[YL] YouthLearn Newsletter, Issue 147

Tue Jan 6 18:41:03 EST 2009

YouthLearn
Newsletter, Issue 147 - January 6, 2009

The YouthLearn Newsletter compiles the latest entries to the YouthLearn News Blog. This innovative service to the YouthLearn community highlights youth, education, and technology news, tools, and resources. We hope this assists you in your important work. Please feel free to share this resource with friends and colleagues, and visit the News Blog often! http://news.youthlearn.org <http://news.youthlearn.org/> 

_______________________
News 

Three in Four Voters Want Increased Funding for Afterschool
"A new poll taken on Election eve and Election night shows that nearly nine in ten voters (89 percent) say that, given the dangers young people face today, afterschool programs are important. Four in five voters (83 percent) agree there should be some type of organized activity or safe place for children and teens to go after school every day that provides opportunities for them to learn - and 76 percent want the new Congress and their newly elected state and local officials to increase funding for afterschool programs. The poll was conducted by Lake Research Partners with bipartisan analysis by Lake and The Tarrance Group for the Afterschool Alliance."
URL: http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/press_archives/electionPoll2008NR.pdf <http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/press_archives/electionPoll2008NR.pdf> 

Pew/Internet Survey on the Future of the Internet III
"A survey of experts shows they expect major tech advances as the phone becomes a primary device for online access, voice-recognition improves, and the structure of the Internet itself improves. They disagree about whether this will lead to more social tolerance, more forgiving human relations, or better home lives."
URL: http://www.elon.edu/docs/e-web/predictions/2008_survey.pdf <http://www.elon.edu/docs/e-web/predictions/2008_survey.pdf> 

_______________________
Funding 

InvenTeams Grant Initiative
"The Lemelson-MIT Program is currently accepting applications for 2010 InvenTeams, which are teams of high school students, teachers, and mentors that receive grants up to $10,000 each to invent technological solutions to real-world problems. The InvenTeam initiative is designed to excite high school students about invention, empower students through problem solving, and encourage an inventive culture in schools and communities. The deadline to submit is April 24, 2009."
URL: http://web.mit.edu/inventeams/apply.html <http://web.mit.edu/inventeams/apply.html> 

_______________________
Research 

Study Says Many Teens Display Risky Behavior on MySpace
"More than half of teenagers mention risky behaviors such as sex and drugs on their MySpace accounts, U.S. researchers said on Monday. They said many young people who use social networking sites such as News Corp's MySpace do not realize how public they are and may be opening themselves to risks, but the sites may also offer a new way to identify and help troubled teens. 'We found the majority of teenagers who have a MySpace account are displaying risky behaviors in a public way that is accessible to a general audience,' said Dr. Dimitri Christakis of Seattle Children's Research Institute, whose studies appear in the journal Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.... Christakis said many teens are unaware of how public and permanent Internet information can be, while parents often do not know what their kids are up to."
URL: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090106/tc_nm/us_teens_myspace <http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090106/tc_nm/us_teens_myspace> 

_______________________
Activities 

Campaign for Rights of the Child Essay Contest 2009
"The Campaign for U.S. Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) invites youth throughout the U.S. to participate in its second nationwide essay contest. The purpose of this contest is to continue to raise awareness of the CRC among youth and to engage them in thoughtful reflection on the potential impacts the Convention would have on children and youth in the U.S. The contest is open to U.S. students in grades 6-12 and homeschooled students in the equivalent grade levels (who currently live in the U.S.). Five winners will be chosen and will receive airfare and accommodations for him/herself and one parent/legal guardian to participate in the Campaign's 2009 Symposium. Submissions must be received by March 20, 2009." The Instruction Kit and Application are available for download at the program website.
URL: http://childrightscampaign.org/crcindex.php?sNav=youth_snav.php&sDat=youth_dat.php <http://childrightscampaign.org/crcindex.php?sNav=youth_snav.php&sDat=youth_dat.php> 

Scratch - Software for Media Production
With Scratch software, users can easily combine media to create and share their own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art. It is one of the resources highlighted in the Technology Curriculum Database launched last year, which was developed by YouthLearn for the U.S. Department of Education-funded National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning at SEDL. As young people work on projects in Scratch, they learn many of the 21st century skills that will be critical to success in the future: thinking creatively, communicating clearly, analyzing systematically, using technologies fluently, collaborating effectively, designing iteratively, and learning continuously. Scratch, a free software program, was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten research group at the MIT Media Lab, with financial support from the National Science Foundation, Microsoft, Intel Foundation, Nokia, and MIT Media Lab research consortia. 
URL: http://www.sedl.org/cgi-bin/mysql/afterschool/technology.cgi?resource=24 <http://www.sedl.org/cgi-bin/mysql/afterschool/technology.cgi?resource=24> 

We welcome your feedback!

_______________

YouthLearn
http://www.youthlearn.org <http://www.youthlearn.org/> 

This newsletter is produced by the YouthLearn Initiative at EDC especially for
members of the YouthLearn discussion group. Every two weeks, the newsletter is
compiled from the entries in the YouthLearn News Blog <http://news.youthlearn.org/> , including summaries
from various sources that YouthLearn staff periodically review.

Past newsletters are archived at http://www.youthlearn.org/resources/newsletter/index.html <http://www.youthlearn.org/resources/newsletter/index.html> . 

YouthLearn is a project of the nonprofit Education Development Center, Inc. <http://www.edc.org/> 
Designed for youth development professionals, teachers, educators, and other
caring adults, YouthLearn provides resources and tools for developing effective
learning programs enhanced with technology, particularly in out-of-school settings.

To subscribe or unsubscribe:
Go to http://www.youthlearn.org/join/subscribe.html <http://www.youthlearn.org/join/subscribe.html> 

To send a message to the YouthLearn discussion group:
Send an email to youthlearn at mailman.edc.org <mailto:youthlearn at mailman.edc.org> 

To write to us:
To receive future issues of this newsletter in plain text format or to write us
with other comments or questions, send an email to info at youthlearn.org <mailto:info at youthlearn.org> . 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.edc.org/pipermail/youthlearn/attachments/20090106/86927a7f/attachment.html>