I got a little uneasy when I read cel4145's entry, The Open Source Development Model Meets Professional Writing and Service Learning: OSDDP, not from anything cel4145 said, but because I don't care for the term "service learning." And Matt asked for comments, so here goes.

On the positive side, the cause (open source documentation) is a fine one (and lord knows, an improvement on Bugzilla). Open source and Open Education are heroic endeavors. But I'm not very happy with the term "service learning." Maybe it's just semantics. Or a bad mood.

The objections:

1. Service learning teaches students that their work is worth little. As I understand Stallman's original manifesto, one may make a profit on "free software." Trading the valuable labor of document-ed workers for the wampum of a course grade suggests that anyone with power can decide what benefits those without power get. (I'm reminded of the U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Saudi Arabia who are working double shifts under grueling conditions to build oil pipelines that will enrich the coffers of Haliburton. Or, closer to home, the graduate students, teaching assistants, adjunct faculty, etc. who do the same work as--or more than--full-time faculty, but for fewer benefits--if any.) What if students don't want to sign a CC license? What if they ask to be unionized?
2. Service learning conceals the power structure of traditional education by implying that teachers are simply inculcating the virtues of volunteerism (the favorite band-aid of the present administration, except they'd probably throw in the term "faith-based"--"faith-based learning," now there's a new initiative). In reality, faculty may be using the student work to flesh out CV's, write articles for tenure or promotion, etc. How many service learning administrators provide students with a disclosure of what the administrator is getting out of the project?
3. Many service learning projects create a false dichotomy between academic work and work in the real world. As much as I admire Freire, I don't think you have to "go out into the community" to perform meaningful service. The Open Source Development and Documentation Project, addresses a real-world problem without leaving campus. To quote from the original OSDD announcement,
   

   "We think students will benefit greatly from this experience," said Blakesley, an associate professor of English and Director of Professional Writing. "We don't see this as traditional service learning, but as networked learning, because students are insinuating themselves into the ongoing conversations and processes that shape our culture, and becoming actors in this broader network by producing something this network culture values.

I'd add that the project empowers these students because it shows there are alternatives to becoming a Microserf after graduation. The OSDDP is a service, and it is learning, but given the abuse of the term "service learning," I wouldn't call it that. Best wishes to the Project (and there's a fiver in it for you if you can tell me why installing Newsmonster keeps crashing my Mozilla).