Tag Archive for 'education'

December #4Change Chat: Education

Published in events. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

This Thursday is the December #4Change Chat!

Education and it’s discontents are being changed by new ways of learning – much of it by new ways of creating, sharing and validating information and knowledge online. Tools and methods are being customized, adapted and remixed for various educational contexts. Classrooms are no longer bound by geography. But there are still barriers, still challenges – some of which we may not be able to predict. How can we attend to these?

This chat will cover the changing role(s) of teachers, institutions and learners – and how they are affected and transformed by new/social media.

Details

  • Date: December, 10th 2009
  • When: 2 – 4 pm US Pacific Time, 5 – 7 pm US Eastern Time, 10pm – 12am London, UK (Late!)
  • Where: Twitter (search for #4Change)
  • Topic: Education: How is social/new media affecting the future of education?

Check out some of the questions we’ll be discussing and resources about the topic here.

Join the Conversation!
If you want to contribute to the conversation, you’ll need to have a twitter account (it’s free).

  • To follow the conversation (whether you are planning to contribute or not), use http://search.twitter.com or another application to search on Twitter for #4Change
  • Jump in to the conversation by adding #4Change to your Twitter message
  • Feeling brave? Check out TweetChat – it’s a great application that integrates with your Twitter account and makes chats more fun! You can turn it off after the chat.
Published on December 9, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Making Giving Fun: Case Study from Oxfam

Published in case studies. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

It’s the time of year again when organizations, large and small, try to break out the holiday wishes, stories, and campaigns to get one last donation, one last gift and one last pledge in before the new year.  Oxfam is no different, but the way they are going about it is!  They’ve created a space online where visitors can better understand some of the areas served by Oxfam, learn about the conditions and the needs of people there, and learn about the impact their specific gifts can make.  Take a closer look below: Oxfam’s Unwrapped Virtual Village!

The Virtual Village

When you visit the Unwrapped Virtual Village, you are given three different villages to help:

oxfam1

Hovering your mouse over one of the villages in the circles gives you a dexcription of what issues face that village and how you can help.  Clicking on one transports you to the village where you can click on items throughout the area that can help the local village members.

oxfam2

Clicking on one of the dots lets you see what it is with more detail and to “get the item” for the village.  So far, the experience has been like that of an educational game: finding and helping but also learning the real world side of it all.  Once you click on “get the item” though, you are give the opportunity to move from playing a realistic or educational game to actually buying an item and supporting the village in real life.

You can now click to get the item for the village in the game, or you can buy the item as gift via Oxfam.  What I like most is that the educational side of the scenario doesn’t stop: you’re given a case study about how, in this example, solar panels are actually impacting the lives of others.

oxfam4

It is really important to me that organizations continue to educate their supporters about the work they are doing as well as how they as an organization as well as the supporters are helping and positively impacting the service areas.

Telling stories of impact comes both from the organization as well as from those supported…and even comes from those who support you!

A Little Story

I have a very close friend who came to me with a “problem” a couple holiday seasons ago.  The problem was that her family was very excited about doing something for the holidays that was going to really impact people around the world who were struggling more than they were and that they were really excited about an opportunity they had heard about to buy a goat from Scotland that would be taken to a village or a family in Africa.  She was thrilled that her family was excited to be philanthropic and support others, but she felt like they had made their decision of how to help without investing any time or due diligence into who they were helping and if what they were doing was really something needed.

She challenged them to investigate other options, who they wanted to help, and what could really do the most for them with the amount they had to donate or invest.  It turned out that they did not end up purchasing a goat from Scotland.

This story isn’t to say that people should stop funding or supporting programs that deliver livestock to needy areas, not in the least!  The lesson here to be sure you are educated about the impact you want to make and how best to make it.

I think Oxfam’s Unwrapped Virtual Village is a fun way to get the whole family involved in investigating and learning about issues in other parts of the world and choosing the gifts that they care about and know will also make a good impact.

What do you think?

Published on December 3, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

2009 DonorsChoose.org Social Media Challenge

Published in challenge and fundraising. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

The DonorsChoose.org Social Media Challenge is back again!  The challenge runs throughout October, with hundreds of bloggers and Twitterers rallying to support classroom requests on DonorsChoose.org.   During last year’s challenge, more than 165 bloggers participated, including Fred Wilson, TechCrunch, Kara Swisher, Ars Technica, and Julia Allison. All told, they raised over $275,000 for classroom projects reaching 67,000 students in low-income neighborhoods around the country.  This year promises to have an even bigger impact  Check out projects and get started here.

About DonorsChoose.org

DonorsChoose.org grew out of a high school in the Bronx where teachers saw their students going without the materials needed to learn.  Our website provides an easy way for everyday people to address this problem. Public school teachers post project requests that range from a $100 classroom library, to a $600 digital projector, to a $1,000 trip to the zoo. People like you can choose which projects to fund and then get photos and thank-you letters from the classroom.

Published on September 30, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Visit Zambia with LearnAsOne!

Published in community and digital learning. 4 Comments Tags: , .

Steve Heyes, a colleague and founder of LearnAsOne, has just embarked on a great journey to Zambia and you’re invited!

Steve and 3 self-funded volunteers (found for free via Google Grants!) are headed to Zambia to document a community who doesn’t have a school, in as close to real-time as possible.  They plan to ask the community what they need and give them a platform to share their story with the world.  They will tweet constantly and upload their photo-led blog stories every day between May 11-22.  You can ask members of the community questions via blog posts, @replies on Twitter and via email (zambia@learnasone.org).

Before they head home, they will train the local community and the NGO partner how to use a Flip video and digital camera so update can continue.  Longer-term, the plan is to become similar to Kiva.org, but for schools.

Follow along and connect with the community!

Learn more about LearnAsOne:

What is LearnAsOne?
LearnAsOne is a charity that works with local partners and communities in Africa to fund schools and support their running costs.

What do you need?
This is the key question we will continually ask to every community we meet.

No imposing western ideas. No impractical solutions. Just listening to the communities real educational needs and helping to provide the funds and training so they can meet them themselves.

It could be teacher training, classrooms, a feeding programme, sanitation and clean water, books, school fees or teacher’s accommodation. Whatever the need we’ll give the community a way to tell you. Plus we’ll provide a breakdown of the costs of every project in the form of a simple shopping list.

What I am most interested in with LearnAsOne’s trip and engagement in Zambia is testing the idea in practice of helping answer the needs of a community without directing or dictating the response.   This will certainly be an interesting project to follow!  What do you think?  Will you be following along or asking any questions via the methods above?  What would you ask?

Published on May 10, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 4 Comments

Checking in on DonorsChoose Bloggers Challenge

Published in challenge. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I wanted to touch base with you all about the DonorsChoose.org Bloggers Challenge taking place this month.  I created a challenge page for this blog and have encouraged readers to get involved.  But, I haven’t had much inspiration to be as dedicated as many other bloggers and want to explain why.

I browse through the many projects on the DonorsChoose.org website, take the time to select ones I think you all would like to support (as I explained in an earlier post, I’m selecting projects that focus on technology in the classroom), and add them to the challenge page.  But, by the time I come to blog about the challenge or encourage donations about a specific project added to the list, they are already funded!  This is great news, that so many projects are successfully reaching their funding goals, but it does make it difficult to inspire donations from readers!

The Bloggers Challenge widget is in my sidebar, so that readers who come to the site, any time, can see the challenge information and participate.  But, it isn’t very compelling to donate any amount of money when the highlighted project is fully funded already.

I have edited, refreshed, and selected new projects for the challenge many times this month, but the same thing keeps happening.  Now, I’m certainly not mad or frustrated.  Quite the opposite – I’m thrilled to know that so many projects I found insteresting and deserving of the spotlight have been funded!  That’s the goal of the challenge, right?

Here’s my question, and I do hope you’ll weigh in: How could I do a better job in the future of 1. inspiring you to participate and 2. keeping up with the ferocious turn over of funded projects?

I’d really love to hear your thoughts!  And, if you have a minute and five dollars, here’s a great project that you can help support!

I teach kindergarten in a low income neighborhood. My students do not have a lot of parental support at home. I have to provide for all their education needs.

I am currently allowing my students to use my big CD player to listen to books on CD. The problem with that is the whole class has to listen to the book being read. It becomes very distracting for some and the noise level makes it difficult for me to work with small groups. Therefore we are not able to listen to the books very often. Listening is a important part of reading instruction. It allows students to follow along and develop word recognition and fluency.

Being able to provide my students with a kid friendly CD player and headphones would allow them to listen to books independently. The headphones would allow for a quieter classroom which would be appreciated by all.

By supporting this proposal you are providing my students with a kid friendly CD player and headphones. You are also helping my students develop fluency and the word recognition that is important in learning to read.

My students need a CD player and 4 headphones to use in the listening center. The cost of this proposal is $160, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fullfilment.

Help support the Bloggers Challenge and this great project!

Thanks so much for your ideas, thoughts, and participation!

Published on October 24, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Help me help teachers with technology!

Published in fundraising. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

DonorsChoose logoToday is the start of October’s BloggersChallenge with DonorsChoose.org and I’m a blogger stepping up to the challenge.  Let’s help classrooms in need of technology!

Last year, the BloggersChallenge raised $500,000 through the help of nearly 50 bloggers!  I’m excited to see the impact we can make for classrooms looking to use technology in the way they learn, share, and collaborate together.

Why Technology?

I use technology every day, and can’t really function effectively without much of it.  Just think about the impact simple tools like a digital camera or headphones make on the way we are able to share with my family, friends and colleagues on a daily basis by sharing photos or using the internet to make a call and connect personally—don’t you want those simple tools available in classrooms?  I’ve selected proposals from teachers integrating technology into their classrooms to make learning exciting and effective.

Why DonorsChoose?

DonorsChoose.org is an organization and an idea that I really like: the simplicity and the purpose.  Connecting teachers directly with people who could help them in their classroom, whether they are interested because they share a geography, a subject matter, or just an awesome idea for igniting learning in students.  I also added the DonorsChoose recommended actions from Social Actions earlier this summer.

What can I do?

Please participate this month in the BloggersChallenge, here’s how you can get going now:

  1. Support classroom projects by donating!
  2. Find more projects you think should be added to our Challenge, just put a link in the comments and I can add them to our challenge page!
  3. Send this link to others to participate and donate!

I’m excited to tackle this challenge together.  Let’s make a difference in classrooms across the US!

Published on October 1, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Social Actions launches plug-in for bloggers!

Published in blogging and socialchange. 8 Comments Tags: , , , .

Social Actions helps individuals and organizations use social media to plan, implement, and support peer-to-peer social change campaigns so that grassroots solutions to local and global problems can flourish.  I have blogged about them before (and am involved as a project mentor), most recently here.

Today, Social Actions launched a plug-in for Wordpress bloggers that will place ‘possibly related classroom projects’ from DonorsChoose.org at the bottom of posts, so that readers can find opportunities to take action to help classrooms around the world.  DonorsChoose.org “is a simple way to provide students in need with resources that our public schools often lack. At this not-for-profit web site, teachers submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn. These ideas become classroom reality when concerned individuals, whom we call Citizen Philanthropists, choose projects to fund.”

Social Action Labs, Lead Programmer, Eric Cooper, really did a lot to make this happen and deserves lots of props.  So does Joe Solomon and Peter Deitz from Social Actions, as well as the rest of the crew.

If you have Wordpress, why not check it out!  I will be installing it tonight and you can watch the blog here to see it live in action!  I’d love to hear your feedback about the new plug-in and ideas for other ways Social Actions Labs can be working to build actionable content you and your organization can use!  Learn more on the Social Actions website.

Published on July 31, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 8 Comments

Can you teach new media?

Published in otherblogs. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Marshall Kirkpatrick post a great article today for ReadWriteWeb considering the questions: Can New Media Be Taught in Schools?  What do you think?

Tests on Twitter, wiki-style study groups, students quizzed on yesterday’s most popular YouTube videos and the biggest hits on Del.icio.us/Popular – is this what the future of education is going to look like? In some journalism schools around the US, it just might be. Would that really be so bad? Though many may disagree with us, we think there is some merit to teaching new media in journalism and other schools.

Marshall even quoted me, as I described just one example from my experience as a student of new media in college.  There are many comments over on the article, go check it out and weigh in on the conversation!

How do you learn new media?  Do you think it can be taught/learned in a ‘classroom’ or do you lean towards personal investigation and experimentation?

Published on July 31, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments