MobilityShifts: An International Future of Learning Summit was a week-long summit that took place from October 10-16, 2011 and featured a conference, workshops, a science fair, performances, and exhibitions focused on the changing landscape of learning using digital media. A continuation of The New School’s biennial Politics of Digital Culture conference series, MobilityShifts added an international layer to the current debate about learning with digital media, with a particular emphasis on learning outside the bounds of schools and universities.

“MobilityShifts is about bringing together the people, theories, projects, and organizations that are doing the most exciting work in the area of digital learning, and starting a dialogue that will rethink the future of education,” said summit chair Trebor Scholz, a faculty member at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts.Hive NYC members Global Kids (GK), the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) led a workshop at Mobility Shifts :: International Future of Learning Summit. Attracting a group of 35 participants, Barry Joseph, Daria Ng, of GK), Anthony Negron (NYSCI), and Michael J. Foster (AMNH) presented each of their Hive Learning Network NYC related projects.

The workshop was split into two parts.  First, each presenter presented youth projects that used mobile technology for STEM or civic engagement in after school settings.  The discussion centered around mobile digital tools and their educational affordance. Global Kids spoke about their project with the New York Public Library called “NYC Haunts,” where middle school students in the Bronx created a location-based game on iPads using the platform SCVNGR to learn about local history and explore larger social issues such as clean air, religious tolerance and racial differences.

The second program involved the American Museum of Natural History’s “Urban Biodiversity Network,’ where high school students used Android smartphones that were connected to a badging system developed by Global Kids, to investigate the impact of intense human developments on urban ecology.

The New York Hall of Science developed a program called “C3 Pollution Patrol,” where middle school students used handheld smartphones to research and report on local environmental conditions in their neighborhood, as a means of advocating for change.

In the second part of the workshop, we opened up the session to participation and allowed those in the session to create a geolocative game using SCVNGR in small groups.

Here is the presentation from Global Kids.

Were you able to attend this summit at MobilityShifts?  If so, would love you hear your feedback in comments!