Fourth Annual UC Links Statewide Meeting

Student work from a west Oakland site.

On Monday, 8 October 2001, the UC Links network of university-community collaborators gathered in Emeryville, California, for the fourth annual statewide meeting. Representatives of twenty continuing sites and eight new sites in California shared information about their after-school activities, their undergraduate courses, and their research and evaluation efforts. Walter Oldendorf, director of the Fifth Dimension project at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, was a special out-of-state guest representing the connections UC Links has forged with similar university-community collaborative programs around the United States and around the globe.

Michael Cole, PI of the 5th D in San Diego, relaxes near the Whittier 5th D poster.

Digital Storytelling and Informal Learning

The day began with a showing of two digital stories made by young people in the Bay Area. These multimedia stories, one by a child and one by a UC Berkeley undergraduate, showed the assembled group one way UC Links after-school programs and undergraduate courses are using technology to engage young learners and to foster literacy and communication skills. The stories—which bring together drawings, photos, music, and speech—gave voice to the profound effect that our collaborative efforts have on participating youth. The day also included time to learn informally about activities at each other's sites through viewing colorful posterboards and other presentation materials brought by meeting participants, and for relaxed conversation among community members, undergraduates, graduate students, and professors from around the state.

Evaluation and Issues for the Future

Informal learning at the UC Links Statewide Meeting.

Plenary discussions focused on evaluation methods and strategies, and on issues for the future of the UC Links network.

Led by presenters Sharon Duffy (UC Riverside) and Betsy Brenner (UC Santa Barbara), the participants noted the challenges we face as evaluators of informal after-school programs and the pressures we face to show results tied to state-mandated K-12 curricula and benchmarks of success such as standardized test scores. Jacqueline Mimms, Assistant Vice President for School/University Partnerships at UCOP, was on hand to discuss questions of funding and evaluation from a university-wide perspective. She suggested that UC Links representatives explore common ways to look at the impact of UC Links programs.

Jim Grieshop (UC Davis) pointed out that the diversity of UC Links projects is a great strength of the network. At the same time it is important that UC Links be able to highlight cross-site findings that show the coherence of the statewide initiative. Jim Grieshop (UC Davis), Nancy Christensen (UC Irvine), Cindy Pease-Alvarez (UC Santa Cruz), Tamara Sturak (UC Berkeley) and Mara Welsh (UC Links Statewide Office) volunteered to work together to develop and coordinate evaluation strategies across the UC Links network.

Pictures of Urban Plan activities in the East Bay.

Other challenging topics that emerged included undergraduate recruitment, the schedule of funding disbursement, inter-site interaction, grant writing, and dissemination of information about UC Links.

Meeting participants also completed a survey that elicited feedback on how the UC Links Statewide Office can better facilitate systemwide communication and collaboration. They expressed interest in a regular UC Links newsletter, although some preferred an electronic version to a paper-based version. In the coming months, we encourage collaborators to use and to contribute to the UC Links website, and to help us develop an engaging newsletter featuring stories that emerge from UC Links collaborations. To contribute to the website or to the newsletter in development, contact the UC Links Statewide Office:

615C University Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-1040
510-643-7349
uclinks@socrates.berkeley.edu

Next Steps

Following the meeting, UC Links collaborators agreed to take the following steps:

Poems from UC Irvine's Cosmic Dimension.

~ Individuals and groups, particularly those representing new UC Links sites and programs, are making visits to other sites within the network to share ideas and see what works in a variety of contexts (see related story about site visits on 9 October in the East Bay).

~ The members of the evaluation working group are discussing evaluation strategies that will work for UC Links, and will share their findings with the wider UC Links community for comment.

~ Individual sites will explore the possibility of inviting key community and state leaders to visit after-school programs for a first-hand look at UC Links in action.

~ The UC Links Statewide Office will develop a newsletter to provide a diverse audience—including children, parents, teachers, undergraduates, researchers, legislators, and university administrators—with news and information about UC Links site activities.

~ The UC Links Statewide Office will work with sites to facilitate inter-site collaborations, including grant writing and informal learning and communication activities for children.

~ The UC Links Statewide Office will consult with sites about possible regional meetings in spring 2002. We will announce information about the dates of regional meetings as soon as possible.