Virtual Learning Environments

For our third group meeting, we met up in Second Life and sat around a camp fire to discuss and draft our project plan. We used the project plan format suggestions in the VLE Wiki as a guideline.

Notes from group meeting on the Project Plan Format:

*a) what is the “problem” / issue your project is addressing? Provide some background about the target population (socioeconomic conditions, language, ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, educational level, intergenerational relations, regional-neighborhood conditions, cultural norms, etc) and the problem(s) attitudes, beliefs and/or behaviors your project will attempt to change.*

-(objective) Our group project will be to collaborate with Latino Youth in Action in supplementing classroom learning modules with online and social media tools, that they can use both in-class and outside of class as well as provide suggestions for how to integrate classroom learning modules into a fully online curriculum in the future

-(target population) to be culled from LYIA/HAF literature, but it might be good to mention specifically the peer educators in the program who will be responsible for teaching others the tech skills, building on the plans/suggestions we provide for them (their own ideas on how to implement online/social media), as well as implementing them into the curriculum

*b) what are the barriers to attitude, belief and/or behavior change?*

+lack of resources (web cams) and access to computers/internet/equipment/audio recording equipment, etc. (very important, may want to ask Jason specifically what he suggests in terms of this challenge?)

+working from the older curriculum (not too important, but should be mentioned)

+designing effective and engaging instruction manuals for learning how to use social media tools (not to overwhelm them, to make learning these tech skills “fun” and engaging, etc. )

+technical skill level of youths

+making online learning modules and social media engaging for youths (how to make them truly interested and/or committed to using these tools?)

+creating/making online tools foster the type of ‘intimacy’ that in-classroom activities provide

*c) what is your intervention “selling” or “teaching”? that is, what alternatives is it promoting? what rewards does it promise?*

- (selling/teaching) the curriculum already provided by LYIA, as well as computer/equipments skills and online/social media tools and skills

-(rewards) wider reach in terms of collaboration, distribution, access to learning materials etc.

*d) how can you measure its effectiveness (what has been learned/what has been effected?)*

Our group will solicit feedback from LYIA youth before finalizing all learning module materials, as well as a “feedback session” after the in-class training session

*e) /how/ will the particular platform you have chosen (i.e, virtual world, Facebook, etc.) enhance the intervention/the learner’s experience? what qualities of social media you are using are particularly useful for attaining your goal of connecting with your target population?*

-Allows people to participate in the community without necessarily having to reveal their identities if they are afraid of that – they can test the waters with an avatar – helps to overcome a barrier of entry such as stigma, fear of revealing one’s orientation, etc.

-Also, gives tools for self – expression with wider distribution, not dependent on physical proximity or time-dependent

Group 2 Project Format and Elements Outline:

1. Instruction Manual (print and web version)

2. Individual curriculum session plans (divided between the 3 of us) where we provide:

a) ways/suggestions to implement online and social media tools in classroom learning modules (how they can use the tools in class) – these should be very specific to the elements of each particular session/lesson

b) ways/suggestions to supplement modules outside of class i.e. for “absentees” (a way for those who miss meetings to catch up, for those who need further review outside of class, and also, a way for them to engage in other resources outside of class) using online and social media tools

c) ways/suggestions to integrate the sessions into a fully online curriculum/version in the future

3. In-person training session, using the instruction manual for teaching the senior peers tech skills (which they can then teach to other peers)

4. Collaborate with other groups working with HAF

5. Elicit feedback from Jason/LYIA members on the Design, Suggestions, and Implementation of the session/lesson plans and instruction manual, before finalizing them

6. Upload materials to a place online somewhere, either on our blog or on the website that the other HAF group is working on (so that there is both an online and print version of our curriculum modules)

We need to find creative ways not just to represent others in our research but also to help these individuals to describe their own experiences. The challenge is to go beyond creating insightful texts about the human condition to moving ourselves and others to action, with the effect of improving lives.

Creativity in Research Methodology and Representation

In “A Self-fashioned Gallery of Aesthetic Practice,” Carol A. Mullen gives an overview of qualitative approaches to arts-based inquiry and educational research, where research findings offer a “critique of socioeducational issues through artistic production.” Arts-based research allows for experimentation (in research methods, data collection and representation, pedagogy, etc.) and engaged participation (between researcher, subject, and audience, blurring the “roles” of each). Creative forms of research representation such as stories and performance (ethnotheatre) can provoke political agency/social transformation by fully engaging participants – putting bodies in motion, “eliciting response” and “demanding attention.”

Armchair Philosopher Vs. Action Practitioner

Arts-based inquiry is concerned with practice, mobilizing audiences to action and new ways of seeing where “the researcher is concerned with issues of community, participation, and positionality (one’s own social location and values).” Action is purposefully a conscious part of the research, and findings should “display the reality-altering impact of the inquiry process.” This emphasis on practice is in line with the educational objectives and methods of LYIA, which employs youths to be peer educators and social marketers, thereby giving them a performative, lead role in the educational process.

Narrative and Performativity

The incorporation of narrative and performance in both methodology and research representation is I think especially pertinent to the objectives of our group project. The classroom learning modules developed by LYIA incorporate many learning activities that involve individual self-expression, sharing of experiences, physical movement (such as trust-building exercises), and role-playing. These types of activities help foster an atmosphere of trust and community, conducive to learning reception, self-expression, and active participation, in addition to motivating peers to extend this knowledge and community outside of the classroom (outreach and activism). They allow youths to become active participants in their own learning processes by becoming critical evaluators of their own experiences and activists with an agenda that is close to their hearts and of which they can greatly contribute, rather than spectators of a lesson plan or text (here, a dimension of feeling is added to thinking, and the personal becomes political). As Mullen points out, performance creates an especially conducive space for inquiry, learning, and expression, where the participant feels an embodied sense of connection to the “open script” being performed; she or he also plays an integral role in the dialogue and interpretation of the given text. Preserving these creative, engaging, and participatory elements of the learning process (indeed this performative ethos) as the classroom curriculum is transformed into an online version, is therefore critical.