Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Product RED, Dell & Seventeen Magazine

Dell has teamed up with Siobhan Gunning to create an exclusive (PRODUCT)^RED design for Dell's Studio 15 laptop line - only for Seventeen Magazine readers.

But here's the cool part. When you purchase a Dell Studio laptop with the (PRODUCT)RED artwork, Dell will contribute $20 to the Global Fund to help eliminate AIDS in Africa.

Dell has a long history of supporting pro-social initiatives and been one of the leading and most actively engaged (PRODUCT)^RED  partners.

The Dell-Seventeen Magazine partnership is a great example of how to get those socially conscious Millennial's actively involved in your brand. Dell is one of many companies that have pro-social marketing programs geared towards Gen Y.

Last week at the YPulse Mashup East, Ron Faris, Virgin Mobile's Director of Brand Development and Partnerships talked about several of their own pro-social intiatives.

For example, at the 2008 Virgin Mobile Festival, the Charity Dome featured a gallery of various artists’ visualizations of homeless youth. 20 charities were represented and over $180K was donated. Their latest pro-social program, Homeless Youth TV, is set to shine a light on the nearly 1 million homeless teens living on the streets across America.

Dell, Seventeen and Virgin Mobile are all proof that a company can do good and still do well.

Related Resources

• Ypulse Toolbox: 10 Youth Activism Sites To Know
• December 1st: AIDS, Africa & Children
• Virgin Mobile Festival & Other Pro-Social Initiatives
• AFT Resources on Teaching About Darfur

Changing the World, One Solar Light at a Time

After spending time with villagers living along the Red Sea, and learning that an estimated 2 billion people worldwide have no affordable access to light, Mark Bent decided to light the world one flashlight at a time.

Mark is the founder of SunNight Solar, a solar-powered flashlight he developed in conjunction with the Department of Energy and NASA.

These lights help medical teams treat patients in refugee camps, farmers can use money spent on fuel on other necessities, and allow children to learn how to read at night without exposure to kerosene fumes.

Under the SunSolar's Buy-One-Give-One (BOGO) Light program, for every flashlight purchased, Bent donates a second light to non-profits that distribute the lights where they are needed.

Related Resources

• SunNight Solar
• BOGO Light Program
• BOGO > Education

OLPC Partners with Amazon.com

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has announced that they have partnered with Amazon.com to revive the Give One, Get One program. This program, first launched last year, allows consumers to purchase two XO laptops, one is shipped to the buyer, and the other is sent to a student in a developing nation.

According to PC World, Amazon.com will start selling XO laptops in late November, around the time of Thanksgiving in the U.S. Sales will likely extend through to around the end of December.

Related Resources

• One Laptop Per Child Program
  
• 1:1 Computing: Moving from Theory to Practice
• Gary Stager >> Laptops and Learning
• Seymour Papert >> From Lunch Boxes to Laptops
• The Maine Learning with Laptop Study
• Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI)

O Ambassadors: Oprah's Youth Movement

Oprah Winfrey, in partnership with Free the Children & Oprah's Angel Network, have announced the launch a new social change organization for youth called O Ambassadors.

This is a grass roots effort and educators and students alike are encouraged to sign-up and form their own O Ambassador chapters. The O Ambassador program hopes to have 1,000 new clubs for the 2008-2009 school year.

The program has several goals: connecting children around the world, encouraging them to be more aware about the world around them, and then empowering them to take active steps to "create lasting change by working toward the UN Millennium Development Goals."

The O Ambassador website also has a myriad of international education resources for teachers. These resources include videos, lesson plans and activities that teachers can use in their classroom. Another good site, not affiliated with the O Ambassador program, is the International Education website sponsored by the Asia Society.

It's exciting to see this new community taking shape and to see American kids looking beyond their own borders. This is similar to the goals I had for the Yahoo! For Teachers project, and it's exciting to see someone else picking up the torch and moving forward.

While there are a lot of really great organizations that are trying to connect kids and teachers, I've long held the belief that it will take money, a big brand and lots of patience to make it happen. And it looks as though Ms. Winfrey is stepping up to the challenge.

Donating money to an organization is always a leap of faith. You donate with the hope that the organization will really "do good" with your donation. I've personally worked with the Free the Children team and I can tell you with 100% certainty that they are worthy of your trust.

Related Resources

• Americans Should "Do More Listening"
• Teachers Without Borders
• Africa Live
• Yackpack: Connecting Students

AFT Resources for Teaching Darfur

I recently had the privilege of attending the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) conference in Washington D.C. where my colleague Karon Weber and I had the opportunity to present Yahoo! for Teachers at a workshop being held at the 2007 AFT QuEST Conference.

One thing that really struck me was how progressive the AFT is in their approach to teaching as well as their positions on social issues. There were several booths that centered around what the AFT membership could do to support AIDS Advocacy, Genocide Awareness in Darfur, and Democracy in Africa.

"As men and women of conscience and as educators committed to the dignity and worth of all humanity, we have a responsibility to speak out against injustice on behalf of vulnerable and disenfranchised peoples across the globe." ~ 2006 AFT resolution on Opposition to the Genocide in Darfur

The AFT-Africa AIDS Campaign is a multi-country campaign in partnership with African teacher unions to provide resources to fight the spread of this disease. The impact of AIDS in the teaching community is staggering.

"This year in South Africa, more than 1,000 teachers will die of AIDS. In Zimbabwe more than 30 percent of the country's teachers carry the HIV virus. Many school age children have lost a parent to the epidemic. Throughout Africa, the statisics tell a similar story--teachers' lives lost and whole education systems endangered (Source: AFT-Africa AIDS Campaign)."

Here are some of the excellent resources complied by the AFT to help teachers educate their students on issues related to Africa, HIV and AIDS.

• Jim Lehrer NewsHour > Sudan
• Connecticut Coalition to Save Darfur > Teaching Resources
• Understanding Sudan
• Choices Program > Darfur Lesson Plans
• Darfur is Dying > Interactive Games

Related Resources

• debaird.net + Africa
• American Federation of Teachers
• AFT AIDS Campaign (pdf)
• Flickr > tag > Darfur

Gen Y: Mobile and Ready to Learn

The use of mobile technologies in student learning environments is growing and represents the next great frontier for learning. Increasingly we will continue to see academic and corporate research invest, design, and launch new mobile applications, many of which can be used in an educational context.

How many people use mobile technology?

At the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel outlined the explosive growth of web-based and mobile technologies. According to Semel, there are 900 million personal computers in the world. But this number pales in comparison to the 2 billion mobile phones currently being used around the world.

Even more astounding is how mobile devices are increasingly being used as the primary way in which people connect to the Internet. In fact, Semel notes that 50% of the Internet users outside the United States will most likely never use a personal computer to connect to the Internet. Rather, they will access information, connect with online learning communities, and create content for the Internet via a mobile device.

A recent study by the Irish National Teachers Organization (INTO) found that students are using their mobile phones for just about everything--except making phone calls. According to INTO, only 20% of the 671 students surveyed report using their mobiles to make phone calls, whereas 81% report using their mobile to communicate via text or IM messages.

The INTO survey seems to dovetail with the results of a 2005 Pew Internet and American Life study on teens and technology. Like their peers in Ireland, American youth preferring using IM or TM for everyday conversations with friends.

Other key findings from the Irish National Teachers Organization survey:

• 96% of 11 & 12 year old students have a mobile phone
• 60% have a camera on it
• 72 % say they use it to access the Internet
• 20% use it to make calls
• 81% use it to send texts

Recognizing the growing connection between mobile media and youth, the popular social networking community MySpace teamed with Helio to provide a mobile version that includes access to Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, and various Yahoo! services.

A 2005 study conducted by the United States-based Kaiser Family Foundation found that, although 90% of teen online access occurs in the home, most Gen Y students also have web access via mobile devices such as a mobile phone (39%), portable gaming device (55%), or other web-enabled hand held device (13%).

In order to create a better and more relevant learning environment for the digital learning styles of the Gen Y student, there is a need to integrate new pedagogical strategies that support the authentic use of technology to support and foster student motivation, collaboration, and learning.

The convergence of mobile and social media technologies, on-demand content delivery and early adoption of portable media devices provides higher education with an opportunity to leverage these tools into learning environments that seem authentic to the Gen Y students filling the virtual and physical halls of the 21st century university.

If you're interested in learning more about how Gen Y uses mobile technology, be sure to attend the 2007 MashUp in San Francisco. Among the many conference sessions is a panel discussion all about youth and their love affair with cell phones and mobile technology. Sounds fascinating!

This is exactly the kind of conversation that needs to happen--especially here in the USA where our use of mobile technology to support student learning (mLearning) lags behind that of Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia.

Related Resources

• Looking Forward: Thinking About mLearning
• Learning 3.0: Mobile, Mobile, Mobile
• Leonard Low + mLearning
• MoSoSo, Gen Y & Digital Learning Styles
• MobilED
• Totally Mobile

The Digital Alliance: ICT Education for All

For the last month or so I've been doing some consulting for The Digital Alliance, a not-for-profit humanitarian organization dedicated to providing ICT knowledge and skills to marginalized groups around the globe. Last week, I was thrilled to learn that the Digital Alliance was invited to participate as a Member of the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID) High-level Panel of Advisor's.

The UN Global Alliance responds to the need and demand for an inclusive global forum and platform for cross-sectoral policy dialogue on the use of ICT for enhancing the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, notably reduction of poverty.

Next week Quinn Sutton, Executive Director of the Digital Alliance ,will be heading to an UN sponsored Pan-African Education conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. During the week long conference, Quinn will will have the opportunity to meet with high ranking education officials from several African nations and share with them how they can integrate social media tools like PBWiki, Yackpack, and Yahoo! Teachers into their classrooms to support student learning.

I strongly believe that social media and Open Education Resources (OER) have the potential to support learning and economic advancement in developing countries and I'm proud that I've been able to work with the Digital Alliance on this project. I hope that this is the first of many more collaborations together.

Congratulations to Quinn & The Digital Alliance!

Learning 3.0: Mobile, Mobile, Mobile

"The fates guide those who go willingly; those who do not, they drag" ~ Seneca

Learning 3.0 will be about harnessing the ubiquity of the mobile phone/handheld device and using it as an educational tool. Given the fact that many in the education ecosystem are finding the Learning 2.0 pill hard to swallow, it may seem a bit premature to start discussing Learning 3.0.

However, the future of learning has already arrived in the European Union, Africa and Southeast Asia, and if the United States doesn't act now we will be even further behind the rest of the world.

Another key indicator that the internet is trending towards a mobile experience is the move by media giants such as Yahoo!, Google, Disney Internet Group, Apple Computer, and Sony to provide more and more of their content on mobile devices.

The convergence of mobile and social technologies, on-demand content delivery, and early adoption of portable media devices by students provides academia with an opportunity to leverage these tools into learning environments that seem authentic to the digital natives filling the 21^st Century classroom.

Clearly, the spread of web-based technology into both the cognitive and social spheres requires educators to reexamine and redefine our teaching and learning methods.

A few quick facts on mobile technology, Gen Y and education:

• A 2005 study conducted by the USA-based Kaiser Family Foundation found that, although 90% of teen online access occurs in the home, most students also have web access via mobile devices such as a mobile phone (39%), portable game (55%), or other web-enabled handheld device (13%). [link]

• Last year, 64 million votes were cast for American Idol contestants using cell phones, more votes than have been cast for any U.S. president. Kudos to News Corp/Fox Interactive Media for recognizing this trend and tapping into the love affair between Gen Y and their mobile technology. [link]

• One reason that MySpace has been so successful is that News Corp/Fox Interactive Media recognized Gen Y's love affair with mobile technology, and built MoSoSo opportunities into their community. [link]

• Palm estimates that mobile and handheld devices for public schools will be a 300 million dollar market. A few progressive school districts in the USA have already started using mobile devices in the classroom. [link]

• Australia is emerging as a leader in mobile learning (mlearning). [link] [link]

• The National College of Ireland, University of Scotland and other European universities have already started experimenting and integrating mobile technologies into their classes. [link] [link]

• A recent study by the Irish National Teachers Organization (INTO) found that students are using their mobile phones for just about everything--except making phone calls.

• There are a myriad of new Mobile Social Software (MoSoSo) applications being developed, and the number is poised to explode.  [link]

• Some developing countries, like Kenya, are bypassing the use of desktop computers all together and using handheld WI-FI devices and open source software to reduce the cost of education in rural areas. [link] [link]

• Mobile School is a Belgian non-profit organization who is using mobile technology to provide educational opportunities for homeless children. [link]

• Mobile phones are in the early phases of being used for student testing and assessment. [link]

• YouTube, the popular online video community, has also recently launched a service that allows users to upload video clips via their mobile phones, PDAs, or other wireless handheld devices.

• Facebook also launched a mobile version of their popular social networking service. The Kansas City Star notes that Facebook's mobile services will be available to more than 2,000 universities.

• SparkNotes are now available for download on both the iPod (text and audio format) or via SparkMobile, a SMS version for mobile phones.

The combination of social interaction with opportunities for peer support and collaboration creates an interesting, engaging, stimulating, and intuitive learning environment for students. Effective course design will need to blend traditional pedagogy with the reality of the media hungry and mobile Gen Y learner.

At the 2006 International Consumer Electronic Show, Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel outlined the explosive growth of mobile technology. According to Semel (2006), there are 900 million personal computers in the world. But this number pales in comparison to the 2 billion mobile phones currently being used in the world.

Even more astounding is how mobile devices are increasingly being used as the primary way in which people connect to the Internet. In fact, Semel notes that 50% of the Internet users outside the US will most likely never use a personal computer to connect to the Internet. Rather, they will access information, community, and create content on the Internet via a mobile device.

In order to create a better learning environments designed for the digital learning styles of Generation Y, there is a need to use strategies and methods that support and foster motivation, collaboration, and interaction. The use of mobile devices are directly connected with the personal experiences and authentic use of technology students bring to the classroom.

The use of mobile technologies is growing and represents the next great frontier for learning. Increasingly we will continue to see academic and corporate research invest, design and launch new mobile applications, many of which can be used in a learning context.

Web Resources

• Learning Styles 2.0: Digital, Social, and Always-On
• CBS News > GenTech: The Wiring of Teen America
• debaird.net + mLearning
• debaird.net + social media

December 1st: World AIDS Day

eLearning Africa 2007

The Call for Papers for the eLearning Africa 2007 conference programme is still open. You can submit a proposal for a session, presentation, workshop or discussion until December 8.

Themes and online submission form can be found at:

www.elearning-africa.com

Online Exhibit: Slave Narratives

Museum of the African Diaspora: "Slave Narratives contains dramatic and powerful first-person stories from those who have suffered under slavery.

Narrated by Maya Angelou and other acclaimed actors, the narratives originated from people across the globe, from the 1700s to the modern day.

Slave Narratives will be live on the MoAD website at www.moadsf.org on August 23."

Web Resources

• MoAD School Programs
• Maya Angelou
• debaird.net + africa

Invisible Children of Uganda

Global Youth Fund: "It’s not often you see this kind of production value in documentaries and social issue campaigns. But video after video, the Invisible Children team (young filmmakers in their 20s) breaks new ground in how they engage mass audiences in difficult subjects.

Their latest production is a video to launch the Bracelet Campaign, which raises money for children and schools in northern Uganda."

Links

• Invisible Children Movement
• Video: Invisible Children
• Trailer: Invisible Children
• Global Youth Fund
• United Nations: Millennium Development Goals
• Kevin Sites Hot Zone: Uganda

December 1st: Africa, AIDS, and Children

   

Today, December 1st, is World AIDS Day.

In many parts of the world, Africa in particular, the spread of AIDS/HIV infection among children is rampant. Consider the following:

• The LA Times reports that there are one million African children who have been orphaned by AIDS. Even more shocking is that 40% of childhood deaths in Africa are related to HIV infection. (1)

• PlanUSA, an organization dedicated to children's issues, estimates that "unless relief measures are improved immediately, an estimated 40 million African children will be orphaned by HIV/AIDS by 2010." (2)

• The ONE Campaign reports that every day 1,400 babies are infected with HIV. Some 15 million children under 17 have lost one or both parents to the disease, the vast majority in sub-Saharan Africa. (3)

I look forward to the time when December 1st becomes a day that we honor the memory of those that died, secure in the knowledge that the ravages of AIDS/HIV are in the past.

Let's make December 1st a day with art, music, love, joy, and most importantly--the sound of children filling the playgrounds and wide open spaces of Africa with laughter.

Until that day, please do what you can.

Educate your friends, family and community regarding the plight of these children. Donate your time, money, and political voice to organizations and causes that are working to provide medical care, education, and other resources for children who have had their lives ravaged by this disease.

Links

• Reflections of Hope: A Youth Photo Project
• A Closer Walk: A film about people everywhere acquiring knowledge about the realities of AIDS in the world, and then passing that knowledge along to others
• ICT for Health: e-Health Resources for developing nations
• Change Me
• The Red Ribbon

Get Involved!

• ONE Campaign
• PlanUSA
• DATA
• UK Stop AIDS

Somalia, Yahoo! News, and Kevin Sites

A few weeks ago I mentioned that blogger-journalist Kevin Sites had joined Yahoo! News to provide a unique, multimedia perspective on current events, and in-depth reporting on some of the world's most troubled places. The Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone website had its official launch earlier this week with a feature story on Somalia.

One of the most compelling stories in this inaugural series on is Kevin's story, Somalia's Garbage Scavengers. In this story he chronicles the plight and struggle of two homeless men who live in the trash dumps of Mogadishu.

The combination of multimedia and the "real world" reporting of Kevin Sites provides teachers with a powerful platform for meaningful discussions with students on current events. In this story, Kevin utilizes both digital photography and video to document the plight of the homeless men and women who call the Mogadishu trash dump "home."

Educators can use Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone as a curriculum platform to bring new relevance to social studies, political science, history, or area studies curriculum. Moreover, by utilizing Yahoo! Groups or My Web 2.0 teachers can extend the discussion outside the classroom.

Students can also utilize the myriad of web links and resources which accompany each story to find ways to be a part of the discussion. For example, they can interact directly with the larger Yahoo! community by posting comments on the Kevin Sites blog.

This is a prime example of how social media can provide students with constructivist-based tools which provide them with the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the world, its people, and begin to scaffold the larger issues of social equity, poverty, and violence.

Learning and Laptops

$100 Laptop: "The MIT Media Lab has launched a new research initiative to develop a $100 laptop—a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world's children.

To achieve this goal, a new, non-profit association, One Laptop per Child (OLPC), has been created. The initiative was first announced by Nicholas Negroponte, Lab chairman and co-founder, at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland in January 2005." (via)

Learning & Laptop Links

• Gary Stager >> Laptops and Learning
• Seymour Papert >> From Lunch Boxes to Laptops
• The Maine Learning with Laptop Study
• Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI)