Connecting & Building Communities Teaching Kit

Description

The Connecting and Building Communities Teaching Kit is designed to strengthen and build your local community and help you teach how participation, empowerment and empathy are the drivers behind strong communities.

This Kit will also help you teach your learners how to connect into online communities and share their work.

Agenda

1. 20 mins If you really knew me...
2. 40 mins Mingle Mesh: Creating Connections
3. 30 mins Remixathon: Introduce yourself and your plan
4. 1 hr Reflecting on how we Connect
5. 2 hrs Prototype a Teaching Kit for your Community
6. 30 mins Give each other feedback on your community building plans
7. Share everything in the Webmaker Training discussion forum!

Learning objectives

Learners will be able to:

• use the web to support community building
• make things with Webmaker tools
• document learning and event materials using templates
• give/receive constructive criticism in the digital space
• use critique to improve their work
• collaborate and share online in a responsible way

Learners will understand that:

• they have agency to build communities
• it's perfectly acceptable to "learn as you go"
• there are many ways to find people with similar interests in the online world
• they’re part of a global community that can help promote local initiatives
• we have cultural notions of what learning is supposed to look like
• webmaking intermingles social skills, technical skills and topical knowledge
• being part of a community means you can improve your practice and help improve other’s as well
• inviting people into your work is a good way to give them agency to contribute

What you'll make together

• An X-Ray Goggles remix of a site to include initial thoughts on event type, target audience, logistics and potential partners.
• A Popcorn video about what participants have learned about connection.
• A Teaching Kit with several activities and supporting media.

Preparation

You need a large room that can comfortably fit all your participants in a circle. Small break out rooms are a plus. Optional: a projector to show demos.

It is also recommended to have a team of co-facilitators who can help shape and run the agenda with you. We recommend 1 facilitator to 5 participants.

Assessment and review

How can participants assess and reflect on their work once it's complete? Feel free to add here if you have suggestions for...

• Discussion questions:
  • How can you adapt a resource and open it to different people in your community? How can you hack your learning space to inspire more open learning?
  • How can remix invite learning?
  • Why is it important to connect to global communities?
  • How does communication online differ from communication offline?
  • What excited you the most about this training?
  • the least?
  • Sharing. Have you posted your work to the Webmaker Training discussion forum? Did you tweet with the #teachtheweb hashtag? Are you a member of the Webmaker Newsgroup?

Assessment criteria