BreakthroughAwardNominationNarrative(2)

8/6/2019 BreakthroughAwardNominationNarrative(2)

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learn 2 teach, teach 2 learn

breakthrough

e a r t h&h e a r t

connecting technologies

forsocial

innovation& invention

in our community


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The breakthrough and innovation I think about in the work we do with youth and

others in Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn is the connection between what I call the

technology of the earth and the technology of the heart.

What is interesting is each word contains the letters of the other:

And there are common aspects of both words: each contains the words art,

hear and ear.

technology of the earth

When I think about the earth, it obviously has art,

ear, and hear.

I see this in the approach to technology that is the

art of dealing with the metals, minerals and all that

encompasses the planet that we life in.

The art is this technology, what we use to get and shape the resources from the

earth in a way that advances our human development, allowing access tothings that would improve the quality of life and our ability to relate to the

planet.

The word earin earth is symbolic of the listening

that it would take in order to hearthe possibilities

of using technology in ways that make things work

better for humans and the planet.

The approach to emerging technologies that we

use in our Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn program

comes out of the constructionist model thatSeymour Papert and David Cavallo from the MIT

Media Lab have built their education programs on.

e a r t h=h e a r t

reflections of mel king, director

constructionism:

people learn best as they

design & make things

and for the greatest learning

to happen people must share

both their design process &

what they make with others

tech.nol.o.gy [n.]Thepurposeful application of

information in the design,

production and utilization

of goods and services, and

in the organization of

human activities.


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My personal understanding of constructionism

comes from when I was eight or nine years of age

and I made a kite. I remember running down my

street and watching the kite go up. I was ecstatic!

You could not tell me anything! It got me to

understand certain dynamics of running and whatit took to get the air to go underneath and lift the

kite. Soon, what I learned got me into model

airplanes where I started with an ROG, a rise off

ground, which had a bamboo stick, a propeller, a

rubber band and some wheels. I could go on, but

the sense of understanding from the construction

and the building moved from the act itself into the

understanding.

Perhaps more important was the significance ofthis process in helping to shape my belief that I

had the capacity to do things and to make things.

Hands-on building was not only a way to work on my understanding of

technology and science; it was also a way to help me develop confidence in

my own ability to learn and create.

technology of the heart

My experience offers an example of the technology of the heart. The art is the

technology that is needed to bring out the best in us, to enhance our

relationship with each other so that we can share in the gifts that have come

from the earth, including the gift of each one of us.

Sadly, there is a history of militaristic technology that has all too often brought

out the beast rather than the best in human beings.

Yet, the word earthat is in heart is symbolic of the historical listening that has

also taken place, the attempts to acquire technologies of the heart that get

people to hearand relate to each other in very humane, caring and

appreciative ways. Father John Harmon once said that to really listen means to

be willing to change. For me, technologies of the heart are an affirmation of thehumanity of others.

We have witnessed people working to develop the technologies of the heart in

some of our religious practices.

learn. Our youth learn fivedifferent technologies by building

projects that are open-ended

enough to be personalized.

build. Youth become makersas they work in teams to design,

tinker with & complete projects

that solve a community issue

important to them.

teach. Then, youth teachyounger children through hands-

on projects.

service. Free summer & afterschool STEM programs are

offered in the Boston

neighborhoods most in need ofeducational resources


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We also have evidence of this in the documents people have created to guide

their relationships, such as the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence

and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These are efforts

to develop the technologies of equitable access to decision making processes

and blueprints for making sure every human being gets what they deserve.

People have struggled to put into place

technologies of the heart --- such as nonviolent

civil disobedience --- in revolutions and social

movements. The most important aspect of

these revolutions and social movements is that

they have led to evolutions of the heart and a

belief that every person is somebody and has

the right to alter the world to make things work

for them.

Many of our youth are still struggling because

the work of the freedom movement has not yet

been completed. In particular, significant

forces in the media (pervasive negative images

of youth) and their schools (low expectations

and achievement gaps) present obstacles to

their developing self-esteem and to the

possibility of their developing a strong belief in

their capacity to learn and thrive. Social

historian Lerone Bennet, Jr. describes the

negative impact of these forces on thepersonal spirit saying, To become a part of these signs and feel them in the

deepest recesses of the spirit too often leads one to finally believe in ones

unworthiness. It is no coincidence that slogans like Im Black and Im proud!

and Black is Beautiful! were important technologies of the heart in the

freedom movement; overcoming this sense of unworthiness and believing

oneself to be deserving is the first and perhaps most crucial step towards human

liberation.

Technologies of the heart are aimed, as it says in the Bibles Book of Revelation,

at having a world where all the tribes are welcome, all the gifts are shared. Andperhaps most important to education are the technologies of the heart that I

learned in Sunday School when the Savior said to the disciples, get out of the

way and have the children come, and from reading Khalil Gibran, who said

that all the children are our children.

Some technologies of the heart in

Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn:

Social innovation aims to

catalyze cultural community

change

Bringing together youth teachers

from across the neighborhoods,

family roots, & schools in Boston

Multiple levels of role models who

look like our youth

High expectations for what our

youth can achieve

Asking two questions at every

session: What did YOU learn?

What can you teach SOMEONE

ELSE?

Youth explain and share what

they have built with the

community at our annual Project


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bringing the technologies of earth and heart together

So the question that Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn has worked to answer for the

last eight years is, how do you bring the technology of earth and heart

together? Our innovative idea is to get people to understand that technology

and innovation have a social factor and that it is possible to combine havingyouth working on the earth aspect of building with emerging technology, along

with the heart aspect of believing in ones capacity to learn and contributing to

a world that works for everyone.

The combination has our youth (and us) coming up with techniques and

solutions that impact both the earth environment and their hearts. Especially in

some of their projects, they try to work on things that can increase the life

chances of others because they have become interested in some things that

allow for improvement in the quality of life for all.

leadership.What is new and unique is that we now have this program with theyouth where, on the one hand, there is the construction with emerging

technology and, on the other hand, there is an approach that we take in terms

of leadership development. Youth teachers are playing meaningful roles as

catalysts for change in their community and they are looking at the ways in

which the technology can be used to deal with some of the issues they are

confronted with in their neighborhoods.

constructive criticism and feedback.Youth have developed theeducation innovation in the Learn 2 Teach Model beside us. An approach wetake is having the youth actively participate in the design of the program and

be an important part of the critical analysis of what we are doing.

Building the capacity to give constructive criticism and work with feedback are

an especially important part of our daily circle-up meetings where:

Interpersonal and program direction issues that arise are discussed among

the group.

In the spring learning sessions, the new youth teachers give returning

youth teachers feedback about their teaching and activities.

As youth teachers design and build their projects, they present their daily

progress in circle ups and receive feedback and suggestions from

others.


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And then, when they teach the younger children and receive circle up

feedback from them, youth teachers begin to understand more deeply

that they must be willing to put themselves out for constructive criticism

and critique.

As one foundation evaluator said, Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn is built onyoung peoples strengths...Young people have a voice at every stage of the

program.

role models. Another aspect of our breakthrough is having the youth veryinvolved as catalysts for cultural change, where the acquisition of skills and

knowledge in science and technology are seen as being as significant in their

life as some of the other messages they hear which have them not believing in

their capacity to do something. We use multiple layers of role models that

create a pipeline of young

people from elementary schoolto college who are into science

and technology.

We have youth who were in the

program years ago at age nine,

ten, eleven, and twelve who

have now begun to apply for

youth teacher positions

because they have been

exposed to people who look

like them, who they can identify

with, and who are playing

positive roles.

We also ask youth teachers to

come up with some rhymes or

raps, some poems or songs that

say what is important about

what they are doing. These are

interesting to listen to because

they do address the power ofthe acquisition of the skills and

problem solving along side of a developing belief in a personal capacity to

learn and make. One example is a poem written by a youth teacher called

Lets Show Off.

LETS SHOW OFF

When people look at us,

do you believe they see

our knowledge,

our accomplishment,

our ambition?

All they see are the colors, nothing more,

from the color of our hair

to the skin that we wear.

Instead of taking offense, lets show off. . .

Put them in a state of convolution. . .

For once lets show them that we too can create

We too can transcend above the world

Lets show off!

Lets diminish the misconception of us

And the life that we live

So lets show off

Lets help them not to misconstrue

But to see the depth in the real you

written by Jaime, a youth teacher


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relationship to MIT Media Lab & the newest teaching tools and

technologies. Our role modeling is multi-level and one important aspect is dueto a long-term relationship with the institution of MIT and especially with the MIT

Media Lab.

Through the MIT staff and graduate students,

our youth get exposed to the newest

technology and that becomes something that

they can pop buttons about. And, for

instance, being the first to learn Scratch and

knowing that they are welcome at a place

where the leading edge in the technology is

breaking encourages them to think of ways

that they can create as well.

While our relationship with the Institute, and inparticular with the Media Lab and Center for

Bits Atoms, has provided our youth the

opportunity to have access to technology, it

has also put them in connection with people in

other parts of the world. This gives them

opportunities to share the creations that they make, as well as learn from what

others are making.

One example of what can happen unfolded after a

group of female youth teachers built a solar charger forcharging cellphones and iPods using the sun. Through our

relationship with MIT, this solar charger has traveled from

the fence outside our community technology center in

Boston to a place with limited access to electricity for

charging equipment, Haiti. The solar charger is now not

only being used as an education demonstration project; it is being replicated

and distributed to other parts of Haiti through a hands-on STEM program for

young people.

Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn is a breakthrough

We are preparing the next generation of innovators who are skilled in both the

art of technology and the art of the human heart. Our breakthrough is that we

get people to understand that technology and innovation has a social factor

and we all have the capacity to create things that contribute to us relating to

each other and the planet in humane, caring and appreciative ways.

Our Fab Lab

In collaboration with the MITCenter for Bits and Atoms and the

NSF, we established a Fab Lab at

the South End Technology Center

@ Tent City.

Fab Lab is a place where we

have computer-controlled

machines that allow people to

cut out designs they generate

with software using materials like

acrylic, wood and copper circuit

boards.

The idea behind a Fab Lab is if

you give ordinary people the

right tools they will design and

build the most extraordinary

things.


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Blending the technology of the earth and heart allows us to play a role in both

bridging the predicted gap in the number of people able to fill roles in science,

technology engineering and math (STEM), and bridging the achievement gap

in our schools that discourages many of our youth of color from pursuing STEM

disciplines in college.

Our youth are already the enthusiastic consumers of technology and science

and we believe they can become the inventors and innovators of the future.

And we also believe that, because of their experiences in Learn 2 Teach, Teach

2 Learn, the things they invent and innovate will play a role in making the world

work for everyone.

Too often our youth are left behind and we know the rear wheels of the train

never catch up to the front wheel unless something different happens. We think

our approach makes something different happen. Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2Learn models a process that gets our youth moving in a positive direction, with a

positive self-image, a belief in their capacity to create with high technology and

a belief in their capacity to make meaningful change in their community.

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BreakthroughAwardNominationNarrative(2)