Boston Civic Media: Design, Technology, Social Impact

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Civic Media and the Action Civics Classroom: This workshop will start with a brief overview of action civics – a rigorous extension of ͞service learning͟ that calls on students to understand and address the systemic root causes of community problems. The workshop will describe a key action civics framework – the Advocacy Hourglass – and share stories from Generation Citizen action civics classrooms that illustrate how the framework is being applied by young people in classrooms across Greater Boston and the country. In the Advocacy Hourglass, a broad set of Community Issues is narrowed down to a specific Focus Issue and then an even more specific systems-level Root Cause, which turns into a specific policy Goal. Students then identify a variety of Targets – the multiple people they need to engage to enact their Goal, and Tactics – the multitude of actions they need to take to influence their Targets. Participants will be invited to apply the framework themselves to a relevant community issue their organization or institution is addressing, and reflect on how the Advocacy Hourglass is a useful educational and organizing framework. Part 2 of the workshop will be a specific discussion of civic technology. Generation Citizen will share how civic technology has thus far been integrated into the action civics process, enabling students to better identify possible Community Issues, more rigorously research their issue’s Root Causes and Goals, and more efficiently conduct their Tactics. Participants will be invited to apply their expertise in civic technology to brainstorm additional opportunities for civic technology to accelerate action civics, helping to recommend opportunities that can then be applied in Generation Citizen classrooms. The session will conclude with a discussion of applications – beyond the classroom:

Can the combination of civic technology and the action civics framework accelerate the work of social impact organizations or movements?
What further research needs to be done?
What next steps can this group take to pursue these opportunities?