Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

Digital Media and Learning Research Hub Launches

A new center and website will support research about the impact of digital media on young people’s learning and its potential for transforming education.

WBEZ Profiles Digital Youth Network Founder Nichole Pinkard

Chicago Public Radio this morning profiled Nichole Pinkard, founder of the Digital Youth Network, which gives middle school students on Chicago’s South Side tools to become media designers, builders and innovators.

Google Hosts Forum on Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age - Webcast Available

Google’s California headquarters is hosting 200 leaders in science and technology, informal and formal education, entertainment media, public policy, and philanthropy for a two-day leadership forum—“Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age”—that aims “to advance a new paradigm for learning by harnessing the untapped potential of digital media.”

HASTAC Scholars: Learning the Future Together

A university scholarship program encourages students to use technology to communicate across disciplines.

$10 Computers Spread the Benefits of Games

The Playpower Foundation is using open-source technology and $10 computers to build communities of kids and parents worldwide who share the benefits of gaming.  Kids not only learn new things as they play video games, but they can learn to become game designers themselves. Playpower is a winner of the 2009 Digital Media and Learning Competition. Derek Lomas of Playpower talks to Spotlight about their goals and results of this effort.

Laptop Learning in Rural Mexico

The Tecnno-Tzotzil project brings new laptops to indigenous students in one-room schools in Chiapas, Mexico. Most have no electricity or internet access. Tecnno-Tzotzil is a 2009 winner of the Digital Media and Learning Competition.

YouMedia Teens Take Part in the U.N. World Habitat Day

YouMedia teens flew to Washington, DC, to accept an award as the best digital urban planners at the United Nation’s World Habitat Day Oct 6 and 7. Kudos to the winners—and all the teens at YouMedia! See their winning videos and thoughts about the experience at the new YouMedia blog. Spotlight will cover the story in full next week. Stay tuned.

Digital Youth Portrait: Graphic Designer, Video Producer, Activist

The Digital Generation Project presents video portraits of the lives of young students from around the country who are using digital media to learn, communicate, and socialize in new and exciting ways.