Service Learning and LifeComp framework: analysis of experiences in distance education

Abstract

In the context of the COVID-19 emergency, the closure of Italian schools from March 2020 has imposed the full use of distance learning, as well as a general rethinking of time, space and teaching/learning methodologies. In this study, we will introduce the outcomes of an analysis carried out on the planning of Service Learning (SL) activities that took place during the professional training course called ‘All’Avanguardia per l’innovazione’. The course, which was designed before the pandemic, has been redesigned during the health emergency and required teachers to write a project work on didactic planning in SL. From the perspective of distance learning, didactic planning has integrated the ‘virtual’ component and become E-Service Learning or Virtual-Service Learning. This planning has been analysed in relation to the LifeComp framework because it fosters the development of the competences that are necessary to manage the complexity of the current scenario, it perfectly integrates with the identifying elements of SL and includes some indicators of the DigComp framework that aims at the development of student, teacher and school digital skills that are necessary to manage distance learning. The first outcomes of the analysis highlight how didactic planning covers the development of the different competences promoted by the LifeComp framework.

Keywords

• citizen participation
• distance education
• learning to learn
• social competences
• service learning