In 2007 and 2008, Kristen J. Amundson, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, hosted a web dialogue-an online town meeting-with approximately four hundred students in eight government classes at two high schools in her district. This technique, which has been used in other states to engage the public with policy makers in dialogue on public policy issues, opened up a lively conversation about issues that matter to young people. The project was a joint effort of Fairfax County Public Schools, the Equal Footing Foundation founded by the Northern Virginia Technology Council, and the Californiabased education nonprofit WestEd.
The "Listening to Democracy's Next Generation" dialogues engaged students, teachers, legislators, and subject experts in a four-day discussion of Virginia's budget. In this article, we describe the web dialogues, discuss lessons we have learned, and outline our future plans to expand this model to enable legislators throughout the country to listen to the next generation.
Web Dialogue
Web dialogue is an online structure and process enabling legislators, subject experts, and students to take part in focused, informed, and facilitated discussions. The dialogue is similar to an in-person town meeting, but the conversation takes place over time. (The four-day schedule chosen for our dialogue accommodated the schools' alternate-day block schedule.) On the first two days, students identified the needs driving the Virginia budget. On the second two days, they struggled to make budget decisions that reflected the needs they had identified and their own spending priorities. Each topic was divided into multiple discussion points to allow indepth examination of aspects of the issue. For example, "budget policy needs" included discussion of transportation, education, preschool education, and health care.