Digital literacy for inspired community youth leaders

The COVID-19 Virus has stopped the world dead in its tracks.  Ecuador, and more recently Galapagos, have also come to a standstill. Schools around the country are closed, and residents and their children are restricted to their homes.

Our team intends to seize the crisis and transform it into an unprecedented opportunity. Previous, traditional paradigms have produced economic inequality, social stratification, dependence on government and NGOs, and in the case of the Galapagos, a dramatic increase in tourism beyond what the fragile ecosystem on the Enchanted Islands could bear. We propose a comprehensive, holistic and co-created intervention, through technology and digital literacy, that will identify and train high school students as agents of transformation, using a train-the-trainer model, equipping them with the digital skills and challenging  their family, acquaintances and communities to think and act sustainably. Outcomes will emphasize quality of life and the co creation of shared value.

In 2016, the World Bank published Digital Dividends, challenging emerging market economies to tackle the digital divide for economic benefits.. Ecuador, and Latin America in general, have been slow to pursue policies and aggressive initiatives that help their citizens connect, and in turn, reap the opportunities the Internet affords. The majority of Ecuador’s 13.5 million population is not connected, and of those that are and own a smartphone, the tendency is to use the technology primarily for communication and entertainment. While the country, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, has a high incidence of entrepreneurship, most businesses are predominantly need based, and not opportunity driven ventures, and include a high failure rate.

Internet connectivity, consequently, is an untapped resource which, properly harnessed, could produce unprecedented opportunities for economic growth and, importantly, community renovation. A dramatic need exists for content and its delivery that will inspire and motivate a new wave of innovative ventures led by entrepreneurs eager to receive online training along with the tools to launch and grow new businesses, using, for example, the Business Model Canvas. Digital literacy skills lay the foundation for smart local dynamic human ecosystems. to grow and thrive.

Our intervention targets youth, ages 15 to 24, supported by an extended network of teachers and mentors, on three of the four populated islands on the Galapagos: San Cristobal with a population of 7500 residents; Santa Cruz, the tourism hub with a population of approximately 25,000; and Isabela. We have contacted the Director of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Education, Fredy Rojas, and have his full support, along with his Director of Information Technology, Emmanuel Diaz. The principals of each of the schools and their IT teachers are eager to implement our extracurricular approach to digital learning. We also have support from and will be working with the Governing Council, the National Park, ElecGalapagos (utilities) and the municipalities on each island.

The model we will implement includes feedback from teachers, students, as well as input from a group of university student mentors we are recruiting from American (Villanova, MIT SEID, Santa Clara UNiversity, etc.) and local universities (ESPOL and Universidad San Francisco de Quito); the thirty student champions; and the extended community network of each student, including family and friends, the students will be recruiting to participate in the initiative. 

Our key product is a personalized learning dashboard (www.growmoi.com) that introduces participants (teachers, students and their mentors, as well as members of the extended network of each student) to content that includes digital literacy (development of knowledge, skills and attitudes), problem identification and innovation, and critical thinking. Just as important, however, and part of the process over time, is the transition of all participants from a transactional to a transformational leadership approach that is visionary and based on values. Crowd Sourcing approaches will also give voice to the cohort of youth and community participants for feedback  on policy and decision making by authorities that will impact each community.

We have borrowed content experts on Community Learning, Leadership and Leading Change, and Measuring Efficacy.

Peter Senghe at MIT has developed a comprehensive approach for companies, which we have adapted and call Learning Communities, which include:

• Systems thinking, which would include feedback loops for generating and tracking data to inform policy and decision making

• Mental models, going from dependence to proactivity

• Team learning to promote collaboration and trust

• Personal mastery, measured by self-efficacy

• Shared vision, to promote alignment and community growth

Kouzes and Posner at Santa Clara University define leadership as:

• Modeling the Way

• Inspiring Shared Vision

• Challenging the Process

• Enabling Others to Act

• Encouraging the Heart

and Kotter goes beyond to challenge Leading Change in eight phases:

• Creating a Sense of Urgency

• Forming a Winning Coalition

• Developing a Vision and a Strategy

• Communicating the Change Vision

• Empowering Broad Based Action

• Generating Short Term Wins

• Consolidating Gains and Producing More Change

• Anchoring New Approaches in the Culture

The interaction with technology through which participants master digital skills will be consistently complemented and reinforced through coaching in personalized relationships between mentors and students, with teachers as supervisors. Once prepared, students will recruit and introduce family members and friends to content that they themselves have mastered. 

We will use Bandura's (Stanford) Self Efficacy to gather baseline data and monitor growth

• Mastery

• Modeling

• Social Persuasion

• Adaptation, or Overcoming Obstacles

Our online content includes digital access, applications, a computer science overview, basic internet usage, and access to online learning platforms  We've partnered with institutions like Microsoft, Digital Dannelse, DQ Institute, Villanova University, ESPOL University and IEEE for specialized content, technical support and, importantly, evaluation to measure impact at the individual, institutional and community levels.