The Home and Community Connections Model

A major myth of gifted education is the idea that gifted and advanced learners should already possess the knowledge and skills necessary to engage in rigorous learning experiences. This myth reinforces the underrepresentation of historically marginalized groups in gifted programs, as the institution does not value or recognize how they demonstrate knowledge. This chapter addresses that misconception by constructing differentiated learning experiences using students' home and community pedagogies. The Home and Community Connections Model authentically responds to the strengths, talents, and interests of each learner by purposefully designing classroom opportunities that value these areas. This chapter defines the prompts of the Home and Community Connections Model and demonstrates how they can be integrated into classroom instruction. The activation and recognition of potential through students' home and community assets create the access points for equitable educational experiences that challenge deficit-minded beliefs and misconceptions.

Community, Connections and Innovation in Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning

The emergence of the Covid-19 virus had an enormous impact on all of our lives and significantly affected the lives of first-year university students in Japan who began their tertiary education during the initial lockdown. This chapter examines the impact the move online had on these students by analysing videos created by them as part of their academic English as a Foreign Language (EFL) coursework. The videos were analysed, and 12 themes emerged which were used as a foundation for new practices focusing on the development of community and connections in online courses, particularly the use of e-mentors.

What a Pandemic Has Taught Us About the Potential for Innovation in Rural Health: Commencing an Ethnography in Canada, the United States, Sweden, and Australia

The COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a multi-national federally funded research project examining the potential for health and care services in small rural areas to identify and implement innovations in service delivery. The project has a strong focus on electronic health (eHealth) but covers other areas of innovation as well. The project has been designed as an ethnography to prelude a realist evaluation, asking the question under what conditions can local health and care services take responsibility for designing and implementing new service models that meet local needs? The project had already engaged with several health care practitioners and research students based in Canada, Sweden, Australia, and the United States. Our attention is particularly on rural communities with fewer than 5,000 residents and which are relatively isolated from larger service centres. Between March and September 2020, the project team undertook ethnographic and auto-ethnographic research in their own communities to investigate what the service model responses to the pandemic were, and the extent to which local service managers were able to customize their responses to suit the needs of their communities. An initial program theory drawn from the extant literature suggested that “successful” response to the pandemic would depend on a level of local autonomy, “absorptive capacity,*” strong service-community connections, an “anti-fragile†” approach to implementing change, and a realistic recognition of the historical barriers to implementing eHealth and other innovations in these types of rural communities. The field research in 2020 has refined the theory by focusing even more attention on absorptive capacity and community connections, and by suggesting that some level of ignorance of the barriers to innovation may be beneficial. The research also emphasized the role and power of external actors to the community which had not been well-explored in the literature. This paper will summarize both what the field research revealed about the capacity to respond well to the COVID-19 challenge and highlight the gaps in innovative strategies at a managerial level required for rapid response to system stress.*Absorptive Capacity is defined as the ability of an organization (community, clinic, hospital) to adapt to change. Organizations with flexible capacity can incorporate change in a productive fashion, while those with rigid capacity take longer to adapt, and may do so inappropriately.†Antifragility is defined as an entities' ability to gain stability through stress. Biological examples include building muscle through consistent use, and bones becoming stronger through subtle stress. Antifragility has been used as a guiding principle in programme implementation in the past.

Scholars for Life! Building Faculty and Community Connections on an Age-Friendly University Campus

Central Connecticut State University’s Scholars for Life! supports the engagement of older learners in the community through faculty guest lectures. During the COVID-19 pandemic, participation in the virtual format frequently swelled to over 100 attendees, which is five times the number participating pre-pandemic. Moreover, faculty engagement increased. This presentation will share results of a study that used an Age-Friendly University (AFU) lens to explore this expanded connection to community members with the intention to build on its successful faculty-community engagement. 132 participants responded to the survey (M age = 69), mostly identifying as local retired alumni and community members. Participants reported high satisfaction with the lectures, connection to the university, interest in joining future travel abroad experiences, and utilizing campus resources when safe. Indeed, 84% are now aware of CCSU’s AFU status and 61% expressed interest in the 62+ course tuition waiver. Implications and future directions will be addressed.

Older Adults’ Acceptance of Technology During the Pandemic: The COVID Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

During the pandemic, technology-mediated communication was one of the few ways to maintain social and community connections. We explored how the pandemic impacted older adults’ use and appraisal of technology. In a random sample of 407 older adults (M age = 81.1 years; range 65-105 years) almost half (n = 161) reported they changed how they used technology to virtually connect with others during the pandemic, and 78 of these reported that this was new technology for them. We adapted the technology acceptance model (TAM) for the pandemic, the COVID-TAM, and describe how physical distancing led to new acceptance of technology due to an increased perception of usefulness of technology for maintaining community and social connections. The 71 older adults who denied using technology were asked about the reasons underlying their reluctance to use technology to access social networks and community events during the pandemic. Thematic analysis revealed factors consistent with a double-digital divide; lack of physical exposure to technology creates an additional psychological barrier to adoption of new technology. Of the technology-reluctant subgroup of older adults, few reported lack of perceived usefulness of technology during the pandemic. Instead, most reported lack of self-efficacy or fear of technology underlying their lack of technology use for social and community connections during the pandemic, which we incorporate into the COVID-TAM. Findings indicate that technology training can help mitigate this fear and increase social and community connections that are technology-mediated in circumstances where physical distancing is necessary.

Where to Start the Journey to Advance Age Inclusivity at Your Institution

Each institution’s journey to becoming more age inclusive will to depend on its unique characteristics, and be dependent on its strengths and existing gaps. A good place to start is to explore how to build connections and leverage existing initiatives, such as research programs, community connections and importantly the institution’s strategic plan. At this point, elements to consider include coalition building, identifying strengths and gaps, and reframing aging. Because ageism can be a hindrance in many ways, strategies to address ageism should be included. GSA initiatives and tools such as the Reframing Aging Initiative, Ageism First Aid and AARPs Disrupt Aging will be highlighted in our presentation. Examples of how several universities have charted their course to becoming more age-inclusive and age-friendly will be outlined.

Community as a Sustaining Force: Strategies for Online Scholarly Support

This paper discusses the ways that community connections serve to sustain and support scholarly growth, retention, and success, particularly in longer-term online contexts. These strategies are seen through the reflective experience of a faculty mentor and two recent graduates who co-developed community support strategies that help doctoral students stay motivated, connected, and succeed over many years of what might otherwise be a long, individual, and lonely journey—particularly when undertaken online. A matrix of strategies, apps, and online tools emerged from this process and is offered for consideration.