Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

Making Media, Making Sense, Making Change

Facing History evaluated its digital media program, surveying the 578 participants of the online workshop, with a 49% response rate (for a total of 255 respondents). Students ranged in age from 13 to 19 years old, and were, on average, 15 years old. Here’s a look at some of the results.

Filed in: Civic Engagement, Research and Studies, Schools

7/07/11

Q&A: Asi Burak and Michelle Byrd On Changing the World (and Education) Via Social Impact Gaming

Spotlight talks with Games for Change co-presidents about the state of social impact games and the eighth annual Games for Change festival.

Filed in: Civic Engagement, Games, Featured

6/02/11

Students Use Virtual Tools to Collaborate Across the Globe on Real World Environmental Conservation

With the help of the Field Museum, students in Chicago and Fiji work together to dive on coral reefs, examine living species, and learn about biodiversity and conservation.

Filed in: Civic Engagement, Games, Digital Media and Learning Competition, Museums, Social Media, Featured, Right Column

3/02/11

Digital Media in the Classroom Case Study: Voices on the Gulf

Voices on the Gulf is an online community that encourages teacher and student discussion about the aftermath of the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Students from all across the nation learn firsthand what happened—and is still happening—to residents and wildlife affected by the spill.

Filed in: Case Studies, Civic Engagement, Social Media

11/11/10

By Heather Chaplin

Making a (Social) Impact: Gaming Companies Encourage Kids to Design Games With a Purpose

Spotlight talks with game developers about their plans to help kids design video games based on important social issues such as energy, nutrition and eco systems.

Filed in: Civic Engagement, Games, Participatory Learning, Virtual Worlds, Featured

9/30/10

By Mac Montandon

New Youth City Learning Network: Creating a New Vision for Out-of-School Learning

With scientists, designers and educators from some of the city’s cultural institutions serving as mentors, teens in New York City this summer learned to see their neighborhoods in a new light.

Filed in: After School, Civic Engagement, Libraries, Museums, Participatory Learning, Featured

7/28/10

iCivics: How Games Can Teach Kids to be Better Citizens

Upon leaving the bench, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was concerned that civics education was faltering and that teachers needed better materials and support. (Watch her on John Stewart’s “The Daily Show” back in 2009 talk about how only one in three Americans can name the three branches of government.) So O’Connor helped start a web-based education project designed to inspire students to be more active citizens through online game play.

Filed in: After School, Civic Engagement, Games, Schools

7/20/10

Q&A: Anil Dash on Building Open-Source Communities, Empowering Citizens and Transforming Policy

Spotlight talks with Anil Dash, founding director of Expert Labs, a non-profit organization working to connect policymakers with the expertise of the general public.

Filed in: Civic Engagement, Policy, Social Media, Featured

7/07/10

Theft or Tribute? Copyright Butts Heads With Online Habits

Members of today’s “YouTube generation” have been sharing files and downloading media for free since practically the day they were born. How does their view of remix and copyright conflict with today’s intellectual property law? Spotlight talks with attorney Jaime Wolf and with Joi Ito, CEO of Creative Commons, about the movement for greater latitude in reuse and remix, and forging a “third way” for future copyright.

Filed in: Civic Engagement, Media Literacy, Participatory Learning, Policy, Schools

6/04/10

Click!Online: Girls Solve STEM Mysteries at Spy School

Spotlight talks with Emily Sturman of the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh about Click!Online, a web-based augmented reality game for adolescent girls that teaches science, math and technology.

Filed in: Civic Engagement, Games, Digital Media and Learning Competition, Participatory Learning, Social Media, STEM

4/27/10

Self-Narration in Video Game Design Environments

How can Latino teenagers in Los Angeles re-invent Pac-Man? Katynka Martinez, an assistant professor of Raza studies at San Francisco State University, spoke recently at a forum on digital literacy about her research on how teaching game design to young people can help them challenge inaccurate representations of themselves and their communities in dominant media.

Filed in: Civic Engagement, Games, Family, Identity, Digital Divide, Media Literacy, Research and Studies, Schools

3/23/10

Crowdsourcing Civics: What Mozilla Can Teach Us About Participatory Government

David R. Booth talks with Spotlight about how the internet and open-source software are increasing public participation in local and national policy discussions - and why that’s a good thing.

Filed in: Civic Engagement, Digital Divide, Policy

3/22/10

New Report on Peer Participation and Software

A fuller examination of the issues David Booth raises in his Q&A is available in the MacArthur Series report “Peer Participation and Software: What Mozilla Has to Teach Government” (PDF). Booth argues that the same principles and organizational design that motivate a community of volunteer developers to continually update the Firefox internet browser can be replicated in larger government and civic action.

Filed in: Civic Engagement, Participatory Learning, Policy

2/15/10