Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

5.20.10 | Ten projects received awards for innovation in digital media and learning last week as part of the third annual HASTAC/ MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition. Winners in the competition’s 21st Century Learning Lab Designers category gathered in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with National Lab Day. Spotlight was there to talk with winners about their projects.

“Here we get to say: ‘What to you want to create? What do you want to say to the world about your app?’” said Leshell Hatley, whose winning project, Youth AppLab, introduces android application development to African American and Latino high school students in Washington, D.C.

“As much as the subject matter is about science,” HASTAC co-founder Cathy Davidson said of the Learning Lab Category, “the method is about inquiry, exciting curiosity, and teaching people how to work together.”

Girls in a six-day science camp in Pittsburgh do just that. At Click! The Online Spy School, Girls entering the 6th, 7th and 8th grades work together to use technology to solve fictional mysteries related to biomedical science, environmental protection and expressive technologies.

“These hands on inquiry workshops really add to participatory learning and contribute to girls understanding of the subjects because they get to really connect with the subject matter in a fun and engaging way,” said Emily Sturman, one of Click!’s creators.

“We know that hands-on inquiry is important to learners of both genders, but we at the Girls, Math & Science Partnership really emphasize the altruistic components of the science, because we know that if girls feel that what they are doing can positively contribute to the world or help other people, they are much more likely to stay engaged.” 

Check back at Spotlight next week for podcasts featuring in-depth discussions with some of the HASTAC winners.

The 10 winners are:

• Conservation Connection: Using webcasting, video blogging and social networking sites, this project connects kids from Chicago’s West Side with kids in Fiji to work together to protect Fijian coral reefs.

• Mobile Action Lab: Combining the expertise of social entrepreneurs and technologists and the knowledge and ideas of Oakland, Calif.-based teens, this project helps develop mobile phone applications that serve Oakland communities.

• Click! The Online Spy School: Designed to encourage girls’ engagement in the sciences, Click!Online is a web-based, augmented reality game for teen girls to solve mysteries in biomedical science, environmental protection and expressive technology.

• Ecobugs: An augmented reality game that creates, collects and monitors the health of virtual bugs and their habitats.

• Fab@School: Introduces students to digital fabrication, mathematical modeling and engineering using a low-cost open-source system. Kids invent and design their own creations from mind’s eye to physical form.

• Metrovoice: Youth write and produce videos on an issue on their block or neighborhood. The videos are geocoded and play on city buses as the bus passes through the featured neighborhood.

• Nox No More: Enables kids to upload GPS-gathered data that trace their movements for a week—did they take the bus to their friend’s house or have mom drive? The data is converted to points, and kids compete to be most environmentally conscious.

• Hole-in-the-Wall: Installed in small kiosks on sidewalks, these computer stations offer games in a variety of subjects and skills to kids in Bhutan, Cambodia, India and elsewhere, bringing technology to underserved areas.

• Scratch: This simple programming tool allows kids up to age 8 to create their own games, stories, animations and simulations. The online network allows kids to collaborate on designs, offer suggestions to others, and learn from others as they develop as creative thinkers.

• Youth AppLab: This program supplements D.C. teens’ computer science classes with an after-school opportunity to create phone apps for the Droid. Winners of the best apps are offered internships with technology startups in the D.C. area.