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The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning examines the effect of digital media tools on how people learn, network, communicate, and play, and how growing up with these tools may affect a person's sense of self, how they express themselves, and their ability to learn, exercise judgment, and think systematically.

Six topics are available as free downloads online:
Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Current Volume
Learning Race and Ethnicity: Youth and Digital Media
Digital Young, Innovation, and the Unexpected
The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning
Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility
Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth

"The authors argue that five key issues are at stake in the new media: identity, privacy, ownership and authorship, credibility, and participation. Drawing on evidence from informant interviews, emerging scholarship on new media, and theoretical insights from psychology, sociology, political science, and cultural studies, the report explores the ways in which youth may be redefining these concepts as they engage with new digital media."

"The authors argue that five key issues are at stake in the new media: identity, privacy, ownership and authorship, credibility, and participation. Drawing on evidence from informant interviews, emerging scholarship on new media, and theoretical insights from psychology, sociology, political science, and cultural studies, the report explores the ways in which youth may be redefining these concepts as they engage with new digital media."

Based out of NYC, the Global Kids Digital Media Initiative is a series of interrelated programs designed to support teenagers to think critically about the role of digital media in their lives and document their experiences in various media. It is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

My Pop Studio is a creative play experience that strengthens critical thinking skills about television, music, magazines and online media directed at girls. Users select from four behind-the-scenes opportunities to learn more about mass media: My Pop Studio strengthens media literacy skills, promotes positive youth development, and increases knowledge about health issues. Highly interactive creative play activities are used to create an online community that guides users through the process of deconstructing, analyzing and creating media. Video segments, flash animation, media deconstruction games and quizzes, and moderated blogs make the website lively, fun and educational. My Pop Studio was created by a team of researchers and media professionals at the Media Education Lab, located at Temple University's School of Communication.

So no denying it, the world is shifting to the digital space, consuming all kind of information through digital means; mobile phones, laptops or desktops. While there are the ones who've grown up with smartphones and internet are very well embracing the new brave world of versatility and speed. Before we totally grab on the benefits of Digital Marketing for our business growth, you can't ignore the fact that Public Relations is equally important for any business or organisation effectiveness. The mix of traditional PR with content marketing on different social media platforms and search has led to different fold of opportunities for business growth. INTERGRATING DIGITAL MARKETING WITH PR Communication marketing agencies are all around the world willing to work for you but an effective integration can only happen if some of the key points are kept in mind: Clarity on business objective Comprehend the impact and process of the business before initiating campaigns WHY DIGITAL MARKETING We all are acknowledged to the fact that Digital marketing of a business or product can easily transmit for the scanty fraction value/cost of the print or TV ad. Also, the reach can be easily tracked and monitored as nowadays companies rely on reviews and feedback more than any celebrity endorsement. Hence, for every business, it's an effective way for a brilliant brand growth.

The Spotlight Blog is your source for insights into the ideas and questions shaping the future of digital media and learning.

The primary goal of the Digital Youth Network Program is to develop a model program that enables urban youth to become discerning new media consumers and fluent media producers.To be full citizens today, youth must be engaged, articulate, critical and collaborative. Youth must become creators - designers, builders & innovators - who can envision new possibilities. Youth must also be able to organize, navigate and judge the large amounts of information and media to which they now have access. Full citizens today must be reflective thinkers who are committed to personal and community improvement.

On April 23, 2008, public forum, "From MySpace to Hip Hop: New Media In the Everyday Lives of Youth," reported on the interim findings of the ethnographic project funded by the MacArthur Foundation, "Kids' Informal Learning through Digital Media," conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Southern California. This event addressed how digital technologies and new media are changing the way that young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life. The forum was presented by Common Sense Media, the MacArthur Foundation and the Stanford University School of Education.

Ypulse is a media platform for youth media and marketing professionals, founded in May of 2004 by journalist Anastasia Goodstein. It provides news, commentary and resources about commercial media for teens (teen magazines, websites), entertainment for teens (movies, video games, television, music, books), technology used by teens (cell phones, instant messaging, hardware and software), the news media's desire to attract teens (newspapers, cable news), marketing and advertising (targeting the teen market) and non-profit youth media (highlighting organizations' efforts at promoting youth voices in media and creating media by and for youth). Anastasia is also the author of Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens are Really Doing on Line.

Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action, a new policy paper by Renee Hobbs, Professor at the School of Communications and the College of Education at Temple University and founder of its Media Education Lab, proposes a detailed plan that positions digital and media literacy as an essential life skill and outlines steps that policymakers, educators, and community advocates can take to help Americans thrive in the digital age. You can download DIGITAL AND MEDIA LITERACY: A PLAN OF ACTION at http://bit.ly/bdVDy3

We show this excellent video from the MacArthur Foundation at the start of many CTAP workshops to give our audiences a sense of kids and their digital world. It shows how student' worlds are changing because of digital media and includes conversations with kids and teachers. You can download it to your desktop and save it as a Quicktime video.

Spotlight magazine showcases the projects and people funded by the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Initiative and covers the intersections of technology and learning. We go beyond the research to show how digital media is being used in classrooms and programs around the world.

"How I Learned to Type," was created by Diana Kimball and Sarah Zhang of the Digital Natives team. It takes a glance into how people of different ages learned one of the first skills every digital inhabitant needs - typing. Do you "peck" with two fingers, type in multiple languages at once, or have a typing teacher with a wooden leg? The people in "How I Learned to Type" do all this and more. Digital technology has become so ingrained in our lives that for digital natives, learning to type has become a ubiquitous experience, as memorable, say, as learning to read or ride a bike.

This forum, entitled "The Power of Youth Voice," brought together experts in digital media and learning to share their research and experiences using digital media in and outside of the classroom. Speakers included: Renee Hobbs, Founder, Media Education Lab,

Media technology is an integral part of children's lives in the twenty-first century. The world of electronic media, however, is changing dramatically. Television, until recently the dominant media source, has been joined by cell phones, iPods, video games, instant messaging, social networks on the Internet, and e-mail.This volume examines the best available evidence on whether and how exposure to different media forms is linked to child well-being. Contributors to the volume consider evidence for both children and adolescents and consider the quality of the available studies.

Brilliant and meaty post from Alex Couros about what "digital citizenship" encompasses and really means for pedagogy.

Digital Life 101 covers several lesson plan units in Digital Citizenship for Grades 6-8 to help students act responsibly in their relationships over digital media.

Student -created videos telling powerful stories!! D.U.S.T.Y. is an afterschool program for middle and high school students in Oakland, CA. DUSTY students work on computers to create their own Digital Stories, as well at to generate rap and hip hop "beats and rhymes." Throughout the creative process, students learn to master programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, iMovie, and Fruity Loops with the help of skilled instructors. At the end of each semester, the students' creative masterpieces, including digital stories, raps, beats, and performances are showcased in some sort of final event at The Parkway Theatre, The Metro, and other local venues.

In this information technology age, children and youth in West and East Oakland face the additional disadvantage of a digital divide, which separates ethnicities, socio-economic classes, genders, and ages. Youth from low-income communities rarely have access to cutting edge communication technologies or, just as importantly, to empowering uses of them. A comparison between the number of computers per Oakland school with the schools' statewide academic performance ranking, or API, revealed that some schools with high numbers of computers have very low API's. This discrepancy suggests that simply having technology is not enough; rather, to improve student academic outcomes, technology must be meaningfully used.

Today's kids are born digital -- born into a media-rich, networked world of infinite possibilities. But their digital lifestyle is about more than just cool gadgets; it's about engagement, self-directed learning, creativity, and empowerment. The Digital Generation Project tells their stories so that educators and parents can understand how kids learn, communicate, and socialize in very different ways than any previous generation. This project was funded by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.

Schools are starting to embrace iPods, portable digital media players, as teaching tools. While some teachers have dabbled in podcasting -- like posting snippets of news broadcasts on school websites for students to download -- K-12 on iTunes U is billed as a way to bring content to a place where it can be searched and shared.