Ned Lamont was a volunteer teacher at Harding High School in Bridgeport, teaching a class on entrepreneurship. So, when he ran for U.S. Senate, many people with many different thoughts about education got involved and offered ideas.

One these people was Steve Wilmarth. Steve is very focused on the role that new media should play in education. He was very interested in the role it should play in Ned’s campaign as well, so we ended up spending a lot of time talking.

Steve runs The Center for 21st Century Skills. There mission statement states:

The mission of the Center for 21st Century Skills is dedicated to:
Creating innovative learning resources and programs that address education and industry needs for 21st century global competitiveness; business, economic, and technological literacy...

New media is an important component, including online digital video. When I helped organize a session on citizen filmmaking at the Media Giraffe conference last year, Steve came with a bunch of his students. Another educator that showed up was Julie Dobrow from the Communications and Media Studies Program at Tufts. We watched some of the amazing videos that her students had created.

This summer, the Center for 21st Century Skills and the Communications and Media Studies Program at Tufts are collaborating to create The Tufts Summer Media Literacy Institute. It looks like a great program, and I highly recommend it.

On Thursday evening, Connecticut Public Television is starting a series called work. learn. live. (connecticut).

In our first show, young adults from differing parts of the state and with differing backgrounds, share their experiences on the road to becoming model employees and students. It is our belief that we can learn much from these young people, each taking their own path to achieving the American dream, making it a reality.

It provides a great glimpse into the work that the Center for 21st Century Skills has been doing, and hopefully, motivation to people to get more involved education that meets the needs of a new generation, and perhaps even encouragement to attend the Tufts Summer Media Literacy Institute.