June 2012 Newsletter Vol 4: Issue 12

Dear Partners and Friends, June was exciting with the first group of Silicon Valley students receiving awards and recognitions at the Globeys, the launch of the 2nd year of the Globaloria Academy for teachers, and the sextupling in size of our California network. We launched a Globaloria Summer Camp with Skillpoint Alliance in Austin, Texas, presented at national conferences and were widely featured in the national media. Our research partners at Rutgers University received a federal grant, and we welcomed a new member to our team. We continue to forge ahead and appreciate your support helping us transform communities and learning around the nation. Cheers, Idit

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1. Celebrating the First Annual Globey Awards and Leadership Inspiration Awards in Silicon Valley, California 2. Spreading Globaloria in 2012-13 for Community Transformation Across Silicon Valley, California 3. Because Two is Better than One, New Funders in Silicon Valley 4. Stepping up to STEM Learning with the Globaloria STEP UP Summer Camp 5. Workshop Research Partner at Rutgers University Awarded a Major Federal Research Grant to Study Globaloria In Depth 6. Globaloria Featured at National Conferences and in the News 7. Welcoming a New Team Member, Charlie Owen in Austin (TX)

1. Celebrating the First Annual Globey Awards and Leadership Inspiration Awards in Silicon Valley, California The Globeys provide all Globaloria students nationwide an opportunity to dig deeper, work harder, excel and win prizes for their learning and thinking. In May, the World Wide Workshop held Globeys in Florida and Texas. In August we will recognize West Virginia game designers. In June, we flew to Edenvale Community Center in the city of San Jose to gather with 100 Globaloria students and educators, their families and community leaders for the first-ever Globeys Awards ceremony in Silicon Valley. Student game-design teams from San Joses Oak Grove School District and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley presented the products resulting from a years' worth of teamwork and hands-on learning. The winners, Team Barcelona, received a game-design toolkit that included a laptop computer and Adobe Flash software, while finalists received their own game-design inspiration through prizes from Konami, Electronic Arts, Adobe and Cisco. Read the Globey Awards in Silicon Valley press release and the Knight Foundation blog post on this great community event. In addition to the student awards, educators and school leaders were also recognized with Leadership Awards for their demonstrated commitment to self-learning and application of innovation in education.

The June 5 celebration saw the first place award go to Team Barcelona of Christopher School

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Judy Kleinberg (Silicon Valley/San Jose Program Director of the Knight Foundation) and Globaloria Silicon Valley Leaders: Noah Harders (Director of IT, Boys & Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley), Kathy Robertson (Oak Grove School District - AdVENTURE STEM), Bill Abraham (Principal, Christopher School), Laura Meusel (Principal, Herman Intermediate School), Tony Garcia (Superintendent, Oak Grove School), Jon Perera ( VP, Worldwide Education, Adobe), Dana Fraticelli (CEO, Boys & Girls Club of Silicon Valley).

2. Spreading Globaloria in 2012-13 for Community Transformation Across Silicon Valley, California The second year of Globaloria's deployment in Silicon Valley began early, on June 9th, when 26 educators arrived at the Krause Center for Innovation (KCI) at Foothill College in Los Altos for four-days of intense training on how to run a successful Globaloria implementation in their schools. The Academy was designed and led by the Workshops Shannon Sullivan and Denise Stalnaker; assisted by Yvonne Martinez and Shubha Tulijapurkar. In the upcoming 2012-13 year, 1300 youth at eight schools and community centers, an over 600% increase from 2011-12, will engage in Globaloria learning at: Christopher Middle, Herman Intermediate, Oak Grove High School, Overfelt High School, Saint Teresa High School, KIPP Heartwood Charter School, and two Boys & Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley. This time last summer, I was overwhelmed like you, with serious fears that I will not be able to lead a Globaloria class, as I was expected to do. And I am telling you that its hard, but possible, and my students love it!" said Carlos Inda, Globaloria educator at Christopher School (whose students won the First Place Globey prize), as he received the 2012 Globaloria Educator Inspiration Award for best new educator nationally.

Globaloria Educators at Work; Shannon Sullivan with Carlos Inda, recipient of the Globaloria Inspiration Award, sponsored by the ESA Foundation

Systemic change is not possible without the commitment and engagement of leaders. Following the Educators Academy, we welcomed 12 education and community center leaders to a special half-day, hands-on Leadership Academy to prepare and inspire them for leading innovation in their schools.

Shubha facilitating the Leadership Academy, sponsored by the ESA Foundation

3. Because Two is Better than One, New Funders in Silicon Valley This month, we are pleased to announce two new funding partners for our Globaloria deployment in Silicon Valley, enabling us to strengthen our model and extend Globaloria to 1300 youth across the region. We are honored to be partnering with such eminent organizations and STEM leaders. We will use this as a springboard to continue adding more funding partners who want to join in our important efforts of transforming the Silicon Valley community through digital teaching and learning, both in and out of the classroom.

Motorola Mobility Foundation awarded the Workshop a $20,000 Empowerment Grant, to leverage mobile technology and applications to help build stronger communities. Microsoft has awarded a $10,000 grant to The Workshop through the Microsoft Youth Impact program. Microsoft is focused on empowering youth through innovative uses of technology and is thrilled to partner with and support the high-impact work of Globaloria.

4. Stepping up to STEM Learning with the Globaloria STEP UP Summer Camp In June, in collaboration with Skillpoint Alliance, a Globaloria Summer Camp was launched in Austin, Texas. Globaloria educator Teresa Valdez led campers through a 4-week Globaloria adventure that culminated in the Globaloria Showcase at the Microsoft Store in the Domain in North Austin. We plan to run a network of summer camps around the Austin area with our Skillpoint partners next summer. The students understand the importance of learning about the building blocks that make up modern games, or as camper Ethan states, "We get to play games and actually make one ourselves. And we get to compare and recognize what goes into them." Here is what other campers had to say about their experience.

Globaloria Educator Teresa Valdez engaging her Skillpoint campers; Globaloria campers at the Microsoft Store.

5. Workshop Research Partner at Rutgers University Awarded a Major Federal Research Grant to Study Globaloria In Depth We are very pleased to announce that Rutgers University, the longest participating Globaloria research partner, has been awarded more than $500,000 in support of further investigations into digital learning. The principal investigator, Dr. Rebecca Reynolds of the Library and Information Science department at Rutgers, was selected for the Institute of Museum and Library Services' Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program's Early Career Development Award. The three-year grant, which includes $399,995 in award dollars and a matching amount of $277,684, will examine the impact of gaming on learning among disadvantaged middle and high school students nationwide participating in Globaloria. Congratulations to our research partners!

6. Globaloria Featured at National Conferences and in the News In June members of the World Wide Workshop team attended and had featured roles in three very important conferences. Laura Minnigerode, our Austin based researcher, presented at Games + Learning + Society (GLS) held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. During her presentation she revealed the latest research results from her evaluation of EAPrep in a presentation called Game Design and Social Media in a Middle School Classroom. The conference was a great opportunity to connect Workshop research to other areas of Games and Learning research, especially as related to middle schoolers and young women. Shannon Sullivan (VP, Worldwide Workshop) and Marisol Rochas (Principal, East Austin College Preparatory Academy) spoke at the National Charter School Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, an annual gathering of over 4,000 participants from around the country. Their session, Innovative Game-Making for Learning: Lifting Kids Out of Poverty into Opportunity, demonstrated how it is possible for any school to prepare students for college and career success through the innovative Globaloria curriculum. At the 9th Annual Games for Change Festival, Idit participated in the Rants Session moderated by Nick Fortugno (Playmatics). I believe coding games is the new writing, and everyone needs to be fluent in coding, and we are not moving fast enough to provide it equally to all citizens ranted Idit, Coding is also the common language connecting the global G4C community, enabling collaborative thinking, creative modeling and storytelling,

leveraging the diverse knowledge and strategic expertise of people in multiple placesindependent of linguistic ties and cultural differences; it is a human right. Idits talk was turned into a HuffPost blog post and a CURRENT.com journalist interviewed Idit at length after the session, which resulted in a series of articles. In addition, Amber Oliver presented at the G4LI Game Play Expo, where festival attendees could play over 30 STEM-based games, and had an opportunity to learn about the latest in game-based research from G4LIs consortium of universities, partners, and educational networks.

Idit (2nd from right) on stage during the "Rants" session at the Games for Change conference

Globaloria in the News In the world of print and social media, we were again honored with features, including:

A profile of Globaloria by Ian Quillen in Education Weeks Digital Directions; Students Tackle VideoGame Design, showcases how Globaloria is helping students and teachers in West Virginia, Texas and California to prepare for college and careers. Photojournalist Matt Roth who accompanied Quillen, captured powerful learning moments in his photoblog Making a Game Face. EdWeek Videographer Paul Franz, produced a fascinating short video about his Day in a Globaloria Class. Inspired by Idit, Current.com journalist Daniela Capistrano (@dcap), wrote one post about the unique ways in which coding literacy could revolutionize how humanity approaches problems and another post about how Globaloria is helping to ensure equal access to this literacy as a human right. Workshop President and Knight Foundation Program Director co-wrote a Guest Blog for the Knight Foundation about the Globeys community event in Silicon Valley. Workshop President wrote an inspirational, community-building Guest Blog for Games for Change.

7. Welcoming a New Team Member, Charlie Owen in Austin (TX) To facilitate Globaloria operations in Austin, we have brought on Austin-based Charlie Owen to join our team. Charlie supports all Austin-based locations with their Globaloria implementations. Graduating with an MFA in Performing Arts Management from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2010, Charlie has spent most of his professional career working with non-profit and philanthropic organizations. As Project Manager, Charlie works closely with Amber Oliver, VP Partnerships and Operations, Laura Minnigerode, Research Manager at EAPrep and other partners to produce great results on the ground.

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