Northwestern University, School of Education and Social Policy

Established in 1926, Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy's mission is to understand and improve human learning and development throughout the life span and in multiple contexts. Initially developed at DePaul University and now housed at Northwestern University, Digital Youth Network (DYN) was created to engage youth in interest-based learning that requires the development of digital and computational literacies, the use of digital tools, and the production of new knowledge and artifacts. With this award, DYN continues to implement, support and grow the Chicago City of Learning (CCOL), which is focused on making learning resources more visible to young people, connecting youth to resources available to them, and addressing resource gaps in targeted ways in the city of Chicago. By supporting summer and year-round learning and connecting formal and informal learning, CCOL is helping to create a learning ecosystem that will connect organizations offering programs, youth, and their caring adults across the City. This final award enables DYN to sustain the stewardship of CCOL and to begin broadening the base of financial support for these activities in 2018 and beyond.

Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy prepares students to shape and improve their communities. Its newly-appointed Associate Professor Cynthia Coburn has received several early career awards in recognition of her contributions to educational research on scale and teachers’ classroom practice in reading and math. This grant will be used to expand upon earlier research carried out by Dr. Coburn, to produce a book about strategies for spreading and scaling Connected Learning innovations, using a number of Digital Media and Learning projects as case studies, which will help to broadly disseminate Connected Learning ideas, models, and practices.

Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy prepares students to shape and improve their communities. Newly-appointed Associate Professor Cynthia Coburn—recipient of several awards in recognition of her contributions to educational research on scale and teachers’ classroom practice in reading and math—will use this grant to develop a new framework for bringing ideas and practices in learning in the digital age to scale. The project will include empirical observations of knowledge and practices shared in key digital media and learning demonstration sites: the Quest to Learn Schools, YOUmedia teen space, and Hive Learning Networks.