Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

Programming With Scratch Jr: When it Comes to Screen Time and Young Kids, Content and Context Are Important

Since MIT’s Lifelong Kindergarten group released Scratch in 2007, kids ages 8 to 13 have built more than 2.2 million animations, games, music, videos and stories using the kid-friendly programming language. Now with a grant from the National Foundation of Science, Lifelong Kindergarten is collaborating with Tufts University’s DevTech Research Group to make Scratch Jr, a new version aimed at kids in preschool to second grade.

The Future of Assessment, Accreditation & The Internet: Deconstructing Mozilla’s Open Badges Project

Heather Chaplin talks with Mark Surman, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation, and HASTAC Co-founder Cathy Davidson on what this new model for assessment and accreditation may mean for learners, teachers and the future of the internet.

From Ideas to Learners' Hands: Startl Boosts The Next Generation of Ed-Tech Startups

Spotlight talks with two nascent education software developers, both of whom have received support through Startl, a technology accelerator funded in part by the MacArthur, Hewlett and Gates foundations.  Is personality the “x-factor” when it comes to developing a potentially far-reaching idea?

Q&A: Hive Learning Network Uses the City as a Game Board for Learning

Spotlight talks with executives from the Mozilla and MacArthur foundations about programs underway to connect cultural institutions with educational digital projects—and with each other.

Q&A: Cathy Davidson on the Brain Science of Attention and Transforming Schools and Workplaces in the Digital Age

In “Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn,” Cathy Davidson has offered an antidote to the anxieties about the effects of digital media on kids—and on all of us.

Q&A: Heather Weiss on Evaluating Connected Learning

Heather Weiss, the founder and director of the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP), is working with the MacArthur Foundation to evaluate its work at the intersection of digital media and learning.

Teaching Tolerance, Nurturing Democracy: Using Digital Media in the Classroom to Encourage Civic Participation and Social Action

Facing History and Ourselves helps educators use new media in their classrooms to spark critical thinking and embrace the responsibilities of citizenship in a democracy.

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.

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.

Students Curate Their Own Virtual Museum Space at the New York Hall of Science

Forget bag lunches and permission slips, with new technologies students can embark on virtual field trips to learning spaces of their own design.

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.

Digital Media in the Classroom Case Study: Gamestar Mechanic

Gamestar Mechanic is a video game that teaches kids how to design video games. With the first school year wrapping up in which Gamestar Mechanic was used, Spotlight takes a look at how teachers—and students—made progress with it in the classroom.

Can Digital Technologies Help Low-Income Preschoolers Catch Up to Their Peers?

One study shows promising evidence that technology can improve young children’s literacy skills.

Learning, Digital Media and Creative Play in Early Childhood

Can new media technologies be a valid learning tool during the preschool years? Spotlight talks with education and childhood development experts about what is known and what isn’t—and what teachers and parents can do about it.