PASA Blog
Adalis is a sophomore
and former AfterZone participant, at Mt.Pleasant high school who has been
training as an intern in the Hub’s Internship program, which trains high school
students to serve in PASA's middle school programs throughout the AfterZone to
support the transition from middle to high school.
On the final day of their leadership academy training, we thought
it would be interesting to get a student’s take on the program and on what it’s like
to participate in PASA programs from middle through high school!
PASA: What was it like switching from the
AfterZone to the HUB?
Adalis: I
thought it was like a dream come true. Because I remember when I was in the
AfterZone and how great City Year was; they were like the coolest people I met,
and I told myself that when I get older, I wanted to do exactly what they did. And
the Hub gave me that chance. It’s like I want to give back, I want to give
these [middle school] students a place where they can have fun, and I can do
that by helping out.
I
love every activity in the Hub! I don’t think there’s ever a time...
PASA's "Pathways for Lifelong Learning" entry won the national Digital Media and Learning competition, sponsored by the MacArthur and Mozilla Foundations!
Hub director Damian Ewens, and Hub technology coordinator Kerri Lemoie travelled to San Francisco to present the project with 500 other entrants in a highly competitive third and final stage, walking away as one of only 30 winners. Winners included NASA, Disney-Pixar, Microsoft... and PASA (obviously)!
We can't wait to see what possibilities digital badges might open up for the youth of our city.
To keep up with news as Providence's badging system progresses, be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook!
BY Cathy Davidson February 21st, 2012
img style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;" src="/sites/default/files/u16/cathy.20.jpg" alt...
The Hub hired 2 students who completed our Web Development class to help build an Expanded Learning website. HTML coding starts now!
By Damian Ewens
There is a lot of conversation happening right now about how, when, why, and if educators should integrate technology into the classroom. Digital learning offers exciting new capacity as much as it offers challenges. New learning tools can provide real time analysis of student knowledge and critical thinking skills. Educators can adapt their content to better individually serve students according to their strengths and proficiency levels. Tom Vander Ark even goes so far as to suggest in his article 10 Things I’d Do Right Now as a Superintendent(www.gettingsmart.com) districts should place all AP courses online purely because the web offers the capacity to do so. Why offer only 6 AP courses when you can offer all AP courses?
At the same time challenges are present to incorporating digital learning as an educational tool. Many argue that digital learning takes away from the critical human interaction between teacher and student, and peer to peer learning. This is a matter of when and how digital tools are used. In the same way that today's standardized tests do not paint a complete and accurate picture of a learner, digital learning is not the only way to learn but rather, a tool that can facilitate new ways of acquiring, sharing, analyzing and assessing learning wherever and whenever it happens.
Here in Providence there is a great array of digital learning happening for high school students in the after-school environment. The MIT-supported FabLab at AS220 provides tools and training for digital manufacturing, 3D printing, video and audio productions and more and Inspiring Minds offers a Build Your Own Computer Class. Youth organizations like Youth 4 Change,a href="http://newurbanarts.org/...
