Michael Levine: Learning From Hollywood

May 16 and 17, 2011 | USC School of Cinematic Arts

Learning from HollywoodCan entertainment media ignite an education revolution?

May 16 and 17, 2011 | USC School of Cinematic Arts

May 16 and 17, 2011 | USC School of Cinematic Arts

Ryan Blitstein, SCE FoundationLinda Burch, Common Sense MediaRita Catalano, Fred Rogers Center, SVUMilton Chen, GLEF and EdutopiaKevin Clark, George Mason UniversityMimi Ito, DML HubLaird Malamed, Activision BlizzardKrista Marks, Disney Online, Boulder Studios

Amy Moynihan, A Squared EntertainmentMary Ann Petrillo, CiscoJudith Pickens, Boys & Girls Clubs of AmericaMichael Robb, Fred Rogers Center, SVUCarla Sanger, LA’s BestAndrea Taylor, MicrosoftDamian Thorman, Knight FoundationEsther Wojcicki, Creative Commons

Thank you!

May 16 and 17, 2011 | USC School of Cinematic Arts

Rebecca Herr-Stephenson, Forum DirectorCaitlin Skopac, Event Coordinator

Ingrid Erickson, Action Team CoordinatorPam Abrams, Director, Partnerships&Strategy

Special thanks to:

… there is a quiet crisis in the United States that we have to wake up to. The U.S. today is in a truly global environment, and our competitor countries are not only wide awake, they are running a marathon while we are running sprints.

— Thomas L. Friedman, The World Is Flat (2005)

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The U.S. has fallen behind as a leader in a globalized economy

Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), 2009.

United States Science Score 502

The U.S. has fallen behind as a leader in a globalized economy

Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), 2009.

United States Math Score 487

Literacy: America’s overlooked innovation challenge

Source: NAEP, 2008

Average Score

Year

National Fourth Grade Reading Scores

Source: The LIFE Center: Stevens, R. Bransford, J. & Stevens, A., 2005

School isn’t the only place for learning

< 20 percent of K-12 time spent in school

Source: Takeuchi, 2011

School isn’t the only place for learning

Government Agencies

Mass Media

Parents’ Work

Digital Media Market

Local School System

Church, Library, After-school

Spaces

Home, Parents, Siblings

School, Teachers,

Peers

Digital Media Spaces

Attitudes & Ideologies of the Culture

The Neighborhood

Learning happens at home,

… in after-school centers,

and between family members.

Quality Time, RedefinedApril 29, 2011

The modern family ecology

The modern family ecology

Quality Time, RedefinedApril 29, 2011

Kaiser Family Foundation, 20108- to 18-year-olds

Joan Ganz Cooney Center, 20110- to 11-year-olds

Digital Media: Threats and Opportunities

Digital Media: Threats and Opportunities

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, 2010

Heaviest media users

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, 2010

Digital Media: Threats and Opportunities

• Television continues to exert a strong hold over young children

• Children appear to shift their digital media habits around age 8, when they open their eyes to the world of digital media

• Mobile media is the new “it” technology, from handheld video games to portable music players to cell phones

Source: Gutnick, Robb, Takeuchi, & Kotler, 2011

Digital Media: Always Connected

Joan Ganz Cooney Center, 20110- to 11-year-olds

Photo by Flickr user JR_Paris

• Mobile media is the next “it” technology, from handheld video games to portable music players to cell phones.

• Family values powerfully shape children’s experiences

• Two-thirds of parents restrict kids’ media use on a case-by-case basis

• A third of parents have learned something technical from their child

• Parents worry about digital media interfering with the healthy development of young children, but most parents don’t believe their own kids are at risk

Source: Takeuchi, 2011

Digital Media: Families Matter

Source: Herr-Stephenson, Rhoten, Perkel, & Sims, 2011

Digital Media: Communities Matter

• How afterschool programs, libraries, and museums integrate technology and digital practices

• How digital practices support participation and learning

• How research can drive more effective integration of technology within and across these organizations

Learning from Hollywood: Why we are here

The Forum’s goal is to stimulate educational change through collaborative, multi-sector action resulting in the effective deployment of digital media for the nation’s vulnerable children.

Essential Question: How can the almost 8 hours a day that kids spend consuming media be viewed as an opportunity for the critical sectors to “pull in the same direction” to create quality content and an effective distribution infrastructure?

Learning from Hollywood: Who we are

Challenge 1:

Only one in seven African-American children are considered “proficient” in reading by age 10. We have spent billions of dollars on this national disgrace with only scant progress in 25 years. Can the power of storytelling and the personalization of digital media help solve the 4th grade reading crisis?

The Forum Challenges

Challenge 2:

America faces a surge from competitor nations who are recruiting top engineers and research scientists, while our own performance in science and math has crested. How can the engagement and technical content of digital media—the ability to blow stuff up—promote learning complex subjects anytime, anywhere to advance STEM literacy?

The Forum Challenges

Challenge 3:

Access to the blizzard of content that characterizes our Information Age has led many observers to worry about children’s ability to develop unbiased and creative inquiry skills. How can every 4th grader achieve basic digital literacy competence as a down payment on lifelong learning and civic participation?

The Forum Challenges

Sifteo cubes

• Inspired by MIT research and popular culture

• Designed for children under age 12

• Develops literacies needed to compete/cooperate in a global age

Three challenges: One response