MIT Media Lab

Little Bits & Roominate- Innovate to Educate with STEM

September 4, 2012 by Amy Jussel 2 Comments

Update July 23, 2014 Wow. From toys to tools...LittleBits launches CloudBit to make any object 'smart'! Sept. 4, 2012 “Light it, push it, twist it, bend it, buzz it, blink it, shake it…” the promo card beckoned before I even reached the Little Bits tent at the Maker Faire.Hard to believe it's back to school time already, and this fall, we're kicking off with some STEM … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Emerging trends & STEM, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity Tagged With: AAUW, Ayah Bdeir, Barbie Dreamhouse, Bare Conductive ink, brain plasticity, circuit boards for girls, circuits, Connected Classroom, Dollhouses, electricity fun, electronic gizmos, encouraging girls in STEM, Every child is a maker, Galaxy Goo, Gender Portrayal, girls and science, girls empowerment, girls in tech, GIT, How to drive STEM careers, Howtoons, imaginative play, Instructables, Lego Friends, Legos for the ipad generation, Little Bits, Make Your World, maker faire, MIT Media Lab, Pink Think, Project Raceway, roominate, Roominate Toy, science for girls, STEM, STEM as toy fun, Stem disconnect, STEM fem, STEM for girls, STEM in classroom, stem toys that make learning fun, teaching electronics, The Scrapkins, WIT, women in engineering, Women in Technology

Vanished Edu-Game: 11 Yr Old Rylan Reports “Back from the Future”

June 19, 2011 by Amy Jussel 10 Comments

June 20, 2011 Mission? Make learning fun. Investigators? Preteens. GameQuest? STEM studies, deeply rooted in gaming fun. I’ve been saving this post about MIT MediaLab/Education Arcade's Vanished game for today’s opening of the Games For Change festival in NYC, since their keynote speaker Al Gore has been taking questions @G4C on Twitter about best practices to engage … [Read more...]

Filed Under: EcoKids-Environment, Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Mobile Media, Apps & Gaming, Nutrition & Wellness, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth Tagged With: Anita Borg Institute, applied science, Collective Knowledge Depository, decode clues, DigiGirlz, Digital Media Learning, Doug Engelbart, Dr Jen Shewmaker, eco education, EcoKids, Education Arcade, EduTech, Environmental Education, FutureLab.net, G4C, Games for Change, Games for Good, games people play, gamification, GFC2011, humanity ascending, IFTF, Institute for the Future, Jane McGonigal, MacArthur-Foundation, middle school girls, MIT Media Lab, MIT Scratch, MIT Vanished Game, preteens, Program for the Future, Project Phoenix, Ruby Skye, sci-fi narrative, SciGirls, serious-games, Smithsonian, STEM, STEM programs for girls, Sustainability, Vanished: Learning Science through gaming, Zoeys Room

Starting From Scratch: Making STEM Easy, Kid-Friendly & Fun

June 13, 2011 by Amy Jussel 7 Comments

Update: July 30, 2014 Scratch Junior (scratchjr.org) was just released for the iPad today, and it's FREE. Thx @360Kid for sharing that news! Original Post June 13, 2011: I get far too geeky and jargon-ish when it comes to enthusiasm over kids’ science, technology, engineering, and math innovations, (STEM) in hopes of engaging and retaining girls in the field, so I’ll cap the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth Tagged With: Animation, childrens media, cloud computing, digital building blocks, digital gaming, Digital Media Learning, digital storytelling, digital-natives, Doodle4Google, edtech, encouraging STEM, free-education-research, game design, How-Stuff-Works, innovation, IO brush, ISTE 2011, kids coding, kids games, kids in tech, kids-fitness, KODU, Lincoln Logs 21st century, MIT, MIT Media Lab, NSF, open source, save the planet, Science, Scratch, Scratch tutorials, Splash!, STEM, UGC, Vanished

CoLABoratory of Creativity: Program for the Future 2010

March 1, 2010 by Amy Jussel 3 Comments

March 1, 2010 Once upon a time, I spent 25+ years as a creative director at virtual agency: Copy/Concepts. Collaboration came very naturally to me, as we all divvied up our specialty areas and functioned as one global brain with seamlessness and ease. Now as a nonprofit? Not so much. The nonprofit world is new to me, with all kinds of new fiefdoms to learn, toes to step on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Counter-marketing, EcoKids-Environment, Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Mobile Media, Apps & Gaming, People Shaping Youth, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth Tagged With: Claudia L'Amoreaux, Claudia Welss, Co-evolution, CoLABoratory, Collaboration 2010, collaborative learning, collective intelligence, collective knowledge, Digital, Doug Engelbart, Douglas C. Engelbart, eco, education, Eileen Clegg, firing up the global brain, Future Talk, futurists, Google wave, Hiroshi Ishii, Humanists, humanity, humanity ascending, IFTF, innovation, IO brush, Jim Schuyler, learning, learnlets, Mei Lin Fung, MIT Media Lab, NextNow Collaboratory, PFTF, Ph.D., PhD jokes, problem solving, Program for the Future, Sam Hahn, save the planet, sims, simulation, solutions, Tech Museum, technology, The Tech, Valerie Landau, Visual Insight, visualization tools, World resources, WRSC

Beyond Tech Toys: Pico=A Playful Invention Company (Part Four)

February 6, 2009 by Amy Jussel 5 Comments

Feb. 6, 2009 Today I had the pleasure of speaking with global fellowship recipients in Stanford's Innovation Journalism Program (here's VentureBeat's audio of Director David Nordfors explaining the concept of innovation journalism). I tried to explain Shaping Youth's version of innovation learning and thankfully, had asked Scott Arpajian, co-founder of virtual world Dizzywood … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Shaping Youth Tagged With: Amy-Jussel, Animoto, children, David Nordfors, Dizzywood, Do Something, Elf Island.com, Elf-Island, innovation, Innovation Journalism, innovation learning, learning, Lego Mindstorms, Lego Universe, Meil Lin Fung, MIT Media Lab, Naeem Zafar, PICO, PicoBoard, PicoCricket, Playful Invention Company, Scott Arpajian, Stanford-University, teaching, Tech toys, Teens Turning Green, Venture Beat, Web 2.0 entrepreneurs, Zoeys Room