YouthLearn Requests Examples of Technology Integration in Afterschool Programs

Posted by on November 5, 2004

For some time now, YouthLearn has been working with educators from a range of different settings, both formal and informal, to promote the effective use of technology to advance powerful learning. Currently, we’re making a effort to specifically identify some of the ways that technology is helping educators working in the burgeoning afterschool arena. We’re particularly interested in exploring with afterschool educators how best to infuse technology in these programs to enhance learning, especially where it supports the integration of academic content. We plan to collect information about model programs, their
accomplishments and the challenges they’ve faced, and showcase these efforts via a new section on our website. We’d like to highlight some of the unique strategies for technology integration that have made these programs successful, and hopefully articulate ways that technology is helping afterschool programs impact student outcomes.

This new section of the website will:

– provide practitioners with exemplary models and concrete examples of technology integration in afterschool programs;
– identify ways that technology can help afterschool providers promote student-centered learning and support academic achievement;
– offer a space where practitioners and other afterschool leaders can share their own expertise, tips, tactics, and lessons learned;
– foster new linkages between the community technology movement, afterschool and the broader youth development world.

If your program or one that you know of has demonstrated success at harnessing technology afterschool, please contact us. We’re especially interested in identifying programs supported through the Department of Education’s 21st Century Learning Center Program, and those that are functioning within a school environment. We’re also very interested in models that demonstrate community-school partnerships.

You can send your recommendations to YouthLearn Research Assistant Haejung Chung via email (hchung@edc.org) or phone (617-618-2730). You can also chat with her through instant messaging: Yahoo (ID: ra_youthlearn), MSN (ID: RA YouthLearn), AOL (ID: RA YouthLearn). To chat with Haejung, please add her to your contact list by using these IDs or my email address, hchung@edc.org.

Thank you very much. We look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Tony Streit, Director
The YouthLearn Initiative
Education Development Center, Inc.
55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA 02458

YouthLearn Website: <a href="http://www.youthlearn.org">http://www.youthlearn.org</a>