Virtual Community: Adobe Youth Voices

Adobe Youth Voices

1. Describe the community  – name of the community and other basic information. What type of community is it?  What do all the members have in common? 

2.  What is the community’s affiliation – formal (i.e. a religious organization, club, or association) or informal (people who live in a particular area or share a condition, goal, activity, passion, hobby, need, or struggle)? How does one become a member?  Are there different types of members?  Does it cost money to join? If so, how much?

3. What activities does the community participate in: where, when, how? 

4. What makes this community interesting to you?   Why did you decide to feature this community? Why is it an important community to know about?

5. How can we learn more about the community? Provide a link to a website or contact information.  

Community in Struggle: Metta Center for Nonviolence

The Metta Center for Nonviolence is a community of educators and activists who aim to change our modern societies from ones based on conflict and violence, to ones based on mutual respect, cooperation, and nonviolence.  This is a formal organization that has open membership for anyone who wants to learn about nonviolence and provide research and education for the public about acting on principles of nonviolence to address social injustice throughout the world. Members of the Metta Center hold symposia, conferences, and share information in form of books and articles.  They also provide materials to help those interested in learning more about nonviolence through self-study and group study.  The Metta Center hopes to build a sustainable movement for peace.   I find this community in struggle interesting because peace - or nonviolence - is not something that we usually study. Instead we usually study "violence" or "war" in the university, and it is very interesting to find a community who wants to study and teach ways of peace and nonviolence.

For more information, visit their website at:
http://mettacenter.org/

Student Community: Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Eco-orgánica

Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Eco-orgánica (Boricuan Organization of Eco-organic Agriculture) is a multidisciplinary group of students who maintain organic gardens on the campus of the UPR- Rio Piedras.  It is a formal organization with open membership.  They currently maintain three vegetable gardens - the Resi-Huerto is located between the School of Agriculture and School of Fine Arts Buildings, and the Huerto-Bambú is located in front of Social Sciences CRA building.  The group also facilitates educational activities on campus about agriculture and food sovereignty.  

If you want to learn more about or join this student community, check them out on:
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=123178801031863&ref=mf

Blogs:
http://huertohuelgatv.tumblr.com/ 
http://huertonuestro.blogspot.com/

Physical directions to campus gardens:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/36535557/Direcciones

Helping Community: We Feed Back

The United Nations World Food Programme has organized an online helping community called "We Feed Back" to help feed the world's hungriest children.  It is a informal organization because anyone can go to the website and donate money to feed hungry children.  It is part of the United Nations, and is made to make it easy to help people.  People who want to "join" the  community can join and then use a credit or debit card or PayPal account to help pay for meals for children. 

The website can be accessed in: French, English, Italian and Spanish.  The best feature is the "Sharing" calculator to show how many children you can feed based on the cost of dish that you eat.  For example, if you want to "share" a meal of "Chicken and Rice" and you usually pay 6.00 for it, then if you "donate that amount of money, then you will feed 24 children!  Wow, that is amazing, if I just share one meal a week, I can help feed 24 children. 

Check it out if you want to help calculate how much you can help hungry children by sharing a meal!  The website is at:  http://wefeedback.org/home.  You can also access the Spanish language version at: http://wefeedback.org/es .

Virtual Community: Scratch-ers

While doing some research for my teaching I discovered an interesting on-line community of Scratch-ers. It exists at the Scratch website and the members are an informal group of young people who share their animated productions made with Scratch. It is free to join -- just provide basic information and submit your application. Scratch is a simple to use programming software developed by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to teach young people (K-12) the fundamentals of computer programming. Kids from all over the world make art, stories, games, and music with Scratch and then upload them onto the Projects site. You can watch other members' videos and then comment on them, and you can also download other projects and then "remix" or change them. I noticed that many Scratchers (people who create with Scratch) use characters from other members' videos in their own. SO they are really creating this Scratch universe - or virtual community. The website has "Featured" projects and the most popular -- so it seems the community is also a little competitive too.

I was interested in this type of community because I am looking for a program to be able to make my own video games to use in my English classes. I am not sure this is the place for me, so I will keep looking for more video game-making communities.

It looks like a lot of fun making your own animations and video games -- if you are interested in learning more about basic programming through making simple animation, art, music, and video games, check it out at: www.scratch.mit.edu

Local Community: El Gandule, Santurce

El Gandule is a barrio in Santurce near parada 18.  It is an interesting local community because the people have a lot of community spirit.  It is an informal community of people who live in the area, many for generations. It is a very modest neighborhood, with a mix of business, tall apartment buildings, and smaller older, wooden houses.

People in El Gandule work very hard and many have a lot of pride in taking care of their homes.  Many people go to many of the neighborhood church.  The largest church in the neighborhood is the First Baptist Church.  They have many community activities and services here, including an outstanding Head Start program. Many El Gandule community members work in the Head Start school and take good care of the children.  They want to be sure the children have a safe and healthy environment to grow up well.  Even though the area struggles with crime and poverty, most people of El Gandule are friendly and helpful especially to neighbors.

I like El Gandule because my son attended the Head Start at the First baptist Church there.  I was very impressed with the community, especially the people who work hard to make life better for the kids.

If you would like more information about El Gandule and the First Baptist Church Head Start, visit them at: >>need to add  the address and some contact information
>>add a picture or two??

Professional Community: College English Association (CEA)

College English Association - Caribbean Chapter is a professional organziation for professors of English. It is a formal organization that requires a yearly membership dues.

I have been a member of the College English Association Caribbean Chapter since 2009. They have conferences twice a year here in Puerto Rico.

In 2010 I presented a paper at the Spring CEA-Caribbean chapter conference about the Caribbean.

>>continue to develop this entry