Category: The Whole Child

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The DJ Project

The DJ Project (Via Stacy Deeble-Reynolds.): “The DJ Project is an arts entrepreneurship program built on a hip-hop foundation. It uses music to engage young adults, giving them opportunities to develop in a context familiar to them. Through small business management, audio and video production, job readiness training and community service, The DJ Project model is a creative learning experience for the hip-hop generation.”

This looks like an amazing project. Stacy discovered it while working on her “Using Technology to Support the Whole Child” presentation. The director of the DJ Project is interested in collaborating with others in other areas. I got a chance to talk to Orange County’s own Jamie Knight, the Loud Librarian, about this on Saturday night at Mike Guerena’s “Country Bumpkins” BBQ. It turned out Jamie is quite interested in connecting with other innovative music educators like himself, too. I hope something comes out of it… and perhaps by posting it here, the connections might spread.

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40 Developmental Assets

40 Developmental Assets (Via Stacy Deeble-Reynolds.) The 40 Developmental Assets presented at this site form the backbone of the “Using Technology to Support the Whole Child” presentation Stacy is developing for the upcoming CUE conference. The presentation will be the final event in a series of five sessions in the OCDE Mobile Mac Lab on Saturday of the conference. Here is the blurb on the event from our Spring 2006 Newsletter:

In Construction Paper for the 21st Century, discover how free on-line media enables students to collaborate as they mix, mash and re-create the web. Then, in Blogs are the New Crayons, learn how to take advantage of the read/write web so that you can quickly and easily post professional quality interactive multimedia content for your students, parents, and community. Bringing the Real World Into the Classroom will demonstrate the value of creating a collaborative classroom environment that uses videoconferencing to connect to real world experts, museums, educational organizations and other classrooms. Participants in Take it to the Next Level: Video Games in Education will be introduced to cutting edge theories on digital game-based learning, including the benefits, drawbacks, and controversial issues. Finally, More to the Story: Using Technology to Support the Whole Child will present creative ways technology can be used to support 40 developmental assets such as adult role models, service to others, social justice, sense of purpose, and a positive view of personal future.

I’m more and more interested in this final session; as I IMed Stacy recently:

I’m excited because it’s a powerful approach to life… it goes right to the heart of what education and technology are for in my mind… and its something people want to know, which isn’t being provided right now. I hope this is only the beginning of it at OCDE.

If you’re an educator in California, we hope to see you in Palm Springs in March. :)