Kids. Cable. Learning. The Official Podcast Channel of Cable in the Classroom!

During the 13th Annual K-12 School Networking Conference of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) held in Washington, DC in March 2008, Cable in the Classroom helped moderate a panel discussion on Developing 21st Century Skills in School and District Leaders. CoSN is the country’s premier voice for K-12 education leaders who use technology strategically to improve teaching and learning. Members of the panel discussed the 2007 revised framework of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, which offers a vision for educational technology leaders. The panel, comprised of experts from cutting-edge districts and thought leaders from higher education and the nonprofit sector, examined common assumptions and goals for technology integration in the context of the 21st century skills movement. More importantly, panelists and attendees discussed what skills, knowledge and expertise school leaders must have for our nation’s evolving learning expectations. For this podcast (MP3, 23.5MB), we spoke with one of the panelists, Terry Clark, a 2005 Cable's Leaders in Learning Award winner and the assistant superintendent for Instruction and Technology at Bethpage Union Free School District in New York. Mr. Clark discussed how teachers in his school district are currently implementing the revised framework of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, which offers a vision for educational technology leaders. Web site resources: Consortium for School Networking Partnership for 21st Century Skills Bethpage Union Free School District Bethpage Radio Cable's Leaders in Learning Awards

Moises Velez is a Peabody-award winning producer and currently the head of development for mun2, the NBCU cable network that celebrates the lifestyle of U.S. Latino youth. He spoke with Cable in the Classroom about the network’s documentary news series revolving around some of the most important issues relevant to Latino youth - including immigration, the environment and military recruitment in schools. This series includes “Toxic City,” the topic of our recent podcast with student Ryan Perez from Los Angeles, and the “Latinos in the Military” news special. In this podcast (mp3, 10.6MB), Moises shared how mun2 picked the topics for the documentary series and explained the process that goes into putting together the films. He also shared his thoughts on how teachers and students can – and should – use the series in classrooms. Web site resources: mun2 News Special Inspiring Youth in Their Communities Podcast

This podcast (MP3, 33.1 MB) is a recording of a panel discussion held during the 2008 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC). Based on the content of the Summer 2008 edition of Cable in the Classroom’s Threshold, Helen Soulé of Soulé Consulting Services moderated this discussion on innovative approaches to build interest and demand in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields among young women and minorities. Panelists included Erin Reilly from the Project New Media Literacies, MIT Comparative Media Studies and Karen Peterson, from the National Girls Collaborative Project and the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology. Douglas Levin, from Cable in the Classroom, and Marina Leight, from the Center for Digital Education, also offered insights as part of the panel.

Donna Krache, executive producer for CNN Student News, talked with us (MP3, 8.0MB) about this free resource from CNN, their contribution to CIC’s eLECTIONS game and what teachers and students have to look forward to from the organization in the fall. Website Resources: CNN Student News Elections 101 CNN Student News: Talking Democracy

Hear about C-SPAN’s plans (MP3, 3.3MB) for educator resources during this presidential election… from the exhibition floor at NECC 2008. Website resources: C-SPAN.org C-SPAN Classroom

Cable in the Classroom recently spoke with “Kim W.” who is one of the featured students in WE tv’s HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, a documentary series airing Mondays at 10 pm ET through April 28. The series follows 12 girls through four years of high school capturing their daily lives, motivations, challenges, and peer and parental pressures they experienced. In this interview (MP3, 15MB), we take a look at recent Harris Poll findings on teenagers’ lives related to stress, lack of sleep, body image and interpersonal relationships. Kim W., now a student at Boston University majoring in Philosophy and Political Science, elaborates on her experiences in high school, particularly the stress she faced balancing parent expectations, academics, sports and other activities. We also hear how she is striving to achieve work-life-study balance now that she is in college. She describes what it was like to have cameras follow her throughout her high school years to major events, and what the reaction has been to the series. Check your local listings for WE tv to watch the series. Website resources: http://www.ciconline.org/we (including link to survey of girls and their parents commissioned by WE tv ) http://highschool.wetv.com/ http://highschool.wetv.com/girls/index.html http://highschool.wetv.com/episodes/index.html http://www.wetv.com/

The 2007 Media Smart Award winner, Kelly Mendoza, presented her findings (MP3, 45MB) to an audience of education and cable leaders in March. Her paper Mapping Parental Mediation and Making Connections with Media Literacy, provides insight on how media literacy can strengthen and improve effective parental mediation. Mediation is defined as any strategy parents use to control, supervise or interpret media for children. Parental mediation, described as one of the most effective ways of managing television’s influence on children, helps children to think about the use of media and the messages they receive in order to highlight positive aspects of media, but also to intervene in media’s potential negative effects. “Effective intervention of parents with their children’s media consumption in the home may strengthen children’s skills in thinking more deeply about media messages they receive,” said the study’s author Kelly Mendoza. “Parental mediation informs children about television’s importance or lack of importance, how it should be used, and how much attention or disregard they should give to the material.” Dr. Renee Hobbs, professor at Temple University, and Anna Weselak, immediate past national president of the PTA also commented during the presentation.

Educators looking for programming that brings civics, environmental clean-up, economic development and social justice topics to life for their students, now have a new tool. The Mun2 News Special, “Toxic City: This Is Where I Live,” is the latest installment of the TV network’s Peabody-Award winning news special series and focuses on young Latinos across the nation who are improving their environments and communities. “Toxic City” profiles Latino youth in highly polluted communities who are taking the lead for their families in causes of environmental justice. Shot in cities across the country including Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, New York and El Paso as well as Juarez, Mexico, the special report explores how a disproportionate number of U.S. Latinos live and work among industrial waste, noxious pollution, and contaminated communities, and how youth are mobilizing to address these environmental issues. One of the stars of the program is Ryan Perez from Huntington Park, California – we spoke with him for this podcast (MP3, 25MB). Ryan is able to connect with young viewers who can identify with his environmental work as well as his outside interests and passions. Toxic City will air, commercial-free, on mun2 on January 14th at 1am and January 17th at 3:30am (check local cable listings). Cable in the Classroom educators can record the English-language program for classroom use. For more information, visit: Mun2 Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) Youth for Environment Justice (Youth-EJ) My Space page

GSN, (Game Show Network), is now conducting its second annual National Vocabulary Championship (NVC). NVC is a nationwide academic competition that offers high school students between the ages of 13-19 the opportunity to win prize money toward college tuition through online qualifying exams and citywide championship events throughout the U.S. Students in grades 9 through 12 who are interested in qualifying for GSN's NVC Finals, that will take place in March 10, 2008 in Los Angeles, can visit winwithwords.com to take the test now. The deadline to enter is November 30, 2007. For more insights into this year's competition, listen to a podcast (MP3, 13 MB) featuring the host of the National Vocabulary Championship, Dylan Lane. Dylan is also the host of the new version of the game show Chain Reaction which also airs on GSN. He shared details about GSN's free support materials for vocabulary study available online and also spoke about this year's competition and GSN's plans for the finale next spring. Also, listen to the Kids.Cable.Learning. podcast with the first-ever National Vocabulary Champion, Robert Marsland from Madison, Wisconsin, for more information about the competition. Related links: GSN: www.gsn.com National Vocabulary Contest: www.winwithwords.com Princeton Review: www.princetonreview.com Technorati tags: GSN, NVC, National Vocabulary Contest, college tuition, college cost, paying for college, cable, CIC, Cable in the Classroom, cableintheclassroom, tv, school, education, NCTA

Listen to an interview with C-SPAN (22MB, MP3) about their 2008 StudentCam competition. StudentCam is a video documentary competition that invites students to identify a current political topic of national interest and produce a ten minute or less video documentary which creatively explores the issue, while also integrating C-SPAN programming. The annual documentary competition for middle and high school students is a great way to get students engaged in exploring key issues during a presidential election year! Entries are due by December 31, 2007 and a grand prize of $5,000 will be awarded in February 2008 to the best overall entry. Winning student videos may also air on the C-SPAN networks. Related links: Video links to previous C-SPAN StudentCam winners: http://www.ciconline.org/C-SPAN C-SPAN Classroom (free resources for teaching Civics and US Government) : www.c-spanclassroom.org Technorati tags: Civics, government, C-SPAN, politics, student video, contest, cable, CIC, Cable in the Classroom, cableintheclassroom, tv, school, education, NCTA