Urban Tech News • Fall 2012 • www.urbantech.org 1 Dear Friends, What an exciting, yet chal- lenging time it is for the team at Urban Tech. With more budget cuts coming from Boards of Edu- cation across the nation, the tools that we are providing schools to teach social and life skills have never been more urgently in need. We all continue to be witness to low graduation rates and loss of so- cial skills by today’s students, while technology is playing a more vital role in their lives than ever before. For every smart phone, tablet or gaming device made accessible to our youths (at younger and young- er ages), teachers and parents stand great chance of losing their passion and enthusiasm in the classroom. It is Urban Tech’s continued mission to reverse this trend and embrace a young person’s fervor for using technology as a learning tool to assist them in achieving success in their lives, in and out of school. Students at risk of dropping out feel disconnected and lack the so- cial-emotional tools to be produc- tive in school. Bullying and other disruptive behaviors are com- mon side effects of this isolation. Research shows that 75% of 5th and 6th graders with poor be- havior, poor attendance and low achievement will not make it to the 12th grade. We have a proven new approach to reaching these students now. We have just recently announced and launched “Project Engage,” a new program to initially create up to 2000 Student Peer Leaders in schools across the country. Using the award-winning technology in our Youth Leadership Academy ® (YLA), this program has the dual benefit of re-igniting the joy and passion students have for learning and mobilizing them to become peer leaders to other students at their schools. To create as many Stu- dent Peer Leaders in as many schools as possible, funding is necessary. So we have launched a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo( www.indiegogo. com/urbantech). Indiegogo is an online crowdfunding platform where people who want to raise money can create fundraising campaigns to tell their story and get the word out. We appreciate all of you who have already donated to this campaign and encourage you to spread the word (and share the link) with your friends, families and business colleagues who share your enthusiasm for developing our children into future leaders of the world. As we will share later in this newsletter, we have a number of other very exciting initiatives underway, including the imme- diate development of an “Adap- tive Learning” program with the Synaptic Global Learning team at MIT, an incredible Digital Lit- eracy Training Program (including computer animation training) at MS223 in The Bronx and the re- design of the Urban Tech website. As we continue to build rela- tionships with different Boards of Education, we are connecting with a group of 50 educators respon- sible for guiding all of the schools in the New York City school sys- tem and individual school prin- cipals. This year, we hope to de- velop partnerships with at least 10 NYCDOE schools and realize a minimum of $25,000 in YLA sales. I am delighted to report that we had our first official meeting with Chancellor Dennis Walcott. We spoke with him about how Urban Tech can help him real- ize his goal of preparing students to graduate prepared for college, career and life success through the development of Social Skills – a 2012 NYCDOE goal. Of course, this is the essence of our Youth Leadership Academy ® (YLA). We could not achieve any of our successes in building Student Peer Leaders without the incred- ible moral and financial support from you. Your acts of kindness continue to bring in new technolo- gies and programming to schools in need with many students who re- main at-risk. This is critical to stu- dents’ success in the classroom and upon graduation. We thank you again for your continued time and donations you have made, allowing Urban Tech to achieve our mission to transform lives. News In this issue: YLA Goes Mobile....................... 2 Bronx Digital Literacy Classes ........... 4 Urban Tech Launches New Website ...... 5 Save the Date for 2013 Gala ............. 6 Urban Tech Thanks our Contributors ..... 7 Fall 2012 Letter From the President Urban Tech’s Youth Leadership Academy ® (YLA): Key Strategic Goals for Social Emotional Learning Pat Bransford YLA Provides Essential Skills For Success Learning courses are available individually or can be grouped to achieve the following building blocks for success: Visit www.urbantech.org for more information Student Leadership & Team Building Bullying & Violence Prevention Self-Control & Respect for Others Health & Wellness Financial Literacy Educational Planning for College & Careers
Transcript
Urban Tech News • Fall 2012 • www.urbantech.org 1
Dear Friends,
What an exciting, yet chal-lenging time it is for the team at Urban Tech. With more budget cuts coming from Boards of Edu-cation across the nation, the tools that we are providing schools to teach social and life skills have never been more urgently in need. We all continue to be witness to low graduation rates and loss of so-cial skills by today’s students, while technology is playing a more vital role in their lives than ever before. For every smart phone, tablet or gaming device made accessible to our youths (at younger and young-er ages), teachers and parents stand great chance of losing their passion and enthusiasm in the classroom. It is Urban Tech’s continued mission to reverse this trend and embrace a young person’s fervor for using technology as a learning tool to assist them in achieving success in their lives, in and out of school. Students at risk of dropping out feel disconnected and lack the so-cial-emotional tools to be produc-tive in school. Bullying and other disruptive behaviors are com-mon side effects of this isolation. Research shows that 75% of 5th
and 6th graders with poor be-havior, poor attendance and low achievement will not make it to the 12th grade. We have a proven new approach to reaching these students now. We have just recently announced and launched “Project Engage,” a new program to initially create up to 2000 Student Peer Leaders in schools across the country. Using the award-winning technology in our Youth Leadership Academy® (YLA), this program has the dual benefit of re-igniting the joy and passion students have for learning and mobilizing them to become peer leaders to other students at their schools.
To create as many Stu-dent Peer Leaders in as many schools as possible, funding is necessary. So we have launched a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo(www.indiegogo.com/urbantech). Indiegogo is an online crowdfunding platform where people who want to raise money can create fundraising campaigns to tell their story and get the word out. We appreciate all of you who have already donated to this campaign and encourage you to spread the word (and share the link) with your friends, families and business colleagues who share your enthusiasm for developing our children into future leaders of the world. As we will share later in this newsletter, we have a number of other very exciting initiatives underway, including the imme-diate development of an “Adap-
tive Learning” program with the Synaptic Global Learning team at MIT, an incredible Digital Lit-eracy Training Program (including computer animation training) at MS223 in The Bronx and the re-design of the Urban Tech website. As we continue to build rela-tionships with different Boards of Education, we are connecting with a group of 50 educators respon-sible for guiding all of the schools in the New York City school sys-tem and individual school prin-cipals. This year, we hope to de-velop partnerships with at least 10 NYCDOE schools and realize a minimum of $25,000 in YLA sales. I am delighted to report that we had our first official meeting with Chancellor Dennis Walcott. We spoke with him about how Urban Tech can help him real-
ize his goal of preparing students to graduate prepared for college, career and life success through the development of Social Skills – a 2012 NYCDOE goal. Of course, this is the essence of our Youth Leadership Academy® (YLA). We could not achieve any of our successes in building Student Peer Leaders without the incred-ible moral and financial support from you. Your acts of kindness continue to bring in new technolo-gies and programming to schools in need with many students who re-main at-risk. This is critical to stu-dents’ success in the classroom and upon graduation. We thank you again for your continued time and donations you have made, allowing Urban Tech to achieve our mission to transform lives.
Urban Tech has from its inception been at the forefront
of education technology. Its flagship program, the Youth
Leadership Academy® (YLA), was established in 1995 to
demonstrate potential implications of innovative uses of
technology to teach youth with differing levels of educational
attainment. It was also designed to reach student populations
who perform poorly in traditional classroom environments
allowing them to master core curriculum at their own pace and
literacy levels.
YLA engages students through technology-rich curriculum
including hundreds of interactive games and activities using
contemporary music, colorful graphics and animation that
broaden their critical thinking, enhance their writing skills and
promote the belief that “it’s cool to be smart.”
Students who participate in YLA become motivated and
inspired to improve their ability to learn, improve their retention
rates, and get top grades in their classes.
YLA is especially important because of the current lack
of rich interactive curriculum dealing specifically with life/
leadership and academic skills in under-served communities.
Young people today face tremendous obstacles to success, and
without the tools to address these challenges, our kids don’t have
a fighting chance.
We also need to reach kids where they are spending their
time, getting information, communicating with friends and
accessing media.
Almost 1 in 3 kids own a cell phone Almost one in three children between the ages of 8 and
10 own their own cell phone, and the 13–17 age bracket is
the fastest growing segment on smartphone adoption. The
rise in popularity of smartphones has brought on a cultural
shift in how children access and inter-act with information.
On average, children between the ages of 8 and 18 who
own their own smartphone use it daily for 33 minutes of
talk and 49 minutes of media consumption. It has become
the preferred method for consuming media and also extends
to learning, with 62% of students reporting that they would
rather use a smartphone than a laptop as a learning tool.
To remain in the forefront of education technology and to
scale up for growth, Urban Tech has been working with Synaptic
Global Learning (SGL), led by Dr. Nishikant Sonwalker
(Sc.D., MIT), to transform YLA’s rich content into mobile
applications that can be delivered to iPads in the classroom and
reach students on their smartphones. Urban Tech is adding
greater customization to its current content using SGL’s
“Adaptive Learning” technology platform to address the multiple
learning preferences, paces and performance goals of a broad
spectrum of learners in inner-city communities; and include
on-line personal tutoring (e.g. Khan Academy, etc.), social
media and blogs to engage students and transform the one-size
fits-all classroom to individualization and a 24/7, always
accessible learning environment.
Synaptic Global Learning partnership with Urban Tech to develop YLA for Adaptive Learning and mobile platforms
Urban Tech News • Fall 2012 • www.urbantech.org 3
With funding, Urban Tech
will develop mobile applications
and continue to leverage
technology for adaptability
across a broad range of learning
styles. Urban Tech believes
that America is finally at the
nexus of successfully extending
the walls of today’s classroom
to connect formal and
informal learning modalities
that address the needs of diverse learners. With this new
partnership and development, Urban Tech will continue to
provide tools to the nation’s under-resourced communities for
life skills, academic achievement and workforce development
using Dr. Sonwalker and SGL’s revolutionary technology to
provide a highly effective, efficient, and engaging pathway
to improving delivery of education to millions of students.
Our plan envisions growing virally with exponential growth
in the next five years, reaching millions of users by 2017.
This means scaling up YLA for easy replication, building and
designing intuitive interfaces and imbedding virtual training for
quick adoption.
“With funding, Urban Tech will develop mobile applications and continue to leverage technology for adaptability across a broad range of learning styles.”
Over time, the body of data from this network will be fed back into the system for tracking, evaluation, upgrade and refinement,
and its ultimate goal, adaptive “collaborative filtering”—wherein the accumulated, anonymous data from tens of thousands of users
begins to predict accurately the needs of any single user from the first click of a mouse, and then directs the single user’s learning
accordingly, adjusting all along the way. As one public school teacher told the YLA design team, “My job is to continuously assess
where every student is in relation to the 29 other kids in the class and then give them exactly what they need. But as a practical matter
it’s just impossible to do the job I want to do. I need more me’s.” This level of customization and just-in-time assessment is something
that Adaptive Learning software will provide.
Dr. Sonwalker
Urban Tech News • Fall 2012 • www.urbantech.org4
MS223 began the 2012-2013 school year with a new digital literacy training pro-gram to introduce a more advanced technology-based curriculum to its 8th grade middle school students. The technology-infused activities
are designed to promote new skills and further develop and refine current skills. The ac-tivities provide students with a basic understanding of new computing platforms, such as iOS applications on iPads, new software for Mac Op-erating System 10 (OS X), and the upcoming Microsoft Windows 8. Two new advanced soft-ware technology programs are being introduced to the stu-dents: Let’s Geek Out and Beginning Animation. Let’s Geek Out builds on what
students already know about PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. This advanced course includes shortcuts, graphic design, tracking capabilities, advanced formatting for things like certif-icates, newspapers, brochures, and coding. Students will en-
hance their digital literacy skills and in doing so, will be intro-duced to new career and aca-demic options for the future. This course also promotes independence, creativity, and curiosity. Students will be en-couraged to think “outside the box” and develop computer skills that will benefit them greatly in their academic life and future professional lives. Beginning Animation in-troduces students to Digital Animation and Applied Video Arts. The course is designed for students who want to learn the
basic principles of animation and applied video arts, using touch computing. It aims to provide students with a basic understanding of the hard-ware and software tools inher-ent with the Apple iPad plat-form, and how these tools can help students express them-selves through the production of high quality digital anima-tion and live-action videos. Through hands-on lessons, students will learn fundamen-tal principles of graphic de-sign, coding and movement, and how these principals translate into animating ob-jects on a computer. Through learning the processes involved in creat-ing their projects, students participating in the program will not only increase their computer literacy knowledge,
but also increase their knowl-edge of touch computing functions, camera operation, and video editing software. They will also learn valuable team building, problem solv-ing, and creative expression skills. In continuing our approach of customization and person-alization for each school to help all students learn and continue to grow and develop in a positive way, we feel this new program at MS223 will be a great way of motivat-ing, engaging, and preparing the students for success in a global community. Looking
into the future we recognize what is going on in the exter-nal world and adapt our pur-poses and strategy adequately to best serve the students and partners that we work with.
Urban Tech launches YLA Digital Literacy Training Program at Bronx, New York’s Laboratory School of Finance & Technology – MS223
Craig Patches is responsible for the design, development and production of Urban Tech’s educational e-learning products and services, most notably as the co-producer of the Youth Leadership Academy® (YLA) program. He has 10 years of professional expertise directing and managing the development and deployment of technology-based educational solutions, specializing in curricula development, multimedia presentation and content management sys-tems. Prior to joining Urban Tech, Mr. Patches worked as a storyboard artist and multimedia developer for an internet-based interactive educational software company. Mr. Patches holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Video from California Institute of the Arts.
Craig Patches • Director, Multimedia and Program Development
MS223 8th graders animate their project
MS223 students use iPads to study animation
Our Mission Statement The National Urban Technology Center (Urban Tech), a not-for profit educational corporation, transforms lives through the power of technology by giving youth the capacity for positive behavior and academic success. Urban Tech achieves its mission by teaching students essential life skills, and by training and coaching parents and educators to support social and emotional learning. Urban Tech’s flagship programs, The Youth Leadership Academy® (YLA) and SeedTech®, are delivered online to enhance the capacity of schools and afterschool programs to reach and effectively teach all students.
www.urbantech.org
November 2012: Urban Tech Launches Its Brand New Website!
Urban Tech’s 7th annual Gala honored actor and philanthropist Blair Underwood, renowned philanthropist and corporate and community leader Dr. Reatha Clark King and award-winning journalist and CBS2 News Anchor Maurice DuBois. With the help of our generous sponsors and donors, we raised $300,000 to sustain and grow Urban Tech’s programs that provide crucial life/social skills support to students and one-on-one mentoring of teachers in communities that have suffered the most in this economy. Proceeds from the event will allow Urban Tech to enhance and expand its award winning Youth Leadership Academy® (YLA). It will also help Urban Tech intensify its efforts to meet the demands of the new workforce by implementing adaptive learning approaches for individualized learning and focusing on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
2012 Gala Photos
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Youth Leadership Academy®Urban Tech’s
YLA is a research-based education program that
resonates with students ages 8-14.
Learn more by visiting urbantech.org >
Teaching Life & Social SkillsStudent Leadership & Team Building
Bullying & Violence Prevention
Self-Control & Respect for Others
Health & Wellness
Financial Literacy
Educational Planning for College & Careers
Don’t Forget To Save The Date For Our June 2013 Gala - Check On Our Website
FOUNDER’S CIRCLEGwen and Gerald AdolphPat and Tom BransfordWells Fargo Foundation
CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLEBTIGValentino D. CarlottiGoldman SachsIntel CorporationDr. Reatha Clark King Dr. N. Judge King Bettina L. Klinger/ KlingerVision, Inc.Latham & Watkins LLP/ Sharon BowenPfizer, Inc./ Richard H. BilelloRubenstein Public Relations, Inc./ Richard RubensteinThe Nielsen Company/ Don Lowery
BENEFACTORSBobbie (Mrs. J. Player) CrosbyEmblemHealthExecutive Leadership Council Alia Jones-HarveyKeith Lloyd Custom Couture/ Tyrone & Vihara Whittle Marsh/ Jessica IsaacsDr. Joyce Brown &H. Carl McCall The Starker Family Foundation/ Farrel & Steven Starker Kathy & Jeff Zukerman
PATRONSHolly F. & Richard BilelloAlvin BowlesJ. T. (Ted) ChildsDawn Hankin-Cliette Erik A. ClietteJanine Dorsett &
Michael RobinsonJames Forsythe & Denise L. Quarles, Esq. Godfrey GillElizabeth & David GoldsteinIan & Jennifer GoodmanCara & Jeffrey KleinLazard/ Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. Lippman Family FoundationAllan E. MayefskyIra M. MillsteinMorrison & Foerster FoundationJacqueline &Kevin NickelberrySea Research FoundationRori Shaffer/ Glendale FoundationDr. Elgin & Gena Davis WatkinsWorldWide GroupTravel & Events
FRIENDSBarbara AlleyneSteven & Sande BergerStephen C. Byrd Linda DavilaElizabeth & Robert DobrishToni G. FayBarbara ForsterDenise Marie FugoMelissa & Casey GardLynelle GranadyFredrika HillLoida Nicolas LewisHassell Niles McClure Brenda D. NealJean Marie PosterVikki PryorGeorge VanAmsonDr. Elaine WalkerNancy WilliamsJanet & Joshelle WrightNancy & Jay Zises
SUPPORTERS/ CONTRIBUTORSGail Burton Allen, MD
Dr. Susan BrancheDr. Sue A. Brown Norma & Leonard E. DavisBarbara Delany Hazel N. DukesNancy FolgerJoyce K. HauptMichael Kuslansky Alma RangelDana ReedJean Jordan Fern KhanJennifer KleinDonna KristalHerman LoBrian SklarRaymond & Carol StolzSullivan Family Foundation Sheldon J. TashmanAnn Walker-MarchantMr. & Mrs. Roger B. VincentMargaret & Charles WilliamsAlfred and Diane WoodsLynn Zises
AUCTION/ GIFT DONATIONS
Diane AshleyAlia Jones-HarveyBallet BeautifulBedford Post InnBobbie (Mrs. J. Player) Crosbyb michael AMERICABradford Renaissance Portraits CorporationDawn Hankin-Cliette & Erik A. Cliette Cynthia Rowley, Inc.Norma Jean Darden David PerlinEric Woods / Harlem Vintage Flywheel SportsFront Row ProductionsGM Diamond Group, Inc.Tim GliskerPaul GoergGrandstand Sports & Memorabilia, Inc.Iman Cosmetics
Jessica IsaacsHonorable H. Carl & Dr. Joyce Brown McCallJohn Starks/ John Starks FoundationVernon E. Jordan, Jr.Kathy Bransford Zukerman Keith Lloyd CoutureLate Show with David LettermanMargot Jordan PhotographyMaurice DuBoisNational Basketball Association New York KnicksPatsy’s Italian Restaurant Pat and Tom BransfordRed Rooster HarlemManhattan AutoRubenstein Public Relations, Inc.Shutters on the Beach SOULCYCLE, LLC Stella and DotStephen Byrd Synthia Saint James Fine ArtsThe Helping Hand: Philanthropic Divisionof Judith RipkaThe Institute of Culinary EducationThe Jewel Dunns River Beach Resort & SpaThe Kimberly HotelThe Peninsula Spa by ESPAThe Producers of GodspellThe Producers of Mama Mia!The Producers of Rock of AgesThe Water ClubTunstull Studio Fine Arts/ Glenn TunstullTurn2 Foundation, Inc.WorldWide Group Travel & Events Yves Durif Hair Salon at the Carlyle
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Urban Tech Would Like to Thank all the Following Individuals, Foundations and Corporations for the Support of Our 2012 Gala
