URBAN :: THINKING

New York, NY - In response to the national tragedy that is the senseless murder of Trayvon Martin, as well as the issue of racial profiling in America, Kevin Powell, noted activist and writer, and Bucktown USA Entertainment teamed up to produce After Travyon: Black Boys Speak. It is an inspiring and emotionally gripping public conversation amongst nine Black and Latino boys ages 10-17.

Watch- After Travon: Black Boys Speak

 

Filmed in Brooklyn in early April 2012 at the famous House of the Lord Church (led by Reverend Dr. Herbert Daughtry) just days before George Zimmerman was arrested for the fatal shooting, After Trayvon brings together these young boys to discuss Trayvon, their own feelings of vulnerability and fear, education, leadership, violence in all forms, history as they understand it, and how they view their America. Powell serves as moderator for the…

Big Brother house meets thriller meets real time drama. A new multicamera storytelling format has been developed with a format called Bxx. Viewers can watch the action unfold from 16 cameras placed around the house, and are free to watch from any point in the timeline. The first Bxx creation is a paranormal thriller entitled “Haunted.” The story takes place in a small house over the course of 48 hours. Daniel Knauf, has developed a new multiple camera storytelling format called Bxx (intro video).

It makes sense to me that the evolutionary path of music would lead us to the mashup. Although it weirded me out in the first few seconds, I’ll never forget Natalie Cole’s televised performance of “Unforgettable” with her father Nat King as a ghostly hologram singing beside her.  The intersection of music and technology today makes new creative juxtapositions and conversations like that one real, organic, and less freakish.

The Beatles’ significant contributions to the world of music are praised and adored, fraught with tension and politics, provoke debate, and feed the imaginations of many. The extent of their popularity and global recognition is vast; they too can boast, as their mother country once did that theirs is “the Empire upon which the sun never sets.”  

Nigeria, rich in oil and thick with a labor force, was for a long time, a crown jewel in that Empire.  Today it is the…

The LWF Conference in London was a great experience this year, it was much larger but it seemed to attract bigger names. It brought together a variety of “thought leaders” from different fields to discuss the "Future of Education". 

Here is an exclusive mash-up of footage from the conference:

View Full Length Videos on Learning Without Frontiers

The audience was about 85% (first adopter) educators, with the remainder software developers, ed tech vendors, NGO's and the like. The vendors who purchased "Experience Domes" were Nintendo (who had the Nintendo 3DS on display, and a big Mario mascot), Pearson, Toucan, GMSA (who had a variety of mobile devices and tablet computers on display along with various software vendors showcasing their products), WISE, Lego Education,…