#col2014

Today is is a national advocacy day for raising awareness about the importance of summer learning for youth.

"Summer Learning Day is supported by elected officials and policymakers, public agencies, nonprofit organizations, schools, universities, museums, libraries, and summer camps across the country. Whether you’re a community, summer program, school, or parent, there are many ways to celebrate Summer Learning Day!"

Check out to the Summer Learning Day Map to find an event near you!

The Cities of Learning 2014 are doing their part to keep youth engaged and excited about learning, making and doing not just through the summer, but all year long!

Chicago City of Learning (CCOL) grew out of the City’s 2013 Chicago Summer of Learning in which more than 100 youth-serving organizations joined together to make their programs visible. Youth participants earned digital badges that provide permanent recognition of the achievements made by youth through their activities. http://chicagocityoflearning.org/

Dallas is becoming a citywide learning laboratory this year, opening pathways to the future for young people of all ages. Dallas City of Learning allows youth to explore earth and science, design, sports, performance, coding, and many more programs and events. http://dallascityoflearning.org/

Los Angeles Summer of Learning (LASOL) is opening doors across the city and online so all youth have access to the rich learning opportunities they need to thrive with fun badged programs from across the city. Through badges, young people can link one learning opportunity to the next – a class at a museum, for example, followed by a challenge online. They create their own learning pathways, and open up new opportunities for themselves. http://summeroflearning.la/

Pittsburgh is turning the city into a living learning campus to enable young people to explore their interests, develop new skills and connect their learning to real-world opportunities. More than 30 programs - including summer camps, workshops, community events and drop-in activities - will offer badges focused on digital learning, maker learning, STEAM learning and youth media making. http://remakelearning.org/blog/2014/06/20/why-were-making-our-city-a-summer-camp/

Columbus, OH and Washington, D.C. will be launching their citywide badged learning programs in the fall, making sure the momentum and excitement from the summer keeps going all year long!

The Los Angeles Summer of Learning site is live!

"How could cities better connect all their residents to economic opportunities?"

This question is being asked around the US as urban leaders work to restore our cities as engines of educational and economic opportunity by exploring new and bold approaches in business, government, non-profits, philanthropy, the arts, and more.

Today, Meeting of the Minds and Living Cities invite civic-minded leaders across sectors to respond to this question by participating in a group blogging event on May 12, 2014.

Participants are free to respond to this prompt any way they choose, but if you're stuck on where to start, the organizers have provided a set of questions to help surface ideas:

What might it look like for a city to connect all its residents to economic opportunity?

What more could different players across sectors do – individually and together – towards this end?

How could emerging, 21st-century trends like the rise of Big Data, social media, mass-customization and the sharing economy “change the game?”

How are cities and urban innovators already working to connect people to opportunity? (Hint: Cities of Learning! Scroll down for more information.)

Responses that include a link to http://cityminded.org/urban-opportunity/ will be collected and listed at CityMinded.org on the event day - use the hashtag #urbanopportunity to make sure your responses are seen!

An accompanying webinar on May 14, 2014 will feature event participants and be followed by an interactive online discussion - mark your calendars and join us on Wednesday for that webinar.

Cities of Learning: Connecting youth to open learning opportunities.

The Cities of Learning initiative is part of a larger educational movement called Connected Learning - you may have heard some of the buzz about this month's launch of the Connected Learning Alliance:

"The Connected Learning Alliance (CLA) envisions a world where all young people have equitable access to learning opportunities that are social, participatory, driven by personal needs and interests, and oriented toward educational, civic and economic opportunity."

Like the Cities of Learning, Connected Learning recognizes that learning doesn’t just take place inside classroom walls. In fact, the most valuable learning occurs when a student can connect in-school academics with out-of-school interests; can find inspiring peers and mentors to help them develop a hobby or skill; and can create, make and produce real things in the real world.

LA launches Summer of Learning on May 12th

The Los Angeles Summer of Learning (#LASOL2014) is part of a nationwide movement to leverage community and government resources to ensure learning doesn’t stop when school lets out.

The City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District are partnering with Beyond The Bell, The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and scores of Los Angeles’s top non-profits to connect the city's students aged three to nineteen to meaningful learning opportunities in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (S.T.E.A.M.).

LASOL 2014 is built upon last year's pilot program in Chicago, which launched the Cities of Learning initiative in 2013 with a successful summer program that has now been extended year round.

Los Angeles joins Columbus, Dallas, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. in launching citywide learning programs in 2014, and even more cities are lining up for 2015.

Each City of Learning will be issuing digital badges which will be networked across participating institutions. Learners can hopscotch from one organization to another, “leveling up” to follow their interests. In this way, badges can help young people map out self-directed learning pathways to broaden and deepen their interests and skills. These badges are built using an open-standard technology platform powered by the Digital Youth Network, Mozilla and the Badge Alliance. This technology allows the Cities of Learning to securely issue badges and safely display them online.

No matter their interests or talents — their background or resources — young people in Los Angeles will now have access to exciting opportunities to discover and deepen practical, creative and intellectual skills.

Connecting residents to educational and economic opportunities

The Cities of Learning initiative is just one example of how cities can work with innovative leaders to help youth connect to out-of-school learning spaces such as museums, libraries, park services, and maker spaces; exploring new interests and passions; connecting out-of-school experiences to in-classroom learning; and gaining real-world job skills that will open doors to economic opportunities in the future.

Today's group blogging event from Meeting of the Minds and Living Cities is an opportunity for participants to engage a global audience of corporate, philanthropic, government, and nonprofit citizens in an important discussion regarding the future of cities.

The Connected Learning Alliance, launched at the beginning of May with support from the MacArthur Foundation, is leading a 30-day “make learning relevant” campaign throughout this month.

Each day of the campaign features interviews with various thought leaders, leading practitioners or college-bound youth who have experienced the benefits of connected learning experiences. The Make Learning Relevant site houses recorded podcasts of the interviews as well as graphics capturing the focus of each day, like this one from Day 1:

Today will feature a look at the Cities of Learning initiative, with a reflection on the Chicago Summer of Learning 2013 and a peek at what's to come from this year's cities. Join us at 1pm ET to learn more: http://bit.ly/ConnectedCities

Read the original post on Remake Learning.

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This summer, Pittsburgh will join other Cities of Learning from across the United States in a groundbreaking initiative to pair learning opportunities for young people with digital badges in ways that allow learners to think about, pursue, and develop their interests.

The Cities of Learning initiative was piloted last year in Chicago, to great success. And last week, Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the Summer of Learning is being expanded this year, to become the City of Chicago Learning and Earning Initiative, aimed at engaging youth throughout the year.

In Pittsburgh this summer, badges will enable young people to take new paths of discovery, explore the city’s rich resources, and find out what they can learn, make, do, and ultimately become.

The Sprout Fund invites organizations from the Pittsburgh Kids+Creativity Network, schools, libraries, museums, and other youth-serving organizations offering summer learning experiences to apply to participate in this regional effort.