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Hi,
I was excited to read about your new initiative to boost education, health, and employment in disadvantaged communities in the U.S. and I would like to learn more about how to overcome the obstacles present in terms of cost, access, relevance, and digital literacy. I hope to apply this knowledge to my own community of McKinleyville, California in Humboldt County, a community on the "lost coast" and "behind the redwood curtain" that is 6 hours drive North from San Francisco. Clearly these common monikers indicate the relevance of a program such as yours to this area.
What would you say to someone who is critical of this kind of large-scale technologic education reform because of the idea that social ties and networks formed on the internet are not as strong as those formed in a physical encounter? Malcolm Gladwell makes several key points on this issue in a recent article in the New Yorker. (http://www.newyorker.com/
Additionally, some advocates of e-edcuation would be quick to say that social networks are particularly effective at increasing motivation, but that may not be true. Social networks are effective at increasing participation—but this participation in turn assists in making the user feel artificially accomplished and thus lowers their level of motivation for higher level involvement that has been a proven predecessor to successful social movements.
Compromise: In the short-term, a push for equal access to technology is a must if we are to get the most benefit possible out of a collaborative community. The first target here would be schools and social entrepreneurs pursuing and implementing education start-ups. Innovation is key, as it seems that in some communities a deeply-entrenched apathy among program workers due to to the roadblocks of excessive government intrusiveness may be hard to dismantle and reconstruct with a sparkly, brand-new mission statement that makes school officials happy.
In my opinion, a collaborative, non-hierarchical learning environment such as www.quora.com and simple yet effective technological tools like www.schoolology.com that are widely available for teachers at the secondary level are the future of education. In compromise to all these issues, I would recommend that E-learning is best combined with a mentoring relationship component and an experiential based learning process like service learning.
Thanks for taking the time to respond with more information.
Best,
Heather Luther
YouthServe AmeriCorps member
TRiO Talent Search Counselor
McKinleyville High School Programs Developer
Arcata Arts Institute Mentor
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