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Freedom Center Chooses Apple to Power Digital Learning Environment
Freedom Center Uses Wi Fi, Digital Media to Embrace New Audiences
Cincinnati, Ohio — The Global Citizen of the 21st Century is likely to be a “digital native,” born into and growing up in a technology-driven world. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, today’s 13 to18-year olds spend more than six hours each day using some form of digital media. Access to information is ubiquitous, giving greater importance to informal learning as a necessary supplement to school-based activities.
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, today, placed itself at the center of this new learning ecology by launching a one-of-a-kind project that builds on the influence of technology in our lives. The “Digital Backpack Classroom,” will allow visitors at the Freedom Center to embrace social networking technology, digital media production, and wireless computing in ways that empower them to create, distribute and access a shared vision for freedom.
“Through this project, we will advance two of our greatest priorities; enhancing the unique experience had by the hundreds of thousands who visit the Freedom Center, and extending this experience beyond the walls of the Center to millions more across the globe,” said Donald W. Murphy, Chief Executive Officer of the Freedom Center.
This experience is the first of several new initiatives at the Freedom Center that use technology as the platform for engaging ideas at the core of its visit experience. It requires that interested guests form a “production team” prior to their visit, and reserve one of the Digital Backpacks that have been specifically designed for this project by Higher Ground in Ann Arbor, MI.
Each pack contains an Apple MacBook Pro notebook computer, iPod classic with voice recorder, digital camera, HD digital camcorder and tripod. Together, these tools for creative expression become the engine powering visitors’ unique perspectives on societies enduring quest to define freedom. These perspectives are then captured as a digital movie, archived at the Freedom Center, and published to a special section of an iTunes channel that the Freedom Center is launching in May 2008.
The Digital Backpack project was developed with generous support from KnowledgeWorks Foundation, and with advisement from the University of Cincinnati, College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services.
Ernest Perry, Chief Innovation Officer for the Freedom Center, and manager of the project, stated, “There’s no other experience like this in the country. It gives voice to the ideas of individual learners, within global perspectives on our enduring quest for Freedom, because of the synergistic power of the Digital Backpack and the Freedom Center’s Wi Fi infrastructure. At 160,000 square feet, we may be the single largest hotspot for free wireless internet access in the region.”
Perry added that the Digital Backpack project has four key goals:
● Raise awareness of the growing significance of informal learning centers in the 21st Century,
● Promote digital equity by cultivating a culture of access and exposure to technology in the urban center,
● Enliven the arts and humanities through digital media integration and
● Add to regional economic development by growing local talent in high-technology industries.
“We are excited to launch this project that will allow students to investigate the importance of freedom in a new and innovative way, facilitate deeper dialogue about freedom issues and provides opportunities to express their view of freedom and share it with the world,” said John Pepper, Co-Chair of the Freedom Center Board.
To take advantage of this four hour experience an advanced reservation is required. Please call 877.648.4838 ext.7523 or email freedomis@nurfc.org to find out how to take part in this experience.
About the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Since opening in 2004, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center has become one of the nation’s foremost providers of standards-aligned with education programs for elementary, middle and high school students. Situated in Cincinnati, Ohio, just south of downtown, on the banks of the Ohio River, the Freedom Center celebrates the legacy of courage and multicultural cooperation embodied in the story of the Underground Railroad. The Freedom Center offers interactive permanent and changing exhibits, special programs, and a strong speaker series in an effort to educate the public and visitors about the historic and the continuing struggle for freedom in the U.S. and around the world.
Tags: apple, digital media, education, eLearning, wifi
