Experiential Learning is an important component of the undergraduate program at The Florida State University College of Communication & Information. Students participate in a wide variety of IT projects and internships that prepare them to enter the 21st Century workforce while also serving unmet technical service and support needs in our community.
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What is SPARTA?
The world we send our children out into today is much different than the one we entered as young adults. The Florida Chamber of Commerce (New Cornerstone, 2007) estimates four out of five new jobs in Florida through the year 2010 will require some form of post-secondary education and training. Many of these jobs will embrace systems, knowledge and skill sets that may not have even existed less than a decade ago. Furthermore, in the global 21st Century workplace, technology-driven changes and innovations literally travel at the speed of light—and the young men and women we graduate from our colleges and universities will not have the time to learn on the job.
Traditional classroom instruction by itself is not enough. Although the university equips students with critical thinking skills and a theoretical foundation from which to understand the interaction between information systems and their human users, it is very difficult to translate the knowing of classroom learning into the practical know-how required to be a productive employee. If we do not offer more, giving our students some honest-to-God, bottom line, profit or loss, real life experience, we commit the academic equivalent of drawing diagrams on the blackboard showing them the theory of swimming, then throwing them in the deep end of the pool and hoping they don’t drown.
FSU's "Supervised Practical Application of Research, Theory and Academics" (SPARTA) program can be part of the answer. Since 2007, SPARTA students have met a broad range of needs in the community, from taking full responsibility for the information infrastructure of the Children's Campaign to refurbishing donated computers in our Microsoft Certified Refurbishing Center run in partnership with Lutheran Social Services of North Florida. This style of experiential learning is extremely beneficial to both the student and the non-profit organizations we serve. The student gains practical hands-on experience doing IT work in a production environment while the non-profits receive valuable technical innovation and leadership that they could otherwise not afford. The organizations are comfortable placing the students in positions of responsibility and leadership because of the presence of faculty mentors in the background supporting and guiding the student workers. This is more than an ordinary internship: students are expected to act as consultants, interacting with management, developing cutting edge IT applications, solving real day-to-day IT problems. At the end of their placements, students also carry with them finished IT products and resumes worth reading.
SPARTA graduates emerge prepared for the challenges of the 21st century workplace, much as a young physician emerges from residency with a level of knowledge and confidence in treating patients that can only be learned by treating patients. Intuitively as educators, we know this model works because we require it for both medicine and education. The idea itself is not revolutionary - only the idea of using the model to improve IT education is new. Project SPARTA is the next evolution of the engaged campus – a new way of thinking about how service and learning come together to improve and enhance IT education in the Information Age.
Last updated: April 28.2009 by Melissa Raulston
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