Digital Media and Learning Center, the MacArthur Foundation

The Digital Media and Learning Center is a MacArthur foundation initiative to explore the uses and implications of digital media in the classroom. The website is a great place to access ongoing research and resources pertaining to technology in the classroom in all disciplines.

The YouMedia center at the Chicago Public Library, one of the projects funded by the MacArthur foundation, is a youth oriented digital media space designed to get kids to hang out, mess around and geek out on computers. Research has shown that kids often become tech savvy when they participate with technology in passive and casual ways. This particular media center is great because it exists in a public space for kids who might not have computers at home.

Places like this remind me why I believe it is so important to create public spaces with accessible technology. By providing the opportunity to surf and explore computers in a casual, non-academic setting, students learn that new media can be a fun and meaningful part of everyday life. By giving students the chance to learn through playing, the YouMedia center's philosophy reflects my own views.



Learn more about the Digital Media and Learning Center here, and also at MacFund's spotlight blog.
Learn more about YouMedia here.

Szpilman Award - Apply Now!

Hey, EVERYONE, have you sent in your application for a Szpilman Award yet?

"The SZPILMAN AWARD is awarded to works that exist only for a moment or a short period of time. The purpose of the award is to promote such works whose forms consist of ephemeral situations."

The deadline is Sep 30th- just seven days away! Hurry hurry!

Lobotica & Crashpop

So, I hafta admit that I've been around the blog block for a while. The archives to my first blog date back to 2001- what a wee thing I was, back then.

More recently, I have been keeping a blog, for some time, over at Lobotica. While it's sorta been on haitus this summer, I intend to keep using that as the primary place I talk about my own art, particularly ideas-in-progress. I am approaching Paste-Cat more like a gallery dedicated to Things I Like, which may include my own art, but will involve lots of other art and maybe even some "non-art." You'll see!

Also, I recently became a contributor over at Crashpop, a great little bloggy that Eryk Salvaggio started a few years back as a space to talk about Things He Likes. Go check us out. Occasionally, I might be cross-posting, but I would like to keep this blog at least a little bit apart from that one. I'm running on the assumption PasteCat will evolve into it's own thing, in time. I'll see!

Get Rich Slowly Blogging

I love reading what business people think of the internet. Take Ted Demopoulos, for example. He claims to have been around the internet as long as Al Gore has, and has lots of advice on how to use blogs as corporate tools. Demopoulos is all about having an "effective internet presence," and while nothing he says is particularly ground-breaking or relevant, I still like reading what he has to say and I really like that term.