New Media & Learning Initiative

How accurate are the "stereotypes" for youths, students, seniors and what are the pitfalls of believing them too much? Wha can we learn from the inspiring exceptions?

Join us for this discussion with Dr. Carl Berger, NMC Fellow, when he shares his experience leading a class at an active senior community's computer club of 400 or so members. The class was on Facebook and Twitter with a bit of Flickr thrown in, with sessions usually lasting about an hour and a half but this one in particular went three hours. The classes are hands-on for those that bring devices and observation for the rest that squeeze in and/or sit/stand around the edges for the large classroom. The age of participants range from 50-90 years old, with most in the 60-70 range.

We have lined up Dr Michael Wesch of Kansas State University for a Connect@NMC session scheduled for April 23, 2009 at 12:45PM Pacific Time (check your local time). 

You may be familiar with Michael's wildly popular YouTube videos, but he will join us along with the students who are in his current research class to share their latest bits of social media research and to share their approach for creating these projects. The working title for this year's Digital Ethnography project is “The Fight for Significance in the Age of the Microcelebrity: Anonymity, Anonymous, Smart Mobs, Mad Mobs, Bot Mobs and the Great American Poets” (learn more...)

Join us for a very special and exciting Connect@NMC session when Howard Rheingold visits us to share about his newest project, the Social Media Classroom. Author of SmartMobs, speaker on participatory media, and long time educator, Howard likely needs no introduction for NMC followers.

In his last connection with NMC, in a keynote presented in Second Life for the 2007 NMC Symposium on the Evolution of Communication, Howard presented an early glimpse into his concept of a Social Media Classroom (see it again at Co-Evolution of Technology, Media and Collective Action).

a free online seminar from NMC!
 

Seminar Host: Robert McDaniels, Adobe Systems, Inc
When: November 19, 2008 11:00am-1:00pm PT (check for local time)
Where: NMC Connect Seminar Room (URL provided after registering below)

This paper, produced as part of the NMC's Digital Education Project for Texas Art Museums, documents the sad state in which arts education finds itself; shines a light of hope on that picture; and makes recommendations that arts-focused institutions and their donor communities can use to help make a difference in keeping a love for the arts alive across the state.

Download Into the Breach (384k, 20 pp)
1,983 downloads as of August 22 2011

That partnership, which falls under the umbrella of the NMC's Digital Media and Learning Initiative, has help us to continue to support the Pachyderm Project, to strengthen our longstanding collaborations with the Digital Storytelling Institute, Hippasus, and other organizations, and to better understand the pedagogy and power of story when coupled with digital media.