Kids. Cable. Learning. The Official Podcast Channel Of Cable In The Classroom!

During the 13th Annual K-12 School Networking Conference of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) held in Washington, DC in March 2008, Cable in the Classroom helped moderate a panel discussion on Developing 21st Century Skills in School and District Leaders. CoSN is the country’s premier voice for K-12 education leaders who use technology strategically to improve teaching and learning.Members of the panel discussed the 2007 revised framework of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, which offers a vision for educational technology leaders. The panel, comprised of experts from cutting-edge districts and thought leaders from higher education and the nonprofit sector, examined common assumptions and goals for technology integration in the context of the 21st century skills movement. More importantly, panelists and attendees discussed what skills, knowledge and expertise school leaders must have for our nation’s evolving learning expectations.For this podcast (MP3, 23.5MB), we spoke with one of the pane

Moises Velez is a Peabody-award winning producer and currently the head of development for mun2, the NBCU cable network that celebrates the lifestyle of U.S. Latino youth. He spoke with Cable in the Classroom about the network’s documentary news series revolving around some of the most important issues relevant to Latino youth - including immigration, the environment and military recruitment in schools. This series includes “Toxic City,” the topic of our recent podcast with student Ryan Perez from Los Angeles, and the “Latinos in the Military” news special.In this podcast (mp3, 10.6MB), Moises shared how mun2 picked the topics for the documentary series and explained the process that goes into putting together the films. He also shared his thoughts on how teachers and students can – and should – use the series in classrooms.Web site resources:mun2News SpecialInspiring Youth in Their Communities Podcast

This podcast (MP3, 33.1 MB) is a recording of a panel discussion held during the 2008 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC). Based on the content of the Summer 2008 edition of Cable in the Classroom’s Threshold, Helen Soulé of Soulé Consulting Services moderated this discussion on innovative approaches to build interest and demand in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields among young women and minorities. Panelists included Erin Reilly from the Project New Media Literacies, MIT Comparative Media Studies and Karen Peterson, from the National Girls Collaborative Project and the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology. Douglas Levin, from Cable in the Classroom, and Marina Leight, from the Center for Digital Education, also offered insights as part of the panel.

Donna Krache, executive producer for CNN Student News, talked with us (MP3, 8.0MB) about this free resource from CNN, their contribution to CIC’s eLECTIONS game and what teachers and students have to look forward to from the organization in the fall.Website Resources:CNN Student NewsElections 101CNN Student News: Talking Democracy

Hear about C-SPAN’s plans (MP3, 3.3MB) for educator resources during this presidential election… from the exhibition floor at NECC 2008.Website resources:C-SPAN.orgC-SPAN Classroom

Cable in the Classroom recently spoke with “Kim W.” who is one of the featured students in WE tv’s HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, a documentary series airing Mondays at 10 pm ET through April 28. The series follows 12 girls through four years of high school capturing their daily lives, motivations, challenges, and peer and parental pressures they experienced.In this interview (MP3, 15MB), we take a look at recent Harris Poll findings on teenagers’ lives related to stress, lack of sleep, body image and interpersonal relationships. Kim W., now a student at Boston University majoring in Philosophy and Political Science, elaborates on her experiences in high school, particularly the stress she faced balancing parent expectations, academics, sports and other activities. We also hear how she is striving to achieve work-life-study balance now that she is in college. She describes what it was like to have cameras follow her throughout her high school years to major events, and what the reaction has been to

The 2007 Media Smart Award winner, Kelly Mendoza, presented her findings (MP3, 45MB) to an audience of education and cable leaders in March. Her paper Mapping Parental Mediation and Making Connections with Media Literacy, provides insight on how media literacy can strengthen and improve effective parental mediation. Mediation is defined as any strategy parents use to control, supervise or interpret media for children. Parental mediation, described as one of the most effective ways of managing television’s influence on children, helps children to think about the use of media and the messages they receive in order to highlight positive aspects of media, but also to intervene in media’s potential negative effects.“Effective intervention of parents with their children’s media consumption in the home may strengthen children’s skills in thinking more deeply about media messages they receive,” said the study’s author Kelly Mendoza. “Parental mediation informs children about television’s importance or la

Educators looking for programming that brings civics, environmental clean-up, economic development and social justice topics to life for their students, now have a new tool. The Mun2 News Special, “Toxic City: This Is Where I Live,” is the latest installment of the TV network’s Peabody-Award winning news special series and focuses on young Latinos across the nation who are improving their environments and communities.“Toxic City” profiles Latino youth in highly polluted communities who are taking the lead for their families in causes of environmental justice. Shot in cities across the country including Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, New York and El Paso as well as Juarez, Mexico, the special report explores how a disproportionate number of U.S. Latinos live and work among industrial waste, noxious pollution, and contaminated communities, and how youth are mobilizing to address these environmental issues.One of the stars of the program is Ryan Perez from Huntington Park, California – we spoke with him for

GSN, (Game Show Network), is now conducting its second annual National Vocabulary Championship (NVC). NVC is a nationwide academic competition that offers high school students between the ages of 13-19 the opportunity to win prize money toward college tuition through online qualifying exams and citywide championship events throughout the U.S. Students in grades 9 through 12 who are interested in qualifying for GSN's NVC Finals, that will take place in March 10, 2008 in Los Angeles, can visit winwithwords.com to take the test now. The deadline to enter is November 30, 2007.For more insights into this year's competition, listen to a podcast (MP3, 13 MB) featuring the host of the National Vocabulary Championship, Dylan Lane. Dylan is also the host of the new version of the game show Chain Reaction which also airs on GSN. He shared details about GSN's free support materials for vocabulary study available online and also spoke about this year's competition and GSN's plans for the finale next spring.Also, liste

Listen to an interview with C-SPAN (22MB, MP3) about their 2008 StudentCam competition.StudentCam is a video documentary competition that invites students to identify a current political topic of national interest and produce a ten minute or less video documentary which creatively explores the issue, while also integrating C-SPAN programming. The annual documentary competition for middle and high school students is a great way to get students engaged in exploring key issues during a presidential election year!Entries are due by December 31, 2007 and a grand prize of $5,000 will be awarded in February 2008 to the best overall entry. Winning student videos may also air on the C-SPAN networks.Related links:Video links to previous C-SPAN StudentCam winners: http://www.ciconline.org/C-SPANC-SPAN Classroom (free resources for teaching Civics and US Government) : www.c-spanclassroom.orgTechnorati tags: Civics, government, C-SPAN, politics, student video, contest, cable, CIC, Cable in the Classroom, cable

This week, Cable in the Classroom and Common Sense Media released the findings from a nationally representative poll of parents about their internet-related actions and attitudes.Today, we are pleased to make available a podcast [19MB, MP3] of the press briefing conducted to release the poll (conducted via web- and tele-conference).Conducted by Harris Interactive, the poll, Parenting Moves Online, provides a comprehensive and timely snapshot of parents and legal guardians of 6-18 year olds (whose children go online from any setting) across the U.S. Among other contributions, the poll sheds light on the different behaviors, attitudes, and experiences of parents of children of different ages (6-10, 11-14, and 15-18); on differences between Moms and Dads; and on differences by parental views and practices (including between more and less engaged parents, and between parents who view the internet as more helpful to their children than other parents).More on the poll and its findings can be found at www.ciconlin

In this podcast interview [17MB, MP3], the History Channel’s Dr. Libby O'Connell discusses the network’s Take a Veteran to School Day program that provides engaging curriculum for teachers, diverse learning opportunities for students and recognition for America’s veterans. Take a Vet to School Day is kicking off its first year this fall, linking veterans of all ages with young people across the country. The program offers free age-appropriate curriculum available online for Kindergarten to 12th-grade teachers.Dr. O’Connell, senior vice president of corporate outreach and chief historian at The History Channel, describes how students who participate in Take a Veteran to School Day will learn a variety of things—history, vocabulary, and geography— while also recognizing these men and women for their service.More information for schools, teachers and students about Take a Vet to School Day can be found at: www.veterans.com.Cable systems interested in getting involved, should visit www.aetnjustclick.com.Technora

The cable industry was out in force during the 2007 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in June.Represented by Cable in the Classroom, Discovery Education, The History Channel, the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), CNN Student News, C-SPAN (which brought the Campaign Bus!), Court TV, and cable operators (including Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and others) the industry participated in in-depth presentations, held a networking reception honoring educators, and took the opportunity to share the wealth of educational resources offered by the industry to educators and educational technology leaders from across the country.In this podcast (MP3, 19MB), we share just some examples of the cable resources that were on display for the more than 13,000 educators who attended this year's conference. We spoke with CNN Student News, C-SPAN, Discovery Education, the History Channel, Cox Communications and CTAM.If we've piqued your inte

At the 2007 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), Cable in the Classroom's Senior Director of Education Policy, Douglas Levin, had the opportunity to join Susan Patrick, President and CEO of the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL), in presenting on the intersection of two emerging educational policy innovations: virtual schooling and 21st century skills.Cable in the Classroom, as the national education foundation of the U.S. cable industry, is a founding board member of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The Partnership is the leading advocacy organization infusing 21st Century skills into education.NACOL and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills collaborated on a joint position paper released late last year and this presentation [MP3, 38MB] generally follow the outline of that collaboration.The punchline: If we are serious about ensuring that all students master the skills they will need for life, work, and citizenship in the 21st century, the continued expansion of virtual

Last week, Cable in the Classroom organized and presented a special session at the cable industry's annual conference focused on the technology and media behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs of today's students. Just as education administrators and policymakers are starting to look to students for their perspectives (for instance, see: here, here, here, here and here), so too are media companies and cable programmers trying to make sense of what the future has in store.In this episode (MP3, 72 MB), we are pleased to provide you with the entirety of our panel session, with a special introduction by Cable in the Classroom Executive Director, Helen Soule. The panel is comprised of eight high school students (amazingly articulate juniors and seniors) drawn from five different Clark County Las Vegas high schools and moderated by the simply superb Anastasia Goodstein, a journalist and youth media expert (whose views are available online here and here). Kudos as well to the local cable operator, Cox Communications - La

In advance of the TV premiere of GSN’s National Vocabulary Championship, Cable in the Classroom recently interviewed its champion, Robert Marsland, an 18-year-old senior at St. Ambrose Academy in Madison, Wisconsin.During the finals in March, he competed against 49 other students to win $40,000 towards his college education, and the title of National Vocabulary Champion.In this podcast (MP3, 13MB), Robert shares how he became interested in words, how his studies prepared him for the competition and tips for students and teachers for getting involved next year.You can watch Robert – and the other finalists – in action when GSN airs a one-hour special based on the National Vocabulary Championship finale on Sunday, April 15 at 8 PM eastern and pacific.The National Vocabulary Championship is a new event on the academic landscape, open to all high school-aged students in the U.S. The goals are to emphasize the importance of language arts skills and to encourage high school students around the country

The Spring 2007 issue of Cable in the Classroom's Threshold: Exploring the Future of Education features articles focused on taking educational innovation to scale, produced in partnership with the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF).In this podcast [MP3, 39MB], Christopher Dede (Timothy E. Wirth Professor of Learning Technologies at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education) with the assistance of Threshold's Ellen Ullman moderates a panel that explores the current state of 'scalability,' educational change, and how to get where we need to be - a topic of critical importance to the government, grantmakers, and all those seeking to spread successful educational practices to other classrooms, school, districts, and states. Panel participants include:Kathleen Fulton, Director for Reinventing Schools, NCTAF;L. McLean King, Superintendent of the Encinitas (Calif.) Union School District (and a Cable in the Classroom National Education Advisory Board member);Trish Millines Dziko, Executive D

The Education Technology Director for the National School Boards Association (NSBA), Dr. Ann Flynn, discussed the NSBA’s 2007 Education Technology Site Visits during this short podcast interview [MP3, 6MB].NSBA has been hosting site visits in districts across the country for nearly twenty years. Education leaders return from the visits with specific, realistic strategies for meeting their own districts’ and schools’ challenges and needs. This year’s districts – in South Carolina, Virginia and Minnesota – showcase innovative programs that integrate technology into the learning process and boost student achievement within diverse settings. They represent three distinctly different districts, but each has met their challenges with unique and comprehensive technology initiatives.Cable in the Classroom is proud to be the national sponsor of the NSBA Education Technology Site Visits again this year!You can find more information on the site visits and additional NSBA educational technology resources a

The 2008 election cycle has already begun, so it's time to start thinking about how to use the election season as a way to engage students in learning about our political system. For this episode [MP3, 15MB], Cable in the Classroom executive director, Dr. Helen Soulé, discusses cable’s exciting historic, civic and news resources available to teachers and students with three cable executives:Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Producer, BET News Washington BureauDr. Libby O’Connell, Chief Historian & Senior Vice President, Corporate Outreach, A&E Television NetworksJoanne Wheeler, Vice President, Education Relations, C-SPANAnd, for those looking for more information about the web resources mentioned in this episode, please be sure to visit:The History of U.S. Presidential Elections, a free History Channel resource that explores the origins of the U.S. electoral system and looks at some famous presidential contests over the yearsC-SPAN Classroom, which offers free resources for teaching civics and U.S. governme

Recently, Dr. Scott McLeod, Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota sat down with Colleen Needles, the host of Comcast Newsmakers (Twin Cities Region, MN edition), to discuss his work as Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE).In this brief but wide ranging interview [MP3, 6MB], which aired on CNN Headline News, Dr. McLeod shares his views on what will be necessary to ensure that school leaders can survive and even thrive in the fast changing, technologically-rich era in which we are all living.For more on Dr. McLeod's views about the future of school leadership and education, be sure to visit his award-winning blog, Dangerously Irrelevant.Technorati tags: CASTLE, McLeod, technology leadership, dangerously irrelevant, Comcast, education, Minnesota, CIC, Cable in the Classroom