Learn 2 Teach: Teach 2 Learn
For three months, 30 teens from Boston's inner-city neighborhoods came to the Media Lab to work on projects in areas such as energy, robotics, computer programming, Web design, and fabrication. During the first two weeks of August, these learners became teachers bringing their projects out into the community by working with middle-school students through community centers.
G.I.R.L.S. (visit website here)
This project is a part of a long-term research plan for understanding the role that digital technology can play in helping people reflect, make meaning, and test assumptions they have about the world and the values they possess. The system, G.I.R.L.S (Girls Involved in Real Life Sharing), allows users to reflect actively upon the emotions related to their situations through the construction of pictorial narratives. Users of this new system were able to gain new knowledge and understanding about themselves and others through the exploration of authentic and personal experiences. The system employs a new technology called common sense reasoning that enables it to infer affective content from the users' stories and support emotional reflection.
RoBallet
RoBallet is a research project that brings together the Arts, Learning, and Technology. Children extend the joy and creativity of expression through dance. They use technology to augment their choreography by programming interactive robots, animation, music, light and image in their dance space. They outfit their bodies and the environment with computational devices and sensors so that their bodies can generate the activity of the space. Central to this vision is the insistence that children should control the technology to serve their own imaginations. They should never be driven by it. They will come out of the experience with a deeper understanding of the three themes of the RoBallet experience: the arts as expression, technology as a means to serve expression and learning as "hard fun"- creative and enjoyable yet disciplined and purposeful.
INNER-active Journal
Emotions have a large impact on our physiology. Often we are unaware of how emotions aroused during everyday events can affect our health. Expressive writing is a technique used by psychologists that has been found to have profound effects on health for those involved. However, the patient only receives information from the doctor rather than actively being involved in his or her own process of healing. The intent in designing this system is to enable users to gain a better understanding of how emotions affect their bodies, expressive writing can improve their emotional and physical health.
The City that We Want
collaboration with SEED Foundation
The SEED program, provides a channel for company members to share their passion for science, technology, and learning with youths in developing communities. Working closely with SEED volunteers, members of the Future of Learning group are creating and sponsoring hands-on, intensive workshops in Mexico, Malaysia, Russia, and India. The concentration is on having children and teachers address problems that affect their own, as well as global, communities. A current focus is on water resources. Additional projects are planned for Nigeria and Venezuela.
