Our first competitive call for new LRNG Cities was a big success, drawing a large pool of exciting applications from across the country. The decision was tough, but on March 10 at SXSWedu in Austin, we announced a major expansion of LRNG movement with eight winners of the 2016 LRNG City Challenge. Each of the winning cities will receive a grant of up to $50,000, made possible by support from the Fossil Foundation to begin networking learning opportunities in their communities and kick off LRNG programming this summer. They join our four pilot LRNG Cities in Chicago, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C. We are proud to add these communities to the LRNG movement: LRNG Central Ohio The Central Ohio community comprises the 14 counties in the Columbus metropolitan area. Central Ohio is home to more than 270,000 youth ages 15 to 24 — 11% of whom are disconnected from school and Read More
Would you like a sneak peek at the LRNG tech platform? Join us on Friday, April 1, 2016, at 1 p.m. PDT / 4 p.m. EDT for a demo of a prerelease version of the LRNG City and youth experience. Learn what the online youth experience will look like in LRNG Cities this summer, as well as how cities and organizations can use LRNG’s Playlist and Badge builders to transform existing learning content for broader digital access and credentialing. Register here for the LRNG Organization and Youth Experience Preview.
- Connie Yowell and Jessica Lindl
It’s hard to believe that just six short months ago, we stood together first in D.C. and then in San Francisco to announce the launch of LRNG. Our goals for this movement are as audacious as we believe they are essential, and the last half year has flashed by in a blur of heads-down hard work, leavened by our vision for how, working together with you, we can create an ecosystem to reimagine, redesign, and revitalize learning for young people who most need alternate paths to success. Thanks to our dedicated staff, our forward-thinking partners and supporters, and our incredible LRNG Cities, we are gearing up for a summer of opportunity for young people across the country. The first quarter of 2016 has been dedicated to expanding the LRNG ecosystem. Kicking off the year, we hosted Partner Summits in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco to onboard interested cities, organizations and Read More
- Leila Toplic
When I was 18-years-old I landed my first job teaching English and art in a Bosnian refugee camp in Hungary. What I lacked in teaching skills, I made up for with passion and grit. I worked tirelessly to find creative ways to engage my students in learning these subjects both in and out of the classroom. I even went so far as to organize a basketball camp with the American International School in Budapest so refugee youth could learn English through their teamwork and passion for sports. The school headmaster saw these qualities in me, which is why she gave me a chance. I learned so much — both personally and professionally — in my role as a teacher and I never would have had that opportunity if I hadn’t had an employer who believed and invested in me. This is why I’m so honored to now have a job Read More
- Connie Yowell
Today, I am honored to stand up at the White House with LaunchCode, Philadelphia Youth Network, Microsoft, Hyatt, and other Champions of Change to tackle the problem of the summer “opportunity gap” for youth. While young people from more affluent and socially connected families spend the summer at camps and internships where they can build their skills and resumes, it creates an opportunity gap for many low-income youth that contributes to ongoing gaps in achievement, employment, and college and career success. Summer youth employment programs play a pivotal role in addressing the opportunity gap. A summer job serves as a launch pad for developing lifelong habits and skills for the workplace, however fewer and fewer youth can find them. Last July — the peak month for employment — just under half of 16- to 24-year-olds held a job. As a result, many youth find themselves in an ongoing Catch-22 where Read More
- Connie Yowell
Digital badges are a game changer. As we as a nation struggle with how to address the deep inequities plaguing education and workforce opportunity in the 21st century, badges are a critical tool for breaking through institutional barriers that lock too many young people out of traditional paths to success and pursuing what they’re interested in. But changing the game is never a simple, straightforward task, as Mozilla Executive Director Mark Surman points out in his recent post. Mark and I first teamed up to to work on badging in 2011, launching the Open Badges project while I was at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation overseeing the Digital Media & Learning program. Since then, badges have come a long way — with many lessons learned. As Mark notes: Perhaps no surprise to some, we learned badges cannot exist in a vacuum — to flourish, they need active Read More
- Jessica Lindl
How could your city change the future of learning? Six innovative cities throughout the country will answer that question by taking the 2016 City Challenge to join the LRNG movement. Will your city be among them? From Chicago and Dallas to Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., LRNG is redesigning learning for the connected age — and is now set to add six additional communities across the U.S. Cities have until Feb. 19 to apply for up to $50,000 in funding from the Fossil Foundation to become an LRNG City. LRNG is an innovative, youth-centric movement that turns learning into a lifestyle, allowing young people to co-design their own learning experiences, pursue their passions, and find new paths to 21st century opportunity and jobs. Using a technology platform to connect partnerships and learning opportunities both locally and globally, LRNG holds the promise of delivering immediate, transformative change to millions of youth who Read More
- Cathy Lewis Long, Sprout Fund and Lisa Nutter, Philadelphia Academies Inc.
Pittsburgh’s pilot LRNG city and new city hopeful Philadelphia discuss LRNG’s 21st century approach to learning. LRNG has launched the 2016 Fossil City Challenge to spread the movement to six new urban communities this summer through grants of up to $50,000. In this Q&A, Cathy Lewis Long of the Sprout Fund, which has spearheaded a pilot LRNG city in Pittsburgh since 2014, joins Lisa Nutter of Philadelphia Academies Inc., which is applying for a Challenge grant, to talk about the future of learning. Q. What is an LRNG city? Cathy Lewis Long: To me, it’s a city that has harnessed all of its assets and resources for learning — as well as the virtually endless resources available online — to create a new experience of learning for young people. We’re living in this incredible moment in time with the ever-expanding presence of technology in our lives: connecting us to the Read More
- Connie Yowell, Collective Shift and Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, National Writing Project
There is broad agreement today about the need to redesign our nation’s high schools. Ideas and initiatives abound from the schoolhouse to the White House for how our nation can reinvent a 19th-century-model school system to better serve the needs of 21st-century students. But the reality is that in today’s ever-more complex, information-saturated, globally connected age, schools can no longer do it all. And indeed, they should not be expected to do so. No one institution can provide the array of skills and competencies that today’s young people need to succeed in life, work and community. To truly create the high school of the future, schools need an open-walled approach that incorporates the rich and highly flexible learning resources already available outside the classroom. Including access to mentors, workplace internships and opportunities to pursue interest-based learning at community institutions or online, high schools must have support to create a positive Read More
The Passion Collector mobile app will give teens a way to pursue their LRNG interests on the go. Three quarters of teenagers now use a smartphone. For many young people, that palm-sized computer they carry in their hand or pocket feels a lot like an extension of their very being. LRNG wants to transform their tech devices into mobile platforms for teens to find and pursue their passions — and link those interests to career opportunities in the real world.The Passion Collector — a concept now under review by the Reach Higher Career App Challenge hosted by the U.S. Department of Education — will include a quiz that helps teens define what they are interested in. Based on their answers, the app will recommend Playlists they can pursue to develop skills and competencies and help guide them through career-choice decision-making. We know that today, learning can and does happen anywhere Read More
Musical artist John Legend credits a teacher with encouraging him to develop his musical talents and follow his dreams. Now he is paying it forward with support for LRNG Innovators in partnership with the National Writing Project. LRNG Innovators challenges teachers to bring innovation into the classroom and — with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation — gives classroom teachers funding to put their ideas into action. The 2015 LRNG Innovators Challenge is now open. Applications are due January 13, 2016. Connected Learning research and practice has demonstrated that all young people can achieve and learn when they are given opportunities to follow their interests, receive support from peers and mentors, and have time and space to create work that is meaningful to them. Out-of-school programs and community institutions like libraries and museums provide rich learning opportunities that young people value, but in many cases these Read More
LRNG is excited to announce that we’re working with EA to develop one of our Playlists, a breakthrough approach to learning that provides fun and engaging ways for young people to acquire technical skills and workforce competencies.Playlists consist of linked sets of learning Experiences, Resources and Events — both in-person and online activities. When completed, often in whatever order a young person chooses, Playlists lead to mastery of a skill or competency, and ladder up to become interest-driven Learning Paths. Young people who complete a Playlist earn a capstone Digital Badge. This badge in turn can unlock additional learning challenges, such as the chance to showcase their work at an event, meet with an expert mentor, or access an internship opportunity. LRNG Playlists and Digital Badges help young people identify and follow interest-driven paths, and make critical connections to real-world opportunities. Together Playlists and Badges fuel young people’s creativity and Read More
- Gigi Antoni, Big Thought
Summer is our huge opportunity to do something really important for every child in Dallas. It is the time of year to provide children with rich learning experiences outside of the classroom. We have the resources right here in our city. We have the power to transform young lives. Research has shown since the ‘70s that summer is a time for learning loss, a time when children go hungry, a time when children are the victims of crime, and a time when there is significant erosion of social-emotional learning. This is particularly true in Dallas because one out of three children live in poverty. The impact on the achievement gap is that children not engaged in summer learning fall behind as much as two months each summer, and that loss is cumulative. Without intervention, a student could lag behind as much as two grade levels by the time they reach Read More
- Connie Yowell and Jessica Lindl
As we head into the new year, I look ahead with hope and gratitude. Thanks to the many partners who are supporting our vision, the evolution of learning is firmly underway.Since launching in October, LRNG’s network of schools, businesses, cities, nonprofits and community institutions is quickly scaling up as we prepare for the national rollout of the tech platform next year. By bringing together existing in-school, out-of-school, employer-based and online learning experiences, the LRNG ecosystem will deliver immediate, transformative change to youth across the country by creating 21st century paths to success. LRNG has 30+ badging opportunities already in beta testing with youth advisors. Our team is co-designing Playlists with city, corporate and program partners for Spring 2016. And our engineering team remains on track to launch the LRNG youth platform next spring. In 2016, we will add 11 new Cities of LRNG nationwide for a total of 15 cities. Read More
With the launch of LRNG in October, the evolution of learning is underway. Cities of LRNG will scale up to 10 to 15 cities in 2016. As the year draws to a close, here’s a look back at the pilot cities where a great idea took root, blossomed and grew. Chicago Launched in summer 2013 and anchored by DePaul University’s Digital Youth Network, Chicago’s City of Learning effort has been a national model for other sites. Chicago’s network has engaged nearly 60,000 youth through partnerships with over 100 youth-serving institutions and organizations, such as the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and Mikva Challenge. In addition to face-to-face programs, Chicago’s City of Learning has provided youth with access to hundreds of online challenges on a diverse range of topics, including poetry, coding, and sound production. Washington Led by the DC Trust, the “District of Learning” fully launched in early 2015 and now Read More