Community Inquiry Labs

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Community Inquiry Labs

• Ann Bishop
• Library Information Science
• U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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What is Inquiry?

• Creating opportunities to engage people in active
  learning based on their own questions.
• A learner centered and learner driven process.
• A cycle where each question leads to an
  exploration which will then lead to more
  questions to investigate.
• The process of asking, investigating, creating,
  discussing, and reflecting, and then asking again.

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Inquiry Pagehttp//inquiry.uiuc.edu/

• Partner projects
• Resources on inquiry
• Tools for student and community inquiry
• Calendar
• Listservs
• Inquiry Units
• Community Inquiry Labs

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Inquiry Activities at UIUCUnderstanding the
inquiry processand developing environments that
support it

• Inquiry Page and CILs (communityware)
• Set of overlapping communities
• Learning opportunities (Inquiry Track )
• Research on community inquiry

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Community Inquiry Labs
A place where members of a community come
together to develop shared capacity and work on
common problems. "Community" support for
collaborative activity and for creating knowledge
that is connected to people's values,
history, and lived experiences. "Inquiry"
support for open-ended, democratic, participatory
engagement. "Laboratory" a space and resources
to bring theory and action together in an
experimental and critical manner. A CIL is most
importantly a concept
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SisterNetwww3.isrl.uiuc.edu/dlinderm/cilbuilder/
out.php?cilid87

• New model for Black women's organizing
• Wholeness through physical, emotional, spiritual,
  and intellectual health
• Political strategy to resist oppression and shape
  livable communities
• Community health fairs, conferences, and
  learning/action circles

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SisterNets CIL in Action Taking Action for Water
Quality
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Paseo BoricuaCommunity Library
Projecthttp//www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/dlinderm/cilbui
lder/out.php?cilid1

• Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago's
  Humboldt Park neighborhood
• Galvanizes neighborhood residents around
  community projects
• Addresses critical issues gang violence, AIDS,
  social and environmental justice, literacy, and
  economic development

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Learning

• Users of the Inquiry Page
• Developers
• practicums, internships, independent study
• weekly meetings
• workshops
• GSLIS Community Inquiry track

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GSLIS Community Inquiry Track

• LIS 450 IBL Inquiry-Based Learning
• LIS 450 SJ Social Justice
• LIS 450 PT Pragmatic Technology
• LIS 450 CI Community Info Systems
• LIS 450 PAR Participatory Action Research

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Research on Inquiry

• How can we
• connect learning life?
• support participatory design?
• accommodate diversity shared values?

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Connect Learning and LifeESLARP Sample Inquiry
Unit
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Support Participatory Design
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Participatory Inquiry

• Design through use or participatory inquiry aims
  to respond to human needs by democratic
  processes. Through creation of content,
  contributions to interactive elements, and
  incorporation into practice, users are not merely
  recipients of technology, but participate
  actively in its ongoing development.

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Accommodate Difference Shared ValuesPaseo
Boricua Community Library Projecthttp//www.prair
ienet.org/pbclp
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Active Participation
every individual must be consulted in such a way,
actively not passively, that he himself becomes
a part of the process of authority. Dewey,
Democracy Education
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Conclusion

• Design appropriate technology
• Generativity participatory design
• Sustainability incorporation into community
• strengths and needs

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Create Your OwnCommunity Inquiry Lab!
http//www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/dlinderm/cilbuilder/par
tners.php