Saturday, December 14, 2013

And now for something truly disruptive: ePetitions, Participatory Democracy and Education

I haven't been blogging for a long time, but I have something to say and I'm going to blog it.

I believe that the single best use of the internet at this point in time is for #digitaldemocracy or #participatorydemocracy - using all the tools available to animate social change.  

Social change and participatory democracy are needed because representative democracy is dead - unable to deal with the huge challenges we face on planet Earth.  In my view, too much time and energy is wasted on such drivel as organized global photo ops for politicians, and not enough is focused on the real issue of #social justice and #survivability - how we need to adapt our thinking and our social actions to survive as a species.

The tools that facilitate participatory democracy are the internet, online activism organizations, and #ePetitions, among other things.  I'm going to focus on ePetitions because they are so powerful at bringing about change AND they are an excellent teaching tool.  

The best ePetition organization I know is #Avaaz.org.  Lessons I have learned from Avaaz have prompted me to make this commitment:  I will sign an online petition every day and I will encourage everyone else to do it too.  

Because it could be dangerous to mindlessly sign petitions, there are a number of associated skills that can be acquired in "the classroom" using ePetitions as a teaching tool.