Archive for August, 2009
Computers For Youth joins the Net Literacy Alliance
Computers for Youth (www.cfy.org), a national organization with locations in New York, New Jersey, San Franscisco, Los Angeles, Philidelphia, and Atlanta has joined the Net Literacy Alliance. According to CFY’s Bill Rappel and Don Kent’s Net Literacy – our partnership is the perfect relationship because it is completely complimentary and successfully increses digital inclusion.
Please read this important information from Children’s For Youth’s website:
Computers for Youth’s work is built on our belief that the home holds the greates untapped potential for improving children’s academic and life-long success. Compared to the classroom or the after-school center, the home has received the least attention from policy makers and educators. It is where children spend the greatest amount of time (only 13% is spent in the classroom) and where children interact with the adults most interested in their overall success—their parents/guardians.
As a nation, we have long recognized the importance of the home learning environment for pre-school children. Each year, millions of dollars are invested by private foundations and government to help low-income families compensate for shortfalls caused by poverty and lack of parental education. This funding supports cognitively stimulating resources for the home (such as books and television programming) and training in parenting skills. The goal is to help low-income and minority children be “school ready” by the time they start kindergarten.
Yet once children enter school, our nation’s attention on the home learning environment dissipates. The drop-off is steepest just as children enter their pre-adolescent years and advance from primary to middle school. New research has revealed a disturbing correlation. Children’s pre-adolescent years are not only associated with reduced attention on the home learning environment, they are also the years during which academic achievement drops.
The Home Learning Environment
- The greatest disparity in children’s learning environment is in their homes. It is there that low-income children face:
- Lower levels of parental involvement. Research shows that low-income parents are less likely to monitor school assignments, know the names of their children’s teachers or attend school functions.
- Scarce educational resources. Research has shown that book availability for middle-class children is about 12 books per child, while in poor neighborhoods, it is about one book for every 355 children. In addition, only 46% of low-income children have an Internet connection at home, compared to 88% of children in families with incomes above $75,000.
Focus on Middle School Years
CFY’s program purposefully focuses on children in their middle school years because these are the years when:
- Children begin to disengage from academics
- Parents begin to feel less capable of helping with increasingly complex homework assignments
- Research shows the steepest decline in academic achievement
Our nation’s disinvestment in the home learning environment is doing a real disservice to our middle school children, especially those from low-income families. For addititional informaiton, visit our partners at www.cfy.org.
Net Literacy Announces Fifth Core Program – Financial Connects
As banking, investments choices, scholarship opportunities, and fraud migrate to the Internet, Net Literacy’s (www.netliteracy.org) student board believed it important to develop a fifth core program focusing on financial literacy.
Thanks to the generous funding from the Lilly Endowment, Old National Bank, and Bright House Networks, students from six schools worked together at IUPUI to develop a novel website that is scheduled to be launched on September 22nd.
The website, located at www.financialconnects.org, will contain 200 “best of class” interactive games, videos, calculators, and applications based upon an exhaustive review of 5,000 financial literacy websites. Supplementing the “best of class” content are 20 original financial literacy videos created, produced, and edited by the student volunteers. Chairman of the House Education Committee Greg Porter and Lt. Governor Skillman also have videos on the site that were produced by the team of student volunteers that explain why the Indiana General Assembly enacted new legislation requiring students in 6-12 grade to receive financial literacy education and how they believe this initiative will impact Indiana students.
Stay tuned for more information on Financial Connects – the official launch of the website will be announced on this site (www.netliteracyalliance.org). All of Net Literacy’s content is available at no cost to all Net Literacy Alliance partners.
Three Net Literacy student board members will be representing Indiana at the America’s Promise Alliance’s (www.americaspromise.org) Grad Nation Action Forum in Washington, DC, on September 16th-18th. During the Grad Nation Action Forum the Net Literacy student board members will be involved in networking with other youth, Alliance partners, funding partners, and community representatives about the leadership work Net Literacy has been involved throughout the Midwest. In addition to serving as a resource to the Forum’s attendees on the “young leader” perspective around increasing the nation’s graduation rates, we will be providing the youth perspective at breakout sessions.
Lt. Governor Skillman Joins the Net Literacy Honorary Board
Lt. Governor Skillman joins the Net Literacy Honorary Board of Directors, showing her support of youth empowerment, student engagement, and increasing digital inclusion. The Net Literacy Honorary Board’s members ranages from US Senators Lugar and Bayh to Congressman Carson. At the suggestion of the Lt. Governor and with the support of the Verizon Foundation (http://foundation.verizon.com), Net Literacy will be providing computers to senior centers in rural communities throughout Indiana. Net Literacy (www.netliteracy.org) is a all volunteer nonprofit whose board is 50% comprised of students. The organization has increased computer access to over 120,000 individuals throughout the Midwest and its student volunteers have donated hundreds of thousands of hours of community service.
Net Literacy Students to Present at the Central Indiana “Summit for Student Success”
Net Literacy was asked to conduct a workshop to discuss its success and youth-empowered model at the Summit for Student Success on August 10th. The presentation will be conducted by five Net Literacy student board members. At the invitation of Net Literacy, Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett will discuss community engagement in our educational system. For additional information or student board members interested in receiving a complimentary ticket, contact [email protected]. The Summit is sponsored by America’s Promise Alliance and McCoy, and was planned by Net Literacy and 18 other organizations.
Busy Summer for 12 Net Literacy Schools Will Conclude on August 7th
Five Net Literacy summer programs conducted during the past 8 weeks will conclude on August 7th. Students at Northwest, Broad Ripple, Carmel, Brebeuf Jesuit, Howe Academy, John Marshall, Arsenal Tech, Manual, George Washington, Crispus Attucks, Haverford, DePauw, Purdue University, Indiana Univeristy, and several other schools repurposed more than 850 computers and designed and constructed a website that will be the foundation of Net Literacy’s fifth core program, Financial Connects. Computers were distributed to more than one dozen schools and nonprofits. The Financial Connects, a financial literacy website with more than 20 original videos contain 200 “best of class” financial videos, calculators, applications, articles, and interactive games, will be located at www.financialconnects.org when launched in the next month. Students also taught elementry school children Internet safety using Safe Connects (www.safeconnects.org) at three YMCA summer programs and planned and began to design a graphical user interface for a virtual campus. These programs were funded by Bright House Networks, Lilly Endowment, the Hoover Family Fund, Old National Bank, the Junior League, the Clowes Fund, and the Luminus Foundation. IUPUI provided the Net Literacy student volunteers over $80,000 in scholarships for their community service work.