work or community engagement in that it is linked to specific learning objectives in the subject(s) in which it is incorporated as a methodology. It goes beyond fieldwork, as it also involves an exercise in citizenship and a commitment to a social reality or project.

This APS experience was linked to the Social and Cultural Animation Plan of the Monterroso Prison Centre, more specifically to Radio Libremente. This project is driven by the Aliade Ultreia Association, the SEPA-interea Group of the USC and the ECIGAL research group. A collaboration between the non-profit sector and the university that seeks to strengthen us in order to transform realities.

The APS proposal arose from the Radio Libre group’s interest in having external collaborators to enhance the potential of this communication medium as a socio-community resource.

This exchange with the outside world seeks to:

To tackle the isolation experienced by the incarcerated population and enhance communication with the outside world.
To promote reflection and the development of content on different topics from diverse voices.
To raise public awareness of the reality of life in prisons.

Similarly, each of the three APS proposals that were developed had learning objectives associated with the three subjects involved. Students from the following subjects were involved in this initiative:

42 students from the Social Education and Social Media course, of the Degree in Social Education, accompanied by the lecturer Patricia Digón Regueiro.
24 students from the ‘Resources and Strategies for Leisure-Time Intervention’ module of the Social Education degree, accompanied by the lecturer María Barba Núñez.
Five students from the IAP, Community Action and Organisation Management module of the Master’s in Social Policies and Socio-Community Intervention, accompanied by the lecturer Laura Cruz López.

If you want to know more about the experience, see the post:
alfabetizacion-mediatica-e-medios-de-comunicacion.pdf (wordpress.com )

Or listen to the radio programmes via Ivoox.:
Radio Libremente – Podcast en iVoox.

Our congratulations to the colleagues with whom we share the award.