End-of-Year Report, Plans for 2016, and 4 Simple Ways You Can Help
Dear friends of Learning Life,
I founded Learning Life in 2012 to spread learning in everyday life. Since I founded Learning Life with the help of advisors, volunteers, interns and donors like you, together we have:
1) Conducted Three Innovative Pilot Projects and…
We conducted three innovative projects: (a) with Washington D.C.’s Newseum using a combination of street theater and 10,000 napkins distributed in DC eateries to inform residents and visitors of President John F. Kennedy’s legacy, and (b) the City of Alexandria, Virginia using “buy local, learn local” wallet cards and tote bags as well as (c) fortune cookies to engage people in learning about local history. (You can learn more about these projects here.)
An exciting new project is in development that will lead Learning Life in an international direction. Stay tuned for more on this initiative!
Stay tuned for additions to our big questions series with expert answers to questions about happiness and career success upcoming!
3) Developed Signia Surfaces
We developed Signia Surfaces, a partner social enterprise that uses coasters and napkins to inform area residents and promote local nonprofits and artists in metro Washington D.C. In 2015, Signia Surfaces established its own website, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin pages, partnerships with several local artists and nonprofits, a growing network of D.C. eateries through which its surfaces can be distributed, and a first client in the D.C. Health Exchange, which connects D.C. residents to affordable health insurance.
Our Plans for 2016 & How You Can Help
In 2016, Learning Life will begin building a Citizen Diplomacy Initiative as we continue expanding our library of quizzes, facts, and big questions on topics of public importance. In turn, Signia Surfaces, will continue to develop local partnerships to inform and engage more residents in metro D.C.
As we move into 2016, here are four simple ways you can help:
2) Donate to Learning Life. Learning Life relies largely on sponsors and individual donors. Your donation helps Learning Life produce and spread our free educational content, and pursue creative projects like our upcoming placemat education in D.C. eateries. Please consider becoming a sustainer: sustainers help us develop a more regular base of funding by giving a tax-deductible amount (e.g., $5, $10, $25, $50, $100) monthly that’s automatically deducted from your credit card or checking account.
3) Shop through iGive.com, and help fund Learning Life free. Shop more than 1,400 stores through iGive, and if you make Learning Life your preferred charity, a percentage of your purchase will be donated to Learning Life at no cost to you.
4) Buying or selling real estate? Use a Referral Project realtor. Through the Referral Project, realtors agree to donate 50% of their commission to the Project, and the Project then donates half of their proceeds to whatever nonprofit you choose (and we hope you choose Learning Life!) at no cost to you. From one Referral Project donation this year, Learning Life received $1,100.
Thank you for your support! Stay tuned to news from Learning Life via our Facebook page and occasional email dispatches.
This is the second of two profiles of Learning Life’s fall 2015 student interns. This fall, our two bright and capable interns, Samantha MacFarlane and Ian Ball, are drafting new quizzes, facts and big questions for Learning Life’s website, assisting with community research, and helping in other ways for which we are grateful. To learn more about interning with Learning Life contact us atemail@learninglife.info.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I grew up close to Harvard University and spent much of my childhood reading and playing soccer in BAYS (Boston Area Youth Soccer).
What is your school, year and major?
I’m currently a senior majoring in organizational sciences and minoring in Mandarin Chinese at George Washington University.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I enjoy reading fantasy novels and watching action movies, and try to hone my skills at Super Smash Bros. with my fraternity brothers and friends.
What is the most beautiful place you have seen on Earth, and why is it so beautiful?
I think the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen would be the Classical Gardens of Suzhou in Jiangsu, China. I only got to see two or three of the gardens during my stay, but these ancient gardens are filled with classical architecture, beautiful flowers and tranquil ponds. The effort and skill put into the stonework and landscaping of these scholars’ gardens is truly something to behold.
Is there a particular life experience you have had that has shaped you as a person? If so, what was it, and how has it shaped who you are?
Just before starting high school I began taking lessons in Soo Bahk Do, a traditional Korean martial art. It was both physically and mentally strenuous, and the discipline I learned while training there is something I have taken with me into every facet of life.
Why did you choose to intern with Signia Surfaces?
I applied to intern with Signia Surfaces because I was interested in giving back to DC communities while I attended college here. Growing up near Harvard University showed me the value of knowledge and Learning Life keeps people informed about the issues.
What are your career plans?
I’d like to go into management consulting in China; there I can work to improve relations within American joint ventures and enjoy fine Chinese cuisine while I’m doing it.
Learning Life’s credocalls for a different understanding of education – as an ongoing practice rather than a passing period in one’s life, an incidental phenomenon as much if not more than a deliberate one, and most importantly for our purposes in this article, a process that should never be bound strictly inside school walls. This understanding directs our attention to a new frontier of public education, beyond schools, into everyday life.
In charting this new educational frontier, the challenge is both theoretical and practical. Theoretically, the challenge is in part to define what distinguishes this new frontier from previous ones. Accordingly, in the first article in this series on local learning infrastructure (LLI), I distinguished between what a citizen and a consumer learns about their community, and briefly defined LLIs as tools for developing more citizen knowledge and engagement. Practically, the task at hand is in part to figure out just what LLIs look like and how they do and could work. This article starts us on this path.
As noted in the first article, a LLI consists of the local means for informing and engaging people about all that matters to their lives, from emergencies to school programs to regional economics on a local level all the way to information about climate change, demographic trends, technological innovations and alternative ways to think and live across the world. This significant information or signiacontrasts with trivia – less important information about, say, who is dating who in Hollywood, who is beating who in sports, etc. – that can be very entertaining, but that does not typically help ensure people’s safety, feed or clothe them, or otherwise assist them to better understand and shape their world.
In well functioning modern societies, LLIs commonly consist of brick-and-mortar structures like schools, libraries, town halls and community centers as well as printed or electronic means of communication, like newspapers, newsletters, leaflets, posters, email lists and websites. Some of these structures are government-run since democratic governments are charged with educating and engaging local residents. But businesses, nonprofits and voluntary associations (e.g., professional associations, universities, community foundations, political parties, advocacy groups) often also have an interest in creating, sustaining, expanding or innovating LLIs. Sometimes the information these organizations disseminate is more partial or partisan, but so long as it is signia rather than trivia, as defined above, it forms part of LLIs.
Importantly, considerable local learning infrastructure – like schools, universities, libraries, after-school educational programs and adult education classes – is largely devoted to deliberate learning, that is, signial education (learning signia rather than trivia) the learner more or less intended. But there is ample need for incidental learning, or signial education the learner does not intend, since many people learn only that signia which they are required to learn in school or at work.
Infrastructure for incidental learning already exists in many cities and towns in the form of free outdoor installations devoted to telling the community’s story, like Philadelphia’s outdoor history museums and memorials, or Boston’s pedestrian “Freedom Trail.” But many surfaces of everyday life – like napkins, placemats and cup sleeves as well as exterior building walls (for projecting important information), neighborhood bulletin boards and book exchanges, and electronic tickers and screens in public places – are less often used to engage people in incidental learning.
What if these everyday surfaces were used not just periodically but systematically to inform and engage people on local to global levels? Governments could install tax, sponsor or advertiser-funded e-tickers, radios or screens at popular marketplaces, parks, walkways, bus and train stops to run text, audio or video about development plans, budget debates, school issues, and upcoming events. Nonprofits and businesses could partner to create a steady stream of sponsor or advertiser-funded napkins, placemats, coasters and cup sleeves that invite people to learn about everything from local volunteer opportunities to global economic and environmental trends, and connect them to further information online as they eat or drink in restaurants, bars and cafes.
Democratic societies work better when they have more everyday citizens than periodic citizens. Periodic citizens restrict themselves more or less to voting in periodic elections. More informed citizens are more likely to become everyday citizens, and everyday citizens are more likely to report local problems as they arise (e.g., car break-ins, broken street lights, corruption and incompetence) in part because they know who to speak to and what to say. They are more likely to voice their issues and values, and do so in a tolerant and sophisticated ways. They are more likely to become involved locally to globally because they know more about local to global needs and problems, and how to address them.
Everyday surfaces can help nurture everyday citizens by spreading learning beyond the walls of traditional LLI structures like schools and libraries, to the restaurants, markets, parks and bus stops where people more often congregate. Better LLIs use everyday surfaces to nurture better citizens and stronger communities local to global.
This is the first of two profiles of Learning Life’s fall 2015 student interns. This fall, our two bright and capable interns, Samantha MacFarlane and Ian Thomas, are drafting new quizzes, five facts and big questions for Learning Life’s website, assisting with community research, and helping in other ways for which we are grateful. To learn more about interning with Learning Life contact us atemail@learninglife.info.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Miami and raised in South Florida, splitting weekends between the beach and Disney World.
What is your school, year and major?
I’m a senior at Georgetown University, studying Culture and Politics in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I like to listen to music and walk around the neighborhood or city, especially in the fall. I’m also a big fan of Netflix and watching documentaries with friends.
What is the most beautiful place you have seen on Earth, and why is it so beautiful?
Last Christmas, I was abroad in Morocco with an American friend. We had our own makeshift Christmas Eve with hot chocolate and Christmas music on his laptop as we sat in the backyard of our hostel in a small mountain town. Miles away from major cities, I saw more stars that night than ever before and got to make lots of shooting-star wishes.
Is there a particular life experience you have had that has shaped you as a person? If so, what was it, and how has it shaped who you are?
I studied abroad last year in Morocco and Senegal, which was the longest I’d been away from my friends and family in the United States. Stripped of the comforts of familiarity, and even my native language, my experiences and friendships were genuine and eye-opening. I learned a lot about myself and about how things work in other parts of the world, which has also given me a new perspective on the US since I’ve gotten back. I’m still working on it, but my year abroad showed me how to slow down, spend time with friends and family, and not get so caught up in the process of working, studying, and chasing money.
Why did you choose to intern with Learning Life?
Learning Life is driven by values that resonate with my own beliefs. The importance given to empowerment through education is lacking worldwide, and this internship allows me to work for that cause while gaining valuable research and writing skills.
What are your career plans?
I would eventually like to work with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa addressing issues of education or human rights. For the moment I’m looking at opportunities for service abroad before starting real life.
We developed Signia Surfaces, a partner social enterprise that uses coasters and napkins to inform area residents and promote local nonprofits and artists in metro Washington D.C. In 2015, Signia Surfaces established its own website, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin pages, partnerships with several local artists and nonprofits, a growing network of D.C. eateries through which its surfaces can be distributed, and a first client in the D.C. Health Exchange, which connects D.C. residents to affordable health insurance.
As we move into 2016, here are four simple ways you can help:
