[Squeakland] Invitation to "Mission: Squeak Explore" project and Student Voice community

Amela Sadagic amela at advanced.org
Wed May 7 18:54:07 PDT 2003


Dear Colleagues,

We are a small non-profit company called Advanced Network and Services, 
and you may have heard about our work though ThinkQuest and National 
Tele-immersion initiative that we sponsored and led in past years.

We at Advanced are focusing our efforts on a new initiative that we 
call Exploring the Future of Learning (EFL). One thing that has not 
changed for us over the time is our commitment to providing students 
with opportunities to contribute to the education community and to have 
their voices heard and their contributions respected.

Our work in this area will be centered around an on-line international 
student community for pre college students aged 13-19 called Student 
Voice. Student Voice will provide students with a variety of 
opportunities to get involved in student directed activities focused on 
making learning more interesting, exciting, and valuable. We believe, 
and we lots of evidence to show it, that students have a great deal to 
contribute to creating a better future of learning. One of the projects 
that we offer to students is to do active exploration of Squeak 
(www.futureoflearning.org/students/squeakInfo.html) - testing and 
commenting it through dedicated forum discussion led and participated 
by students, building Squeak Tutorials in Squeak, and creating lessons 
and activities for their peers.

I would like to ask you to take a moment and think about the students 
you know between 13 and 19 who you think might be interested in getting 
involved in the EFL Student Voice community and Mission: Squeak Explore 
project, and to pass along the following message to them. In addition, 
it would be great if you could pass this message on to appropriate 
professional colleagues so that they can inform students they think 
would be interested and able to contribute to this community.

Let us know your suggestions and advices on providing most constructive 
and creative activities for students - we are open to your and your 
students' ideas.

Thank you for your help.

best,
Amela


Dr. Amela Sadagic                                amela at advanced.org
Director of EFL Programs                     ph/cell:  914 224 1276
Advanced Network & Services              fax: 914 273 1809
200 Business Park Drive
Armonk, NY 10504
project page:    www.futureoflearning.org
personal page: www.advanced.org/~amela



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          new & coming:  STUDENT VOICE 
- www.futureoflearning.org/students/

Dear student,

We are happy to let you know that we are just about to start a new 
student community called Student Voice for pre-college students of age 
13-19.

We decided to offer you an opportunity of being among selected students 
who would kick off and guide this new series of student projects as a 
part our new initiative called Exploring the Future of Learning - EFL 
(more details about EFL below). You will notice that these project are 
somewhat different from our past project ThinkQuest but they share the 
same spirit - students in the center of all what we do and lots of 
group work and group creations. Additions to this list are: students as 
hosts, owners and managers of different activities; contributions from 
individual students; explorations of new ways we can learn more 
effectively and be inspired by the power of images, sounds, clever 
gadgets, simulations, animations, good stories and virtual trips.  And 
we will play with and test some cool emerging technologies that can 
help that learning too. Student Voice activities do not have the 
character of competitions - we prefer providing students with creative 
reward system (see more about reward system below).  So let's make this 
Summer exciting and memorable!


So how should we start?

1.   We suggest launching a set of discussion forums first. This will 
give you an opportunity to say what you as a student are interested in 
doing, what is the way you see the future of learning in and outside of 
school, and very practically how would you like to contribute to the 
entire EFL initiative. (see the current list of forums at 
http://www.futureoflearning.org/students/studentForums.html).
      Each forum will have three students as hosts. Responsibilities of 
the hosts will assume good management of well functioning discussion 
channel (see details below). You may want to explore this role - it 
will give you great experience in debating and managing constructive 
group discussion. Right now we are looking for students who would like 
to be such hosts - let us know which forum you would like to host on 
page  http://www.futureoflearing.org/students/studentHelp.html . You 
are also more than welcome to participate in discussions in all forums.

2.   Mission: Squeak Explore.  For people that like testing and 
experimenting with new systems we have the following challenge: the 
first system we will be testing is Squeak, a multimedia authoring tool 
developed by computer pioneer Alan Kay. You can decide to play with and 
test the system and let us know your comments. You can also decide to 
participate in our project called "Squeak Tutorials", a new take on how 
to build tutorial for your peers. Read more at: 
http://www.futureoflearning.org/students/squeakInfo.html

3.  Student Council:   Do you feel compelled to discuss, suggest and 
make recommendations about the activities that will be vital for 
Student Voice? If your answer is 'Yes' check page 
http://www.futureoflearning.org/students/announcements.html#Council to 
apply for Student Council.

This is just a beginning and there is more to come in the future. If at 
the moment your schedule is pretty tight and you cannot participate in 
those activities, check our page 
http://www.futureoflearning.org/students/announcements.html at any time 
for future opportunities.

If you would like to work with us please register with Student Voice at 
http://www.futureoflearning.org/students/register/ .

If you would also like to be:

       - forum host
       - member of student Council
       - take up the Squeak challenge

tell us that on 
http://www.futureoflearing.org/students/studentHelp.html

Hope you will like to join our efforts and explore possibilities. Let 
us know if you do!


best,
EFL team



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Exploring the Future of Learning - EFL - www.futureoflearning.org

The EFL MISSION
      By the year 2010, all children will have access to a working and 
cost-effective, individualized learning environment adapted to their 
personal learning aptitudes and goals, which is as compelling as other 
parts of their environment, which helps them achieve their full 
potential in the world and which is capable of being adapted and used 
worldwide.

The goal of the EFL Program is to create the knowledge, skills and 
community of people who can lead, enable and support the creation of 
specific EFL-style learning communities. Above all else, EFL insists 
that the learning needs and aspirations of the student determine all 
that we do. Finding out what they are, and creating a system that 
adapts to them, supports them and helps the student manage them is the 
central design goal.

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Reward system: creative opportunities for students:

1.  Student Summer EFL Internship: 3 students will be recipients of a 
paid internship that will last through June, July and August) during 
which the 3 students will work together on defining the guidelines for 
a Student Leadership within EFL. It would cover topics susch as student 
involvement, proposals for a set of activities that students find 
compelling and important within the context of EFL work, as well as 
their suggestions for the best ways to reach and affect larger student 
population, and create self-sustainable and most effective 
communication channels.

2.  Student Panel:
     You may be invited to participate in the panel hosted by Jaron 
Lanier. The theme is: "The future of the schools and future of 
learning". The event will be organized in NYC area.

3.  Series of interviews and stories about students and their work:
     Exemplary works and contributions will be featured in different 
public media.

4.  Certificates of appreciation will be given to those students who 
take specific responsibilities within EFL

5.  Individual student portfolios - 
http://www.futureoflearning.org/students/portfoliosInfo.html

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