Like many organizations creating innovative solutions for the toughest challenges of our times, Re-Vision Labs looks to the connections between digital media and learning for some of its answers.

According to HASTAC and The MacArthur Foundation (sponsors of the Digital Media and Learning Competition), recent studies of young people’s participation with digital media – including games, mobile devices, social networks, and virtual worlds – suggest that young people are re-imagining learning on a daily basis. They are engaging in “participatory learning” – an intrinsically motivating, inherently interactive, and creatively experimental form of learning.

This is the kind of learning that has the potential to catalyze engagement and action around the big challenges of our times: climate change, pollution, wealth distribution, food and water security, access to information, and the list goes on. So why digital media?

Because in regard to participatory learning, digital media can “significantly lower the barriers to production and distribution, invite social engagement and interaction, promote the possibility of contribution, and challenge traditional notions of authority and expertise.” ¹ Arguably, social and interactive learning has immense value for learners of all ages – not just young learners.  Imagine being able to sign up for a quick online course on Cellular Physiology or Music Theory, offered by experts for just a few dollars. Or addressing racism in the work place through “serious online games.”

Interested in some of the intriguing digital media tools out there? They’re not all video games – take a look.  We’ve separated our suggestions for young and adult learners.

For Young Learners:

Sesame Street – The Sesame Workshop continues to use television media to create effective characters that appeal to children across large (physical and cultural) expanses and foster global citizenship at an early age.

Galli Galli Sim Sim’s Boombah (Property of CPB):  Meet Galli Galli Sim Sim’s Boombah, a gregarious, cuddly lion who loves eating vegetables and dancing to Bhangra music. Or watch Global Grover’s Russian dance. And The Workshop is digging even deeper, researching ways that handheld learning products can help revolutionize teaching and learning. Read the report.

Xeko – This online eco-adventure and endangered species card trading game sticks to its focus of “Gaming for Good;” Xeko partners with nonprofits to promote causes through games. Kids who meet their game goals can activate a donation to a nonprofit, thus connecting their gaming actions to a real world of good.

Little Big Planet – This video game’s tagline says it all:  Play. Create. Share. Users play a character, modify and contribute to the game levels, and participate in a vibrant online community. Plus, LBP is one of two games highlighted in the DML Game Changers Competition; a cash prize is at stake for the designer of the next best level.

For Adult Learners:

SpacedEd.org- This online learning platform allows lifelong learners to choose a from an online course list, answer a few questions per day, and gain knowledge that you want, when you want it. Find courses by Harvard Medical staff, or learn tips and tricks for using your iPhone. SpacedEd provides a space for both development and delivery of content.

Institute for Digital Learning- Find work-based & games-based e-training resources, often multilingual and using multiple formats. Examples include the Union Learning certificate program, an online higher ed course for Trade Union reps, and the Diversity & Inclusion e-training Toolkits.

City Rain – Yes, a video game for PC or Xbox. BUT, this isn’t just any video game. Eco-urban planning meets action-packed simulation game. Says the creator, “In City Rain, you play as a member of an elite environmental Swat Force in charge of restructuring cities, before they are penalized by the World Environment Protection agency.”  Maybe City Rain’s creators should get together with Seattle’s own sustainability reality television show Mission: Sustainable.

Apps – Instead of waxing poetic about the benefits of some great iPhone or smartphone app, why don’t you tell us which ones you like? What are you learning? Would you be learning the same using another format (e.g. reading a book or googling the topic)?

The world of digital media resources for learning is expansive, and growing. We look forward to hearing about the ways you’re noticing digital media changing the face of learning across the world. Post comments here.

1.  Reimagining Learning.  Digital Media and Learning Competition.  http://www.dmlcompetition.net/reimagining_learning.php.

Albert Einstein is attributed with a famous quote about insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

While Einstein wasn’t an educational philosopher, his notion is relevant when looking at how our current educational system does or does not prepare students to live in a collaborative, rapidly evolving world.  This quote reminds me of the challenge of the current educational system to both provide a quality education for all students, while simultaneously developing deeper, more nuanced interdisciplinary understanding within our students so that we have individuals ready to face the interdisciplinary problems (such as poverty, climate change, etc.) of our time.

To achieve this outcome, learning systems will need to develop the capability of applying insights from cognitive science about how brains actually work, while simultaneously informing teachers, parents, principals, and policy makers about the necessity of appropriately incorporating insights from cognition, neuroscience and biology research into their classes, homes, and communities.

With an eye towards applying these findings in real life practice, I have been involved with a variety of projects that intentionally design learning environments to promote interdisciplinary understanding.  This is not an easy task, as truly interdisciplinary work requires an awareness of the mental models and epistemological foundations that pervade ones mind.  Given the complexity of these issues, how can we incorporate effective interdisciplinary learning into educational and organizational learning so that we can create the yet unseen tools to enable current and future generations to address the dilemmas of their time?

Some fascinating work is providing a hint of how and where such opportunities may arise.  I am a big fan of the Interdisciplinary Studies Project, as this research group is focusing upon demystifying the components of quality interdisciplinary education.  Their research looks at the MIT Media Lab, which may be the pre-eminent interdisciplinary work group in the world.  While not a comprehensive answer, their work is identifying trends for in successful and expert interdisciplinary work:  purposefully integrating disciplines while maintaining rigorous standards for conducting expert work while applying disciplinary tools.

A program that I’ve been fortunate to have some contact with is the Three Degrees Project, housed at the University of Washington Law School.  I am keen on this project because they are undertaking truly interdisciplinary studies–simultaneously developing real solutions to help impacted communities adapt to the impacts of climate change while managing a group process to ensure all participants productively collaborate.  Given the trend of collaboration emerging in our world, and especially amongst younger generations, I wonder if achieving quality interdisciplinary work will be easier for a generation who is steeped in working across boundaries?

While there is no silver bullet for creating interdisciplinary insights, there do appear to be some traits that appear time and time again in effective interdisciplinary work—the ability to learn about a topic while simultaneously learning how to manage a complex, tension filled group process (more on interdisciplinary learning and work later), as well as a shift in perspective about knowledge being absolute to knowledge

Given that the 21^st century is loaded with opportunities to demonstrate expertise with interdisciplinary work (a.k.a. make headway with massive 21^st century dilemmas like poverty, climate change, educational access, etc.), how have you taken steps to improve your capacity for being involved in this tough work?

Is there hope for federal K-12 education reform?

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA, currently authorized as No Child Left Behind Act of 2001) is coming up for reauthorization.  Both President Obama and Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan are presenting the reauthorization of ESEA as an opportunity to help provide greater transparency in the accountability system, harness the power of incentives and rewards within the education system, and focus upon turning around under-performing schools.

Given the polarizing debate that has ensued since the authorization of No Child Left Behind, I wonder how the current administration is poised to address a real divide between parties that, until recently, focused upon arguing about the existence of the Department of Education.

As recently as George W. Bush’s tenure as president, Republicans assumed a position that the Department of Education, and thus federal involvement in education reform, should be abolished, as outlined by this Cato Institute piece. Interestingly, the Cato Institute piece demonstrates that Republican perspectives about abolishing the Department may be shifting.

Conversely, Democrats are most commonly aligned with increasing the funding of the Department of Education, assuming that its presence and status are given, as exemplified by perspectives put forth by the Center for American Progress.

While the current administration in Washington D.C. is supportive of federal involvement in education reform, I wonder if there is enough political will and support for a significant overhaul of the NCLB.  Consider what Arne Duncan has identified as ways in which the federal government will create a common definition of success:

1. Raising standards for all students,
2. Rewarding success in schools,
3. Supporting and rewarding effective teachers and leaders,
4. Turning around low performing schools, and
5. Helping schools develop a well rounded education.

I would imagine that most people, regardless of political affiliation, could support these ideas.  However, the role of the federal government in bringing forth these ideas raises two fundamental questions: How involved should the federal government be in the US education system?  What is the end goal that the federal government is aligning the education system? Is it to

…produce economically successful individuals, as researcher Richard Murnane proposes?

…produce workers with the needed skills for the global economy?

…develop global consciousness in our students?

…ensure that each child simply has access to education?

While this question could serve as a basis for multiple Ph.D.’s, conferences, and summits, one take home point stands out: the educational system is moving forward at full speed without a consensus as to where it should be headed.  In the interim the heading is focused upon using education as tool for promoting economic growth.  Who is willing to argue with the proposition that better education will position individuals and the US for future economic growth?  If I had kids, I would definitely be considering the financial implications of my kids educational opportunities and growth.

However, without developing some agreement on why we educate, we may be reliving history.  Consider this quote from Patricia Graham:

“Public purposes for education change as the society perceives its needs and priorities differently.  Currently our old educational shiboleths have been rejected but new ones have not yet been accepted.  The critique of contemporary educational processes is intense, but there is little articulate reformulation of either educational goals or of means to achieve them.”¹

26 years ago these words were scribbed, and it seems that we may well be articulating means to achieve something, without first deciding upon what we are to achieve.

Is there hope for your school?

Can we afford not to have the federal government involved in this debate?  With state budgets crashing, federal stabilization funds from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are playing an important role in maintaining adequate funding for schools.  Furthermore, the next budget put forth by the Obama administration proposes to raise the Department of Education’s discretionary spending budget by 7.5%, the largest increase ever proposed.

Without having fully analyzed the Obama administration’s budget and plan for education, I’m initially impressed with the focus upon utilizing data for making decisions.  Any attempt to increase the availability, rigor, and applicability within the education system seems very worthwhile, especially considering the historical lack of using data to drive decisions within the education sector.  It would be even better if the administration clarified the need to use data in a formative manner (to improve teaching), which is no small task given that data has been utilized mostly as an outcome metric over the last 10 years.

I’m hopeful that federal involvement will accomplish a couple things:

1. Provide a temporary bridge in funding for cash strapped states, and that states effectively deal with a precipitous drop in funding that is on the horizon once the ARRA funds are gone.
2. Elevate education reform within the public agenda
   1. I don’t care if takes federal intervention or complete state autonomy.  Our system has room for improvement and we need to apply all the currently available resources to improve it.
3. Engage communicates in education reform beyond local levies and limited campaigns to bridge federal education reform with local education reform
   1. To do so will require some sort of organizing body to align all of these efforts.  In Cincinnati an effort coordinate by Strive aligns over 300 organizations, in total over $7 billion dollars in resources, to move kids from birth to their career through an aligned system.

Here in Washington State, we have the opportunity to influence the future of this state’s education system—there happens to be a landmark bill (ESHB 2261) passed in by Washington’s Legislature in 2009 that will:

1. increase instructional hours,
2. enhance high school diploma requirements,
3. create a new transportation funding formula,
4. add all-day kindergarten to basic education, and
5. provide new finance structure for transparency.

Maybe Washington State has the opportunity to create a cohesive strategy for aligning federal, state, and local policies to bring about lasting education reform?

How might you want to contribute to this process locally–as a parent, teacher, administrator, or person on the street—what is your stake in education reform?

The passionate nerds in Revision Labs’ Learning 2.0 Lab have been brewing a new, more effectively customized yet community-inclusive model for organizational learning.  I tweet.  But given how much of their fancy philosophizing flies around the office, I thought a tangential blog about how people make decisions around education could be appropriate.

I’ve been working with Professor David Harrison and  SkillUp Washington on an upfront financing mechanism to help King County’s working poor onto a path of sustainability through education and training.  While that sounds boring and tedious (to me initially, at least), the essence for this need stems from the oft-overlooked heterogeneity of decision making models across socio-economic classes.

What?  I know, right?  Different people make decisions differently, and they all (to some extent) deviate from those archaic models of “rational decision-making” that we swallow and regurgitate in every Economics 101 class.

While we all respond to signals slightly differently, there’s a dramatic difference between how the low-income make decisions and weigh trade-offs and their middle and upper-class counterparts.  Cognizance of this alone can help us better customize public policy toward funding around training and education for the working poor.

Arlene’s Decision Making Model

“Arlene” is our avatar.  She is the traditional socio-economic underdog; over 25, under-skilled, working but earning annually less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line.  Arlene struggles to satisfy her basic needs, and the opportunity cost of enrolling in school and remaining actively enrolled is high.  The conventional incentives traditional students are motivated by (well paying job, financial security, social status) to persist through each semester are not the same for Arlene, who can’t consistently afford the time it takes to obtain a degree.  More importantly, her expected value of a degree as far lower, given a lifetime of internalizing social stigmas and/or low-paying, crummy past employment.

The oft-cited “rational” decision-making model is not ubiquitous.  Divergences from the standard model are most obvious among the low-income, who must choose daily between basic necessities like food and rent.  Their immediate future is mired in uncertainty, let alone long-term future, much unlike their middle and upper-class counterparts.

Low-income, often ethnic minorities and/or women, in King County (and everywhere) possess so few tools and resources that the constraints and preferences they juggle in making the most “rational” decision are frequently misaligned with a sustainable future.

Greater income volatility for low-income individuals increases their need for short-term credit.  Arlene’s time preferences and discount rate on future earnings is higher than middle and high-income earners; she can’t afford to prioritize education, given the many imminent constraints working poor face.  Arlene’s expected value of future full-time employment is diminished by daily uncertainties, and consequently far lower than what we may “rationally” predict.  Education has been shown to lower one’s discount rate in decision-making and permit the self-discipline that financial sustainability demands[1].

The inability to “afford” to wait to consume A (food, rent, childcare) over B (books and transportation to school) by Arlene and her counterparts reinforce barriers to graduation and full-time employment.  Arlene’s continued enrollment and active participation in community college and training programs is one of the most crucial building blocks of self-sufficiency, yet it is highly fragile and easily disturbed.  And the reason it is so fragile is because of the above: she can’t afford time and the expected value of that time spent on education is low, shrouded by uncertainty and past experiences.  Promises just aren’t as incentivizing for Arlene as they are for you and me.

An upfront financing mechanism that lowers the discount rate of re-enrolling next semester and raises the expected value of earning a degree would help clear Arlene’s path to self-sufficiency by making it more obvious and more certain.  A pay-as-you-go system that financially supports Arlene’s ambitions to become, for example, a registered nurse by providing partial upfront wages (that she would earn as an RN) would give her both the financial stability and confidence in the future necessary to complete the steps needed to do so.  It is precisely this lack of ready resources that reinforces the traditional barriers to entry to sustained training and employment.  This financing is an investment in human capital.  The outlay cost is the price of Arlene’s increased certainty in earning a degree that secures a good job.  The reward is the development of human capital, satisfying demand for high-demand industries, and the social and economic spillover effects of having the working poor move out of poverty.

We propose helping Arlene along the way to employment and bringing future financial rewards closer to home, before securing a job, and allowing her to repay the investment over time and below market-rate interest, post-employment.

[1] Bauer and Chytilover: The Impact of Education on Subjective Discount Rates in Ugandan Villages. March 2009.  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1369803

Re-Vision Labs has partnered with the innovative interdisciplinary program Three Degrees for the Digital Media and Learning Competition supported by the MacArthur Foundation.  If the joint proposal is successful in securing a grant, Re-Vision Labs will create a participatory online platform to connect Three Degree’s interdisciplinary Climate Justice Seminar with host community partners in the high-Andes and other climate vulnerable communities around the globe.  Please check out the entire proposal here—we are looking to find additional innovative and established partners within the competition to see whether our collaboration can be strengthened further.

Three Degrees, which is comprised of 25 graduate students from 15 different departments at the University of Washington, is researching how communities in the high-Andean regions of Ecuador will adapt to glacier retreat.  At the completion of the 5-month seminar the graduate students will create climate adaptation assessments focusing upon 5-issue areas:  health, food & water, security, equity, and justice.  Currently, the seminar is in its first phase as pilot project.

Read more of this >>

by Ashley Best
Re-Vision Labs Fellow

Need the current scoop on education in the United States? Check out these links!

Week of January 4th – 8th, 2010

MICROFINANCE: Microfinance week at RVL is upon us! (Go check it out!)  In the most broad of terms, microfinance refers to a movement that envisions low-income households having the permanent support of, and access to, high quality financial services to help reduce poverty.  More narrowly, this term refers to loans and and financial services provided by mircofinance institutions to low-income clients.  How does this effect education one may ask?  A cornerstone of alleviating poverty lies in the opportunity to provide education.  This crucial fact has spurred many microfinance institutions to focus on providing education loans and creating educational focus.  ETC.

Viattana connects you, the lender, with students who need your help.

1. Vittana – Based in Seattle (yay!), Vittana makes it possible for person-to-person loans to go directly from the public to a student.  100% of the money you loan to Vittana goes to a high achieving student that needs an education loan, and as the student pays Vittana back, Vittana pays you! Pretty cool.  Student profiles are uploaded to the site so people can see exactly who your money is going to!  This is a great way to help finance someone’s education!

2. Janta – Down the coast in San Francisco, Janta offers the possibility of educational loans or gifts.  This organization provides student profiles and academic progress reports to the financial donors, providing proof that education works to alleciate poverty and provide opportunity one person at a time.  Donations can be made to Janta through gifts, that are tax deductible through the charitable organization Namaste Foundation, or through lending, that will be repaid by Janta’s microfinance institution when funds are repaid by the student.

How does Janta work, you ask?

3. Focus on Children – A faculty member at the University of Huston reviews a study that proposes to add a children’s education fund on to the microfinance loans made to clients.  When clients pay back their loans, small business loans or otherwise, a portion of the repaid money goes into a fund that is reserved for their child’s education.  It focuses on the possibilities of existing mircofinance institutions adding educational lending and program updates to their current offerings.

4. Stories from the Field – Kiva, another institution implementing mircofinance loans, has a fellows program that serves the purpose of documenting the lives of the working poor.  This blog is very informative and gives supreme insight to the populations that can benefit from all kinds of mircofinance loans and gifts.  This particular post explores how women in the Philippines have used loans to better their standards of living, allowing their children to be free to attend better schools in other cities, attend college and have opportunities that they would otherwise never have been able to experience.  While this example is not based in the United States, it speaks to the power of microfinance and the inherent ties between education and alleviation of poverty.

REMEMBER: RVL’s is hosting the Seattle Greendrinks and Oikocredit kick-off event on January 12th at 5:30pm.  See you there!

Check back for next week’s hot topic!  Education is empowering. Enjoy the week.

by Ashley Best
Re-Vision Labs Fellow

Need the current scoop on education in the United States? Check out these links!

Week of December 28th, 2009 – January 1st, 2010

SKYPE: Skype is a software that allows over-the-internet voice and video chat between Skype users for free! It can also incorporate instant messaging, text messaging and calls to landlines.  This versatile and user-friendly software has taken internet communication to a level of ease and accessibility.  Like many useful technologies, there is great potential to use this software in the classroom for collaboration and the ePals section of the Skype software makes it easily possible for teachers and classrooms to connect to each other. Over-the-internet learning is a steadily growing market and integrating this useful and connective software in the classroom presents endless opportunities and creative outlets for students and educators alike.

Skype allows connectivity in the classroom in new and exciting ways!

1. What You Need:  Written by an educator, this short article explains the necessary equipment, space, and permissions needed to set up Skype accounts for students, as well as precautions that should be considered.

2. History Comes To Life:  An awesome example of how a teacher connected his history lesson plans with a expert in the field, a curator at a National Museum using Skype. (Yes, yes, this is in Canada.)

3. Virtual Field Trips: School field trips are not always an option due to budget, proximity, or other factors, but with Skype, students can take a live tour of a new place and ask questions about what they are seeing!

4. Interviews in (or out of) the Classroom: These high school students are studying broadcast journalism and use Skype to conduct interviews off campus. Pretty handy!

5. The More the Merrier: 50 great ideas on how to incorporate Skype in the classroom.  These ideas stretch from lesson planning to parent-teacher conferences to learning a foreign language.

Check back for next week’s hot topic!  Education is empowering. Enjoy the week & Happy New Year!