Lesson Six: School and Community
                     Networking Synergies

     Life-long, home-based Internet learning

Changing roles of teachers and schools

School-to-work and K12 Student Entrepreneurship

Building Social skills in an Internet environment

Explore the Benefits of Electronic Portfolios

Explore the Student Entrepreneurship Hotlist

Take the Electronic democracy webtour
Lesson Six Required Assignments:

Send a two page report privately to your instructor on your
five hour review of ;        

- School and Community Networks and
   resources; describe your three favorite sites

- Student Entrepreneurship sites; describe your
  two  favorite sites

- Electronic Democracy Web Tour sites; describe
   your favorite site(s)

- Electronic Portfolios - Share your thoughts. 

- Where do you think all this is headed? What's
   it mean to you and your teaching? (90 points)

For the remaining 10 points for this lesson engage in resource sharing with the other participants via the class listserv as described in the class welcome bulletin at http://lone-eagles.com/spu1wel.htm .

Lesson Goals:

To identify emerging trends between school and community networking ideas and models.

To identify opportunities for teaching Ecommerce and Electronic Democracy.

To identify how youth can find a role raising community awareness about new Internet collaborative community building and Ecommerce opportunities.

To identify how student electronic portfolios might provide an alternative assessment tool as well as a vehicle for individual self-expression on the web.

A. Read "Community Networking: Leveraging the Public Good
       Electronically"  http://lone-eagles.com/articles/networking.htm

        Read "Innovation Diffusion"
         at http://lone-eagles.com/innovation.htm

        Read "Train the Trainers - Everyone a Teacher!"
         at http://lone-eagles.com/trainers.htm

       Read the one page essay for Level Four "Real World
       Problem-Solving" http://lone-eagles.com/levelfour.htm

   Review briefly these additional resources

    Building Learning Communities
     http://lone-eagles.com/teled.htm

    The Good Neighbor's Guide to Community Networking
      http://lone-eagles.com/cnguide.htm   Chapter Two is highly recommended.
      Chapter Eleven has many free guides and community resources!

     A Web Tour of Outstanding Community Network Sites and Innovations
      Take the six question quiz and http://lone-eagles.com/smart.htm and submit your answers.
      Note the extensive listing of articles and resoures. See also http://lone-eagles.com/community.html

      (90 minutes)

B. Review the school and community free collaborative services below,
       also listed at http://lone-eagles.com/curric.htm

 (30 minutes)

C. Explore the Entrepreneurial sites applicable to both educators and
        students at  http://lone-eagles.com/entrelinks.htm

Note the extensive adult and youth entrepreneurship training resources at www.emkf.org. The Kauffmann Foundation has a billion dollar endowment for funding youth development and entrepreneurship curriculum.
(30 minutes)

D. Review the merits of student portfolios, at
          http://electronicportfolios.com and   
         http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/assess.html#portfolios
         see what you can find searching for "electronic portfolios"  (30 minutes)

E. Take the Electronic Democracy WebTour http://lone-eagles.com/democracy.htm   The highlights are the Virtual Activist Curriculum found on the homepage for http://netaction.org , and the WebActive search engine at http://webactive.com for searching over 2000 websites dedicated to specific causes and purposeful collaboration. The Thomas Jefferson Government Resources http://thomas.loc.gov is your window into the workings of the U.S. congress. Look at each of the four community networks listed at the end of this web tour.

A few optional resources likely to be of interest:
You might think about your role creating good citizens. A Character Education Web Tour is
at http://lone-eagles.com/chared.htm    A listing of interesting sites for seniors, youth, women, etc. is at http://lone-eagles.com/entrelinks.htm   and a grant draft for youth leadership is at http://lone-eagles.com/bartsgrant.htm and another at http://lone-eagles.com/northstar.htm
(one hour)

F. Consider the Merits of the Student Collaborative activity
        at http://lone-eagles.com/inquiry.htm which uses the free collaborative tools below.

National Science Foundation’s FREE “Inquiry Labs”

A ten-year grant provides the following outstanding free collaborative tools. You can create a private community network in just minutes.

The Inquiry Page
 http://inquiry.uiuc.edu 
Learning begins with questions. Welcome! The Inquiry Page is more than a website. It's a dynamic virtual community where inquiry-based education can be discussed, resources and experiences shared, and innovative approaches explored in a collaborative environment.

Here you can search a growing database of inquiry units, and you can also build your own inquiry units. You can see pictures of inquiry-based activities and learn more about some of our partners who use inquiry methods. Learn how to assess and evaluate inquiry-based education or look for more inquiry resources to support what you're doing. Or you can simply find out more about what inquiry and The Inquiry Page are all about.

The I-labs represent an easy-to-use, free, community network incubator. A good place to start for those who are unfamiliar with how a community network actually functions using collaborative tools to gather and share new knowledge.

“The Inquiry Labs” (I-labs) are at http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/cil 
Browse the collaborative projects of others to see how they are using the free tools.

I-lab collaborative tools are called “bricks” and are listed at http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/cil/bricks.php 

Two Example Inquiry Lab Applications

SisterNet: Participatory Design
 http://sisternetonline.org/ourinquiry.html
A model project using the community inquiry lab above.

Puerto Rican Community Projects
 http://www.prairienet.org/pbclp/community_inquiry_lab.htm
This page describes how this group is using the community inquiry lab.


Lesson Feedback: Optional, but much appreciated.

You're invited to privately email your instructor:

       1. What areas, if any, did you have trouble with during this lesson?

       2. What questions remain now that you've finished this lesson?

       3. Approximately how much time did you devote to this lesson?

       4. What improvements would you like to suggest?