Here's a neat little clip of Connie Yowell of the MacArthur Foundation welcoming the 2008 and 2009 winners of the HASTAC Digital Media and Learning competition, including myself and Amira from Global Kids. Connie always does such a great job synthesizing the broader historic trends, the cumulative impact of the various digital learning projects supported…
Category: Information Society
Lessons from a Successful Viral Media Campaign: 128 “Global Shim Sham” videos (and counting) for Frankie Manning!
View Larger Map When the organizers of the Frankie Manning 95th Birthday Festival cooked up the idea of having lindy hop scenes from all over submit videos of themselves doing the Shim Sham line dance, we had no real expectations for how many would come in, or from where. I remember telling co-organizer Shorty Dave…
Tell your lindy hop story at IamLindyHop.com
Spuds turned me on to this super cool website started by lindy hopper Ben Yau from Pasadena called : IAmLindyHop.com. The purpose of the site is to "gather and share stories of Lindy Hop" from the dancers, musicians, instructors and DJs that keep this artform alive every day. As Ben writes, "each person has a…
The fine art of online multi-slacking
Back in the day when I used to have cable TV, I would end every work day with some zone-out time channel surfing for an hour of two before bed. I would steer toward the crime procedurals, 80s action movies, billiards tournaments — anything that involved no intellectual thought whatsoever. I would often regret it…
Sign up for FOCUS: Cross-Generational Dialogue on Digital Media and Society April 13-May 4
My colleague Rafi at Global Kids sends out word about the opening of registration for Focus on Digital Media! Focus is a set of online dialogues to bring youth voices to the societal changes that digital media is bringing. According to Rafi, one important bit of feedback we got from the teens involved in our…
“Stacked” Blog (re)Launches: Cute nerdy girl talking about books
My friend Christina has re-launched her awesome blog "Stacked." Christina is chronicling her adventures as she works toward her goal of reading 100 books in a year, and along the way providing smart commentary about reading and literature in general. Check it out at http://stackedblog.com.
Frankie Week Day Six: Chicago Shim Shams Live on the Web!
More cool submissions are coming in for the Frankie Week "Global Shim Sham" video project! Those clever cats in Chicago organized at their Tuesday night dance last night a Shim Sham for Frankie Week. Not content to merely video record the whole thing, they also broadcast it live on the web! Here's what Nuprin writes:…
IJCentral.org: New online center for action on the International Criminal Court
The filmmakers behind "The Reckoning," the new documentary about the International Criminal Court, have launched an associated online clearinghouse to support education and outreach about ICC. Called "IJ Central," it promises to : integrate a multi-platform citizen engagement strategy using online mapping technology to visualize the global justice network through SMS text messaging, aggregating blogs,…
WebWise 2009: Museums and libraries pursuing the innovative edge in a digital age
From February 25-27, I had the opportunity to go to the WebWise conference in Washington DC, an annual gathering of 300-some professionals from libraries and museums to discuss how to keep their cultural institutions relevant in the digital age. It was great getting to hear from some of the leading museums and libraries in America…
“Playing 4 Keeps”: Global Kids social-issues games program
I haven't written much about Global Kids' work in the serious games arena. We have developed a successful program called "Playing 4 Keeps" that engages young people in the process of game design as a way to get them thinking critically about digital games and examining social issues in new ways. In the past three…