The Ellis & Scott article, “Community education as a citizen organising for democratic accountability,” was very insightful and gave the makeup of the vehicle for change that is needed in a democratic society. Being the first to lead a discussion this semester I felt unsure about how to facilitate discussion, but the discussion and threads took on a life of their own once classmates started blogging. Although I was the facilitator the class took the reading and the questions I presented and made sense of it through their posts. As I reflect on the article and this class I begin to see similarities that this online class has to broad based organizations (BBO).
This class can be looked at as a BBOs described in the article because the syllabi is the source of the information and there is a person that organizes the course so that the course objectives can be addressed so that people learn adequate information needed for the future. The discussions allow students to voice their opinions at a time table suitable to their availability and discussions can be asynchronously replied to with seamless break in dialogue. The class posts information to continue dialogue and shows understanding and different perspectives on a topic, not only increasing the writer’s knowledge base but also that of the class. This is in essence what a BBO is, a group of people exchanging information and addressing their concerns through perspective, in hopes of bettering the community as a whole, not just self-fulfilling desires. By coming together in a centralized manner topics and discussions can be had in a routine manner so that when an issue presents itself it can be quickly addressed. When the organization addresses the issue they can be proactive in addressing minor current concerns and be proactive in addressing future possibilities, thus moving from the current day to day struggles. In relation to the online class students can be proactive by reading ahead so that they aren’t stressed from having to read for the week.
What a great analysis of class using the BBO framework! When I think of how BBO can be used online I am encouraged I believe Obama used the BBO concept in his campaign. I would like to make better use of it to garner support for sustainability issues at the U of Memphis and in our individual communities.
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