DePaul University

DePaul University's College of Computing and Digital Media (DePaul) is the home of the Digital Youth Network (DYN), a key project and partner of MacArthur's Digital Media and Learning initiative. DYN is using grant funds to support the following activities: (1) support for the Cities of Learning initiative (the Initiative) that includes design and implementation of a robust project management system for all partners; and (2) continued support of an emerging set of international activities, including virtual exchange projects between Morocco and initial cities participating in the Initiative. The support helps ensure that Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Chicago are fully prepared for implementation of 20 15 Cities of Learning summer programs, and virtual exchange opportunities are implemented-grounded in Connected Learning-among Morocco and Chicago and Dallas.

DePaul University’s College of Computing and Digital Media is the home of the Digital Youth Network, a key project and partner of MacArthur’s Digital Media and Learning initiative. The grant will enable the Digital Youth Network to continue to support existing Cities of Learning sites in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and Dallas), and to expand to new sites.

DePaul University is the home of the Digital Youth Network (DYN), which coordinates a digital learning and enrichment challenge for Chicago youth called the Chicago City of Learning. This grant will enable DYN to expand the City of Learning program to include youth who are incarcerated in two Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice facilities, affording them access to self-driven learning opportunities through tablet computers.

DePaul University is the home of the Digital Youth Network, a key partner in the Cities of Learning initiative. The Network will use this grant to support a number of activities: the expansion and support for the Cities of Learning Initiative; as well as an initial eight-week pilot of a Global Badges project between Morocco and Chicago to establish programs with badge credentials that connect youth in the U.S. and abroad.

DePaul University is the home of the Digital Youth Network (DYN). In Summer 2013, at the request of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, DYN and other key partners helped design and implement the Chicago Summer of Learning, an innovative project in which youth-serving city agencies and more than 100 non-profit and cultural institutions across the city coordinated their summer programs and provided learners with badges. This grant will be used to expand the project into year-long learning experiences for Chicago youth that will connect learners’ formal and informal learning experiences into organized pathways of opportunities for academic and career success.

This grant to the Asylum and Immigration Law Clinic at DePaul University’s College of Law will assist legal aid and other service providers in Illinois prepare for the possibility of implementing a new federal immigration law. The meeting will improve coordination between community-based organizations, immigration service providers, and national leaders in immigrant legal aid. The meeting will also help to identify how Illinois providers can improve the state’s existing legal assistance infrastructure and scale their services to meet the significant increase in demand if a law is enacted.

DePaul University’s College of Computing and Digital Media is the home of the Chicago Hive Learning Network and the Digital Youth Network, two key projects of MacArthur’s Digital Media and Learning initiative. This grant supports the development of new activities that meet the recently-released common core standards for language arts in secondary education, to be implemented in existing programs in YOUmedia and the Hive Learning Network. Successfully piloted tasks will inform the development of a set of tools, templates, and assessments (in the form of digital badges) that can be used in both traditional classrooms and out-of-school settings.

DePaul University is the home of the Digital Youth Network and Chicago Hive Learning Network. Nichole Pinkard, DePaul professor, has been the lead partner in the design and implementation of YOUmedia, an innovative teen space at the Chicago Public Library created in 2009 to connect youth, books, media, and institutions throughout the city, and through the Chicago Hive Learning Network. This grant provides continuing support for digital mentors in their efforts to ensure that YOUmedia Chicago is a hub for Chicago youth and an exemplar for libraries and museums nationwide; and support for the Learning Network’s program director.

DePaul University’s College of Computing and Digital Media is the home of the Chicago Hive Learning Network and the Digital Youth Network, two key projects of MacArthur’s digital media and learning initiative. Under the direction of Professor Nichole Pinkard, founder of the Digital Youth Network, this grant will be used to develop and deploy digital badges for skills and competencies acquired in the Hive Learning Network, including literacy badges that acknowledge the writing skills; fashion badges that recognize skills in creativity, collaboration, graphic design, technology, presentation, etc.; and mentor badges for the adults working with youth in these areas.

DePaul University’s Institute for Housing Studies is part of The Preservation Compact, which was created to advance a comprehensive approach to preserving affordable rental housing in Cook County, Illinois to help reverse the long-term trend of affordable rental housing loss and promote policies and activities to preserve 75,000 affordable rental units by 2020. The Institute will use this grant to maintain and update its extensive database and website, produce relevant rental housing reports, and engage academics to analyze local and regional housing trends, to provide current and accurate data and analysis to Compact participants, policymakers and advocates.

To implement a Chicago Learning Network of schools, libraries, museums, after-school programs, online communities, and the home (over three years).

To support research, a data clearinghouse, and coordination of public agencies that participate in The Preservation Compact.

To implement a learning network of schools, libraries, museums, after-school programs, online communities, and the home in Chicago.

In support of a data clearinghouse, research, and a council to coordinate public agencies that are key members of the Preservation Compact (over three years).

In support of research about Cook County's rental housing market (over six months).

To study the feasibility of developing a professional repertory theater at the Theatre School.