MEETING THE CHALLENGE – USING 21ST CENTURY THINKING & TOOLS

Develop “challenge” scenarios Professional organization – aspects that can

be learned & researched relatively quickly Require e-communications & e-

presentations Grow skills & knowledge in youth & others

through problem solving Provide the framework, tutorials, and

links to info about the challenge area Facilitate teams; create timelines; have

“judged” final contests by professionals – via video, YouTube, virtual

BENEFITS & USES Integrating skills & on-your-

feet, challenging problem solving

Models jobs and careers for teens; encourages movement beyond the neighborhood and school for the young; generate ideas for business

BADGES – reinforce, validate, value, & sustain Use badges to promote, extend,

monitor, and support the endeavor; For examples, badges for:

1st Level Survivor: PowerPoint & Basic Marketing Plan

Tech Skill Coach – Black Belt Solution Generator Next-Generator Challenge Poser 12th Level Survivor: Interactive Wiki &

Corporate Takeover

Starting-out-of-box Badge

The 21st Century Challenge (launching an ongoing “open” resource from a graduate course) The 21st Century Challenge is an open resource that would be initiated and originally vetted during an interdisciplinary graduate course that either readies teachers or informal-education personnel to create after school, interdisciplinary, and/or STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) programs. The initial concept, design, exemplars, project criteria, links, contacts with business and STEM professionals, and assessments / challenges standards would be developed as requirements within the course. During the course, collaborative student teams would develop resources, link, and information that could help youth when they are given reasonable challenges that could come from various business or professional areas; these challenges could be solved by researching, planning, brainstorming, collaborating, and developing solutions that integrate and assemble innovative strategies, advanced e-communications, or novel inventions. The intent would be (a.) to develop 21 st century thinking, collaboration, communication, and technology skills among the eventual youthful participants by challenging them with real-world-like problem and (b.) to create a repository of original ideas (possible help to product developers too). During the graduate course, student teams would connect with business, government, and industry professionals, designing challenges that would be tailored to youth – but still requiring these youth to stretch, grow, create, collaborate, and communicate. The interest and engagement in such challenges is evident in “reality shows” in entertainment and media today. A component of the graduate assignment would also be the dissemination portion where the graduate-student team would research how to bring this information forward to the larger public – what school, public, web-based, organization, or venue would be best suited to launch this project to the youth in general? And, they would consider the badges (see below) that would be needed to motivate, document, support, and maintain the project. In other words, the student teams would be required to consider the entire project – from talking to professionals to designing challenges to considering the timeframe, scheduling, and judging of the projects that are created by the youths. It would be important to create venues where the challenge competitions could be mediated at a distance – such as through virtually-mediated environments—thereby allowing a rich and diverse group of youthful participants. The graduate students should consider ways to gather input into ongoing challenges from the youthful participants themselves, who can become part of the ongoing development and governance cycles—it will help these youth grow and can create original ideas. Future graduate classes could be tasked with reviewing, assessing, modifying, and revitalizing the project based on the results since the last class. Badges could be available for different tasks within the project and could be used to facilitate the ongoing support and maintenance of the project – badges can validate the many different aspects of the project that need to function properly if the open resource is to be maintained, interesting, valid, and generative. Badges could document and support key areas such as: quality data input (from peers and from scientists); effectiveness of peer support (who is best at helping each other online); recruitment (who enlists the most new citizen scientists); maintenance/ governance (who attends & supports e-meetings (virtual / Google+) that look at the overall open-resource management).