SP 23 Things

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Rondo Workshop Schedule -- A schedule of Monday night workshops at Rondo Library presented by St. Paul E-Democracy.

SPED Outreach – “23-Things”

Technological Literacy for Civic Engagement

Helene Blowers at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenberg County (PLCMC) originally created “23-Things”. PLCMC's Learning 2.0 Program was a discovery-learning program designed to encourage library staff to explore new technologies, and to reward them for doing “23 Things”. An online goal-setting site, “43 Things”, in part, inspired it. Since the PLCMC program was launched, it has fostered Learning 2.0 programs all over the world. The “23 Things” programs to-date seem to be more directed towards library staff development in the area of Web 2.0 familiarity.

Saint Paul E-Democracy Outreach (SPED) has discussed a “23 Things” project for the computer literacy and civic engagement outreach project at the Saint Paul Rondo Community Outreach Library. The program would be for the community, not for library staff. The goal for the SPED project would be to create a process that would draw community members into what SPED is doing at the Rondo library and increase their understanding of Web 2.0 and the tools/resources it provides.

The overall framework for the project is to have a topic each week for 23 weeks which highlights a facet of Web 2.0 along with a component which has the participants share their learning in an online format, probably a blog page for participants. Because one goal is to increase community involvement, this project lends itself to including community partners with SPED and the library staff at Rondo (who could be formal or informal participants.) Partners in this project might be neighborhood religious and educational institutions, community organizations, and City and County departments and elected officials. These partners would participate in identifying and presenting the 23 things which would be the topics for the 23 consecutive SPED coordinated fall 2008 and winter 2009 workshops held on Monday evenings at the Rondo Community Outreach Library electronic classroom. The workshops would include ways to use that resource in building a stronger community as well as for personal enrichment.

If SPED proceeds with this project, the first step will be to identify possible community partners and develop a general goal and objective statement. Next, SPED outreach committee members and Saint Paul E-Democracy staff would approach those potential partners to engage them in the project. If this project were to begin in September 2008, then partners would need to be on-board in June 2008. The partners (including SPED as the convener) would meet in June and July to determine goals and objectives, create a schedule, and begin promotion for the project. Promotion for the project would begin in August, and would be ongoing for the duration of the project. Workshops would begin mid-September 2008. In keeping with the SPED past practices, participants in the workshops could choose one or all of the topic sessions. Recognition would be provided to those who complete, and document completion, in all 23 things.

Examples:

Cathi:

Please review and comment. I have not had my resident editor look at this, it is truly a first draft.

In case you have not seen the article that inspired Helene Blowers to start her project, here is the information/link: 43 Things I might want to do this year Information Outlook, Feb, 2006 by Stephen Abram