Digital Media and Learning Competition Awards

The 2008 Digital Media and Learning Competition, administered by HASTAC with the support of the MacArthur Foundation, is designed to advance the field by awarding $2 million in grants to support new projects in two categories: Innovation and Knowledge-Networking. The open competition launched on August 14, 2007, and over 1,000 applications were received when it closed on October 15, 2007.

On February 21, 2008, HASTAC and the MacArthur Foundation announced the seventeen award-winning projects. Read about the 2008 Digital Media and Learning Competition winners here.

INNOVATION AWARDS

Innovation Award Winners

About Innovation

Learning environments are changing dramatically. Not only do young people have easy access to enormous amounts of information—they are participating in media rather than simply consuming it. They receive immediate feedback on performance, sharing their products nationally if not internationally. They participate in broad scale simulations emulating real world complexity. Furthermore, such learning environments are often youth-led, thereby altering significantly the roles and contributions of adults and experts.

As early research begins to illuminate changes occurring in young people who are “growing up digital,” the time is ripe to translate this research into concrete designs for new kinds of learning environments.

Innovation Awards

Innovation Awards are intended to appeal to pioneers, builders of new digital learning environments. These might include, for example, a major adaptation of gaming, world building, or social networking environments (such as MySpace or Facebook) designed for educational contexts; or entirely new programs.

Innovation projects:

• explore new digital models of learning that build upon and enhance the informal, networked, and collaborative learning styles of youth today, extending them more broadly.
• demonstrate new modes of learning.
• bridge diverse communities, in most cases reaching across generations and enabling youth (and those who teach them) to learn from one another.

Learning environments addressed by Innovation projects include any and all of the emerging contexts used to facilitate learning in a digital age, such as:

• the physical environment and how it is mediated;
• learning tools (text-books, toys, technologies);
• the involvement of peer learners;
• the role of adults, as well as learning by adults;
• the deliberate activities used (i.e., curriculum).

Innovation Details

Applicants should have established track records or solid prototypes, and a strong commitment to making possible new ways of learning, as opposed to simply creating new content.

Partnerships are encouraged, but individuals are also welcome to apply.

Up to eight Innovation Awards of $100,000 or $250,000 each will be made. The larger award is reserved for projects that require greater start-up funds due to the complex nature of the collaboration, fabrication costs, or other expenditures. A budget justifying all costs will be required of all applicants.

As an additional resource to help projects succeed, all awardees will participate in peer-mentoring through an online discussion forum and bimonthly conference calls during the first phase of the grant term. Competition consultants will also be available to help with any aspect of the project, including budget and project management and technology advice.

Innovation Award winners will convene at the completion of the grant period to showcase their work. Other digital innovators, representatives from industry, venture capitalists, foundations, and the media will be invited to view the work of awardees. This conference may provide the opportunity for networking which could facilitate next-phase project development. Awardees wishing to attend this conference (which is strongly encouraged) should allot funds for travel to a two-day conference in Chicago in their proposed budgets.

KNOWLEDGE-NETWORKING AWARDS

Knowledge-Networking Award Winners

About Knowledge-Networking

The field of digital media and learning has already produced a number of brilliant ideas that deserve wider dissemination, circulation, discussion, translation, application, articulation, and customization. Not every inventor/developer is a good knowledge-networker. Knowledge-networking takes good ideas and circulates them widely, taking full advantage of the Web's potential for collaborative thinking. It enables communication in which many can contribute, shape, and share.

Knowledge-networking is “do-it-yourself” field-building, collective matchmaking across communities of those who have and those who seek information, so that each can teach and learn from the other.

Knowledge-Networking Awards

Knowledge-Networking Awards will go to proven communicators. Applicants will already be networking with others and are dedicated to digital learning through blogs, social networking, social bookmarking, podcasting, world-building environments (such as Second Life), or other on-line communities.

Knowledge-Networking projects:

• do not simply convey information.
• promote collaborative thinking.
• translate great ideas.

Journalists writing to assess developments in the field or journalistic researchers looking to inform creative journalism about the field should also feel welcome to apply. (Applying journalists or researchers will be precluded from writing about anything to do with the competition while applicants or award recipients, to avoid conflicts of interest.)

Knowledge-Networking applications must take one of two approaches, in which they propose to develop digital communications and collaboration for:

1. Previous Digital Media and Learning projects funded by the MacArthur Foundation.

The MacArthur Digital Media and Learning initiative has already funded many great ideas, several of which are ripe for knowledge-networking. Knowledge-Networking Awards are for communicators excited by these ideas who can help to build the field by opening them to contribution from and collaboration with new audiences, targeted niche audiences, or communities that would be eager to contribute to these ideas.

2. Other existing projects, not funded by the MacArthur Foundation.

Applicants developing networking or communications plans for other projects are also welcome, so long as those projects contribute to building the field of digital media and learning. In these cases, applicants should identify the project, explain its importance to digital media and learning, and propose a communications strategy.

Knowledge-Networking Details

Partnerships are encouraged, but individuals are welcome to apply.

Approximately twelve Knowledge-Networking Awards of $30,000-$75,000 each will be made. Budgets will be required at any level of funding. Awards in excess of $30,000 must show particular justification for the additional funds.

As an additional resource to help projects succeed, all awardees will participate in peer-mentoring through an online discussion forum and bimonthly conference calls during the first phase of the grant term. Competition consultants will also be available to help with any aspect of the project, including budget and project management and technology advice.

Knowledge-Networking Award winners will convene at the completion of the grant period to showcase their work. Other digital innovators, representatives from industry, venture capitalists, foundations, and the media will be invited to view the work of awardees. This conference may provide the opportunity for networking which could facilitate next-phase project development. Awardees wishing to attend this conference (which is strongly encouraged) should allot funds for travel to a two-day conference in Chicago in their proposed budgets