Catalyzing Change for America's Emerging Cybercivilization

Presenters:

Dr Ronnie Lowenstein
Mr. Richard Walfish
Mr. Willy Serrano

Catalyzing Community Collaboration & Support

Date: Sat, June 28, 2003 Time: 9:00 am - 10:30 am

Summary:
Feeling overwhelmed by challenges of introducing and sustaining technology programs? Participants joined us for a two part interactive workshop that first explored a formal learning community ' as a mechanism to cultivate on-going support for CTC programs and then examined an innovative strategy of the TWA-CIS Learning Community: Collaborative Action Research- that is being used to investigate the role of wearable computers for special needs populations.

Part One: Dr. Ronnie Lowenstein, President of Education Technology Think Tank, ET3, used a story of collaboration to illuminate the philosophic foundations and practical protocols that have guided the emergence of The Learning Community in New York.

Attendees discussed the usefulness of applying learning community strategies' to address priority needs of their own centers.

Part Two:  Learning Community Partners Mr. Richard Walfish, Solutions Manager from Xybernaut Corporation, and Mr.Willy Serrano, Special Education Instructor from NYC PS 380 and the Brownsville CIS Power UP Lab, presented the status of The Learning Community's Collaborative Action Research Project: Examining Impact of Xyberkids Assistive Technology on Special Needs Youth.

Attendees had the opportunity to discuss applicability of this particular project to address needs of the differently-abled in their own sites, as well as to reflect on the value of collaborative action research as a cost effective strategy to acquire research data so vital for resource solicitations.

Dr. Ronnie Lowenstein mailto:rbl50@aol.com

Mr. Richard Walfish mailto:Rwalfish@xybernaut.com

Mrs. Nancy Walfish mailto:nwalfish@xybernaut.com

Mr. Willy Serrano mailto:xxironman@aol.com