A few months ago, I asked if I was the only one troubled by Doodle 4 Google, the in-school marketing campaign art competition put on by the good folks at Google. Since then, over 16, 000 K – 12 students across the United States have spent valuable class time helping Google redesign their logo, just like Dennis Hwang does for special occasions and holidays. Unlike Mr. Hwang, the thousands of students working to “re-design” Google’s logo aren’t paid employees of the corporation. They’re just unpaid labour in Google’s latest marketing campaign to establish brand loyalty in young students, take over the learning and become the curriculum.
Check out the classroom product placement and unquestioning student/teacher adoration for the Google logo in the video below.
Key leaders from the fields of research, industry, policy, philanthropy, and education will convene to examine how recent research and experimentation with interactive media such as games, mobile technologies, and other platforms can accelerate children’s literacy learning. We will also be releasing recent research and reports from the Center, including a national survey conducted with Common Sense Media that examines parents’ and educators’ attitudes regarding digital media use in young children. Another highlight is the early release of a white paper by noted games expert, James Paul Gee.
The whole day was packed with great speakers, from PBS, EA Games and many NGOs, each outlining their plans for engaging learners with digital technology from virtual worlds to talking books and everything in between.
In the paper, Gee calls for the American education system to wake up and start some serious action to engage learners and prepare them for the digital future. In addition to calling for more funding of school programs and a revamping of how kids are assessed, Gee outlines a vision for “Digital Teacher’s Corp”, where teachers are “trained to help students learn to transform information for discovery and problem solving, not leave it inert in storage.” Gee also sees a role for the community in the learning of students through centres not unlike the Boys & Girls Club, where children can go to learn and build on their digital literacy skills. Personally, I see these centres working like the literacy tutoring centres, Once Upon a School Dave Eggers has helped create (and outlines in this fantastic TED Talk), but instead of magazine editors and writers, the place is filled with game designers who take the afternoon off to teach kids how to make video games.
Although the conference and the reports are all from US educators and based in the current education climate in the states, Canadian educators have the same lessons to learn. As our education system begins to move toward standardized testing, now is the time for provinces and school boards across the country to increase their funding of technology in schools and create innovative programming that is rooted in sound pedagogical theory but also designed for the future and the learners who will make that future.
Update: the screening is May 15th, not May 8th as I previously thought due to a severe lack of coffee and posting – always a bad combination.
Check out the trailer below:
Jim is one of those unique writers that is able to distill the hype, horror and humor of our evolving tech-obsessed culture and boil it down to reveal the civil liberty erasing bones beneath the glossy 2.0 surface. And he does it with little or no money and with a completely open source and creative commons powered agenda that makes a creative like me stand back in wonder. The route he’s taken to produce and release Infest Wisely is only the latest example.
Today is going to be a good day. The sun is shining and I have several great science fiction stories to read. They’re all part of the Visions of Science Imagine 2008 young writers competition and I have the honour of being one of the competition judges.
Visions of Science Network for Learning Inc (VoSNL) is a not-for-profit organization that advances the educational achievements and career aspirations of African Canadian and other under-represented youth in the fields of science, mathematics and technology.
I’m honoured to be judging this year’s competition. Initiatives like Imagine give students the power and the voice to create their own narratives and place themselves into fabric of learning about science. This is a transformative act that not only empowers youth by seeing themselves and others like them in the context of science, it also shines a light on lack of representation in much writing for young people in North America. Despite living in an amazingly diverse society, a quick survey of children’s literature (new releases and old) will show you that the vast majority of the heroes in these stories are white (usually middle class, often private/boarding schooled.) This is especially true in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Next time you are in the children’s section of your local bookstore, do a quick scan of the covers and see how much diversity is staring back at you. I would bet it is depressingly little.
This is one case where you can judge a book by its cover, because this is what young readers do. If they don’t see themselves represented, it becomes just one more hurdle to turning that learner into a passionate reader.
For these reasons alone, I am excited, honoured and eager to dive in and get some sci-fi reading done. As a sci-fi fan and writer, I am really looking forward to seeing what the imaginations of young people have created. So far, all the stories are great and full of surprises. But I know one thing for sure: picking a winner is not going to be easy.
“Legitimate online video services have already been slow in coming to Canada, but because of download limits being imposed by the country’s major internet service providers, they may never really get here.” This is what a non-neutral net looks like.
With the arrival of ning.com, creating social networks is as easy as creating an email account. I find places like Facebook too broad in their focus for an online network. Same with LinkedIn (although as more people are joining linkedin and find me, a cohesive network is forming for me.)
Already I belong to a few ning groups, like Classroom 2.0, but I’m really excited about the latest group I’ve joined: RezEd, the MacArthur funded network for educators interested in using virtual worlds in education.
I blogged about RezEd a few months ago and have been waiting for their launch ever since. They went into a live beta earlier this week and the place is beginning to fill up nicely now (I think they’re close to 200 members at the moment.)
Being a very new network, there is much territory that needs to be defined, so I took the initiative and created the K-8 Virtual Worlds group, with the aim for it to be:
A place to discuss, challenge and explore virtual worlds for elementary learners from Kindergarten to Grade 8. Join the discussion. Share your thoughts and help shape these powerful spaces for youth.
With educational virtual worlds like Quest Atlantis and others receiving both funding and accolades from the public, I think we are at the beginning of something very important in education. If you agree or are just curious about what these spaces are or what learning they can facilitate for students, then I invite you to explore RezEd and join the discussion.
In the meantime, check out this video of Quest Atlantis in action:
Writing this as I run out the door: Heading out to finally see the totally cool looking new documentary, Second Skin as part of Toronto’s equally cool Hot Docs festival.
After that, I’m meeting with the star of the film (okay, he’s got a 15 second soundbite) Tony Walsh, evil genius and chief navigator at Phantom Compass.
After that, we’re heading off to check out the open house for the latest round of Jim Munroe’s Artsy Game Incubator. It kicks off at 7pm and is open to all, so if you’re in Toronto come on by.
If you’re not in TO, then I’ll leave you with the trailer for Second Skin, which hopefully will be coming to a theatre near you in the very near future.
No tag for this post.
possibly related posts
No related posts.
about
Award-winning children's author and educator specializing in creating curriculum relevant media for young minds.
Visit the books & graphic novels to see everything I've written.
recent comments