Partnerships
To share resources and develop new opportunities for afterschool providers to create content-rich programs, YouthLearn is involved in a number of partnership activities with afterschool leaders throughout the country.
National Partnership for Quality Afterschool
The Afterschool Academies
NIOST's "Links To Learning"
The National Collaboration for Youth (NCY) on Blended Learning
To aid in the integration of technology into afterschool efforts, YouthLearn is providing advice and resources to the National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning, a consortium of leading intermediaries working to provide technical assistance to the Department of Education's 21st Century Community Learning Center program. The Partnership is led by Southwest Educational Laboratories (SEDL) and will help 21st Century programs build local capacity to provide rich academic content through engaging and challenging activities and to demonstrate the impact of academic programming on student outcomes. The partnership carries out the following activities: site identification, site validation, product development, technical assistance, and training.
YouthLearn Director Tony Streit serves on the Partnerships Content Advisory Team to help identify promising practices with regard to technology. Together with colleagues at SEDL, YouthLearn has helped draft a set of Technology Constructs for Effective Afterschool (.pdf), intended to guide in the selection of exemplar programs. YouthLearn is also developing a database of promising afterschool programs across the country, several of which are featured in our Spotlight on Afterschool.
With the support of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the YouthLearn team has been working with other key partners in the field of afterschool to design exciting new professional development experiences for launch in 2005. The first offering, the Afterschool Teaching Institute (ASTI), will be a three-day intensive training in developing content-rich afterschool curriculum. YouthLearn has been integrally involved in creating the materials, and is also on the training team leading the sessions. These will run concurrently with the Foundations Inc. Beyond School Hours Conference put on by Foundations, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia from February 16-19, 2005.
Watch this site for more information about Afterschool Academies events throughout 2005 or visit the Foundations Inc. website for details.
"Links To Learning" is a new Curriculum Planning Guide developed by the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) to assist afterschool program providers in responding to the call of academics in non-school time, while addressing the full range of children's developmental needs. The guide provides an overview of learning and child development as they relate to out-of-school time care; offers tools for selecting, planning, developing and evaluating afterschool activities; and demonstrates how to link these activities to both learning and quality standards.
YouthLearn was thrilled to assist NIOST in this effort, providing recommendations and resources on promoting project-based methods and integrating technology into afterschool. Included is a section on how best to weave technology into programs, drawn from The YouthLearn Guide and other sources. "Links To Learning" is published by School-Age NOTES and can be ordered by calling 1-800-410-8780 or visiting their online catalogue at www.AfterSchoolCatalog.com
YouthLearn was excited to collaborate with the National Collaboration for Youth (www.nydic.org) in conducting an online survey for their recent publication, "Using Blended Learning for the Professional Development of Youth Workers.” Pam Garza, Director of the National Youth Development Learning Network with the National Collaboration for Youth, explains that an essential element in the building and sustaining of effective youth development organizations is the ongoing professional development of youth workers. Yet there are many factors, e.g. time and staffing constraints, prohibitive costs, and staff turnover, that often exist as barriers to providing continuous learning opportunities for youth workers. Because of this, organizations are beginning to use a 'blend' of online learning with face-to-face opportunities. This 'Blended Learning' format has emerged as an affordable, timely, and applicable alternative for organizations to ensure the professional development of paid and unpaid staff.
Check out this publication, which includes the findings of the survey and promising practices on professional development efforts using Blended Learning methods. http://www.nydic.org/nydic/documents/Prof_Series_ENews_4.pdf
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