Virtual Learning Environments

Hi Group 2! I hope all is well!

Sofia & Carolyn – I really like the idea of the students interviewing the members of the community and feel that our students would learn a lot from that interaction. The residents of the Batey know the issues and experience them firsthand, so I’m assuming they’re the best people to ask about the issue. They probably have a lot of strong opinions, and it may feel good for them to share them. I also think if our students could take a photo with each person they interview, it would be great. They could use a disposable camera or a flip cam as Josephine suggested. Whatever works will do fine, and it would be nice for people to put a face to a name. I think it humanizes the issue. It says this is real, and these are the real people that it affects. It may inspire people to volunteer and be a part of social change.

I was thinking about something that I also think would be a great part of our lesson plan. I thought it might be good if our students went into the Batey schools and spoke with the students there. Whether they’re elementary or middle school age, it would be interesting to hear what their knowledge of the issue is. They may not know much, especially if they’re very young, but then again, they could know more than we think. They have probably been affected by the issue, and may not even have running water in their homes.  

I know that education is also an issue in the Batey, and their schools are quite different from our schools here. They are lacking the supplies and space that we so easily take advantage of. But they are young, impressionable kids, and I think they could learn a lot from our students and vice versa. Our students could interview them and then could also give them a little lesson based on their research. They could teach them about saving water. An example would be teaching the children about turning off the faucet when they’re brushing their teeth, etc. The children may be inspired to do some fundraising for their community or to volunteer.

I also thought it might be nice if our students asked the Batey children to draw a picture or do a painting of their take on the issue. If they don’t know what to do with that, they could just draw a picture of what they love about water. For example, they can draw a picture of kids swimming or even of a child just drinking a glass of water. Then, our students could bring their artwork home with them, scan them and put them up on Facebook with pictures of them with the students and their accounts of the experiences they had there.

I think this would be a really positive experience for our students and the students of the Batey. It would be educational and fun for all involved!

Talk soon!

Erin

Hi all,

Just wanted to touch base about group 2 and the ethnographic project. I’m still a little unclear about the objective… In our class wiki it says the goal is to create lesson plans of how to understand ethnography and mapping. To me, this is just a matter of creating outlines of how to effectively conduct research. If that is the case, that information is already out there, and we can just point them in that direction. But from the video, Frank described wanting a data gathering “tool.” Maybe just from being in the mindset of software development, I interpreted “tool” to mean an online application that would visually express the aggregation of the gathered quantitative and qualitative data. If anyone has clarification on this (until we hear back from Frank), please comment. Otherwise, here are the points I extracted from his video:

Task: Students spend 6 weeks with communities, understanding their needs and issues through dialogue. They conduct a 20 question census over 200 households, and need to make their findings publicly accessible.

• Suggestion: Use Zoomerang or SurveyMonkey, online survey/questionnaire tools, to input data and generate the visual and graphical displays which can be used for blog posts or reports.

Target Audience: classrooms around the world, media groups, parents, siblings, neighbors

• Suggestion: decide the types of formats most appropriate for the various audiences (i.e. white paper, video, ongoing blog)

Information to be Collected: Demographics & Key Community Issues (STEEP categories: Social, Technological, Environmental, Economic, Political)

• Suggestion: determine types of data to be collected and source for retrieval; Quantitative data may be best collected from research or governmental agencies, Qualitative data, like the opinions/feelings of the people, best collected by one-on-one dialogues and interview format, Real-Time Data, like which roads are cut off during rainy season may be best collected from live radio/television reports & mapped onto an online infrastructure

Collaboration Opportunities: Which other international NGOs or organizations are already collecting this data and can be approached as alliances?

• Suggestion: research the places this information can be found, via online resources or by contacting local organizations on the ground

Integrated Social Media Platform: Looking for a way to consolidate social media effort, via Facebook, Ning, and blog

• Suggestion: Create a website that links out to all these social media applications, and streamline a methodology for updating the various platforms and monitoring the ongoing conversations. Consider approaching Ushahidi to empower the local people to update local conditions when it comes to crisis or disaster response, and to have platform customized for local needs.

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These were the initial things that I came up with in response to Frank’s request. Let’s get a conversation going about what comes next!

Social Marketing

Participatory Research

THE PROBLEM

The problem our project is addressing is how to gather and analyze data. Specifically, asking how Globalhood’s participants can develop and analyze tangible data about the effectiveness of their efforts. The participants of this program include first-generation American young adults of low-income urban families and marginalized rural communities in the Dominican Republic. The focus of the program is to help young people and communities develop new perspectives on social welfare, life skills and community.

Globalhood advocates change of perspective. Many of the participants are from low-income areas, often receiving assistance of some kind (socially, governmental, etc). This program’s aim is to empower those who receive help to give help and education to others less fortunate than themselves. Our project will attempt to cultivate these efforts into measurable results.

POTENTIAL BARRIERS

Barriers for our program implementation include properly educating the young people in the technology and processes involved with ethnography. Practical barriers also include access to the young people, including before their trip to the Dominican Republic and afterwards. Additionally, barriers may include making data collection interesting for them, as well as determining what to analyze.

WE ARE SELLING AND TEACHING…

• An opportunity to teach technology as well as data collecting and analysis.
• How to read information as researchers.
• How to sell Globalhood’s message based on the data they collect and interpret.
• They will become active participants in the marketing of the program in which they are involved, the reward then being a sense of ownership, investment and responsibility toward the program and its message.
• A more developed perspective about their surroundings and the communities in which others live.
• How to set objectives and measure their efforts.
• How to teach others the ethnographic skills they are practicing and have learned.

THE COMPETITION

Competitors to this project include other groups in our Social Marketing class as we are all working to drive results for the same organization. Which is admirable in theory but somewhat chaotic and repetitive from a management perspective for the organization. To combat this, one proposed solution could be to work in tandem with the other groups. More specifically to Globalhood, though, are other nonprofit organizations that have increased funding, resources and marketing programs in place already.

ENGAGING AND EFFECTING

Participatory research will assist young people in focusing attention on how their efforts can affect others. With research and analysis, the young people will be able to develop additional perspective on their community and others. With this new perspective, the young people can take a more involved approach to community involvement and activism. We’re asking them to step out of the world they know and put forth new ideas to handle a situation through proactive interaction. Their attitudes and behaviors will be affected by this new process and corresponding tasks. Specifically, through ethnography, the students will be able to quantitatively see the impact of their efforts. Secondarily, the young people can implement those results into positive buzz for Globalhood, making the program’s initiatives more developed and marketed.

HOW YOU’LL KNOW WE ARE EFFECTIVE…

The measure of our project’s effectiveness is two-fold. The effectiveness of what the young people learn from us as well as the value of their ability to teach to their own students in the Dominican Republic. As we teach the young people about ethnography and empower them with the skills to gather and analyze data, subsequently they get to implement those skills, as they will have to teach their own lessons. Our effectiveness will also be part of the measurable data analysis.

OUR PLATFORMS

We have chosen to utilize multiple platforms including photography, video, paper logs and electronic blogs. Photography will be included in the first part of the teaching, as a way to assist the students with the transition of participant to researcher. Daily logs and blogs will help the students to clarify their efforts, as well as put their data in a specific location. As ethnographers, data is paramount, so we want to empower the young people with as many resources as possible. Observations are a key component.

THE STEPS

Remaining Steps needed to develop and complete this project:

Phase One – PRE-EXCURSION:

1. Submit revised proposal to Globalhood for review
2. Receive approval from Globalhood
3. Participate in Panel discussion of student’s independent projects (6/30)
4. Supply students with tools (cameras) for their trip (6/30)
5. Set post trip agenda for return meeting, develop lesson plan,
6. Meet with young people, instruct them in ethnography, provide project details for measurable exercise intended to familiarize young people with ethnography tactics, training (completed 6/24)

*Please note that this may have cost implications, TBD

Phase Two – POST-EXCURSION:

1. Collect and develop film (upon return)
2. Follow-up meeting with young people to discuss data collected and collectively analyze
3. File and data sharing with other Social Marketing groups, as information maybe helpful across groups. As to not duplicate efforts, encourage efficiency of projects and time limitations

Project Roles:

Each group member will be a part of each activity, with the exception of attending in-person meetings. Billy and Emogene will attend all meetings, as they are local to the nonprofit. Sarah will handle administration and the blog, as she is located on the West Coast.

Timeline:
June 24, 2008: Pre-excursion training with young people (focus on the meaning of Ethnography, tips, etc.) DONE

June 27, 2008: Meet with Globalhood Coordinator to submit revised proposal and discuss next steps

June 30, 2008: Pre-excursion meeting with young people (focus on independent projects and distribute cameras for observations during trip)

July 2008: Post-excursion follow-up with young people 2-3 days after their return from DR (focus on their data and analysis)

WE ARE…

Project contributors are Sarah Haas, Billy Paretti and Emogene Shadwick

The Project manager is Emogene Shadwick.

Originally from http://4globalhood.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/participatory-research-revised/

Originally from http://4globalhood.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/progress-posting/