Clermont

Donald Tapscott, author of "Grown Up Digital"

One of the supporters of our project is Don Tapscott, the author of the book Grown Up Digital, has agreed to sponsor a contest with the grand prize being a thousand bucks.

Here are the simplified rules:

1. Create a 90-120-second video or multimedia story in the spirit of a soap opera:

Since we’re “The Young and the Wireless,” we’re looking for stories about relationships, specifically how technology helps maintain or hinder your relationships  or your everyday life.  Have fun with this! Let your creative juices flow. Entertain us. Teach us. Make us laugh. Make us cry. Make us feel something.

2. Your video must be in “.mov” format (we also encourage HD) and can be submitted to us while we are here from June 9th to June 20th. They can also be sent to us via our website (Upload feature coming soon).

3. If you don’t have equipment, contact us. We have a basic camera you can borrow.

4. The videos will be screened, and the posted to our website.

5. The best video nationally will win $1000 and has the potential to be mentioned in Tapscott’s next book along with the News21 program.

Think & Go.

Racquel

rgasa@syr.edu

(914)263-1341

So, it turns out the Lake County School District is doing EXACTLY what I’m trying to research.

The school district got a grant a couple years ago called Enhancing Education Through Technology. Some students put together this great podcast that talks about how you can learn anywhere and anyway.

Gave the school a call and talked to Kathy Halbig who is listed as the manager of Innovative Learning for Lake County Schools. Spoke to her on the phone for a bit and told her about the research we are doing and she was thrilled by the idea of getting the school and students involved. Looks like what we are doing is right up their alley.

This also got me thinking about how all this technology is creating a huge generational gap between the elders and their youngsters.

Donald Tapscott, a well-known author on the Net Generation, has said this is the first time the younger generation is getting ahead of the older generation, creating a generational lap as he calls it.

So I thought, is there anything that can be done to close this gap?

Turns out there is a retirement community called Summerville at Oak Park in Clermont that has a program called “Gapping the Generations”. Could it not be a more appropriate program?

It could be really interesting to see how these teens “unplug” themselves (sort of speak) to connect to a generation being lapped by the younger crowd.

Trying to get in touch with the program director there, looks like I missed her for the day. But tomorrow is always a new day to make those phone calls.