By Timothy Shaffer, Ph.D. Last week I was presenting to two groups of the Sunflower Foundation’s Advocacy Fellows program here in Kansas in Wichita and Topeka. We had great groups filled with people really interested in learning more about civil discourse and engagement methods. I was there to speak about the different ways that people … Read more »
What’s the future of public discussion in this time of political polarization, harsh rhetoric, fake news, and spin? What policy possibilities might help revitalize it? And what actions might we take to implement them? The Interactivity Foundation will celebrate its 30th birthday this Fall by hosting a montage of small group round table discussions about … Read more »
One of the most interesting parts of my involvement in the University of Wisconsin Extension’s ThinkWater School has been the opportunity to observe the workings of a system’s engineering approach that accounts for the need for conceptual thinking as a pre-condition for problem-solving. We can all come up with examples of policymaking based on shallow, … Read more »
The Justice Department has just announced that it plans to start suing universities who give any sort of priority admission to “minority students” (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/us/politics/trump-affirmative-action-universities.html). One concern that came up for the First Generation College Student Success project I have been running was that many first-generation students feel like imposters— as if they do not really belong … Read more »
This July IF joined forces with Ballotpedia and USATalk to conduct a series of citizen discussions on the future of the Des Moines, Iowa, public schools. The aim: enhance voter understanding of school board candidates’ stands on the issues as identified by voters rather than pollsters or reporters. The sessions were intentionally kept brief to … Read more »
Since February of 2017, IF has been working with a technology startup to develop an online civic discussion platform that will be known as USATalk. The goal is to encourage civic discussion in the online environment, an arena in serious need of more thoughtful conversation. A second important objective of the collaboration is to widen … Read more »
This summer we launched IF’s Learning Circles for Faculty, a series of an hour-long small group online discussions about IF’s teaching method and student-centered classroom discussions courses in general. We invited faculty members who have used or would like to use IF’s teaching method in their classrooms. For three consecutive weeks, 4-7 participants, including some … Read more »
IF Fellow Natalie Hopkinson’s new book is now available on Amazon for preorder. The book, A Mouth is Always Muzzled, first originated in 2012 as a public policy discussion project with IF. The original discussion guide remains available as a free download. The book, published by the New York-based The New Press, builds on some of … Read more »
art in action, art in defiance, arts and public policy, free download arts discussions, Natalie Hopkinson, new book, The New Press
What roles do sports play in our society? What roles do we want them to play? Who should have access to sports opportunities? Why might we think of sports as a matter of public concern? What are different ways to shape our sports policy to meet our public goals for sports? These are just some … Read more »
