Generation YES Blog

An announcement from HASTAC.org:

DIGITAL MEDIA AND LEARNING COMPETITION 2008

The second HASTAC/MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition is now open! The focus is participatory learning. Participatory Learning includes the many ways that learners (of any age) use new technologies to participate in virtual communities where they share ideas, comment upon one another’s projects, and plan, design, advance, implement, or simply discuss their goals and ideas together. Full information at: www.dmlcompetition.net

Awards will be made in two categories:

• Innovation in Participatory Learning Awards will support projects that demonstrate new modes of participatory learning, in which people take part in virtual communities, share ideas, comment on one another’s projects, and advance goals together. Successful projects will promote participatory learning in a variety of environments: through the creation of new digital tools, modification of existing ones, or use of digital media in some other novel way. Submissions will be accepted from applicants in Canada, People’s Republic of China, India, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, countries in which HASTAC or MacArthur have significant experience. Winners will receive between $30,000 and $250,000.
• Young Innovator Awards are designed to encourage young people aged 18-25 to think boldly about “what comes next” in participatory learning and to contribute to making it happen. Winners will receive funding to do an internship with a sponsor organization to help bring their most visionary ideas from the “garage” stage to implementation. For this competition cycle, submissions will only be accepted from applicants in the United States. Winners will receive between $5,000 and $30,000.

Application Deadline: October 15, 2008

Youth Service America and Disney just launched a second round of Disney Minnie Grants to engage children and youth, ages 5-14 as community volunteers. The selected applications will receive $500 to support their youth-led service projects. The deadline is August 30 and projects must take place October 15-November 15, 2008. Grantees from the first round of Disney awards of 2008 are eligible to apply. Click here for more information and application materials.

We’re pleased to announce the winners of our first “Go Green” contest. Generation YES students were asked to create a video showcasing their school’s efforts to help the environment.

Our two grand prize winners are:

• Winston Churchill Middle School near Sacramento, California
• Heim Middle School in Williamsville, New York

See both videos here!

Bonus - just got word of another Green contest:
Do Something is inviting America’s middle and high schools to reduce their carbon footprint this fall through the “Increase Your Green” competition. All initiatives must be youth-designed and -led. The competition opens October 13 and closes December 8. Visit the Do Something Web site for complete program guidelines and application procedures.

Sylvia

The National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) will be in San Antonio, Texas in less than two weeks, June 28 - July 3, 2008. Sponsored by ISTE, this is the “big” national conference of the year for technology in education.

Every year, we plan our booth with a fun theme (fun = cheap!) and this year our theme is “Go Green.” We ran a contest for our schools to share student-made videos about their school’s green efforts, we have a new booth that’s lighter (takes less energy to ship,) and we’ll be doing what we can to reuse and recycle!

Generation YES will be in booth 7148 in the exhibit hall, with GenYES teachers and students from Texas and Kansas on hand. We will also be participating in several events and panels. Be sure to stop by and say “HOWDY!”

FREE STUFF! We will be handing out samples of our new TechYES Science Student Guide. (I talked a bit about this new product and our STEM initiatives in a previous post.) TechYES Science guides students to a technology literacy certification through science projects. Come by and get one!

Events (link to NECC schedule)
Bridging the Digital Divide in Texas
Dennis Harper, with Trina Davis, Susanna Garza and Martha Peet
Monday, 6/30/2008, 12:30pm-1:30pm

Student-Centered Laptop Integration into the Classroom
Ron Canuel, Eastern Townships School Board (Canada) with Susan Einhorn, Sylvia Martinez, Scott Parker and Gary Stager
Monday, 6/30/2008, 2:00pm-3:00pm

Assessing Student Technology Literacy
Agnes Zaorski, Eatontown Public Schools with Cathy Higgins, Ashanti Jefferson and Sylvia Martinez
Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 3:30pm-4:30pm

Transforming Technology Projects from Good to Great
Melinda Kolk, Tech4Learning, Inc. with Sylvia Martinez, Peter Reynolds, Adam Smith and Gary Stager
Wednesday, 7/2/2008, 12:00pm-1:00pm

Constructivist Celebration - Sunday, June 28. Join colleagues in a day-long celebration of creativity, computing & constructivist learning. Sponsored by the Constructivist Consortium. (Sorry, this event is sold out!)

I’ll also be at the EdubloggerCon pre-NECC event on Saturday. This should be a fun, informal event and a perfect (free!) way to meet virtual friends and like-minded educators. It’s not just for bloggers, by the way, it’s for all tech-loving educators interested in new applications, online projects, collaboration, and Web 2.0. Hope to see Twitter-friends and Classroom 2.0′rs there!

Sylvia

Find more grants like this at the State Education Agency K-12 Service-Learning Network (SEANet) website:

Young People Invited to Submit Earth-Saving Ideas for Lorax Challenge
Deadline: May 31, 2008

Dr. Seuss Enterprises and Ashoka’s Youth Venture, in partnership with Earth Island Institute, have announced the Lorax Challenge, an opportunity for people between the ages of 12 and 20 across the United States to turn their ideas for helping to save the planet into reality.

The challenge invites teams of young people to create action plans for their earth-saving ideas.

To be considered for the Lorax grant, a venture team must be youth-created, -led, and -managed; be community-benefiting; be structured as a lasting organization (meaning not just a one- time event, but rather an ongoing entity such as a new school club, a business, or a new community organization); involve a strong team (meaning at least two people) with clear, attainable goals and budget and the commitment to lead their venture; and have at least one “Ally” — a supportive adult who guides and encourages the team.

Selected teams will receive funding of up to $1,000 each to turn their ideas into a reality. In addition, five grand-prize winners will receive a free trip to the University of Florida for a weekend of activities, learning, and fun. (Please note that only high school students are eligible for the Grand Prize.)

Visit the Youth Venture Web site for complete program information and application procedures.

Middle School Teachers Invited to Submit Ideas for Live Green Grant Program
Deadline: May 15, 2008

The Live Green Teacher Grant program, a Discovery Education program presented by General Motors challenges middle school teachers to develop innovative ideas for furthering environmental and energy sustainability. Participating teachers will identify an issue or problem, create a plan to address it, and integrate the topic into classroom teaching.

Forty grants of $1,000 each will be awarded to teachers for the most forward-thinking ideas. Twenty of the grants will be awarded to teachers whose schools are located within fifty miles of a General Motors plant; the other twenty grants will be awarded to teachers whose schools are located elsewhere in the United States. In addition, the forty recipients will be given access to an online professional development program designed to help them reach their school’s specific green initiatives, including a free digital camera to document and share the experience.

The program is open to legal U.S. residents 18 years of age and older and who are employed as middle school teachers (grades 5-9) in accredited public schools in the United States that are organized and primarily operated for educational purposes, and are considered tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Tax Code or are registered as a public school with the National Center for Educational Statistics.

Visit the Live Green Web site for complete program guidelines and application procedures.

Newspaper Association of America Foundation to Support Middle and High School Student Newspaper Projects
Deadline: May 16, 2008

The Newspaper Association of America Foundation encourages middle and high schools to partner with professional newspapers in their communities and seek funding to start, relaunch, or revitalize student newspapers, whether online or in print.

All public and private schools serving grades 7 through 12 and working in partnership with daily or nondaily professional newspapers are eligible to receive Student/Newspaper Partnership Grants from the NAA Foundation. Schools are also encouraged to seek a university or a college as an additional partner. Funding
priority is given to startup student newspapers. However, grant applications to relaunch or revitalize former or current programs also will be considered. The NAA Foundation especially welcomes grant applications from urban, rural, or minority-majority schools.

The NAA Foundation will fund up to twelve partnerships in 2008-09. Each partnership may receive up to $5,000 in Year One, plus an additional $2,500 in Year Two. Grant funds may be used for equipment, software, adviser training, and printing.

Visit the NAA Foundation Web site for complete program information and application procedures.

Asia Society and Goldman Sachs Foundation Invite Applications for Youth Prizes for Excellence in International Education
Deadline: June 12, 2008

The Asia Society and the Goldman Sachs Foundation have announced the 2008 Youth Prizes for Excellence in Inter national Education. Up to five winners will be selected to receive up to $10,000 each as well as an all-expense-paid trip to New York City in November 2008 to receive their prize.

The 2008 competition asks students to create an in-depth written essay or multimedia feature examining a social or economic issue that has relevance to them in a global context. In the essay category, students will compare and contrast how the issue affects their community and a community abroad, as well as create recommendations for what lessons the two communities could learn from each other. In the multimedia category, students will explore how a global problem or challenge affects their life as an individual, as a member of their local community, and/or as a global citizen.

Visit the Asia Society’s Ask Asia Web site for the contest questions, eligibility rules, guidelines and helpful hints, and submission instructions.

Sylvia

There are some great student-created videos among the all the winners of C-SPAN Classroom’s StudentCam video documentary competition!

C-SPAN StudentCam video documentary winners

The contest was sponsored by C-SPAN Classroom. The site offers downloadable and searchable civics and history video clips, with a feature that allows educators to rate, comment and share them, plus other classroom friendly content. Free registration.

It’s slightly annoying that the videos are in Real Player format…

BUT… there are some really great resources here, especially for the current US presidential campaign. View Campaign 2008 Clips.

Sylvia

From Lucy Gray:

Google is running a contest called Doodle 4 Google. It offers students all over the U.S. the chance to play around with the Google logo, and perhaps have their artwork viewed by people all over the world on Google’s home page.

The Doodle 4 Google theme is “What if…?” Here are some examples of what this could mean:

- What if…I could live underwater, or in outer space, or in Colonial America?
- What if…I could see into the future?
- What if…I could build any kind of invention I wanted?

But your students are encouraged to come up with their own ideas about this theme. The competition is open to U.S. K-12 students between 5 and 18. An expert panel will pick 40 finalists who’ll be invited to a workshop with Google’s official doodler, Dennis Hwang, at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. The U.S. public will vote for their favorites, and the winning design will replace the regular Google homepage on May 22, 2008. This champion doodler will receive a $10,000 college scholarship and his or her school will receive a $25,000 technology grant.

More details, dates and resources are on the Google site. School registration closes on March 28th and doodle entries must be received by April 12th, 2008.

Sylvia

P.S. A great accompaniment to this contest is a recent Wired multimedia article about how the original logo was designed. Really interesting stuff to show students. So many students don’t know that design is an iterative, collaborative process. They think that unless an idea is fully formed, it’s not good enough. Looking at a blank screen is intimidating, but knowing that’s where all great ideas start helps!

Be a Video All-Star Contest

Sponsored by: Technology & Learning magazine and 21st Century Connections
Prizes: 12 prizes - laptops and video production software
Who: K-12 students (seems to be U.S. only - see note below)
Deadline: February 29, 2008

To enter, students create a public service announcement—a short video that showcases why digital learning tools are critical to your school or curriculum. The contest, sponsored by 21st Century Connections, is open to all K-12 students. Enter the contest or learn more at the website.

Note on eligibility: The contest website says the contest is open “to all K-12 students”. However, the online contest entry form only allows you to select the 50 US states or the District of Columbia, and there is no country asked for on the form. It seems a bit of a throwback that anyone would assume that a webpage wouldn’t be seen outside of the U.S. in this day and age! For a contest called “21st Century Connections” sponsored by a marketing cooperative of multi-national companies (Lenovo, Intel, Adobe, and Futurekids,) it seems a lazy oversight.

The High School Broadcast Journalism Project is challenging U.S. high school students to create one to two minute video news stories showing a local angle to one of four global issues:

• Kick the Habit – De-carbonizing our lifestyles and economies
• World Heritage – Local sites and international interests
• Growing Up Girl – Challenges facing girls everywhere
• World Water – Access to clean water

You’ll have access to all the amazing footage at the United Nations to make your video a top-notch entry.

The prize for the top three teams (team=two students and one educator) is an all-expenses-paid trip to New York to attend the United Nations Foundation Youth Leadership Summit July 17-19, 2008.  Video finalists will also be broadcast at the UN and seen by thousands of people from all over the world. More information and entry here.

Deadline for submissions is May 2, 2008. Winners will be announced on May 23, 2008.

All contest entries will be coordinated on SchoolTube, a new site that provides a safe and effective platform for video production and online video sharing. This contest is presented by The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation and the United Nations Foundation campaign, The People Speak.

(from press release  www.hsbj.org)

The National Center for Family Literacy is accepting nominations for the 2008 Verizon Tech Savvy Awards, the first national awards to honor programs that improve parents and children’s understanding and use of technology. The awards are designed to support sustainable programs that help parents bridge the widening gap between adults and children’s understanding of technology.

Programs should create innovative, readily replicable ways to employ technology as an important component in family literacy.  Four $5,000 regional awards and one $25,000 national award will be presented. The annual honor will be awarded March 31, 2008 in Louisville, Kentucky, at the National Conference on Family Literacy.

Many TechYES schools have students creating technology projects that teach their parents about technology. This would be a great award to apply for to acknowledge those effors and show that students can lead the way to family technology literacy.

For further information visit the National Center for Family Literacy website.