Tailored Toolkits By Audience
Outreach Ideas
Digital Learning Day Events
- National: Find out more about our National Town Hall and Webcast.
- Virtual: Learn more about our webinars and other virtual events.
- State: See what hosting states are doing.
- Local: See examples of the hundreds of local ways participants are innovating.
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Beyond the Classroom:
Afterschool Programs and
Community-Based Organizations
For students to succeed, particularly those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, the nation needs to engage as many community assets as possible to support their academic achievement and personal development. Some community-based organizations (CBOs) are already making extensive use of technology to support learning, including creating new configurations for students to interact with adult mentors, developing badge systems and electronic portfolios, and helping more students be creators and collaborators instead of just consumers of media. Some CBOs do not have the necessary infrastructure or may have digital tools that have not been fully realized. Others are on the sidelines, interested but not knowing where to begin, or unable to launch and sustain initiatives. Many treat technology as a club activity or as a way to increase students’ digital literacy rather than as a tool to help them accomplish their learning and developmental goals in preparing young people to be twenty-first-century citizens. (Source: Blended Learning Partnerships for Community-Based Organizations)
The Alliance for Excellent Education encourages all programs that interact with young learners, both in and out of school, to explore and learn more about the power of digital learning. Library programs can visit our Teachers and Librarians toolkit. Below are examples of digital learning programs in the out-of-school space and more information on practices these programs can use.
Showcases
The Digital Youth Network (DYN) is a hybrid digital literacy program that creates opportunities for youth to engage in learning environments that span both in-school and out-of-school contexts. The DYN model provides youth with access to and training in the use of new media literacy tools, meaningful activities where the development of new media literacies is essential for accomplishing goals, and a continuum of established new media mentors—high school students through professionals—who develop students’ technical skills, serve as role models, and provide students with access to the communities of practice surrounding technology-based careers.
YOUmedia is an innovative learning space for teens. Designed to respond to the interests of young people, YOUmedia provides traditional and twenty-first century digital tools along with the adult mentoring needed to produce media, design and collaborate on projects, and share them with the world. Located in libraries, museums, and community centers, YOUmedia invites young people to learn anyplace, anytime.
Boys & Girls Clubs of America: Club Tech
The Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s digital literacy program, Club Tech, aims to make technology accessible, intriguing, and fun. Today’s youths have a familiarity with technology unlike generations that have preceded them, a skill that is vital to success in school and on the job. Yet with more than 8 million young people lacking regular access to a computer, many will be left facing life-long challenges. Through Club Tech’s suite of programs, kids learn how to use basic business software, be safe online, and learn advanced hardware and networking skills. From this basic technical skills curriculum to Game Tech, an introduction to video game development and principles of game design, animation mechanics and software, kids are well prepared to succeed in school and a career.
Internet Essentials is a service provided by Comcast that allows educators, community partners, and civic leaders to play an important role in bringing affordable internet to more people.
An After-School Video Club for Elementary Students
Chuck Jurich, a National Writing Project teacher of the High Desert Writing project in Albuquerque New Mexico, started the Zia Elementary School Video Club as an after-school program at his elementary school and shares the ways that he supports young learners to create video.
“Youth Say…”: Lessons on Learning, Teaching, and Motivation from Young People
Joslyn Young, who recently completed a Stoneleigh Junior Fellowship at Research for Action, interviews youth media producers in the Philadelphia area. This resource explores what motivates youth to connect with the program and reveals advice the youth have for educators who want to foster more engagement from students.
Practices
Using Online Learning for At-Risk Students and Credit Recovery
Many educators are finding that online and blended learning are effective ways to reach students who fail one or more courses, become disengaged, or who seek an alternative to traditional education. As online learning moves past the early adopter phase, the growth of online programs focused on at-risk students or credit recovery has redefined how educational technology can be used to address the needs of all students, from advanced students in search of Advanced Placement or dual-credit courses, to at-risk students trying to find the right instructional mix to fit their learning styles. As online programs increasingly focus on at-risk students and credit recovery, educators are finding that reaching these students presents a specific set of issues that are explored in this paper, published by the North American Council for Online Learning.
According to this Afterschool Alliance issue brief, afterschool programs provide older youths with critical academic supports including credit attainment and recovery opportunities. Many educators are turning to afterschool programs to reach students who fail one or more courses, become disengaged, or want alternatives to the traditional path to graduation. Afterschool programs offers students opportunities to gain knowledge and credits through learning that takes place outside of the traditional classroom, providing the flexibility that is critical to many struggling students.
Blended Learning Partnerships for Community-Based Organizations
The U.S. Department of Education produced this white paper after convening a group of stakeholders with the After-School Corporation. The paper concludes that there are seven areas where blended learning can help community-based organizations strengthen education partnerships and improve learning opportunities and developmental experiences for students:
- curriculum design and lesson planning;
- alignment across nodes;
- quality and rigor;
- assessment;
- student engagement;
- human capital; and
- community engagement.