(2017-05-08) Antigonish20 A Way For Higher Ed To Help Save The Web

Antigonish 2.0: A Way for Higher Ed to Help Save the Web (OpenWeb)

Rather, the same higher education institutions whose hierarchy and gatekeeping the web was supposed to open up and democratize7 are increasingly necessary partners in building any kind of democratic future for society

The model I'm interested in was developed nearly a hundred years ago, on the North Atlantic coast of North America, in a landscape populated with fishing villages and hard-luck mining towns. Called "The Antigonish Movement,"8 this renowned adult education experiment of the 1920s–1940s based in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, led to the development of local credit unions that still dot the landscape around Maritime Canada

The original Antigonish Movement focused on reframing people's understanding of the structures shaping their lives and prospects, and exerting collective action within and on those structures.

It did so through three key structural components: mass meetings, a school for leaders, and study clubs. Antigonish 2.0 draws on that three-layer infrastructure to galvanize collective action at global, regional, and local levels.

Layer One. This distributed international network—already populated with 100-plus media and education leaders from around the world—will be our web-based equivalent to "mass meetings."

Layer Two. Focused on institutional capacity-building and inclusive citizenship in K–12 and higher ed classrooms, this layer will develop regional hubs of expertise, resources, and conversation.

Layer Three. This layer consists of the "study clubs": localized workshops for people in their own communities. These outreach events are the heart of Antigonish 2.0: hands-on opportunities to develop the practices and literacies (Digital Literacy needed by critical citizens and consumers in an attention economy. These coordinated local gatherings—workshops at libraries, discussion series in community halls, even kitchen parties—will aim to engage citizens in collective action based on local interests.