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- Edvolution.net: E-learning and Social Networking for Education Reform
Edvolution.net: E-learning and Social Networking for Education Reform
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
Edvolution, beginning with the issue of Education Reform, hopes to change the habits of uninformed voters. Using collaborative/social networking tools, we want to make learning about issues easier for typical voters.
URL:
http://edvolution.net
City:
Toronto
State/Region:
Ontario
Country:
Canada
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
Edvolution.net will be a one-stop resource for learning about Education Reform. The target audience: people who want to know about education reform but not too much; voters wanting credible information in one place that’s concise and easy to understand. In addition, the audience includes passionate activists wishing to celebrate new ideas and broaden interest about education in their communities.
E-learning and testing will ensure users leave knowing they have a balanced overview of the issues. Testing will also provide feedback to developers for quality control. Members of the Edvolution community of practice will contribute to its development with blogs, web conferencing, forum discussions, collaborative improvement of learning wikis, and local outreach and versioning programs. Professional writers and media producers will ensure that e-learning and other site elements, for both learners and contributors, meet the objectives of the community.
Overall, Edvolution will be a mashup demonstration of social networking, community of practice, e-learning and e-democracy. It will also be a demonstration of what education might be for any subject and for any learner - self-directed, social, meaningful, actionable and, perhaps, even joyful. It could also become a model for reforming democracy by making the learning investment in political issues easier for typical citizens.
Sustainability (financial) model:
We anticipate the bulk of our revenue to come from user donations and corporate sponsorships as well as from foundation and government grants. Certain, advanced e-learning modules may accommodate a learner pay model. Advertising, in the form of banner ads or sponsored e-learning modules may be a possibility as well.
Potential obstacles:
The biggest obstacle to Edvolution is its very object: ignorance about the need and best practices for improving education. To many people today education simply means the enforced drudgery of training, which is required for competing in a cruel global economy. That’s the way it has always been, will always be and there’s no point in hoping for more. The back-to-basics lobby is especially resistant to suggestions that education could be so much better or that perhaps education as they know it may actually be training kids to hate learning for the rest of their lives.
Resource Needs:
So far, Edvolution.net has been developed by one very naïve person with few resources and little experience in web design or technology. Essentially, we are starting from scratch and so need feedback to help shape the initial concept and business plan. While local overtures have been made, Edvolution still needs web development support, E-learning instructional design partners, E-democracy consultants, and seed funding of about $20,000 for salaries and contracted services during the planning phase.
Key Milestones:
Current and ongoing
- Developed Edvolution web template and sample elements
- Create blog stories and videos
- Developed components for user/collaborator communication but still need to seed forum discussions, create sample learning modules
Next 90 days
- Create sample e-learning modules
- Introduce Edvolution to allied communities using blogs on existing social networks e.g. NetSquared, Ning
- Network with other communities of practice
- Finish writing business plan
- Identify potential sponsors and funders - pitch and raise development funding
- Engage professional support – instructional design, web conferencing
- Design and develop e-learning curriculum
Project Summary:
Our plan for Edvolution.net, is to cover all the current ideas about education reform and to package that information so it’s easily accessible to everyone … especially to people who want to make informed political decisions but who may be intimidated by the vast, confusing jungle of competing web sites and books. Edvolution.net will present this information using e-learning modules created with the help of a community of practice.
Our ideas about education reform go beyond schools. The scope of our interest includes school and children but it also includes adults and all kinds of education ... like Edvolution itself: education about education reform and its associated politics. You see, we don't think learning important life lessons should be painful at any stage of life so we are going to provide short, easy-to-understand articles about the basic issues and the organizations struggling for solutions. And we will provide links for those wanting more information.
Our intention is not to take sides or to promote any agenda other than to engage citizens in working democratically toward solutions. To make that easier and faster, we plan to provide e-learning tools and information for sharing the workload of learning as well as the knowledge. Plus, since democratic processes are critical to bringing about real change, we will provide help in that area too.
Our perspective is global because the issues are global. The greatest challenges – climate change, pollution, war, over population, poverty and so on – require cooperation and understanding from everyone. That means we must not only teach the heathen foreigners but we must learn from them as well. What you do with that learning is up to you; we simply follow the dictum "Think globally, act locally."
