The 2015 Digital Media and Learning Conference I feared was going to be the last. With the announcement by the MacArthur Foundation in August 2015 that they were ending funding of the field of digital learning, including the DML conference, it seemed like the writing was on the wall. DML Los Angeles felt to me …
I can't love enough this picture of several of the Global Kids program directors and staff from the Online Leadership Program all together for the first time. This is from the Digital Media and Learning conference at UC Irvine that took place October 5-7. Pictured left to right: Sara Vogel, Ariam Mogos, Juan Rubio, Rik Panganiban, …
This past Friday was the fourth annual Teen Science Night at the California Academy of Sciences, the nation's largest teen-organized science night at a museum. Over 1,600 teens from across the San Francisco Bay Area gathered at the Academy for an evening of science exploration and fun. I had a blast, as always, helping out at …
Give a listen to the latest episode of "Object Oriented," the podcast on digital learning in collections-based museums, hosted by Eve Gaus of the Field Museum, Barry Joseph of the American Museum of Natural History and myself. In this show, we focus on what's new at our respective institutions, and man are we up to …
Today my colleague Andrew dug up this old Science Action Club tee-shirt for me, back from 2012. Any ideas why we don't use this graphic anymore?
I’m excited to announce that I will soon be taking on a newly created role at the Academy, the Senior Instructional Design Lead for Science Action Club. This is a new position working with our largest youth program, the Science Action Club (SAC), a high-impact STEM learning program that designs professional development and teaching kits for middle school afterschool …
I have been helping lead one of our teen project groups for the internship program at the Academy. Project groups are opportunities for our interns to work together on some longer term project or topic, supported by a staff person, over the course of a semester. My project group is called “Big History”, a group of five teens …
I just read a chapter from the book Behavior Change Theories and Free-Choice Environmental Learning (2009) that examines behavior change theories as they apply to environmental learning and action. The author Nicole Ardoin of Stanford University reviews several relevant behavior change theories that are particularly relevant to institutions that offer "free-choice" environmental learning. That is, places …
Another awesome new youth program at the California Academy of Sciences is our Teen Think Tank, a group of teen leaders at the Academy that provide feedback and advise on exhibits, programs and communications that we produce here at the museum. It’s a group that we’ve wanted to create for a very long time, so …
I've been thinking a lot about this interview with former Facebook exec and angel investor Chamath Palihapitiya. It's chock-a-block with mind exploding ideas and concepts. As a teen educator, I'm particularly focused on the first ten minutes where Chamath talks about what he sees as a fundamental shift in what counts as "social capital." I highly …