Note from Beth: By the time you read this post, I’ll be in the air enroute to Rwanda for a training project. As a parent of wired kids, I think teaching digital literacy is very important for parents to do. Here’s some great advice from my colleagues at CommonSense Media.
Three reasons kids need digital literacy and citizenship education — and three ways to provide it – Guest Post by Emily Esch
If you’re reading this blog, it’s probably because you’re a huge fan of social media and believe that it empowers all of us to connect, create, explore, and understand our world. I believe that, too, and I love working for an organization — Common Sense Media, an independent nonprofit — that’s dedicated to preparing kids to make the most of the incredible opportunities this networked culture provides us, while overcoming its potential pitfalls.
It’s all about teaching digital literacy and citizenship: the knowledge and skills necessary to think critically, behave safely, and interact responsibly in a digital world. At Common Sense, we believe these skills are as essential to thriving in the 21st century as reading and writing.
Here are three reasons why digital citizenship matters:
Kids need guidance in this area of their lives, too. We often hear the term “digital native” used to describe young people who don’t remember a time when phones were attached to the wall, but just because kids have only ever known a technology-rich world doesn’t mean they know how to engage with and through technology responsibly. These skills aren’t second nature, and it can be easy to get in over your head in a digital world and end up facing consequences small and large. Kids need guidance in this area just like they need help learning to tie their shoes, make a sandwich, or write a term paper.
Who knows what’s coming at us? When Common Sense Media was founded, Facebook was a dorm-room diversion, and most tweens didn’t have their own cell phones. Location sharing? Instant updates to your whole community? An 8-megapixel camera on your phone? Still the stuff of science fiction for most. No matter what the future has in store, we need to prepare ourselves and our kids with a shared vernacular and a core set of life skills that transcend the technology flavor of the week and reinforce critical thinking, kindness, and responsibility.
There’s no going back now. It’s well-covered territory on this blog and elsewhere, but it bears repeating that being a successful student, worker, leader, and citizen in the 21st century means knowing how to find and evaluate information online, maintain a compelling and respectable online reputation, communicate clearly and efficiently, and protect your own privacy and others’.
Important stuff, right? So how do we teach kids and teens, who often can’t plan past lunch, how to think about their digital footprints and abstract concepts like ethics? And how do nonprofits and schools with a long list of demands fit this in to their busy days? I won’t pretend it’s easy, but there are a few ways to approach teaching digital literacy and citizenship that can help focus your efforts.
Three tips for teaching digital literacy and citizenship:
Start with a clear vision. What do you think it means to be a good digital citizen? How does turning wired students into digital citizens fit with your organization’s existing mission? Is it about keeping students safe? Preparing them for college or jobs? Teaching them to use creative tools responsibly? Start with why and go from there. Common Sense Media operates on this vision: “We envision a world in which every kid knows how to make safe, responsible, and respectful choices and harness the learning potential of digital media in a 24/7 connected world.” That’s the vision that focuses all of our efforts. What’s yours?
Keep learning focused and age appropriate. Kids as young as kindergarten can start learning the core concepts related to digital citizenship, but knowing how to tackle specific aspects with students of various ages can be a real challenge. [Shameless plug alert!] Common Sense Media’s totally free Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum for grades K-12 can help. Our scope and sequence documents lay out the appropriate learning objectives and associated lesson plans, activities, videos, and more to teach skills that are developmentally appropriate. Check it out, and let us know what you think!
Make it a whole-community priority. Just as media and technology have affected the nature of childhood and education, they’ve also affected the nature of parenting. Parents and other adult mentors are looking for guidance and appreciate opportunities to discuss their questions, frustrations, and hopes when it comes to their kids’ digital lives. Can your community be a hub for this kind of dialog? Check out our Parent Media Education Program for resources and ideas about how to integrate digital citizenship conversations into your parent-engagement plans.
Question: We’d love to hear from you. In your professional career, how do you practice digital citizenship on a daily basis? If given the opportunity, how would you teach those important lessons to our youngest fans?
Emily Esch works on bringing practical digital literacy and citizenship resources to schools around the globe through www.commonsense.org/educators. She lives in San Francisco and spends way too much time on Pinterest. Contact Emily.
I’m headed to Rwanda to participate in a training for the ACE project, a network of African Women’s Leadership organizations in the Sub-Saharan region. The project is designed and implemented by IIE/Sub-Saharan Office and funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation PRH program. The participating NGOs include Women’s Leadership NGOs from Ethiopia I’ll be co-training with Kalyani Menon-Sen, a feminist activist, researcher and adult educator based in Delhi, India to deliver sessions on the Networked NGO, networks, and networking with social media. Over the next two weeks, I will be sharing what I learn about the connections of networks, networked approaches, and social media for Women’s Rights NGOs in Africa.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been applying my online networking and network weaving skills to discover the conversations and people on Twitter (and other social media spaces) talking about Women’s Leadership issues. I took a deep dive with Twitter to discover where African women are tweeting after seeing this report, “How Africa Tweets” and focused in on Rwanda.
Many government leaders in Rwanda have embraced Twitter, both in the “official’ capacity, tweeting from their Ministry’s profile for formal communication or often from a personally branded profile. There are many women in leadership government positions in Rwanda, and many are on Twitter. The first of the Rwandan Twitter “peeps” that I discovered was the President of Rwanda – Paul Kagame who is very active on Twitter. He responds to questions and has conversations as well as confrontations with journalists (and others) in his personally branded Twitter account. There is also the “official” President of Rwanda account which is for more formal communications. While I was not able to find the First Lady Mrs. Jeannette Kagame on Twitter (if anyone does know her account, please share in the comments), I discovered that her NGO, Imbuto Foundation, was on Twitter.
The Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion office keeps a consistent schedule of informational news on gender issues with a focus on Rwanda and Minister Inyumba Aloisea also tweets from her personal account. The Ministry of Health is also quite active on Twitter both from the formal, official account Ministry Twitter profile and Minister Agnes Bingawaho who is very active on Twitter. She hosts a bi-weekly Twitter Chat called “Minister Mondays” which kicked off 6 months ago with a Twitter chat about family planning, curated on Storify by Packard Foundation Program Officer Sandra Bass.
I was quickly able to identify some great lists of Twitter users including Women Rights Organizations, News Sources, Funders, and a wide variety of African Women’s issues – all sharing information and engaging in conversation on Twitter. While there bandwidth challenges, Twitter is accessible for by SMS in some of the countries – and it would be an simply way to network and keep on top of one’s professional area.
My friend and colleague, June Holley, has written a much anticipated book, The Network Weaver Handbook. If you are interested in building networks or working as Networked Nonprofit, you need this book right now!
The Network Weaver Handbook is designed to give you skills and resources you need to build effective and innovative networks. The handbook offers advice and resources for those who just starting out to those involved in well-established networks. The book gives you the basics of networks and network building and moves on to more advanced topics such as scaling networks and transformation.
A network weaver is someone who is aware of the networks around them and explicitly works to make them healthier. They do this by helping people identify their interests and challenges, connecting people strategically where there’s potential for mutual benefit, and serving as a catalyst for self-organizing groups. As June points, the role is multi-faceted -and has four different roles – Connectors/Catalyst, Guardian, Coordinator, and Facilitator. In the books, she describes each role and the specific skills required. She also includes her famous “Network Weaver Checklist” that helps you figure out how to inspire people in your network to become network weavers while improving your own practice.
In many sections of the book, June offers fantastic stories and resources on how to use social media to support and build out your network. As she points out, increasingly the Internet has become the platform of networks – and of interaction and self-organizing. I love how she points out that one of the most important behaviors needs for a successful network approach is “learning how to learn.” And that as networks evolve and grow, you experiment with different tools and then spread the knowledge of how to use the tools to the rest of the network.
What I like best about the book is that the narrative is accompanying by terrific reflection questions and worksheets so you can easily adapt all the wisdom shared in the book. It is also packed with resource lists and stories. To me, this creates the perfect book to help guide your practice of building and working within a network.
At this year’s NTC, there was a lot of discussion about innovation and nonprofits – so I was particularly interested in Chapter 10 which is about Innovation and Transformation in Networks. It covers concepts essential to understanding how innovation happens and explores some simple practices to introduce to your network that may lead to innovation. June offers some frameworks for creating a network culture that supports innovation, how to identify innovation assets, how to tune-up the network for innovation, how to train and coach people in the skills and processes required for innovation, and structures that support innovation.
If you are need to understand how networks work and grow – and need to develop and hone network weaving skills – this amazing handbook will give you what you need! Order it here.
Day 2: Certificates Awarded To Senior Staff Attendees
This year a lot of my work as Visiting Scholar at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation is working with grantees outside of the US. Last week, I had the pleasure of working with a group of Population and Reproductive Health grantees from Pakistan on a peer learning group called “The Networked NGO,” based on the ideas in my book, The Networked Nonprofit. The four-day intensive face-to-face training was for senior level staff and their social media staffers. It marked the start of a six month peer learning exchange where I, along with colleague Stephanie Rudat will work remotely with grantees as they implement an action learning project to put techniques into practice and facilitate organizational change from the inside out.
We are working very closely with Dr. Yasmeen Qazi who is the Pakistan Country Advisor and her very talented team members, Dr. Iftikhar Soomro and Seema Zameer — all of whom understand capacity building programs. organizational change, and technology.
This blog post includes some reflections on the instructional design, delivery, and insights that I hope will inform the field building discussion taking place over at the Packard OE Program site.
1. Program Design
Peer Learning Exchange: Theory of Change
When you design a capacity building project based on peer learning and is focused on topics that will require transformative organizational change to apply skills and knowledge, it is important to have a realistic and clear idea about what constitutes success. Not thinking this through at the beginning can spell disaster, especially if there are unrealistic expectations and you are working in places where connectivity is a barrier.
This project has identified the following definitions of success:
A Peer-to-Peer Learning Exchange
Grantees will engage in peer discussions about integrating social media effectively into their communications strategies and will learn from each other – from challenges and missteps as much as from accomplishments and wins – so success means organizations sharing both.
Networked NGOs and Social Media Integrated Into Organizational Communications
Through the 4-day workshop in-country and subsequent online and conference calls, grantee organizations will start to embrace the practices of Networked Nonprofits and begin to institutionalize social media strategies and integrate them into their broader strategy for communications on population and reproductive health or girls and girls and women’s empowerment.
Grantees Implement A Modest and Realistic Action Learning Pilot
Social media practices are just that – they get strong and stay strong with practice – so success means consistent application and learning. With facilitator’s guidance, grantees will design and implement a small action learning project. But smart is as important as strong, so success also means deliberate integration of social media strategies with the organization’s broader communications plan and learning from doing in small steps.
Purposeful Measurement to Inform Replication
Grantee organizations will measure what matters. Social media can be filled with metrics to track results. But not all metrics are equally valuable, and choosing the measurements that matter can be complicated. Even more importantly, the practice of connecting measurement and decision-making will help organizations improve practice and results, and document value. Success means using metrics to learn how to improve practice effectively, both to identify obstacles and track progress. The action learning project will be designed to help grantees build a habit of measurement, reflection, and organizational learning.
These definitions have informed the curriculum, instructional design, peer learning design, and how we will measure and learn along the way. The specific indicators of program success are below and were identified with input from participants:
100% of participants will develop an integrated and measurable social media strategy that furthers their communications work in population and reproductive health that aligned with institutional goals
100% of participants implement a process and write a social media policy that addresses organizational adoption issues
100% of participants implement an action learning project that uses measurement to help improve their practice, share insights with peers, and identify opportunities to amplify each other’s voices through social media
It is also important clarify these expectations with participants. We did this on Day 1. It followed a presentation of the program design where we facilitated an exercise and discussion about their hopes and concerns for the program. On our monthly calls, we will be measuring progress based on these indicators. I’m sure issues will emerge, but hoping to find out what works and what doesn’t and discuss openly with participants as the technical assistance and action learning projects unfold!
2. Design for Organizational Reluctance
An important design consideration is the selection of participants. For this project, participants were carefully vetted, avoiding organizations that were in a leadership transition, had other organizational priorities to address or did not have the capacity to apply the skills or knowledge. The latter includes a lack of a formal communication strategy or staffing limitations.
The program was designed for two participants per organization, a senior level staff and the staff person who implements social media. Focusing peer learning exchanges on one group or the other doesn’t go quite as a far nor can it effectively overcome reluctance and get at transformative change within the organization. In addition, as part of opting into the program, the CEO or Executive Director had to sign a letter of agreement that clearly articulated the time commitment.
The workshop lasted four days, with each day devoted to a specific theme: 1) Networked NGOs, Networks, and Change from the Inside Out 2) Integrated Social Media Strategy 3) Effective Practice and Techniques 4) Action Learning Pilots, Measurement, and Remote Support. The senior staff participated with social media staff for the first two days and then the social media worked together (without their bosses present) for two days on the practical and tactical.
During the training, I put “red” dots on the name cards of the senior staff and “yellow” dots for social media staff. Since the curriculum addressed organizational barriers head on and different scenarios about sharing control or organizational concerns, we started to talk about the different “red dot” and “yellow dot” challenges when it comes to using social media in an organization. We did a lot of role playing and scenarios as well as concrete work on developing their social media policies. In addition to the tactical and skills instruction we did with the social media staff on Day 3 and Day 4, we also covered how to manage time and work efficiently – and how to best provide support for the strategies.
Peer Synergy is also important — and for the next six months we will have two tracks for the peer groups. We will work with the “red dots” on developing the social media policy and strategy as well as working with the “yellow dots” on their action learning project. I’ve worked hard to incorporate the principles of leveraging peer learning that the Monitor has begun to codify through interviews with me and other Packard grantees and providers working on peer learning projects.
3. Dealing with Connectivity Issues, Remote Work, and Use of Social Platforms
A lot of more of my work recently has been with nonprofits in countries where Internet connectivity isn’t as robust as is in the US and where even electricity can be a problem. Over the past 20 years of providing capacity programs online, I’ve faced my share of bandwidth challenges. That’s why we will not rely solely on online channels to facilitate discussions. We will use SKYPE out which is more rebust for monthly conference calls, scheduled for business hours in Pakistan so participants can use the Internet connection at their offices. We are recording the calls so those that face electricity/connectivity problems can download it as a podcast and listen to the recordings later – and view slides/ notes.
In addition, we will be using a wiki to showcase learning and a private Facebook group for daily contact and “just in time” support. I selected the latter because all participants are on Facebook and can access it on their mobile phones. As part of the face-to-face training, we spent a day introducing participants to the different platforms and because we had wifi at the training, integrated using it as part of the exercise report outs. We are also using a Facebook group for daily communication. The Facebook daily check-ins in-between our calls are to provide support and facilitate discussion
3. Create A World Fusion Curriculum
All of my workshops are customized design, so I know how to infuse the participant’s voices – whether it be their own living case studies or examples from NGOs in their country or field. I was very lucky to work with Stephanie Rudat on this project who has spent a lot of time in Pakistan training Youth Activist NGOs to use social media. Her knowledge of the country and the culture made it easier to localize the curriculum.
However, it is important to have a mix – examples from other fields and countries. If participants can see themselves in the case studies and examples, there is less resistance. If you can expose them to examples from other fields or countries, then it broadens their horizons. You need that for new ideas, innovation, and fresh thinking.
This mixture was embedded in every aspect from the instructional design – from icebreakers to reflection exercises to presentation content, examples, and frameworks.
For example, on Day 2 we covered strategy and social media integration. The curriculum includes the ”Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly” framework that I developed over the past couple of years and is included in my next book. There is also an self-assessment exercise. However, to localize it, Stephanie incorporated Pakistani imagery, including a photo of Arfa Karim, the youngest female Microsoft ‘expert’ in Pakistan, to represent fly. She was very famous in her country although, sadly she recently passed away from complications of a seizure.
Also on Day 2, we shared examples of Networked NGOs from different places in the world as well as used a case study exercise focusing on NGOs in Pakistan that had used social media effectively.
We even localized and mixed up our energizers and icebreakers. On the first day, we all sang “Dil Dil Pakistan,” a well-loved song that most people from Pakistan know.
But on Day 2, we shared a famous dance from America (The Chicken Dance) and made everyone do it after lunch so they were energized for the afternoon.
4. Design To Build A Community of Practice
Throughout the four days, there were many opportunities for peer interaction and group exercises designed to build trust, identify common points of experience and knowledge, and opportunities for reciprocity. On Day 1, since the theme was networks, we created a knowledge network of our existing knowledge and desired knowledge areas using a visual facilitation technique with sticky notes. I was impressed with range and breadth of strategy and tactical skills of people in the room. There was a lot of synergy and points of reciprocity. Having this network map on the wall during the whole training, let us as the trainers acknowledge the expertise and knowledge in the room.
That’s important because after the training is done, the participants will need to have grown in their comfort and skill levels to proceed without. My indicator of success for capacity building and training projects is that I’ve put myself out of a job.
Building on the theme of networks for Day 1, we had participants draw a network map of their networks as is suggested in the Networked Nonprofit. This exercise is very useful because after participants create their maps, they’re taped on the wall, and participants give feedback using sticky notes. Then each group presents their map as we do a walk around the room. This exercise not only leads to places where peers can share knowledge, but since it is an organizational lens – it also opens the door for ideas for networked approaches. It almost always naturally leads to discussion about how to amplify each other’s voices using social media.
What I loved about this exercise, is that after Stephanie and I modeled taking photographs and sharing on our Facebook Group or Twitter, participants started to also document digitally. We were able to thoroughly document the exercise here.
We had participants begin to work through their social media strategy, but to encourage insights about how to leverage a networked effect, we had them create SMART objectives as a gallery. Using this visual techniques, allows participants to give each other feedback and also see points of connection.
On Day 3, when it was time to focus on more time on teaching the tools, we started with an opening exercise designed to help identify those in the room who had knowledge. Participants made name badges using selecting tool names for their first and last name. They had to create name that represented a tool they already knew and one they wanted to learn more about. Then we did several rounds of speed dating which allowed for a lot of peer to peer help on using tools. One participant told me that she never learned so much about social media in so short a time. The power of peer knowledge at work!
We had wifi in the room and participants brought their laptops – this give us the opportunity for open lab time or what I call “shoulder to shoulder” learning. We spent half of Day 4 introducing participants to the various platforms we would using to keep in touch over the six months as they implemented action learning projects. For example, the wiki, where participants will keep journals, we had them do some of the exercises related to designing their project on the wiki to learn how to use it. This helped us identify participants who were already comfortable with the wiki and we put them to work teaching the others.
5. Integrate Practical Use of the Tools for Reflection, Network Weaving, Getting Ideas, Follow Up Work
We incorporated hands-on time and shoulder to shoulder learning from Day 1. We started by introducing Twitter as a networking and professional development tool and succeeded in getting all the senior staff (red dots) tweeting by the end of Day 1. At different points in the day, we took “Twitter breaks” for reflection or networking.
And, if questions emerged about a specific case study or example we shared – we would point out that they could tweet that person and ask them the question. This happened when we shared some examples from the American Red Cross and participants tweeted their questions to Wendy Harman (who answered).
We introduce the Facebook Group on Day 2 so that both senior managers and the social media staff could add themselves. Then we incorporate the use of the Facebook for reflection exercises and to capture some of the knowledge that was shared in the room. For example, for one exercise, we had participants document their contribution to the “me to we” networked exercise.
6. Design for Reflections and Connections To Actual Work Experience
It is really important to build in plenty of time for reflection so participants can connect what they are learning in a workshop to their work experience. A workshop that simply attempts to stuff content into people’s brains is highly ineffective. The curriculum incorporated “overnight” reflections everyday as well as many exercises to help process what they learned. On Day 4, we incorporated some role playing exercises that helped participant learn about being efficient with social media or managing situations where control issues might occur. This was an area that I improvised on the spot based on what I hearing the room – and again I realized the importance of not only teaching the how-to of how the tools works, but to understand how to integrate a new way of working into your daily routine and manage time better.
7. Make It Fun, Celebrate
I believe strongly that professional learning can be fun and it can be more effective that way. We engage our learners in many different ways – from role playing, games, interactive exercises, interactive presentations, self-directed learning, drawing, teaching others, and having conversations about the topics.
International trainings tend to be longer because participants may traveling from different locations. That’s why it is good to have different moving around exercises. One that I use when people get tired, is to have them stand in a circle and we toss a ball. But, I usually bring a “ugly” doll. It makes a game out of learning – and keeps people involved.
We also gave awards, certificates, and chocolates as well as surprise and humor to keep everyone involved.
I am looking forward to the next six months of working with this amazing group of Packard Foundation grantees half-way around the world.
What has been your experience designing capacity building programs? Discuss here
Guest Post: The Future is Now: Mobile Strategies for Social Impact By Laura Efurd, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, ZeroDivide
– @lefurd, @zerodivideorg
A Pew report released just last week declared that “the rise of mobile is changing the story” about the digital divide. The report notes that populations traditionally on the other side of the digital divide are increasingly using wireless technology to access the Internet.
For those of us in the social sector, the promise of universal access raises a host of new possibilities to improve economic, educational, health, and social conditions in underserved communities. However it also raises new questions: If mobile technology is helping to eliminate traditional aspects of the digital divide, is it creating new ones? In the age of mobile apps and hackathons, why is support for mobile strategies and projects lagging in the social sector? How can we more effectively strengthen these efforts?
ZeroDivide explores these questions and others in our new report “Funding Mobile Strategies for Social Impact: The Future is Now”. It explores mobile innovation in the social sector and uncovers the keys to successful programs in the United States. “Funding Mobile” demystifies the various mobile channels used for social impact – such as texting, mobile video, and location based services – and explains how nonprofits are using these channels to enhance health services, improve transportation systems, distribute emergency aid, and improve civic participation.
My favorite example of how mobile technology is literally putting power in the hands, pockets and purses of people is Fresno BusTracker. Created by young people, this service allows community members to text in reports about incidents on the local bus system – such as violence, buses not stopping or being late – and geotags them to populate an online map. Community members are using this data to press for – and win – changes in the transportation system in Fresno.
Learn about more exciting mobile innovations, the challenges to supporting them, and suggestions for overcoming the barriers in ZeroDivide’s report, “Funding Mobile Strategies for Social Impact: The Future is Now”. Then share with us your favorite example of mobile innovation in the social sector at http://facebook.com/zerodivideorg.
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