Roadtripnation.org

Roadtrip Nation exists to empower youth to define their own roads in life and has grown to reach more than 350 college campuses, over 80 million public television households, and countless more through its online resources, books, and campus events across the United States.

What do you want to achieve? (goal)

• Our primary goal is to introduce participants to the ethos of the Roadtrip Nation Movement through multi-media content within the Roadtrip Naiton Interview Archive.
• We hope to demonstrate that The Roadtrip Scholar Community - a unique peer-to-peer learning model which includes user-generated, multi-media content – allows students to help other students explore potential pathways for their future and define their own roads in life.
• The goal of our collaborative session is to guide participants through The Roadtrip Nation Experience and allow for a participatory brainstorm of the next generation of Roadtrip Nation’s open education resource.

Who should come? How many? For how long? (audience)

• Educators interested in moving the needle on the dropout rate by increasing student engagement, relevancy to the real world, and instilling in students hope for their futures.
• Educators interested in how to incorporate open education resources within their existing curriculum and how to bring real-world skills to the classroom.
• Anyone interested in the evolution of Roadtrip Nation, how to incorporate educational television programming, as well as the Roadtrip Nation Interview Archive into the classroom.
• Everyone is welcome.

What will they do when they get there? (activities)

• Participants will interact with three lessons from The Roadtrip Nation Experience: Making It Work, Shed the Noise, and Booking the Interview. Participants will also leave with The Roadtrip Nation Experience workbook.
• Practical experience creating their own personal Manifestos and making cold calls – just like the students do in the curriculum.
• Participants will be active members of an open collaborative session to brainstorm the next generation of The Roadtrip Scholar Community – an open education resource with user-generated content to help students define their own roads in life.

What will you / they have at the end? (outputs)

• Participants will leave with their own personal Manifestos and access to The Roadtrip Scholar Community and the Roadtrip Nation Interview Archive.
• Understanding on how to facilitate instruction by using open education resources as well as unique project-based learning models.
• Resources to help teachers/districts/administrators begin the process of implementing The Roadtrip Nation Experience into their schools.

Related Links
For more information on The Roadtrip Nation Experience, visit us at RoadtripNation.org
To watch interiews in the Roadtrip Nation Interview Archive, visit us at RoadtripNation.com

Additional background and context

In response to the astonishing achievement gap and dropout crisis in the US, Roadtrip Nation launched a new educational organization, RoadtripNaiton.org, to extend this Movement to middle and high school students who may not have had the same opportunities for exploring possibilities and pathways for their future. The cornerstone of this effort is The Roadtrip Nation Experience curriculum, a modular set of 24 interactive and web-based lessons that guide students through a process of self-discovery, career exploration, community engagement, and ultimately gaining access to possible pathways for their future.

The program connects students to the vast Roadtrip Nation Interview Archive, which has been built over the last seven years by students participating in Roadtrip Nation programs. This expansive digital resource consists of video conversations with a wide range of individuals sharing the steps they took to get where they are today and the lessons learned as they defined their own roads.

The curriculum then offers a framework for youth to build their own local Roadtrip Projects, modeled after the videos they watched in the Archive, in which the culminating experience is to interview Leaders in their own communities. Through digital project-based learning tools students upload their videos, photos, and blogs to a Roadtrip Profile page that is networked with other students experiences on the Roadtrip Scholar Community which can be found on www.roadtripnation.org.
This Roadtrip Scholar Community creates a unique peer-to-peer learning model where students are helping their fellow students to explore potential pathways for their future and define their own roads in life.