Girl Scouts of USA Hires TLC

Every year, Girl Scouts of the USA serves over 2,000,000 girls and 900,000 volunteers internationally.  Through a myriad of enriching experiences, such as extraordinary field trips, sports skill-building clinics, community service projects, cultural exchanges, environmental stewardships, and online endeavors, girls grow courageous and strong.

Girl Scouts of the USA has hired The Learning Collective to conceive an engaging online experience that will help girls across the globe reduce their carbon footprint.  This is part of GSUSA’s Journeys program.  Learn more.

The Learning Collective is proud to work with the Girl Scouts on this important project.

Digital Playground Inspires Slumdog

Earlier this month, the MacArthur Foundation announced the winners of the third annual Digital Media and Learning competition.  There are some great projects, especially the Learning Lab Awardees which won up to $200,000 to further their initiatives.

A project that particularly caught our eye is Hole-in-the-Wall, the inspiration for the book “Q&A” which inspired the movie Slumdog Millionaire.  Bridging the digital divide by reaching previously underserved youth in the developing world … urban slums and remote-rural populations, ethnic minorities, juvenile home detainees, and children with special needs … Hole-in-the-Wall has installed over 700 internet-enabled public Playground Learning Stations across India, Bhutan, Cambodia and countries in the African continent.  Game-activities promote experiential learning that is mapped to prescribed primary grade curricula across various subjects, Hole-in-the-Wall’s Activity Based E-Learning Solution imparts a playful learning environment by encouraging learning through self and group exploration beyond the classroom.

Related articles:

• Teaching: Inspiring British children, Slumdog style (telegraph.co.uk)
• Slumdog reveals learning treasures (guardian.co.uk)
• Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out (debaird.net)
• Reimagining Learning: Vote in a Digital Media Competition (wired.com)
• Fiji Reef- From The West Side To West Pacific. (stuckinfijimud.blogspot.com)
• Guest Post: Four Insights for Youth Marketers from DML 2010 (ypulse.com)

Develop Idea for A Mobile Learning App

Applications for the first Startl Design Boost are now open for budding entrepreneurs and designers interested in developing cutting edge mobile applications for learning.  Developed in conjunction with IDEO, the first Startl Boost, a five day building, hacking, business and human centered design immersion will be held at the Pratt Institute in New York City, March 15-19, 2010.  There is no tuition cost for the workshop.  Details of the workshop:

Day 1: Define the Idea: Participants present ideas and set criteria for their proposed mobile learning application.

Day 2: Validate the Idea: Participants conduct research with end users and get feedback with learning and marketing experts about their mobile learning app.

Day 3: Design the idea: Participants storyboard their refined idea for mobile learning app and begin creating/ modifying their prototype.

Day 4: Share the idea: Participants create presentation deck to “pitch” their mobile learning app and finalize their prototype.

Day 5: Pitch the idea: Participants will present “pitches” and prototypes to an audience that includes a panel of users, industry experts, and market investors.

The top three teams will be invited to present to a larger audience at the Venture Capital in Education Summit in June in NYC.  While the Startl Design Boost is open to mobile learning applications for all ages, teams creating apps for children ages 3-11 can also apply for the inaugural Cooney Center Prizes for Innovation in Children’s Learning, a national competition intended to generate digital educational innovations with prizes up to $50,000, as well as ongoing business planning support from The Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Sesame Workshop. Startl is a new social enterprise dedicated to bringing digital media and learning innovations to market – from kindergarten to college, inside and outside the classroom.  Startl was incorporated in 2009 with initial funding from the MacArthur, Hewlett, and Gates foundations.  Startl’s mission is to identify talented people with great ideas and new products that will affect the future of learning.  Through relationships with best of breed design, incubation, and investment partners Startl provides an ecology that allows entrepreneurs to mature and products to evolve.  Related articles:

• Sesame Street comes to Google: Improving our education system at the Breakthrough Learning forum (googleblog.blogspot.com)
• So what does an EIR (at First Round in New York City) do? (thisisgoingtobebig.com)