Museums, Libraries, Nonprofits Encouraged to Launch Programs as Part of 5th Digital Media and Learning Competition to Improve the Online Experience for Young People

MacArthur is exploring how digital media are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. The goal is to make education more powerful for all students by creating more opportunities for more youth to engage in learning that is relevant to their lives and prepares them for success in school, the workplace, and their community

About

An opportunity and a challenge

The web is an open ended laboratory for connected learning and creating. It has made possible anywhere-anytime learning for all generations, and especially for youth, in ways previously unimaginable. It promotes interest driven learning with and from peers.

These dramatic developments in connected learning opportunities raise the challenge of digital citizenship:

• to use the web and its resources well and safely;
• to interact collaboratively with peers and across generations in productive ways;
• to put web resources and networks to good civic purpose;
• to advocate for effective and equitable web solutions to social problems; and
• to develop web-based skills for productive purposes.

Project:Connect and the Connected Learning movement

The Connected Learning movement is meeting these challenges by helping make it easier for youth to learn, connect, make, contribute, and share online. And it calls on and encourages youth to become creators and stewards of an open, inviting, and safe web.

The Digital Media and Learning Competition, administered by HASTAC and supported by the MacArthur Foundation, and in collaboration with the Born This Way Foundation and Mozilla, is calling for proposals that offer youth a chance to “Project:Connect” this summer. The Project:Connect-Summer Youth Programming Competition for U.S. based organizations that support learning, youth development and civic engagement calls for Summer event and programming proposals to excite and enable youth to engage the web in civil, collaborative, productive, safe, and confidence-building ways.

A related Project:Connect – Open International Competition will be announced on May 28, 2013. Details about the competition will be posted on dmlcompetition.net on May 28.