The Berkman Klein 2020 Summer Institute

Welcome to the Summer Institute! This website contain what you need to know throughout the 4 weeks including guides and resources, schedule of events and activities, and readings.

Throughout the Summer Institute, you are participating in two different and concurrent pathways for participants.

Pathway 1: The Cohort Experience

This pathway entails engaging with other Summer Institute Participants (SIPs), the facilitators (Lis Sylvan & Lance Eaton), and other members of the BKC Community who will host live-sessions on a host of topics that will also be recorded for those who can't make it. (Check out the Schedule page for events & time.) Through the discussion on Slack, and attending and engaging at live sessions, this cohort of 23 Summer Institute participants will look to collectively create a resource that captures the depth of their learning across the four weeks.

Pathway 2: The Group Project

For this pathway, participants will be placed in groups of 3-4 people and be given a mentor. Together, over the 4 weeks, participants will determine the scope of a manageable group project to complete and present upon in the final week to show to other participants where your small-group learning has lead you.

What should I do in the first few days?

  1. Get on Slack (by end of Monday)

  2. Attend a live Intro session (by end of Monday)

  3. Fill out survey of events that you plan to attend in Week 1 (by end of Monday)

  4. Reach out to and begin discussion with my group about what we want to do (by end of Monday)

  5. Complete the Introductory Survey (by end of Monday.) I will receive an email invitation to this survey.

  6. Read and contribute to the Cohort Agreement (by end of Tuesday)

  7. Develop my Group Project Agreement (by end of Thursday)

  8. Ask Lis or Lance any questions I have

What should I do every week?

  1. Engage on Slack in dialogue with peers in the Conversation, Random, Daily Checkin or other channels

  2. Check in with my group and mentor about progress for the final project

  3. Attend/Watch at least 2 sessions a week (and take notes!)

  4. Complete the Live Session Sign Up form for the following Week

  5. Complete the Weekly Reflection

  6. Complete the Weekly Feedback form on Friday (You will receive an email invitations to these surveys)

  7. Contribute to the Collaborative Learning Guide

  8. Ask Lis or Lance any questions I have

Participating in the Summer Institute

The Summer Institute schedule is packed with great speakers, but we don't want you to feel overloaded. As we said in our earlier communications, the expectations of SIPs should be up to spend about 15 hours a week on the program. We don't expect you to spend more than this, though if you want to do so, that's fine too.

In terms of what participation looks like for the Summer Institute, it can be described in the following parameters:

  • Attend at least 2 live-sessions each week (or watch the video recordings)

  • Complete the weekly reflection

  • Consistently engage with your group members around the project

  • Regularly contribute to other Slack channels such as the Conversations and Daily-Checkins channels.

That being said, if you run into problems and challenges with actively engaging in the Summer Institute, for whatever reason, please reach out to Lis & Lance to let us know. We want you to engage but we also don't want you to put any unnecessarily stress if other things are impacting your ability to engage with the Summer Institute.

Resources for the Course

Here are some of the essential documents that will be useful for you to refer back to as you navigate this first week and beyond...

  • Cohort Agreement: This document should be read and edited by all Summer Institute participants in order to determine fair, respectful, and equitable ways for us to interact, hold space for one another, and learn together.

  • Collaborative Learning Document: This document is the space where all Summer Institute participants will write about and connect what they learn with one another to create a learning resource that captures what goes on over the next 4 weeks.

  • Group Project Guidelines: This document highlights the expectations and parameters for the small 3-4 member groups working together on a project over the 4 weeks of the Summer Institute.

  • Group Project Agreement: Like the Cohort Agreement, this document should be used for the groups to identify a project, its parameters, and how participants will contribute to completing it.

  • Slack Guide to Summer Institute: This document provides support resources and tips for using Slack for the Summer Institute.

  • Summer Institute Google Calendar: Participants can also refer to and add this Summer Institute Google Calendar to keep track of sessions within their own calendar tool.

The program was truly a team effort with many contributors from across the BKC community

Presenters: Chinmayi Arun, Amar Ashar, Matthew Battles, Chris Bavitz, Susan Benesch, Brenda Dvoskin, Robert Faris, Jess Fjeld, Urs Gasser, Jan Gerlach, Malavika Jayaram, Mason Kortz, Joy A. Lo, Momin Malik, Mutale Nkonde, Julie Owono, Juan Ortiz Freuler, Sarah Newman, Nagla Rizk, Dario Rodighiero, Padmashree Sampath, Bruce Schneier, James Wahutu, David Weinberger, Jonathan Zittrain.

Mentors: Amar Ashar, Ryan Budish, Sandra Cortesi, Lance Eaton, Alexa Hasse, Momin Malik, Julie Owono, Lis Sylvan.

Project Support: Sebastian Diaz, Jasjot Kaur, Reuben Langevin, Joy A. Lo, Jon Murley, Megan O'Neil, Lydia Rosenberg, Carolyn Schmitt, David Ssewankambo, Ellen Willemin.

Collaborators: Kendra Albert, Urs Gasser, Hilary Ross, Becca Tabasky.

Program Organizers: Lance Eaton and Lis Sylvan.