Trust Challenge Awards $1.2M to Digital Projects Building Trust in Online Learning Environments

Irvine, CA, March 12, 2015 --(PR.com)-- Thirteen projects have been awarded a total of $1.2 million, as part of the Digital Media and Learning Competition’s “Trust Challenge,” to foster trust in online learning environments. Tech developers, youth-serving institutions, collaborative networks, school systems, and universities will develop innovative digital badge systems, data management platforms, digital learning environments, online learning content and related digital tools to promote trust in connected learning experiences.

The awards were announced March 10 by educational innovator Richard Culatta, director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology, at the South by Southwest EDU Conference in Austin. The Trust Challenge is supported by the MacArthur Foundation and administered by HASTAC.

“The Internet and social media represent incredible opportunities to learn, but solutions to ensure youth feel safe in online spaces and are confident their online data are used in their best interest have not kept pace,” said Connie Yowell, Director of Education at the MacArthur Foundation. “This competition was designed to surface the most promising approaches to help foster trust amongst youth, their parents, mentors and teachers in using the online world for learning. Winning projects include tools to provide greater transparency — in a straightforward, easy-to-understand way — into who can see young people’s data, to programs that foster greater civility and respect amongst users in online spaces. Trust, privacy, and safety are critical to learning in an open, online world, and the winners of the Trust Challenge will help us reach this vision.”

Winning projects, evaluated by a panel of interdisciplinary thought leaders, were selected for their ability to advance trust, privacy, and equity in the context of the core values of connected learning, an approach to education in the 21st century that takes advantage of today’s abundance of information and social connection. The projects also tackle issues of access, management of data, and technical interoperability. Winners will receive between $35,000 and $150,000 each to develop their projects over the course of a year. They are:

Building Connected Credentials
Hive NYC Learning Network, Mozilla Foundation
New York City, New York

Code, Compose, Collaborate
Parsons The New School for Design
New York City, New York

Digital Literacy Toolkit
Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Global Gateway: Building Trust Through Peer Review
VIF International Education
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Gooru Trust Lab
Gooru
Palo Alto, California

MediaBreaker Learning Pathways
The LAMP (Learning About Multimedia Project)
New York City, New York

Open Badge Passport
ADPIOS / Badge Europe!
France

OurNet: Building trusted network infrastructures for youth
Eyebeam Atelier
New York City, New York

Resilience Network: Addressing Anti-Feminist Violence Online
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona

RyeCatcher Family Trust Network
RyeCatcher Education PBC
New York City, New York

In addition to the selection by judges, all finalists were subject to an online public vote. The three finalists receiving the most votes each were awarded People’s Choice Awards of $5,000. The People’s Choice Award winners are “Education through Global Engagement Mobile App,” “Tools for Managing Learning Through Internships” and “Parents Guide to Media and Technology.”

http://dmlhub.net/newsroom/media-releases/trust-challenge-awards-1-2m-to-digital-projects-building-trust-in-online-learning-environments/

Media Contacts
Mandy Dailey
Director of Administration, HASTAC and the Digital Media and Learning Competition
mandy.dailey@duke.edu

Mimi Ko Cruz
DML Research Hub
mcruz@hri.uci.edu
949-824-4587