interest-powered
production-centred
adult and peer supported
shared purpose
academically-oriented
openly networked
Child-Led: Why Roadster works!
Kids love doing stuff!
"Connected learning is a type of learning in which a young person pursues a personal interest with friends and adults."
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Linked to academic achievement, career success, or civic engagement.
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Approach leverages new media to broaden access to opportunities and meaningful learning experiences.​
​"The connected learning model suggests that youth learn best when they are interested in what they are learning, have peers and mentors who share these interests, and their learnings are directed toward opportunity and recognition."​
"Social support for interest-driven learning and connections drive individual learning outcomes."
Roadster! is an experiment in "connected learning", a learning methodology which combines personal interests, supportive relationships, and opportunities in an age of information access and social connection.
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The project speaks to the six learning and design principles of Connected Learning laid out by the Connected Learning Alliance:
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1. INTEREST-POWERED
"Interests foster the drive to gain knowledge and expertise"
The theory goes that when a topic is personally interesting and relevant, learners achieve much higher-order learning outcomes.
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2. PRODUCTION-CENTRED
"Connected learning prizes the learning that comes from actively producing, creating, experimenting and designing because it promotes skills and dispositions for lifelong learning and for making meaningful contributions to today’s rapidly changing work and social conditions".
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3. PEER SUPPORTED
"Connected learning thrives in a socially meaningful and knowledge-rich ecology of ongoing participation, self-expression, and recognition".
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​4. SHARED PURPOSE
"Today’s social media and web-based communities provide unprecedented opportunities for caring adults, teachers, parents, learners, and their peers to share interests and contribute to a common purpose. The potential of cross-generational learning and connection unfolds when centered on common goals".
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​5. ACADEMICALLY-ORIENTED
"Connected learning recognizes the importance of academic success for intellectual growth and as an avenue towards economic and political opportunity".
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​6. OPENLY-NETWORKED
"Connected learning environments link learning in school, home, and, community because learners achieve best when their learning is reinforced and supported in multiple settings".
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Roadster! is not just about Sam...
Roadster! starts with Sam (it was his idea after all!) but crucially the project is about involving other kids too. Roadster! offers a safe, production-focussed environment for other kids to participate, contribute and ​join in.
It is hoped that Roadster! will engage a wider collective of like minded children who are motivated by being a part of a much bigger idea. Seeing their work in a professionally printed form is a powerful tool.
The more children get involved and contribute, the more they will learn from their production experience too. We hope to use the established Roadster! platform to forge strong connections in the automotive sector - working with the Roadster! adults to find ways to offer more connected learning experiences to more children.
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We hope to create a ripple effect - as Roadster! readers engage with the platform's content they learn from it and, we hope, are inspired from it to discover more themselves, supporting their own independent and individual growth, and helping them to unlock their potential.
Educate. Inspire. Entertain.
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​"Platforms that support connected learning are generally characterized as having a sense of shared purpose, a focus on production, and openly networked infrastructures."
