For those that were there last year, we had a very interesting combined Second Life Educators Conference (SLEDcc) and Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) in Florida in September. Apparently the educators involved in the SLEDcc have taken the decision to organize their own seperate event in response to online feedback at a time and place…
Category: Education
WebWise Conference in DC: Reinventing Libraries and Museums in the Digital Age
I'm currently in Washington DC again for the WebWise Conference at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill. Webwise is an annual gathering of around 300 librarians and museum staff from around the United States discussing and debating how their institutions should respond to technological changes in the Digital Age. I will be staffing a booth…
Reminder: Sponsor me at the Global Kids Dance-a-Thon!
This is a quick reminder about the Global Kids Scholarship Fundraiser Dance-A-Thon that I'm participating in next Friday, March 6. I will be squaring off against some of our high school youth in a dance off to raise scholarship money. This Dance-a-Thon will raise much needed funds for scholarships for our Global Kids Leaders who…
Learning from the Jedis of Digital Media and Learning
We just finished up a two-day convening of 80-some representatives of various projects funded by the Digital Media and Learning department of the MacArthur Foundation. It's sort of a Jedi Council of the most bad ass researchers, educators, game designers, and techies in the field of 21st century learning. It's good to connect again with…
Talking about Digital Learning at UC Irvine
To the right is a picture from the John Wayne International Airport in Santa Ana, California, where I flew in this afternoon. I'm at UC Irvine with Rafi for a MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning grantees meeting. We're joining a bunch of super smart people who are conducting a wide range of research, field…
The Global Kids Retreat: Spoken Word and B-boying with 60 Teens in the Woods
On Monday, I got to spend some quality time with 60-some teenagers in our Global Kids programs from around New York City — kids who we call our “GK Leaders.” Normally being stuck in the woods with 60 teens sounds more like a bad horror movie rather than a fun time to me. But this…
Sponsor me at the Global Kids Dance-a-Thon: help our kids get to college!
On Friday, March 6, I'm participating in Global Kids annual Scholarship Fundraiser Dance-A-Thon. I will be squaring off against some of our high school youth in a dance off to raise money (anything for a cause!) This Dance-a-Thon will raise much needed funds for scholarships for our Global Kids Leaders who will attend college this…
Virtual World Industry Forecast sees opportunities for education, corporate training, web-worlds
I got a chance to read over the interesting but sobering Virtual Worlds Management Industry Forecast 2009 which came out earlier this week. This report collected responses from over 60 industry executives, analysts, observers, and "thought leaders" on what the coming year holds for the virtual worlds industry. (Notable companies not represented in this survey…
Speaking on Global Kids approach and nonprofit services today
I got an opportunity to speak about Global Kids's approach to youth development and the kinds of services we offer other institutions at "Nonprofit Week" on Orange Island in Second Life today. It was neat being among the 150 or so avatars who rezzed in for the talks today by my friends Coughran Mayo and…
YouTube as a research tool: all the knowledge of humanity in 3 minute chunks
The New York Times has an interesting article from a few days ago about how young people are using YouTube as their primary search engine for finding information on the internet. Entitled "At First, Funny Videos. Now, a Reference Tool," the report describes how kids are increasingly seeking all sorts of knowledge on this extremely…