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Action
Projects
As part of the Digital Nations
initiative, the Media Laboratory will organize and coordinate
a set of Action Projects that make use of Media Lab ideas
and technologies in real-world settings. The Media Lab will
help Digital Nations members create similar projects in
their own communities and countries. The Action Projects
will include:
- Learning Hubs.
Building on existing collaborations in Costa Rica and
Thailand, the Media Lab is establishing a worldwide network
of organizations committed to deep change in learning
and education. These Learning
Hub sites will serve as working models of “out-of-the-box”
learning, based on ideas developed by Media Lab Professor
Seymour Papert over the past 30 years. At each site, Media
Lab researchers will work closely with a group of local
“learning activities” who will develop, guide, research,
and help others appropriate successful models of learning.
- Lincos: Little Intelligent
Communities. Economically sustainable Internet connectivity
is a prerequisite for e-development. The Media Laboratory
has joined with the Foundation for Sustainable Development
(founded by former Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres)
to create a flexible, economically-sustainable connectivity
solution that provides health care, learning technology,
government services, banking, soil and environmental testing,
as well as culture and entertainment in one package known
as Little Intelligent
Communities, or Lincos. In 2000, Lincos was awarded
the Alcatel III Award for Technology Innovation.
- Computer Clubhouses.
The Media Lab has helped establish a network of after-school
learning centers, called Computer
Clubhouses, where youth from underserved communities
explore their own interests and become confident learners
through the use of new technologies. In 1997, the Computer
Clubhouse project won the prestigious Peter Drucker Award
for Nonprofit Innovation. Intel recently agreed to invest
$20 million over the next four years to open 100 new Computer
Clubhouses in the US and around the world.
- Silver Stringers.
In many countries, senior citizens are among the most
digitally disenfranchised. Silver
Stingers taps into the wisdom and strength of the
older generation, providing senior citizens with new digital
tools so that they can act as reporters, photographers,
illustrators, editors, and designers of online publications
about their local communities. These projects have been
enormously successful in connecting seniors to one another
and to their communities, supporting new forms of grass-roots
communication and new models for media coverage.
- Health Nets. The
Media Laboratory has developed a strong program in the
creation of health
technology, including development of low-cost sensing
devices and Internet health information technology. These
efforts place special focus on tools and strategies that
enable people to take more control of their own health
care, especially in preventing illness before it occurs.
The Digital Nations consortium will provide members with
software, technical designs and expertise, health-systems
design expertise, and aid in the creation of state-of-the-art
health systems.
- Museums and science
centers. The Media Laboratory has a long history of
developing technology-based exhibits and activities for
museums, cultural exhibitions, and science centers. Previous
partners included Museum of Modern Art in New York, the
Boston Museum of Science, and the San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art; new partners include museums in Denmark,
Ireland, and Japan. Recently, the Media Lab established
the PIE
Network of museums, developing a new generation of
hands-on workshops in which participants use new technologies
to invent and explore, bringing together art, science,
and engineering.
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