Educational Technology

LINDA POON, City Lab
Four years after launching a digital platform to connect students with out-of-school programs, researchers are reaping the benefits: a large pool of data to study the inequity of informal education.  Chicago’s 400,000 public school students are shuffling back into classrooms this week for ice breakers, syllabus rundowns, and the first lessons of the school year. For some, though, the learning never really stopped in the summer months, thanks to the thousands of sports camps, coding academies, art lessons, and other programs available to children in the city. Similar after-school programs are key to keeping kids off the streets year-round—but that’s only the case if the students are able to access the programs designed to serve them. Nearly four years ago, in an effort to help connect students to extracurricular offerings, Mayor Rahm Emanuel launched the Chicago City of Learning online platform (CCOL). It’s something of a one-stop shop that allows kids to easily search through hundreds of out-of-school programs based on their interests.

https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2017/09/chicago-after-school-programs-digital-youth-network/537591/