Welcome to the Generation YES Express
May 2005 - 9,664 subscribers
Thirty years ago, my wife and I accepted teaching positions in the West African country of Liberia. We arrived with our six-week-old son and spent two wonderful years working with the remarkable students of this country. Unfortunately for the past 25 years, Liberia has exploded with violence and death - with many of my former students among the 275,000 children who perished. The nation was destroyed, and a generation of children has been lost to unimaginable tragedy and displacement. Finally, over the past 18 months, U.N. and U.S. peacekeepers have begun to stabilize the country.
Next week I travel to Ghana and Liberia to meet with government and industry officials in support of some of my former students who plan to establish a world-class school in Liberia -- perhaps the poorest country in the world. This "high tech - high touch" model school for Africa will be a much-needed symbol of hope in rebuilding Liberia. You can see the plans and features of the school at the website https://www.newacsis.org. The students in this school will learn that they can make a difference in their community, their nation, and the world. I will report on my venture on our website and in the next Gen YES Express.
Forward -
Dennis Harper
What's New at Generation YES
Welcome New Generation YES Schools
Stangel Elementary School - Manitowoc, WI *
LaDue High School - St. Louis, MO *
Lakewood Middle School - Lakewood, NJ *
Central Fulton High School - McConnellsburg, PA *
Herbert Hoover - Rockville, MD *
Reservoir High School - Fulton, MD *
Bath Middle School - Bath, NY *
Oneida Middle School - Schenectady, NY *
Central Park Middle School - Schenectady, NY *
Mont Pleasant Middle School - Schenectady, NY *
See if there's a Generation YES school near you... https://www.genyes.com/scripts/schools/index.php
GenYES is new at Generation YES
The Olympia School District received a federal Technology Innovation Challenge Grant in 1996 to develop a curriculum that would prepare K-12 students to provide technology professional development to their teachers. The original program name was Generation WHY, and then later, Generation www.Y. When the grant ended in 2001, a group of teachers and students formed the Generation YES organization and the program became simply Gen Y. Since Generation Y students are now moving beyond high school we have decided to rename our flagship program GenYES -- Youth and Educators Succeeding! Our new logo, and updated curriculum materials will be introduced next month at NECC in Philadelphia -- stay tuned for more details.
Cleveland Schools Join GenYES
Four Cleveland middle schools will implement GenYES in the fall. Former GenYES student and staff member Jeff Conor will visit these schools in late May to begin preparing these schools for success. Jeff attends school in nearby Oberlin College.
Utah Schools to Enter Third Year of Generation TECH
Two years of successful implementation of the Generation TECH student tech support program has convinced Utah state officials that students can indeed provide valuable assistance in keeping a school's hardware, software, and networks operational. About 30 Utah districts will continue and expand Generation TECH as part of the CyberCorps initiative.
https://www.cybercorps.k12.ut.us/home.html
Virgin Islands Schools Adopt TechYES
A consortium of all the private schools in the St. Thomas-St. John School District has decided to adopt TechYES as their middle school technology literacy certification program. This will meet the NCLB 8th grade technology literacy mandate. Technology director Peter Wholihan says, "Our success with student-centered technology support has lead us to selecting TechYES as our strategy for ensuring all our students are proficient in technology."
GenYES at the International School of Prague
NewsLinks, an International Schools Services publication, recently featured the implementation of GenYES at the International School of Prague. The GenYES teachers praised the curriculum and web portal as an "extremely well laid-out, superb set of lessons, in 10 units, covering all basic technology skills and concepts." The students are excited to learn new tech skills and share their knowledge. Read more at: https://www.genyes.com/news
Student Showcase
Georgia Elementary School Posts GenYES Projects
Students from Lori Miller's GenYES class in Waycross created a website that highlighted the projects students created with their partner teachers.
https://www.wacona.com/words/words.html
Texas High School GenYES Website
Hondo High in Hondo, Texas is in the second year of GenYES classes and has posted the latest projects on their website. This year the students have branched out to work with teachers at a local elementary school.
https://www.hondo.k12.tx.us/hs/web/genyes.htm
Maryland Elementary School Posts GenYES Projects
More great projects from Patty Weeg's GenYES class in Delmar, MD. Be sure to click on the ebook link to see how Delmar GenYES students use Palm handhelds in their school.
https://www.globalclassroom.org/2005/gen_y/index.html
News You Can Use
Media and Multitasking
A national Kaiser Family Foundation survey found children and teens are spending an increasing amount of time using "new media" like computers, the Internet and video games, without cutting back on the time they spend with "old" media like TV, print and music. Instead, because of the amount of time they spend using more than one medium at a time (for example, going online while watching TV), they're managing to pack increasing amounts of media content into the same amount of time each day.
https://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia030905pkg.cfm
Don't Worry, The Kids are Alright
On a related note, do you wonder what all this media consumption is doing to children's intellectual capacity? In the new bestselling book, Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, author Steven Johnson makes a well-researched case that much of the popular culture that's often derided as brain-numbing trash--video games, reality television--is actually expanding our brains, challenging us with narrative complexity and intellectual demands.
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1573223077/
Habitat for Humanity Youth Programs
There are many opportunities for youth (and educators) to participate in Habitat programs during school breaks. Check the website for "summer blitz builds" and college team events. In addition to work opportunities, Habitat for Humanity Curriculum is now available to teach students about housing issues around the world.
https://www.habitat.org/ccyp/
Upcoming Online Chat -- "Student Voices"
About twice each month, the Student Voices Resource Center hosts an online chat on technology and education with students and local and national decision-makers.
Friday, May 20 - 3:30 pm Eastern Standard Time
In January, the Department of Education released a National Education Technology Plan. The national plan was written with student input and with students in mind. This is your chance to ask questions about the plan and share your ideas with Susan Patrick, Director of the Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education.
Students can pre-register to attend the chats at https://www.NetDay.org/SVRC
Tech Tips Plus
Award-Winning Student Videos
The Student Video Discovery Awards semifinalists have been chosen; view them online at: https://www.eschoolnews.com/vrc/VidKids.cfm. The winning student video will be announced at NECC in Philadelphia next month.
Current TV - A Place for Those Award Winning Student Videos
Former Vice President Al Gore just helped launch a new interactive cable TV channel for 18- to 35-year-olds where viewers will create the programming. Current TV will air short (15-second to 5-minute) news, arts and entertainment videos created by viewers. If the web audience likes a video, it will air on the TV channel and the author will be paid $250. The site has tools and tips on how to create content.
https://www.current.tv/
The New York Public Library Unveils NYPL Digital Gallery
The New York Public Library this week unveiled an online archive of 275,000 images, available to the public for free. The database includes illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, and more. They expect to add another 225,000 images in the coming months.
https://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm
Free GarageBand Loops and Instruments
If you are using GargageBand, this community site is free to join and has hundreds of free loops and instruments. There is also news, resources and tools, and you can upload your musical compositions to share with the world.
https://www.icompositions.com
That's All For This Issue of the Generation YES Express
We hope you've enjoyed this email newsletter. If you have stories to share or news clips about technology in education, student empowerment, or funding for technology, please send them our way and you might see them in the next issue! https://www.genyes.org/about/contact
