Jen N's blog

Ok, desperate is too strong of a word, but it is time to be seeking potential partners for the potential IMLS grant due February 1. Spent a lot of this morning thinking about what participation would require, what the grant could pay for, how many locations would need to be involved, the best ways to contact potential partners. I hate sending info to emails blindly, but where we don't have a personal contact it may make more sense to do it that way and follow up with a telephone call.

This is a long post with information on 21st century literacies.

Wednesday's roll out event went well, with about 30 people from MPL and HCL in attendance. Kirsten spoke well about informal learning and the importance of after school programming; Keith did an excellent presentation on Scratch. All nine workstations were filled with experimenters after his presentation. It felt helpful to talk about the Game Studio as a 21st century literacy activity in much the same way story times were 19th and 20th century literacy practices.

The event of July 25 is looming in the foreground now, rather than the background. It will be a great opportunity to bring to a larger local audience the role and place for the Game Studio in libraries and where our project fits more broadly in the gaming research world. Madison was a great experience; it was heartening to see the interest on all fronts on literacy, albeit defined a little differently for each. Jenkin's convergence notion really resonates, as does Kylie's new media literacy work. It feels like we are in fine company as we move forward.