REINVENTING TEACHING AND LEARNING THROUGH THE INTERACTIVE WEB

(Source: P. Adebayo-Begun, et al. (2008). Integrated Science for Junior Secondary School. Ibadan: University Press, PLC.)

Empowering rather than serving

The older I got, the more convinced I am to really work, programs have to be owned by the people they‘re serving. That isn’t just rhetoric, it’s real. There’s got to be ownership.

-       George Latimer, Former mayor of St. Paul

The real key, says Hubert Williams, president of a research institute called the Police Foundation, ‘’is the ability of the police to act as a catalyst to draw together community resources, to provide resources, backup and training.’’

In short, the police can be most effective if they help communities help themselves.  This is really just common sense. We all know that people act more responsibly when they control their own environments than when they are under the control of others. We know that owners take better care of homes than renters.  We know that workers who own a piece of the company are more committed than those who simply collect a pay check. It stands to reason that when communities are empowered to solve their own problems, they function better than communities that depend on services provided  by outsiders.

Empowerment is an American tradition as an old as frontier. We are the nation of self- help organizations.  We create our own day- care centres, our own babysitting cooperatives, our own little leagues,  our own Girls Scout and Boy Scout troops, our own recycling programs,  our own volunteer organisation of all kinds.

And yet when we organise our public business, we forget these lessons.  We  let bureaucrats  control our public services,  not those they intend to help.  We  rely on professionals to solve problems  not families and communities.  We let the police, the doctors, the teacher and the social workers have all the control,  while the people they serving have none. ‘’Too often,’’ says George Latimer,’’ we create programs designed to collect clients rather than to empower communities of citizens.’’

When we do this, we undermine the confidence and competence of our citizens and communities. We create dependency. It should come as no surprise that welfare dependency, alcohol dependency and drug dependency are among our most severe problems.

Latimer likes to quote Tom Dewar of the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institution about the dangers of ‘’ client hood ‘’:

Clients are people who are depended upon and controlled by their helpers and leaders. Clients are people who understand themselves in term of their deficiencies and people who wait for others to act on their behalf

Citizens, on the other hand are people who understand their own problems in their own terms. Citizens perceive their relationship to one another and they believe in their capacity to act.

 Good clients make bad citizens. Good citizens make strong communities  (Reinventing Government by David Osborne & Ted  Gaebler)

The above citation is an example of an issue  that could be compared to the goals and objectives of the interactive web’s mission, which is geared towards the acquisition of  knowledge, skill and attitude in a holistic manner.

The interactive web is empowering members( participants) of a great family (nations) with knowledge. Skills and attitude gained daily to solve problems and control their own environment in the class, at school or in terms of information and communication technology.  

The interactive web activities   will sure facilitate members  to act as  catalysts to draw together community resources, to provide resources, backup and training at the end program.