Democracy Lab: Online Issue Forums

Posted by on November 26, 2004

Democracy Lab: A Web Strategy for Transforming Learning and Engaging Citizens

* Registration is open for Spring 2005 forums
http://www.teachingdemocracy.org/dl
Enroll by January 10, 2005

* New Issue for spring courses: Youth Civic Disengagement: How Do We Move from Apathy to Activism?

This forum will be available for course adoption using the framework written by Democracy Lab student staff and civic leadership team members. The forum agenda is still being developed and will depart slightly from the agenda used in other course-based forums, giving more emphasis to student research and to critiquing and expanding the framework. A public deliberation of this issue is already underway on our website.

There will also be opportunities for free public involvement in this dialogue during the months of March and April. This might be suitable for co-curricular activites and will be an opportunity for anyone interested to peek inside a Democracy Lab forum and participate along with students.
http://www.teachingdemocracy.org

* Issue Framing project now underway — Higher Education and the Development of Good Citizens

The first step toward framing this issue is now underway on our website. We are soliciting input on a short, two-question form. The public is invited to share concerns and recommended actions on this topic. Beginning in January we will experiment with an “open-source” approach to issue framing. We will make available on our website all the data we have collected along with instructions for moving from the raw data to the outline of an issue framework. Groups are encouraged to try their hand at producing issue frameworks and to send them to us for possible posting on our website. So, please take two minutes right now and share some of your concerns and action suggestions on this important issue. And please help us collect the widest possible diversity of citizen perspectives by sharing this invitation among your contacts. College and high school instructors might even want to consider involving students in this data collection and framing as a class project.
http://www.teachingdemocracy.org