[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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