DML Cafe | DML2014

dml-cafe

DML Cafe Call for Proposals Announced:
January 6, 2014

DML Cafe Proposal Deadline:
February 8, 2014

The DML Cafe is an informal, relaxed space to share ideas that will be open Saturday, March 8, 2014, (one day only!) from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM, and from 2:00 to 3:30 PM.

This year’s participants are listed below!

DML Café Session I
Saturday, March 8, 2014
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Grand Ballroom

1. Boise State University
Organizer: Hans Aagard
Participants: Hans Aagard

The Effects of Humor in Instructional Videos on Learning and Motivation

Half of the top ten YouTube channels are comedy. With the popularity of humor in videos, should humor be used in instructional videos? Instructors use humor to improve the teaching environment, and appear more approachable, but its use in instructional video is not well known and little data exists on its effects.

This cafe session will discuss this with some preliminary results from a study measuring the effects of humor in instructional videos on learning and motivation. Is it distracting? Is it helpful? Do students who grow up watching YouTube need to be entertained while they learn, or do they separate out entertainment and learning? Bring your thoughts and experiences to discuss the use of (intentional) humor in instructional video and its effects.

2. Fairfield University
Organizer: Belinha De Abreu
Participants: Belinha De Abreu, Paul Mihailidis

Media Literacy Research Symposium

Where are the scholars and researchers in the field of media literacy education? How can we grow the field and shorten the present gap within the field? This table will offer an opportunity to discuss the field and open the conversation to those vested in opening and moving the field forward. We will look at different strands of focus within the field: Media Literacy: Past, Present, and Future; Digital Media and Learning; Global Perspectives; Education: Training, Policy, and Digital Citizenship; Public Spaces & Civic Activism. At the same time, we will share information regarding a future symposium focusing in this area.

3. Outer Voices Podcast
Organizers: Sam Naujokas, Adrienne Sarasy, Alia Ticknell, Stephanie Guyer-Stevens
Participants: Sam Naujokas, Adrienne Sarasy, Alia Ticknell, Stephanie Guyer-Stevens

The Outer Voices Podcast is a digital gateway to introduce and connect high school students to global issues. We are a group of high school students who curate and deliver audio podcasts with a youth focus created by professional journalists working internationally. We’ve also designed and developed a blog site that holds the podcast.
The Outer Voices Podcast is created to deliver news content to students both inside and outside the classroom, creating a unique online student community of engaged and global thinkers.
While the audio podcasts themselves are produced by professional journalists, the content is curated by a student based editorial board.
In short, the Outer Voices Podcast is truly produced for teens, by teens.
We’ve covered topics that range from rhinoplasty in Saudi Arabia to political dissidents in Burma to popular street food in Vietnam.
At the DML Café we propose to set up a podcast listening room with comfy chairs and headphones available to sit back and listen to some of our podcasts. And similar to how the podcasts are used in classrooms in our high school, we’ll ask listeners to share their thoughts on the piece and create genuine dialogue about the ideas that the podcasts spark.
We’ll also have a monitor available to be able to explore our blog and see how we’ve designed it to be able to expand a curious listener’s experience by providing additional background information, interviews with the journalists, photographs form the journalist’s work in the field, maps, and other resources.

4. National Geographic Society
Organizer: Sean O’Connor
Participants: Sean O’Connor

National Geographic FieldScope: Citizen Science Mapping and Visualization

Citizen science has come into its own in recent years as a way to engage students and other non-scientist volunteers in real-world science. Crowdsourcing many types of scientific observations through mobilization of citizen scientists is also making significant contributions to scientific research. National Geographic has developed an interactive mapping platform called FieldScope to facilitate citizen scientists contributing data and asking and exploring questions through visualizing maps and graphs.

We invite cafe participants to come learn more about FieldScope and how it connects people and communities through shared maps and data. Interactions with interactive mapping tool, or GIS, also have the power to help students and others develop geospatial thinking skills, and make interdisciplinary connections.

With FieldScope, citizen scientists can engage in activities such as:

Exploring maps and data to ask and answer questions about places
Conducting field work and sharing observations and stories
Participating in social and scientific networks to document and improve communities

In this cafe session, the facilitator will provide a demo of the technology and introduce citizen science projects across the United States that are using FieldScope, and lead a discussion and feedback session on using technology in the classroom, geospatial thinking, and facilitating communities of practice in citizen science.

5. National Veterans Art Museum
Organizer: Christine Bespalec-Davis
Participants: Christine Bespalec-Davis

More than “just listening”: Engaging with teens and promoting connected learning through conversations with Veterans

Every Tuesday, groups of teens make their way to the YOUmedia center in the Harold Washington Library in downtown Chicago after school. They spend time on the computers located in the space and socialize with friends. A teaching artist from the National Veterans Art Museum might invite them to look at art, give feedback on an interactive websites designed by the museum or listen to an audio recording of The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien to which the museum has dedicated a permanent exhibition inspired by the novel. In the following weeks, youth travel to the museum and meet with veterans of Vietnam as well as contemporary wars. We have learned that many of the youth the museum works with can identify with the complications and repercussions of both physical and emotional conflicts as experienced and expressed through art by veterans in our collection. Bit by bit, week by week, a group of engaged youth is formed and transition from “just listening” to engaged, connected learning supported by digital media tools, the sharing of personal narratives, and art making.

These conversations begin with getting to know the youth we work with and continues as we develop a relationship with who they are in connection to the museum, its mission and the veterans that work collaboratively with us to create more meaningful experiences and a deeper understanding of war, history, civics and contemporary issues.

Join me to discuss the role of digital media in the transformation from “just listening” to connected learning at the National Veterans Art Museum.

6. Openbox
Organizer: Garance Choko
Participants: Garance Choko

Bringing Youth into Public Space Design

The Lowline is transforming an abandoned subway terminal into a public park in the Lower East Side, a historically diverse and low income neighborhood in NYC. Design firm Openbox has crafted programming and curriculum to position the Lowline as a pioneer in participatory design. The goal has been to provide students and other community members with a meaningful role in the development of their new public space.

Participatory design offers various opportunities for social and economic impact: repositioning beneficiaries as active participants in the design process; integrating diverse identities and voices; and developing an authentic sense of ownership to the final product or service.

Playing with cross-cultural, cross-generational and cross-functional dynamics, Openbox has been unlocking opportunities for meaningful co-design practices, especially involving non-dominant youth. Although it is starting to gain momentum within the mainstream, participatory design is still a nebulous concept for many organizations that are reluctant to incorporate it to their culture and programming.

Using the Lowline as a case study, Openbox invites you to discuss the unique opportunities of participatory design to provide youth with the necessary foundations and skills needed for adequate development, and how to educate organizations or design partners on incorporating participatory design to their practices.

7. Project Exploration /C-STEMM
Organizer: Krystal Meisel
Participants: Krystal Meisel

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Badges: Forging a Chicago STEM Pathway Across the US

This interactive presentation will share our experience developing and implementing a shared STEM digital-badging ecosystem for non-formal learning environments in Chicago. It will center on process the of gathering consensus around the adoption of Project Exploration’s Youth Science Matrix © as a foundation for standard implementation and assessment among six diverse STEM programming institutions (Adler Planetarium, Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, After School Matters, the Chicago Architecture Foundation, and Chicago Botanic Gardens) and two badging platforms (ForAll Badges and Youtopia). We will share student reflections and ideas for overcoming the technology gap.

Join Krystal Meisel, program manager at Project Exploration, Art of Science Learning Innovation Fellow and C-STEMM member, in a hands-on, interactive metaphorming* activity to invent the I-80 for digital badging. Come prepared to reimagine pathways, connect organizations, build bridges between cities, and get our youth and communities to amazing new places. After building a physical manifestation of our ideas we will take time to discuss our thinking and explore possible ways to get all students, parents, and communities (including those who may not have reliable access to technology) to travel on our newly imagined super highway.

* “Metaphorming: A much deeper and more effective way of brainstorming. Participants collaborate in making multi-dimensional, freeform, symbolic models. These models contain a wealth of ideas, insights, knowledge, and creative solutions.” Dr. Todd Siler

8. Trans*H4CK
Organizer: Harlan Kellaway
Participants: Harlan Kellaway, TBD

Trans*H4CK Reboot: A Workshop on Trans People & Tech Inspired by the First Hackathon for Trans Empowerment

Are you interested in tech or social media that benefits trans* people? Then you’d be interested in Trans*H4CK, a hackathon and speaker series brought to life by Dr. Kortney Ziegler (http://blackademic.com) in September 2013. The Trans*H4CK series aims is to radically shift the ways trans* people live by creating empowering technology that addresses social problems, including but not limited to: access to services, safety, and community sustainability.

This workshop is a condensed version of the brainstorming portion of the 2-day hackathon, covering: trans*-oriented projects and people that are already working in/on tech, small group designing of your own Trans*H4CK project(s), plus ideas and discussion about platforms to use to bring your project to life.

Learn more about Trans*H4CK and its 2014 series at: http://transhack.org

Main objectives (time-allowing):
1) Learn about the state of tech & trans people
2) Take the first steps toward being involved in your own tech project(s) that can benefit trans* people
3) Learn about platforms that could help bring your ideas to life

9. Tufts University
Organizer: Elizabeth Kazakoff
Participants: Elizabeth Kazakoff

What Happens When Kindergartners Learn to Code?

Curious about real children in real classrooms learning to code with ScratchJr, a developmentally appropriate programing language designed for children 5 to 7 years old? Wondering how components of self-regulation (such as attention, working memory, and inhibitory control) may be a factor in learning to code? Pondering if learning to code could possibly improve self-regulation skills in young children? Want to know how to capture and analyze screen, audio, and video data from 38 kindergartners (Hint: Five-year-olds are not always on task…)?

In this café session, you can expect to view video footage highlighting different types of kindergarten coders as they program their own animated stories, interactive collages, and programming challenges. We will examine how differences in self-regulation at the start of the programming curriculum influenced the young coders’ approaches to their various lessons. Copies of the curriculum modules will be on hand for a discussion of how what was learned in the classrooms influenced the iterative design of both the software and the curriculum for future versions of ScratchJr.

ScratchJr is a collaborative effort between Tufts DevTech Research Group, MIT Lifelong Kindergarten, and PICO. The case studies and analyses presented in this session are a qualitative component of the forthcoming dissertation, “What role does self-regulation play when young children learn to code?“ based on the presenter’s work in classrooms that piloted-tested ScratchJr. This dissertation explores a possible bidirectional relationship between self-regulation and learning to code with 38 kindergarten students.

If any, or all, of these ideas capture your interest then please stop by.

10. The Student Union
Organizers: Emilio Vides-Curnen, Shane Kelly, Nicolas Jofre
Participants: Emilio Vides-Curnen, Shane Kelly, Nicolas Jofre

Building a Student Union: Disrupting Student Organizing in the Boston Public Schools

The Student Union is a youth mobilization and think tank led and run exclusively by millennials in Boston. Founded in 2013, the Union leverages the experiences of 2000 high school students to inform both school and city-wide decision making, while also making education reform accessible to every millennial in the city.

This discussion focuses on the strategies that our team of high school, college, and recent college grads has utilized to disrupt the complex youth organizing ecosystem in Boston. We’ll discuss how this movement began at Boston’s most insular and oldest high school, our approach for connecting grassroots and grass tops leaders, and other best practices for those seeking to make meaningful youth-led change within and acrossschools.

11. Public Lab
Organizer: Liz Barry
Participants: Liz Barry, Don Blair, Catherine D’Ignazio

A public lab — online and offline learning about environmental research

Visit Public Lab’s table and get your hands on our MacGyver-style hardware and browser-based software for creating visually compelling environmental datasets. Our mission is to make environmental science something everyone can do, especially communities facing environmental injustice. Along the way we’ve created a 5,000 person collaborative community that exhibits some interesting (and evolving) online-offline learning interactions. Discuss with us how a combo of self-organization and design has resulting in Public Lab’s novel peer-to-peer learning and collaboration infrastructure.

12. Ann Arbor Skyline High School
Organizer: Sara Duvall
Participants: Sara Duvall, Peter Pasque

Life Support! – Badging & Digital Organization with the Learning Network Model

Methodology for organizing ones digital life, research, writing and more with our model Learning Network. We freely share our web-based tools, tutorials, manuals, handouts, and help forum, as well as vibrant examples of how Learning Network strategies have permeated the lives of students and transformed their use of technology tools. Printed brochures with the basics and web links, cards, pictures and CD’s will be available as we demonstrate these methods of teaching and learning. There will be a discussion/demonstration of our pilot program for badging career and college readiness skills at the high school level, which has grown out of our Learning Network model.

13. Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Organizer: Urs Gasser
Participants: Urs Gasser, Sandra Cortesi, Paulina Haduong, Rogelio Lopez

Student Privacy

How do new technologies like cloud computing, tablet and mobile Internet access, and digital innovations affect privacy and learning? Join the Berkman Center team at our round table discussion for the opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences about student, parent, and teacher privacy expectations and attitudes.

Our Student Privacy Initiative, led by Berkman Executive Director Urs Gasser, explores the opportunities and challenges that may arise as educational institutions consider adopting cloud computing technologies. In its work across three overlapping clusters – Privacy Expectations & Attitudes, School Practices & Policies, and Law & Policy – this initiative aims to engage diverse stakeholders. Together, we aim to develop shared good practices that promote positive educational outcomes, harness technological and pedagogical innovations, and protect critical values. To learn more about our work, please visit: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/studentprivacy.

A vital part of our translational work across the Initiative involves empirical research to assess student privacy attitudes. To date, the Berkman’s Youth and Media team conducted focus groups with over 200 students across the country, culminating in the report Youth Perspectives on Tech in Schools: From Mobile Devices to Restrictions and Monitoring. (For additional recent outputs on youth, digital media, and privacy, see: http://youthandmedia.org/publications/papers/all/) Against this backdrop, we plan to expand this work with a series of interviews with students and teachers to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences with and perspectives on cloud technology and privacy.

As we pursue these next steps in our work, the DML network offers an invaluable window into practitioners’ perspectives and needs. What may our research have overlooked thus far? What specific questions may we wish to ask of teachers in our focus groups? And what bigger picture questions should we take into account that we may not (yet) have considered?

14. KQED Public Media
Organizer: Matthew Williams
Participants: Matthew Williams, Paul Oh, Matt Ganucheau

KQED Do Now: A National Debate on Current Events Using Social Media

Public life, increasingly, is happening online. Accordingly, in-school and out-of-school educators need ways to engage youth using digital tools for civic purposes. KQED Do Now is one way where young people can discuss social and political issues using social media. Currently, the project is in over 150 schools across the nation where students participate in a weekly debate. With Do Now, you will see how social media and media making can add value to learning as it happens anytime and anywhere. Learn how students participate in a national conversation and how you can get involved in the Do Now discussion! KQED Do Now is produced in collaboration with National Writing Project, California Academy of Sciences, PBS NewsHour Extra, and Twitter.

15. Chicago Public Library YOUmedia
Organizer: Adrienne Strock
Participants: Adrienne Strock, Adrienne Strock, Mike Hawkins, Jen Steele, Erin Bradley, Kiley Larson

You Say HOMAGO; I Say GOMAHO: A YOUmedia Chicago Retrospective of Lessons Learned and Best Practices:

In rapid succession, researchers and YOUmedia Chicago staff and veterans will reflect on best practices and action-oriented solutions for success in what’s sure to be 90 minutes of roundtable power sessions with time for some Q&A.

Participants can drop in and out of our three 30 minute sessions were panelists will have 5 minutes to discuss the topic with time for audience Q&A. A timer and buzzer may be making an appearance and we plan to have fun while actively engaging audience questions.

Panelists will discuss the challenges and successes of implementing a program that provides meaningful and engaging learning experiences for youth given differences in institutional and organizational infrastructures, philosophies on learning, and theories around youth engagement, and institutional shifts over the years. We will share lessons learned and best practices around various aspects of planning, implementation and program success.

Format:
30 minutes: The Give and Take in Partnerships: DYN/CPL partnership challenges, organizational strengths and triumphs.

30 minutes: Programming evolution: A look back at early lessons learned about programming and tips for making YOUmedia programs and workshops the success they are today.

30 minutes: Where are we as organizations now? CPL, DYN, and the NYU research team will discuss their plans for the year(s) ahead.

About the YOUmedia Chicago Partnership:
In July of 2009, the first YOUmedia Chicago opened its doors as a collaboration between the Chicago Public Library and Digital Youth Network. As the first site to test out a new and evolving learning model now being replicated nationwide, two institutions experienced growing pains of rapid implementation with an unwavering commitment to the success of the program.

16. Common Sense Media
Organizer: Emily Weinstein
Participants: Emily Weinstein

Scaffolding Technology Integration with App Flows

Armed with a variety of digital learning tools, teachers are looking for ways to integrate technology more purposefully throughout lessons that meet their teaching objectives. Rather than reinvent the wheel, is the need to plan where, why, and how the technology could flow through a lesson to enrich learning, while keeping students engaged in practice.

Join us to learn about a new framework called “App Flow,” a customizable planning tool that redefines the traditional lesson plan or unit by integrating digital learning tools with pedagogical intent. The App Flow framework is part of Graphite, a free service by Common Sense Media that helps teachers discover, share, and innovate with great tools rated for learning potential.

Teachers can use the App Flow framework to scaffold technology integration and to think with purpose about how they’re aligning digital tools to specific tasks. App Flows are being piloted in seven states from February-May 2014. Participants will hear results and insights from the pilot sites, including case studies and examples of how App Flows are shifting teachers’ planning and implementation using apps, websites, and games to enhance student learning. Participants will learn how they can publish their App Flows, or remix existing App Flows, and add to repository of tech-rich lesson ideas.

17. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
Organizer: David Rios
Participants: David Rios, Halima Johnson

Digital Badges: Get Real

What’s the next step for digital badges for Youth? Teens, 14 years and older are developing skills in and out of the classroom, but where are they sharing this information, and who will listen? As digital badges continue to gain traction in cultural institutions and youth programs, the next step is building a real world environment where those badges are recognized. Join the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum for an informal discussion on the work they are doing to create that environment. Learn how youth participating in their DesignPrep program—a series of free designer led workshops, studio visits, and college tours—will be able to take their badges to the college level. Also, discuss different ways to look at funding digital badges. Let’s get real about Digital Badges.

18. Creative Commons, School of Open
Organizer: Jane Park
Participants: Jane Park; TBD, P2PU staff

School of Open: Opportunities & Impact

The School of Open (http://schoolofopen.org) is a community of volunteers from all around the world passionate about openness and the opportunities it enables. We work together and apart to provide free education programs, courses, and workshops on the meaning, application, and impact of “openness” in the digital age and its benefit to creative endeavors, education, and research. Come learn about our after school program in Kenya that brought running water to a rural high school; our OER summer camp in a remote island off of China that taught science experiments through open courseware; our free, online courses on Copyright 4 Educators and Introduction to Open Science for citizen scientists; and more! You can participate in a local program, online course, or start your very own School of Open project. We’ll introduce you to our community philosophy and guidelines and equip you with a few tools to get you started.

We’ve also begun investigating the impact of our online courses and badges through a collaboration with the OER Research Hub at the Open University. We can share some of our initial findings from the fall of 2013, and provide some anonymized data for you to play with and visualize – if you’re into that sort of thing!

We have so much more in store for 2014; we’re positive you’ll find something of interest. If open education, open licenses, open tools, open governance, open science, open anything! interests you, drop on by to learn more and get involved!

19. Digital Youth Network
Organizer: Jennifer Steele
Participants: Jennifer Steele, Sybil Madison-Boyd

Pathway 2 Passion!: A Learning Pathways Program Test Drive

The Learning Pathways Program needs you! Yes, you holding this conference program. Come and test drive the youth-centered framework and tools of the Learning Pathways Program by mapping and discussing your “Pathway 2 Passion”!

You probably have a story to tell about how you ended up doing the work that you do. As adults, when we reflect on our pathways, our narratives are usually built around a collection of experiences that emerged in coherent ways that played a critical role, not only in our choices of vocation, but also in building our sense of self, passion, purpose, and community.

This process of understanding what one is interested in, what one might be good at, and what one feels passionate about and wants to pursue deeply is critical to the healthy development of our young people and to their attachment to and pursuit of positive futures.

In this session, we invite you to a) stress test our tools by using them to map your own learning pathways and b) stretch our thinking by sharing reactions to our conceptual framework for creating learning pathways for youth. The truly daring can participate in our Youth Advisory Board’s “Pathway 2 Passion Speakers Series” by videotaping your story of your journey toward your passion and career.

About Us: The Learning Pathways Program is an inquiry-, action-, and design-based research project of the Digital Youth Network at DePaul University. We look at youth learning experiences through the lens of identity and seek to understand and inform how learning experiences can be designed and linked in ways that facilitate young people’s journeys towards understanding who they are, who they want to be, and who they could become.

20. Harvard Graduate School of Education
Organizer: Lucas Duclos
Participants: Lucas Duclos, Justin DuClos

Modern Curatorial Methods for Learning Through Storytelling

All learners are the central figures in their learning stories. Master teachers guide the process, but it is the experience of the learner that governs outcomes. The value of documenting that experience cannot be overstated. After years of pedagogical practice in nearly every kind of traditional and innovative academic setting, we have selected and vetted an ecosystem of modern tools and daisy chained them together to greatly enhance the relevance and connectedness of learning artifacts and content. When learners are guided through these curatorial methods and instructed in the use of the tools, documentation of their learning experience becomes a streamlined creative, engaging, fun, and powerful workflow endeavor. The result is not only illuminating, it is the elimination of waste from the learning experience.

In this café session we’ll share these methods and tools, explore their use, and discuss the implications for both teachers and learners.

21. Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, Museum of Science Boston
Organizer: Danielle Martin
Participants: Danielle Martin, Vera Michalchik, Anne McGrath, Alisha Panjwani

Start Making! – Supporting Deeper Making in Informal Learning Programs

Building on Intel’s deep commitment to science, technology, education, and math (STEM) education as well as the Computer Clubhouse Network and learning model, we’re thrilled to present the new Intel Making! @ Clubhouses initiative. In 2014 & 2015, this Network-wide education and outreach program, sponsored by Intel in partnership with the MIT Media Lab Lifelong Kindergarten Group, will provide financial and professional development support to Clubhouses to foster more engineering and “do-it-yourself” activities. This work will provide support through (1) continued development of a making-focused curriculum in alignment with the Clubhouse learning model (including activities, facilitation materials, new technologies, and evaluation tools), (2) Start Making! mini-grants to “kickstart” making pursuits within Computer Clubhouses, and (3) Keep Making! Fellowships in 2014 for selected Clubhouse staff to collaboratively develop deeper making activities guides using more complex tools and to lead facilitation discussions and knowledge management using the ClubhouseVillage.org.

The mini-grants will enable Clubhouses to implement the core Start Making! Program, which consists of five sessions that introduce youth to the basics of circuitry, coding, crafting, and engineering through progressive introductory spark activities, combined with facilitated individual and small group “open make” self-designed projects. The program was successfully piloted with girls ages 10-14 in 5 Clubhouses in the summer and fall of 2013. We will share more about these pilots by distributing the evaluation report summary with success stories created with the support of SRI International.

22. Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment, and Teaching Excellence (CREATE), UC San Diego
Organizer: Mica Pollock
Participants: Mica Pollock, Hilary Gay, Kim Douillard

Equity and Digital Media Use in Regular Ol’ Schools

Lots of folks privilege “more” digital media use as an equity lever for high-need young people. We celebrate the least traditionally “schoolish” digital media (e.g., games). We also get most excited about moments when youth teach themselves using computers, seemingly making a teacher or even, physical schools seem unnecessary.

But what uses of digital media pursue “equity” in regular ol’ schools?

At our roundtable, we invite a serious conversation about this question. We don’t have “right answers”; we’ll bring lots of questions and a deep equity commitment. Join us to engage tough questions related to our recent work and your own. From our end, we’ll share:

– The results of a summer 2013 study, conducted in partnership with teachers, low-income students, and our university’s Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP), in which we examined the in-person human role in supporting credit-bearing online college prep courses created by the University of California. While informal online learning experiences are great, California youth need access to credit-bearing online coursework if they’re to become college-eligible. But while credit toward college eligibility is key to equity, students can’t just “click through” online courses: they need deep understanding of content if they are to succeed in college later. And debate on these issues often skirts a key equity question in education: what should human instructors still be paid to do, particularly with students who have been underserved or unsuccessful in schools? Come join us to engage these questions.

– While DML often likes to focus on fully game-based schools or students’ out-of-school use of media, equity also demands a focus on basic and simple digital media uses inside schools that aren’t glitzy but make the difference in young people’s lives. Who here is focusing on making databases work, debating text messaging’s pros or cons for personalized support in schools, or embedding basic tools to shift teachers’ conversations with young people or multilingual parents? We’ll explain the beginning of a Schooltalking project, based on supporting teachers to design and install new communication infrastructure in their own schools.

Come ready to talk about the deepest equity issues you’re facing in your own school-based work.

23. VISUALS for CHANGE
Organizer: Amanda Lyons
Participants: Amanda Lyons, David Preston, John Davis, Josh Ostini

Visualizing Open Source Learning

Close your eyes and imagine what Open Source Learning (OSL) actually looks like – what do you see? Let’s build upon our understanding of OSL by taking it to an experiential level. We’ll go beyond defining OSL, sharing real life examples, providing strategies and learning together as a group.

Facilitators will share their ongoing collaborations as Open Source Learning use cases. They will present instructional strategies that accommodate every learning style, empowering learners to seek out and meet experts themselves. In this way, learners curate their own paths of inquiry so as to create immediate value in the community and the marketplace. They will also share influential elements of organizational structure and culture, and collaborative success stories from around the world.

We’ll jump in to an activity allowing participants and facilitators alike to truly experience OSL culture, where everyone drives their own learning. There will be a loose structure. As a group we can talk about how to create a space that gives learners (in this case ourselves) the structure to gain a deep understanding of what Open Source Learning is and can be by actually doing it. For each individual it will be different. There may be drawing, building, researching, talking, walking… all kinds of exploring. Participants will strive to find paths that resonate with them. The best way to gain true knowledge is to make a concept personally meaningful. In the spirit of OSL, who knows where our learning curiosities may lead us. We make no promises. The possibilities will be in the air. Grab them if you wish.

All participants will receive materials on Open Source Learning as well as online visual notes from the conversation & activity. They will also be invited to join a growing community of collaborators inside and outside the classroom.

24. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Organizer: Jennifer Beradino
Participants: Jennifer Beradino, Natalie Svacina

Teens Hacking the Museum: Fostering a Community of Making

Inspired by the growing maker movement, hang@MFAH (houston.art.new.generation@ The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) youth are working on a series of projects and programs that explore the world of physical computing, art, and digital media in relation to the MFAH permanent collections. As the museum grows in the face of many changes (social, technological, etc.), it must create new ways to engage with and educate young people. The MFAH seeks to build on our successful existing programs that curate information and learning opportunities by merging them with new approaches through the framework of connected learning. Hang@MFAH is a group of motivated teens who are interested in everything from video-game hacking to talking about art. Hang@MFAH is weekly studio time directed by a mentor artist that offers youth the opportunity to explore art with technology as the medium.

What is the role of an encyclopedic art museum as a community based organization in the maker movement? This discussion will pose questions on how the tinkering and making that takes place in makerspaces parallels the material study and art creation that takes place in art museums. Making is what fills the galleries of art museums. By removing time limitations, providing access to innovative technology, and a mentor based in a fine art studio practice, teens deeply engage in the process of creating. The role of the art museum is to cultivate the continuum of creativity; the result of this exploration is a studio practice that responds to the 21st century learner.
To continue the progress and success of the maker movement we need to connect both organizations and teens to build a richer network of opportunities for youth in our communities. Let’s discuss how communities can connect through likeminded makerspaces and art museums.

25. Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Organizer: Carrie James
Participants: Carrie James, Liz Dawes Duraisingh

Out of Eden Learn: Where “Slow Learning” Meets Social Media

In the frenzied pace of school life, young people and adults rarely have time to consider big questions about themselves and humanity as a whole. How are we connected to other human beings? How do we as individuals fit into a bigger story of human history? Where as a species are we collectively headed? In this cafe conversation, two Harvard Project Zero researchers will engage participants in a discussion about the Out of Eden Learn project – Project Zero’s collaboration with Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek, whose seven-year Out of Eden Walk involves retracing the migratory pathways of our ancient human ancestors and generating “slow journalism”.
Out of Eden Learn engages youth from around the world with Salopek’s epic journey and with each other. Participants engage in a learning journey that invites them to explore their own neighborhoods, investigate global connections, and reflect on how their own lives fit into a bigger human story. They share perspectives and interact with young people from different backgrounds and cultures on a custom-built online platform that mirrors social media sites. Individual learners are grouped into international communities of approximately 150 young people – or “walking parties” – in which they read and comment on one another’s writings, drawings, photographs, and other media created in response to weekly prompts.
In this cafe conversation, we will invite participants to explore our platform and give them a taste of one of our Out of Eden Learn activities. We will also share samples of young people’s work and invite conversation around the question of how to encourage deeper and more contemplative exchanges within our online community.

26. Shedd Aquarium
Organizer: Wade Berger
Participants: Wade Berger

Shedd Teen Lab: Iterating with Teen Voice

In September 2013, the Shedd Aquarium launched, in partnership with Chicago-area teens, a technology-rich learning space devoted to any teen driven to Shedd by passions in marine life and aquatic science. The pilot space, known as the Teen Learning Lab, is free to all high school teens, and seeks to put teens in charge of key decisions related to how they learn. As stakeholders in the development of this space, teens are encouraged to take leadership in developing the path from which they experience learning in the lab.

To date, teens have influenced (and necessitated) decisions about many facets of the lab including furniture, layout, technology, programming and even the public open hours for the space. In partnership with mentors from a variety of aquarium roles, teens are currently developing projects connected to the fields of animal health, animal behavior, water quality, conservation, sustainability, public relations and many other topics.

As educators in the space, the Teen Learning Lab team seeks to grow this pilot and to properly scale major decisions to adapt to teen voice. This includes providing iterative programming, budgeting for scalable media and hardware purchases, and leveraging online affinity spaces.

With this DML Café, we hope to share stories from the early stages of the Teen Learning Lab. We hope to spark a conversation about planning for growth in a crowd-sourced project, where the crowd of teens are exploring their interests, investigating shared challenges, and developing real solutions simultaneously. This is especially important as we continue to prototype programming and projects which also deliver interest-powered, peer-supported, and academically oriented outcomes based in the overall mission of Shedd Aquarium

27. The Saxifrage School
Organizer: Timothy Cook
Participants: Timothy Cook

The Askr Knowledge Tree Project

In the new Star Trek we see a young Spock sitting in a learning pod digesting all the knowledge of the universe. What does the actual future of learning content look like? Today’s technology allows us to curate and archive both static knowledge and dynamic educational content. Imagine geo-tagged learning resources so that we can Learn Places; imagine a pathway that seamlessly integrates digital and embodied learning opportunities and allows a visualization of your lifelong learning path.

Stop by and learn about the Askr Knowledge Tree Project, debate the role of libraries, create your own knowledge map, and share your vision for the future of learning content! We worked on this concept all last year at the Saxifrage School education laboratory in Pittsburgh and are excited to have you hack on it and help us refine the concept before we begin prototyping it this Spring.

28. The Sprout Fund
Organizer: Ani Martinez
Participants: Ani Martinez, TBD, Digital Corps host site

Building the Remake Learning Digital Corps

What would it look like if a city’s tweens and teens could improve their digital literacy skills by working with a travelling cohort of unique makers and educators, gathered together to create access to digital literacy and technology? What if every neighborhood had a clubhouse to tinker, design, build projects, and ask questions about media they interact with often 8 hours of every day?

The Remake Learning Digital Corps is activating digital literacies for youth in out-of-school programs by recruiting a network of makers, educators, community members, and students working to demystify robots, code websites, investigate privacy issues, and pair mentors with teenagers. This session will explore the process of building the Remake Learning Digital Corps, reflect upon the pitfalls and pleasant surprises of the process, including some unassuming spaces creating remarkable experiences for kids in their communities.

Please visit this chat to brainstorm projects, share tales about creating with incredible teens, and dig into a grassroots effort to change the face of digital media production.

Those interested in creating increased access to digital resources in their community are encouraged to participate in this “booth-side chat.” This panel will showcase some of the resources used by the Digital Corps and foster dialogue with fellow educators, makers, and program providers in attendance. Participants will leave the session equipped with ideas and strategies to utilize in their own practice. Participants are encouraged to bring their own device to explore the Digital Corps’ resource pages, community hub, and partner programs.

29. USC Annenberg Innovation Lab
Organizer: Christopher Perez
Participants: Christopher Perez

Connecting the Community: Lessons in Designing a Mobile App to Bridge the College Access Gap

Did you know that the student to counselor ratio in school districts such as LAUSD is 1:600? Through an incubator sponsored by the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, our team, College Knowledge LA, is currently developing a mobile app to bridge the gap between college and financial aid resources in low income urban communities to students who have limited access to these resources in their schools. Through this unique opportunity, we are crossing several disciplinary boundaries (education, business, technology and communication) to create a product that we hope will have measurable social impact.

The idea for our mobile application was conceived through participatory dialogue between college students in education and engineering and high school students at low-income schools. Through focus groups, we are learning from students about how to create a digital tool that is responsive to their needs, appropriate for their digital literacy skills and that provides an avenue toward college access. We are educators who are seeking to collaborate with interdisciplinary scholars and to share our experiences in learning from students. Through our collaboration, we hope to create an educational technology product that is pedagogically sound. Additionally, our project has a social good aspect, in that we are aiming to provide the digital infrastructure that urban cities need to reach underrepresented students in underserved communities.

30. Mikva Challenge
Organizer: Karla Castilla
Participants: Karla Castilla

Student created videos to address student issues.

One of Mikva’s middle school policy councils created videos on conflict resolution to share at their youth-led Peace Day Assembly. The videos sparked conversations amongst their peers about coping with anger and positive communication that would not have come up if the videos had been made by adults. The videos felt genuine and honest because the youth decided what examples felt real to them and spoke about conflict in a way that would be relatable to their peers. This process and experience empowered our youth to talk about issues they care about not only to their peers, but also to adults in this day and age were we are exposed to media on a day-to-day basis. I would like to talk about the impact that youth-created media has on other youth. Are youth more receptive to messages created and/or delivered by other youth through more youth friendly and accessible mediums like, Vine, Instagram, and YouTube? If so, how can we better utilize these mediums to influence youth to improve issues that affect them.

DML Café Session II
Saturday, March 8, 2014
2:00 – 3:30 PM
Grand Ballroom

1. Boise State University
Organizer: Hans Aagard
Participants: Hans Aagard

The Effects of Humor in Instructional Videos on Learning and Motivation

2. Fairfield University
Organizer: Belinha De Abreu
Participants: Belinha De Abreu, Paul Mihailidis

Media Literacy Research Symposium

3. Outer Voices Podcast
Organizers: Sam Naujokas, Adrienne Sarasy, Alia Ticknell, Stephanie Guyer-Stevens
Participants: Sam Naujokas, Adrienne Sarasy, Alia Ticknell, Stephanie Guyer-Stevens

4. National Geographic Society
Organizer: Sean O’Connor
Participants: Sean O’Connor

National Geographic FieldScope: Citizen Science Mapping and Visualization

With FieldScope, citizen scientists can engage in activities such as:

5. National Veterans Art Museum
Organizer: Christine Bespalec-Davis
Participants: Christine Bespalec-Davis

More than “just listening”: Engaging with teens and promoting connected learning through conversations with Veterans

Join me to discuss the role of digital media in the transformation from “just listening” to connected learning at the National Veterans Art Museum.

6. Thicket: A Laboratory for Creative Problem Solvers
Organizer: Deepthi Welaratna
Participants: Deepthi Welaratna

Designing New Pathways for Learning

This participatory workshop is designed to investigate key cognitive frames for education and learning that shape current educational policies. We’ll talk about power, learning, language, systems, and more. We’ll also talk about learning platforms today, and what we think sustainable learning looks like. This will be a highly interactive session, so we hope you’ll come prepared to brainstorm in big and broad ways.

Discussion Topics:
– How does language facilitate shared understanding? How does it get in the way?
– What does quantitative research do well? What doesn’t quantitative research do well?
– How does public debate change the nature of debate and discourse for the better? For the worse?
– How does technology facilitate group communication and collaboration? How does it get in the way?

7. Project Exploration /C-STEMM
Organizer: Krystal Meisel
Participants: Krystal Meisel

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Badges: Forging a Chicago STEM Pathway Across the US

8. Trans*H4CK
Organizer: Harlan Kellaway
Participants: Harlan Kellaway

Trans*H4CK Reboot: A Workshop on Trans People & Tech Inspired by the First Hackathon for Trans Empowerment

Learn more about Trans*H4CK and its 2014 series at: http://transhack.org

9. Tufts University
Organizer: Elizabeth Kazakoff
Participants: Elizabeth Kazakoff

What Happens When Kindergartners Learn to Code?

If any, or all, of these ideas capture your interest then please stop by.

10. The Student Union
Organizers: Eric Edwards, Hannah Givertz, Jordan Archer
Participants: Eric Edwards, Hannah Givertz, Jordan Archer

Building a Student Union: Disrupting Student Organizing in the Boston Public Schools

11. Dep. of Science and Mathematics – Columbia College Chicago
Organizer: Marcelo Caplan
Participants: Marcelo Caplan, Evelyn Oropeza

STEM and Music = STEAM

This workshop introduces how the NSF-ISE Scientists for Tomorrow integrates STEM curriculum in the after school programs at community centers in the City of Chicago. During the Cafe Talk the participants will be engaged in the same activities that the teens are implementing at the community centers. Participants will explore the module Physics of Sound and Mathematics of Music by sampling some activities such as making a human Pan flute, exploring the relations between the size of the instruments and the sound it produces, and other fun activities that relate STEM and music.

Scientists for Tomorrow is a project offered by the faculty and staff of the Department of Science and Mathematics, Columbia College Chicago (CCC), in partnership with community centers, CCC Department of Education and Selected Chicago Informal Science Education (ISE) providers, such as the Museum of Science and Industry, The Field Museum and the Garfield Park Conservatory. ISE provides STEM oriented academic enrichment education in under served and underrepresented community centers who have after school programs in the City of Chicago.

12. Eastern Michigan University
Organizer: Angela Elkordy
Participants: Angela Elkordy

Digital Badges for STEM Learning in Secondary Contexts

Does the use of digital badge learning trajectories aligned with (but not bound by) appropriate educational standards impact mastery learning, student learning behaviors or characteristics such as motivation and self-efficacy? How might effects, if any, differ across learning contexts? This presentation of dissertation research will share preliminary findings with secondary age participants as well as solicit your questions and ideas.

For a variety of reasons, essential skills required in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields such as critical thinking, modeling, and scientific reasoning are neither adequately taught nor assessed in formal learning contexts. The use of digital badges for scaffolding, recognizing, assessing and communicating learning in connected learning contexts is one possible solution for digital age STEM learning and assessment.

The purpose of this research is to study how the use of digital badge learning trajectories to support, assess and recognize learning may impact student motivation, self-efficacy, affect (regarding STEM learning) and learning strategies as well as (statistically significant) factors of the learning environment.

The digital badges for the study have been designed to promote skills acquisition in specific STEM knowledge and practices (e.g. analyzing and interpreting data, design thinking) which require higher order thinking skills. The badges are aligned with educational standards as appropriate (NGSS, CCSS, NETS-S, P21). The study participants are secondary students, many of whom are considered “at risk.”

This study contributes to the emergent body of knowledge of innovative assessments by providing empirical evidence to inform theory and practice for educators in K-12 and higher education contexts.

13. Emerson College
Organizer: Paul Mihailidis
Participants: Paul Mihailidis, Jad Melki

How to Create Robust Digital Media Education Learning Environments: A global tour

At this roundtable we will present three global digital literacy programs that bring together teachers and students from diverse populations to explore the role of media and learning in digital culture. The programs, while distinct in their makeup and participant bases, offer a unique ecosystem of approaches to collaborative learning environments that work to bring communities together across borders, across disciplines and across divides. The Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change is an annual multidisciplinary summer program that brings together faculty and students from around the world to examine media’s role in identifying, framing and solving local and global problems. The Digital and Media Literacy Academy of Beirut (MDLAB) at the American University of Beirut, launched in summer 2013 through a collaboration of six Arab countries, aims to advance media literacy education in the Arab world by developing robust learning models that are relevant to a fast-changing region. The Jordan Media Institute (JMI), launched in 2009, organizes connected learning activities that couple Arab students with international peers through structured study abroad programs across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and globally, and through connective technologies bringing diverse voices into the program. At this table, we hope to engage in discussion of how these programs are built and sustained, and what further insights we can discuss in terms of facilitating new pathways to learning in global digital culture.

14. KQED Public Media
Organizer: Matthew Williams
Participants: Matthew Williams, Paul Oh, Matt Ganucheau

KQED Do Now: A National Debate on Current Events Using Social Media

15. National Writing Project
Organizer: Christina Cantrill
Participants: Christina Cantrill, Peter Kittle

Teaching in the Connected Learning Classroom

With connected learning research ushering in new modes of learning and engagement, the opportunities for crafting ever more personalized and meaningful learning experiences for students grow daily. _Teaching in the Connected Learning Classroom_ is the title of a new ebook published by the MacArthur Foundation and edited by National Writing Project (NWP) educators. Drawing from work colleagues have shared at the NWP Digital Is website (digitalis.nwp.org), the editors have brought together examples of practice and curated them into a larger collection looking at principles of Connected Learning woven throughout.

This book is unique in its focus on in-school examples of connected learning and instead of focusing on the idea of “best practices,” highlights the emerging nature of this work and invites inquiry, exploration and storytelling into the ways that teachers are working and why. At our DML Cafe table therefore we want to invite you to engage with some highlights from the new ebook and the related Digital Is website (in a game-like way!) while sharing your connected learning stories. We’d love for us all to walk away with some ideas for how these resources could be useful in a variety of contexts as well as think with you about how to further expand on our inquiries and explorations.

16. New Directions Secondary School, New York City Writing Project
Organizer: Paul Allison
Participants: Paul Allison, Christina Cantrill, Paul Oh

Connected Learning with Youth Voices

Now in it’s tenth year, Youth Voices is an openly-networked discussion platform where students participate in online multimedia discussions and learn new strategies to produce self-directed multi-modal projects that honor their own voices, passions, and unique ways of working. Students develop self-efficacy, civic engagement, persistence, and motivation for academic success. Youth Voices is also a space for teachers to develop their understanding and apply connected learning theory to curriculum development and classroom practice. Teachers gain comfort with a range of technology applications and with participating in open educational resources as part of their work.

17. Press Pass TV
Organizer: Cara Berg Powers
Participants: Cara Berg Powers

Youth Media Participatory Action Research for Social Change and Positive Youth Development

Join Dr. Cara Berg Powers, EdD to learn more about her exciting research, and get some tangible tools for incorporating Youth Participatory Action Research into your work with youth, and developing a sound evaluation strategy for sharing your outcomes. Some more about the research being presented:
Youth researchers at the Worcester Youth Center investigated the lack of youth jobs in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, using short documentary as a data collection and presentation tool. The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of this video research project on the youth participants’ self-confidence, leadership skills, community engagement, and commitment to education. Using focus groups, surveys, interviews, and observation, the outcomes of the study show great promise for using video research as a means to positively impact urban working-class youth.

18. Prince Georges County Public Schools
Organizer: Sarah Thomas
Participants: Sarah Thomas

How We Are Flipping the Script

“Flipping” seems like the new educational technology buzzword of 2014, but what exactly does it mean? In this session, discover why a middle school ELA/Technology Integration teacher has fallen head over heels. Topics covered will include videotaped lessons, useful resources, and best practices to begin. Learn how to use your iPad to create your own flipped lessons, and make the most out of 1:1 environments.

In this session, educators of all grade levels will learn about the concepts of flipped instruction and blended learning, and will have the knowledge necessary to begin implementing the techniques in their classroom. The session will be designed as a BYOD interactive presentation, where participants will be encouraged to download and test apps that can help them with the practice. Attendees at the novice and intermediate levels would best benefit from this session, as it will be geared towards the absolute beginner; however, more advanced tips and tricks will also be shared. Furthermore, participants will be encouraged to share their experiences with the practice.

19. Teachers College, Columbia University
Organizer: Jacqueline Simmons
Participants: Jacqueline Simmons

Rethinking Pedagogy in Participatory Cultures

This qualitative study engaged one adult and four youth co-researchers in a collaborative project to investigate the media lives of urban teenagers. The methods for this study included individual and focus group interviews, regular meetings with the research team members, observations, and field notes maintained through journals and online communication. The research team also created and distributed a survey to 98 New York City teenagers about their interests, how they spend their time, and their relationships with friends and family.

The findings, not new to the media education field, suggest that teens’ lives integrate a variety of specific media tools, activities, and processes that help them make sense of the world, explore identity, socialize, and move towards independence. However, our aesthetic approach also encouraged interrogation of the most basic taken-for-granted aspects of teaching and learning – who we are to each other, what we say and do, how we say it, and where we choose to engage. Analysis of our collaborative research led us to rethink the characteristics of participatory cultures, including our assumptions about adults and teenagers, as well as the language, behavior, learning spaces, and curricula that define and sometimes limit adult and teen relationships. This knowledge may provide educators and researchers who support youth media education with strategies to build curriculum grounded in collaborative understanding of the relations between adult and teenaged individuals, in search of new possibilities and approaches in media education and in public life.

20. University of Texas at Austin
Organizer: S. Craig Watkins
Participants: S. Craig Watkins, Alex Cho, Andres Lombana Bermudez

The Last Mile

The DML initiative has invested considerable energy researching the role of digital media in formal and informal learning spaces. It’s now time to ask: What comes after? How do we make sure that youth, especially those from non-dominant backgrounds, are able to port these skills into a social and economic world that is increasingly precarious? For high school students, what are the next steps in ensuring opportunity: A two-year college degree? A four-year college degree? Trade school? Something else? As we continue to iterate the vision of “connected learning” how do we begin to reimagine the last mile challenge? That is, the challenge of connecting students to real world opportunities in education, civic life, and employment. As the future of work continues to evolve and social and economic inequality continues to widen how might we reimagine and reconstruct the kinds of pathways that connect student interests, out-of-school practices, and media literacies to opportunity? What does the Last Mile look like? Additionally, are economics the most important component to the “Last Mile,” or are other factors such as happiness, civic engagement, or altruism just as important? How do structural barriers impede learners’ opportunities, even if they have explored and developed skills in digital media environments? Using data from the Connected Learning Research Network’s Austin “Digital Edge” project as a starter, this DML Café table invites participants to join a crucial conversation as DML evolves, asking: How can we envision a set of guidelines to activate the rich opportunity afforded by digital media learning and apply it toward a vision of a sustainable future for our young people?

21. Urban Arts Partnership
Organizer: Armando Somoza
Participants: Armando Somoza; TBD, Urban Arts Partnership

“More Than A Quota”: How Youth Fused the Creative Arts, Social Media, and Advocacy to Engage the Stop&Frisk Policy

New Yorkers were stopped by the NYPD over half a million times in 2012 and 5 million stops have been made throughout the Bloomberg administration as a part of the controversial Stop&Frisk policy. 90% of those stopped were Black and Latino between the ages of 14-24 and 89% of those stopped were completely innocent, neither arrested nor issued a summons. In 2012, students from The Academy at Urban Arts Partnership and LatinoJustice PRLDEF created a 15 minute documentary, original soundtrack and social media campaign called “More Than a Quota” examining the impact of Stop-and-Frisk on NYC youth. In December 2013, students presented “More Than A Quota: Our Experience, Our Story,” a multimedia digital pop up exhibit at SOHO ARTHOUSE, 138 Sullivan Street, New York, NY 10012, to showcase creative responses to the experience of being stopped and frisked as a NYC youth. This digital showcase provides a venue for NYC youth to create original media and share multimedia projects giving students a voice in the discourse around community policing. Youth have become producers of original media and have designed a social media campaign to capture and tell their stories.

Based on trainings from the New Organizing Institute, we developed a new media leadership curriculum. Through a collective and creative vision, students became 21st century agents of change. Students fused the power of advocacy, creativity, youth media and online activism on platforms they already use and master on an everyday basis. Come learn our creative approach to leading students to develop creative, engaging and innovative advocacy campaigns. Youth learn through interaction with each other in connected, participatory ways, often involving not only the production but also the consumption of knowledge, ideas, and designs.

22. VIF International Education
Organizer: Julie Keane
Participants: Julie Keane, Leslie Libscomb, Nitya Mallikarjun

A Social Learning Platform for Global Educators

In 2012, the U.S. Department of Education formally recognized the interdependence between an educated, globally competent citizenry and national political and economic development and security. Aligned with this policy challenge, VIF International Education, the leading U.S. Department of State-designated J-1 teacher exchange sponsor, developed an online learning platform featuring inquiry-based professional development (PD) integrated with a globally themed resource library and community of educators.

The VIF learning center hosts Global Gateway, a PD system that draws upon the cross-cultural pedagogical skills of VIF’s K-12 international educators and extends them to a broader community of teachers around the world. This learning model is designed to ensure that PD experiences are directly translated into classroom practices with immediate impact on students. The blended PD shares specific features of research-based models that have been proven to have significant influence on both teacher practice and student learning.

These are:
The use of a dynamic online platform that supports a robust social community, innovative blended learning opportunities and collaboration across schools, districts and states.
Duration.
Focus on content knowledge.
Active or inquiry-oriented learning approaches in the PD experience.
Multiple cycles of presentation and integration of, and reflection on knowledge.
Support of the development of “Investigative Cultures.”

During this session, presenters will provide an overview of the VIF learning center and a badging system for Global-Ready Teachers aligned with Mozilla’s OBI. They will demonstrate how the Global Gateway system supports teachers’ development of a critical, cultural framework for engaging students with an inquiry-based approach to language arts, dual language immersion, social studies, science, technology, engineering, math and cross-disciplinary investigations. The system offers multiple pathways in dual language immersion, ESL and integrating global content to enrich standard classroom instruction, providing teachers with comprehensive knowledge of the world to engage students for deeper understanding.

23. VISUALS for CHANGE
Organizer: Amanda Lyons
Participants: Amanda Lyons, David Preston, John Davis, Josh Ostini

Visualizing Open Source Learning

DML CAFE CALL FOR PROPOSALS

DML Cafe Call for Proposals Announced:
January 6, 2014

DML Cafe Proposal Deadline:
February 8, 2014

Do you have something exciting to share about learning, digital youth, and media? Something you think is a must at DML2014? Want to share some report findings? Information about your program or school? Have you published a book? How about sharing your dissertation with the world? Or maybe you just need some hack space? The DML Cafe is an informal, relaxed space for you to share your ideas.

The DML Cafe will be open Saturday, March 8, 2014, (one day only!) from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM, and from 2:00 to 3:30 PM. You will have 90 minutes and a round table (that seats 10 people) to invite folks to join you! Bring your own equipment, laptop, materials, or whatever else you need to prevent a snooze fest!

You don’t need to be registered to submit an application, but selected participants must pay for their own registration, as well as arrange and fund their own travel to/from DML2014. Priority will be given to organizations that are not already formally accepted to present in the conference.

How are we selecting the participants? Basically, we are looking for great content! How many are selected? 20 organizations or individuals!