Community, Schools and Online Learning
I have an interest in Web2.0 and in building local community. I've been feeling like I need to choose one or the other.
Now Barbara Ganley is leaving academia and heading out to combine those two things. bgganley writes "I see this open-learning movement on the Web (collective intelligence) coupled with in-the-lived-community-connection as a way we might actually save ourselves and our planet. I gotta get out there and try to do my part."
I don't imagine that Barbara is referring to setting up wifi in her area. Rather I'm guessing that she wants to use blogging and other tools she has been using in her college classrooms to build community for learning in her local community.
What are the possibilities? If people can communicate online and build "collective intelligence," what would this enable?
At one level, people could share more. Instead of a building that is a tool library, people could make their own tools available to others or how about an online (using pictures) jewelry or good dishes library? Maybe a system of local currency (a la Ithaca hours) could be established. Couldn't online collective activity make these activities easier?
Maybe a form of city/community planning would be possible. Could people work together in a collective way online to create the community they want? Maybe people could create private blog posts in response to some questions set forth or maybe people could interview each other about their visions for their community. After individuals have established and shared their own ideas, how might they be shared. Barbara's students were involved in a constant back and forth between classes f2f and communicating by writing. Could this same process be adapted for in-the-lived-community development of trust and understanding?
Years ago (1961), Jane Jacobs wrote The Life and Death of Great Cities. In it she described many of the characteristics of communities that work well: hanging out on porches, walking to places like stores and libraries, and experiencing diversity (e.g., income, social class, etc.) I live in this kind of neighborhood. We have informal contact and we work together when there is a crisis--a house burns down, a babysitter is verbally accosted by a neighbor, an ambulance arrives. But we do not have any way of combining our collective intelligence. Yard signs declare our political opinions and we may make general comments. But we do not work together to get things done.
Do you live in a neighborhood that has a basic sense of community? Or are you in an area where almost all travel is done by car and people only know one or two neighbors? Or an area where family ties are more important than ties with neighbors? How do you imagine developing collective intelligence using Web2.0 might impact your community? What do you see as the possibilities?
Comments