This is an excellent video (slideshare below) from Tim Davis, a consultant in Britain. He is one of the founders of UK Youth Workers Online site. It is a bit long (20 min.) but very worthwhile. I think the video is quite useful for youth workers who are struggling with how to address risk issues of youth participating in online social networking sites. Download the fullYouth-Work-and-Social-Networking-Final-Report

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An interview with Will Davis on Social Capital and Digital Inclusion I have looked at and read many accounts of the UK online learning centres. In Britain, they are so far ahead of Canada in terms of understanding the importance of digital literacy for everyone, especially those that are disenfranchised, without family supports, the unemployed or those experiencing poverty and homelessness (or at risk of). We can learn from their experience.

Will Davies reflects on Social Capital and Digital Inclusion from Tim Davies on Vimeo.

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James Watson, Peer Research Assistant and Dr. Sean Rourke gave a wonderful presentation on their research project at the World Aids Day event sponsored by the Aids Committee of York Region.

I recorded Jame’s presentation as I was very interested in hearing from a person with lived experience speak about their participation in a community based research project. A few years ago, I co-managed a community based research project. We had 46 youth take on the role of youth researchers, examining youth poverty in York Region from a young persons perspective. Since then I continue to seek out learning opportunities related to community based research. If you are interested in learning more about community based research, the Wellesley Institute in Toronto offers in-depth training and workshops.

Jame’s talk was outstanding. He spoke so genuinely, honestly and expertly about his work and the special talents that he brought to the research project. I especially appreciated, as did other in attendance, his account of how taking on the role of Peer Research Assistant transformed his life, his sense of purpose and career direction.

Dr. Sean Rourke spoke very succinctly about community based research from his perspective. There is no doubt this report is a benchmark example of the potency of Community Based Research.

The full report can be accessed through the Positive Spaces, Healthy Places web site. This report is a great example of the benefits of community based research as a means to bring about change on the policy, service, practitioner and consumer levels.

James Watson – Peer Research Assistant, Community Based Research from Brent MacKinnon on Vimeo.

See also:

Youth Community Mapping Program – community based action research

Non Profits Stretched to the Limit – An Economic Impact Survey

Stomping Out Stigma in York Region – Talking About Mental Illness (TAMI)

Non Profit Starvation Cycle

Mobilize This: Research Impact KM Unit @ York University

Danah Boyd – Not So Hidden Politics of Class Online

Toronto Teen Sex Survey – What Can York Region Learn

Building Resiliency with Learning Networks

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Howard Rheingold is a famous man. His CV is long and deep. Those that are interested can see his many accomplishments at his About page on his web site. Trust, me has quite a story to tell.

Howard’s interview with J.D. Lasika (Socialmedia.biz) at Kings College, London England really got my attention because I’m interested in helping groups and people bridge the digital divide.  Specifically, this interview helped me understand how I can better assist non profits, communities or individuals engage in developing their skills and personal learning via the social web.

I’m involved with several local education focused committees that are interested in addressing students learning needs by utilizing online technologies and social web tools. With so many students leaving school before graduation, creating more opportunities for youth to apply their creativity online and become more engaged in civic life via the social web just makes sense.

I  think this interview is especially insightful for educators who are looking ahead and seeing the need to shape the school system around 21st century media skills. Here’s a quote from Howard’s interview.

“Increasingly I think the digital divide is less about access to technology and more about the difference between those who know how and those who don’t know how. The ability to know has suddenly become the ability to search and the ability to sift and discern.”

21st century media literacies from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Brent Education, Learning Community, Services, purpose

Recently I was asked for advice from from a colleague in the educational sector in regards to choosing an online tool for a group of educational administrators. He told me they were a group who were not particularly tech savvy and wanted something to help them share practices around school initiatives they were launching within their Board. He saw the platform as an open space where people can think and share their ideas freely. They opened a site on blogspot.com however he added that they may have some money available to pay for a platform with more to offer than blogspot. His personal criteria was that as long as it was the user friendly, easy to manage and an accessible platform available to individuals who not only have varying degrees comfort with using social networking but also have a range of hardware configurations (and firewalls). In sum he stated that “basically I’m looking for the lowest common denominator”. Well his criteria was a bit fuzzy, but without talking with him in person, I offered these suggestions.

Read more…

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I am very impressed with the design and thinking that lay behind this video. I think it’s a great example of using social media to present a story that pushes people to rethink very complex social problems related to power, culture and gender that affects people around the world. The potential for viewers to contribute through financial donations or other forms of contributions is significantly increased after viewing the video. It’s a powerful example of using social media (pictures & text) to communicate effectively and simply to mass audiences. The Girl Effect web site tells and even more detailed story of the changes that can be achieved if resources where put in the hands of girls rather than men.

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CCK08 – Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Course. This post comes from Teach Web 2.0 blog and its really the “homework” completed by one of the online participants. I joined this course a few months back but with my work load and other priorities I just couldn’t give it the energy and attention to get much out of the course. I did follow the newsletter and the writings however and they helped my understand connectivism and connective knowledge. I like this video a lot as it gives like so many of the Common Craft videos a clear understanding of new tools and in this case new understanding of network learning.

As a grand finale for the Connectivism course, George asked participants to respond to the following questions:

Questions 2 and 4 are addressed in the video below. The presented scenario is definitely not a complete picture of connectivism. I think it’s a good start for a k12 classroom. I view the work with my students as networked learning incubation.

Brent Education, Learning Community, Research, purpose connectivism network cck08

An article from Times Higher Education discusses the digital divide within higher education. One of my goals is to provide training and support for students and faculty in learning how to effectively use social media tools for work and learning. This article resonates with my new career aspirations very closely. The article introduces a new term for me – “transliteracy” This term points to the ability to use a variety of skills to interact with everyday life and a person’s capacity to contribute to society (or conversely to be excluded from society). Read more…

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A colleague with an International NGO organization asked me if I had suggestions for using video along with a a web authoring tool in her work with K-12 youth. The audience is pre-high school and grades 9 – 12 students and staff, mainly in Canada but with potential for international use.

Barring constraints within the the different school boards she is involved with, my first choice is the Ning Networks. I’ve recently been involved with 3 online learning experiences involving hundreds of people around the world using the Ning Network and I’m very impressed how well this tool works.

For educators, I’ve being told that advertisements will be removed and that their support is excellent. Ning allows you to upload video from YouTube etc.; share photos and slide shows, create discussions forums and groups, add widgets to increase overall site functions and much more. You can see all the features on their web site.

I’m including a link to Jeff Utecht’s Ning Network that connects to the Learning 2.008 Conference held in Shangai. I think she will see the potential applications by browsing this site. I recommended that the best way to learn about the features is to set up a Ning Network for practice (who knows, you may decide to launch it).

I stumbled across Sir Ken Robinson’s talk at TED a few years ago and I thought it timely to include in this post as well. His 15 minute presentation is titled “Do Schools Today Kill Creativity”. It’s a must see for those in the edu sector.

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I had a very insightful and exciting time this morning in my new online course titled Corporate Learning Trends & Innovations 2008. This is a free course that covers a lot of social media ground and led by notables in the online learning field. It’s not too late to join the course and take part in the Elluminate sessions. The slideshare is from Jane Hart, Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies and one of the course leaders. I’ll link more to this learning experience throughout the week and make available the resources covered in the course.

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