Collaboration Through Educational Technology

  

Introduction

  Finding other people to associate with is an incredible tool to grow and expand knowledge in every field.  The impact of one's knowledge may become limited if it isn't argued, incorporating other perspectives, and collaborated on.  Technology has become largely implemented as a way of keeping one's knowledge from becoming limited.  There are numerous platforms where people can access and communicate with their particular educational interest.  Through technology, people from all over the world can join together to start projects, enact change, share resources, and provide guidance to others.  

Criminal Justice Collaboration

   On the social media platform Instagram, hundreds of people have come together to create "The Douglass Project".  The Douglass Project is a non-profit that works on shifting stigmas and encouraging compassion for those in prisons.  The project holds visits to prisons and jails, sharing information, and connecting with others interested in criminal justice.  Beginning during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, this project continues to spread across many states.  One participant of The Douglass Project's fellowship described, "The FDP fellowship is an exceptional and unique opportunity for people to become involved in the criminal justice system through human interaction.  It opens the eyes of people of all ages to the shortcomings, present-day challenges, and humanity within our incarceration system.  During the fellowship, the project impacted me by expressing the stories of those incarcerated and exhibiting the failures our system has brought upon those incarcerated during their rehabilitation" (January 15, 2025)TheDouglassProject.  This project shows a successful collaboration on technology platforms between people with a shared goal that have come together to create change.  TheDouglassProject 

    Another project on Instagram, called The Sentencing Project, provides an example of a large collaboration effort that worked to enact change in the incarceration system.  This project began in 1986, and its main goals are ensuring just sentences, building alternatives, and advocating for the respect and humanity for all of whom are facing a sentence.  "The Sentencing Project's Alexandra Bailey and Warren Allen joined advocates in New York to call on the state to overhaul its racist and unjust sentencing laws & support transformation by bringing our loved ones home by passing the Eliminate Mandatory Minimums Act, Second Look Act and Earned Time Act! #CommunitiesNotCages"(January 24, 2023) TheSentencingProject.  The sentencing project collaborates with people across states and builds a community with hundreds of individuals holding a shared goal.  The Sentencing Project using technology to advocate for their goals and inform followers on statistics related to the incarceration system.  TheSentencingProject 

Conclusion

    The efforts of collaboration often produce real change that isn't possible without others.  Collaboration of communities online motivates people to act in real life, provides ways of getting involved, and spreads important information to others.  It can improve medicine, education in schools, learning language, etc.  The overall result of such efforts is an enhanced safer society and protected humanity.  Finding a community within one's field is a necessary step for personal and large-scale growth.