New York City

NYC launches program to help students become ‘Digital Ready’

October 17, 2013 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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The New York City Department of Education (DOE), NYC Digital and other city agencies on Thursday announced the rollout of “Digital Ready,” a program designed to help high schoolers use technology to improve their readiness for college and careers.

The announcement took place at Brooklyn International High School, one of the schools participating in Digital Ready.

Digital Ready will connect students with the tech community in New York City, says DOE. “Through the use of technology and strong partnerships with outside organizations, Digital Ready provides our students enhanced classroom experiences and real-world learning opportunities that will support them on the path to success in college and careers,” Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott said in a statement.

Commissioner Katherine Oliver, from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, said, “Digital Ready will help bridge the gap between lessons learned in the classroom with the valuable hands-on experience they’ll acquire through collaboration with our partners in the media and technology industries.”

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In Digital Ready, teachers are trained to build digital resources into their lesson plans, use new media tools such as digital portfolios and virtual field trips, and work with partners to expose students to careers that rely on knowledge of digital technology.

NYC Digital says the program will help students become digital citizens. Partners include the American Museum of Natural History, Apple, Artsy, Beam Center, BRIC Arts Media, Brooklyn College Community Partnership, Mozilla Hive NYC, Tribeca Film Institute, and many others.

“Thanks to Digital Ready, students from Brooklyn International High School will learn programming, carpentry, metalwork and digital storytelling skills while building a giant interactive sculpture as part of our BeamWorks Project,” said Brian Cohen, co-director of Beam Center.

Tribeca Film Institute will also be working with the Brooklyn students. “We are thrilled to be working with educators and students at Brooklyn International High School to develop student-led new media projects that help young people explore and engage in social issues that are relevant to their school environment and their communities at large,” said Beth Janson, Executive Director of TFI.

The program launched in 10 high schools in fall 2013, and will expand in the following year to 10 additional schools, including middle and high schools. The 10 schools in Digital Ready for the 2013-2014 school year are:

•  Academy for Innovative Technologies

•  Bronx Academy for Software Engineering

•  Bronx Compass High School

•  Brooklyn International High School

•  City As School

•  Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School

•  Frederick Douglass Academy VII

•  Hillcrest High School

•  Hudson High School for Learning Technologies

•  Satellite Academy High School

The city also said on Thursday that the 40 initiatives in New York City’s digital growth plan are now complete. These include enabling 300,000 low-income residents to access the Internet; launching over 40 digital learning programs, including Cornell Tech NYC on Roosevelt Island; expanding the NYC OpenData platform from 350 public data sets to over 2,000; relaunching the NYC.gov website; and more. To read “New York City’s Digital Leadership: 2013 Roadmap” in full, visit NYC.gov.


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