Community Educators Toolbox

EDAC 648 Group 5

Community Educator Toolbox

Amanda Cruser Contributed to the construction of the website and addition of suggested educator tools
Dana Sharp Contributed to the construction of the website and inclusion of suggested educator tools
Dan Royer Contributed to the construction of the website and inclusion of suggested educator tools

Our Community Educator Toolbox may be found at: http://edac648group5.weebly.com/

Our group began by examined community educators to get an understanding of their work.  We found that community educators may work in adult basic education, administration, and a number of other roles.  They also engage as an advocate for community members. 

When we explored community and service learning, we began with Holland and Robinson (2008) who offer a clear definition of the term ‘service learning’as an activity that “combines service activities with academic learning objectives with the intent that the activity will benefit both the recipient and the provider” (p. 18) and discovered that in a very practical way, this leads to transformative education.  This can produce a change in the method of personal interaction with those who are different in some respect from the participant or in the way society in general is understood (Mündel & Schugurensky, 2008).  The activities were important, but not the focal point.  The focal point was to produce a change in perception based on the engagement of students. 

We also examined community programs in the Indianapolis area.  Our interest focused on the Excel learning centers operated by Goodwill Educational Initiatives, the Oasis Center and the Burmese Community Center.  These programs were driven by the need to meet specific community educational activities, but they also point out something very important about community education, which is to establish cooperative efforts and leverage resources from community partners.  These programs address needs while creatively leveraging resources to accomplish stated purposes.

Community partnerships have been defined by Crist and Escandon-Dominguez (2003) as a “reciprocal and interactional collaboration between the researcher [educators] and the community” and we must keep this in mind when planning for community education.  Here the biggest lesson to take away was that these partners were able to accomplish something together that neither could accomplish on their own.  In these cases, the partnerships resulted in providing educational services to prisoners by Grace Community Education (Grace College) and prisoners receiving some education that may help them to avoid future imprisonment by providing marketable skill sets.  Additionally, the Ivy Tech partnership provided for the educational needs of Veterinary Tech students, while giving the Animal Shelter access to updated facilities.

We expect that community educators will learn about the varied path that many of them take to enter this line of work, and reinforce the idea that they are to become advocates for the communities they educate.  We also expect they will learn about the importance of transformative learning strategies encountered in the Community/Service Learning module.  In the Community Programs module we will also point out ways in which creative and innovative ideas aid the educators when they are dealing with sizeable problems.  The partnerships they engage in will also allow them to leverage these multiple and different resources in an era of shrinking funding from traditional sources.

We chose a website format because of the desire to utilize technology to engage learning, and to produce an interactive format.  In our website we have incorporated a number of different technological tools which include embedded audio and video links, the inclusion of a Prezi presentation, and a link that will connect a visitor to this blog.

References

Crist, J. & Escandon-Dominguez, S. (2003). Identifying and recruiting mexican american partners

      and sustaining community partnerships. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 14(3), 266-271. doi:

     10.1177/1043659603253758




Holland, B., & Robinson, G. (2008). Community based learning in adults: Bridging efforts in

     multiple sectors. In S.C. Reed & C. Marienau (Eds.) New Directions for Adult and Continuing

     Education, No. 118. San Franscisco: Jossey-Bass.




Mündel, K., & Schugurensky, D. (2008). Community based learning and civic engagement:

     Informal learning among adult volunteers in community organizations. In S.C. Reed & C.

     Marienau (Eds.) New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 118. San Franscisco:

     Jossey-Bass