Hi Everyone, Joe has some good points in terms of seekers and finders if we look solely at use of the net by individuals. However, our experience working with schools, educators and students is that there is a strong evidence that meaningful and structured online connections and school/ community project work can make a major difference in health. And, by implication these positive differences could be magnified if we work to further bridge the digital divide.
We in iEARN have numerous examples, some of which are active right now, of how connected primary and secondary schools are engaged in collaborative project work in health (HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB) issues. In addition to giving access to medical information, as Siobhan has suggested, collaborative project work connects youth together--to ask questions, share information, conduct collaborative research and then engage in community outreach education and health project actions. For example, teachers students in Botswana link schools in Kenya, US, India and Iran to work together online to reduce malarial cases in their communities (https://media.iearn.org/node/174). In the project's community outreach programs, connected young people play a key role in sharing what they have learned online through interaction with their peers in other countries. They also link up communities in these countries to provide treated nets and provide education to community members on their effective use. Similar project works are underway on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment--using peer-to-peer interaction and sharing online as a mechanism for creating change and change agents on the community level. Regards, Ed Ed Gragert iEARN-USA - Six years older than the WWW!! Connecting Youth Making a Difference for 20 years! http://us.iearn.org _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
