Learning in Action (the Innocence Project)

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The other morning, I listened to the news (on the radio, how retro of me) before dragging myself out of bed and this small report piqued my interest: https://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2010/11/04/ubc-law-and-journalism-schools-partner-to-investigate-wrongful-convictions/. I was not familiar with the project, but basically law students work with a mentor on wrongfully convicted cases.  The news is that they’ve added the school of journalism to their project.  So, we now have a cross-functional project which is for credit at a Canadian university:

“There are several people who have been exonerated in the United States as a result of the work of investigative journalism students, either alone or in conjunction with law students,” said Levy, “and I’m excited to be involved with the first such collaboration in Canada.”

To me, this is a tremendous example of applying learning both within a field, but also recognizing that a diverse set of skills is going to be more helpful in an educational light.  Moreover, they are applying their learning and skills in what we would call action learning. 

Brilliant.  I feel good to be a UBC alum.

Check out the Innocence Project: https://allard.ubc.ca/community-clinics/ubc-innocence-project-allard-school-law.

Do you have an example like this to share?  I’d love to hear some more.  I think I might make this a regular blog feature – Learning in Action.