Item 6. Reformers must use technology to build community ties.
When I reread this part of the model, I laughed and very nearly said, “OK, let’s just move on the next item.†I developed the model between 2002 and 2006, when blogs were the hot new trend in online communities and online social networks were in their birth and infancy stages. Today I am sending links to these essays to dozens of educators around the country through Twitter. Educators and students are definitely using technology to create communities.
However, while I don’t want to belabor the point, it is worth taking a moment to think about how a hypothetical reform movement school would use technology, including social networks, to build community ties. Part of the mission of the school is to be active in the surrounding community and try to create conditions for a more democratic society. So for this part of the model, it is not enough that students and administrators be connected with each other online. They need to use those technological connections in a constructive way to increase their own knowledge and then share that knowledge with others.
There are plenty of examples of this already in place in schools around the country. Students in Philadelphia have used social networks to plan protests regarding the austerity budget that the district passed earlier this year. Reporters use Twitter to share information about school board meetings and solicit stories from students and educators. Schools can take the idea of a school newspaper and publish it online so that everyone can see it. In the process, the reporters for such an online publication could broaden their scope beyond the school to the community in which the school resides.
As significant as the educational technology community is, not every student or educator takes advantage of these tools. So the reform movement school must look for people who are already somewhat plugged in and others who are willing to and interested in becoming part of these technology-facilitated communities. It will also need to set up some system and guidelines so that the use of technology to observe what is going in the world and share what is going on at the school is a regular part of the school’s identity.
This will have the additional benefit of helping students build their “digital citizenship†skills. Even though many students are using technology to build and maintain social connections, they are not always conscious of how they are doing so, or of how corporations and other forces shape their use of such technologies. If the reform movement school helps its students to understand these forces, the students can then spread that understanding through their own networks.