World Wide Workshop Foundation

Current Project: MaMaMedia Creative Center

The World Wide Workshop Foundation has partnered with OLPC to create the MaMaMedia Creative Center, a set of original Constructionist learning activities.

The MaMaMedia Creative Center is based on award-winning, kid-tested, "hard-fun" puzzles, digital toys, and creativity tools from MaMaMedia.com. These activities highlight the valuable edu-design principles of the "3X's" and leverage the unique operating system and technological features of the XO Laptop, including the laptop's built-in camera, drawing and writing tools, and the mesh network. Children learn to invent, make, and share their own puzzles, stories, cartoons, polls, quizzes and more. Easy to follow lesson plans and related tutorials are also offered for teachers and parents who have little or no previous experiences with computers, the Internet, and programmable media technology.

"If the world's children will grow up using activities of the 3Xs kind, they will become less of media consumers and more of a media creators." -- Dr. Idit Harel Caperton, President and Founder of MaMaMedia and the World Wide Workshop Foundation.

About the World Wide Workshop Foundation

Based on her MIT Media Lab research with Seymour Papert in the 1980's and 1990's, Dr. Idit Harel Caperton, author of the book Children Designers, believes that "if young children see their technology as a pencil, right from the start, and if they see the Internet as paint, beads, sand, or clay, they will learn the 3X's skills -- i.e., how to eXplore the world around them, eXpress themselves clearly, and eXchange their ideas using digital media and tools on their laptops. Equipped with the 3X's skills, children also gain the tools and self-confidence to build their own worlds using digital technology, and lead others in their communities."

The World Wide Workshop Foundation is dedicated to narrowing the divide by empowering children with the life and technical skills to create media, explore the web to cull information, and contribute to informational communities around the world, using web-based and wiki media and tools. We know these skills will not be honed in a day, it takes time to become an effective blogger, wiki-writer, and games programmer; but with commitment, support and access to opportunities and suitable learning environments -- we believe this can be a reality for all children and youth in the near future.

"It's not that they're not going to be media consumers anymore, but we want them to grow to expect to go one level above and beyond media consumption, and become media technology leaders for educational and social causes that are relevant to them and people in their communities" says Idit Harel Caperton.

Team Members

Coming soon: our photos with XO We are a diverse and experienced team of professionals committed to using our skills to empower children and youth around the world through technology.

Main Contact: WWWorkshop Shannon -- Program Director and Executive Producer

Learn more about our whole team.

If you are interested in joining our team as a professional, intern or volunteer please contact us at info@worldwideworkshop.

Location

Our primary office is in New York City, but we are a virtual team, collaborating virtually in real time from three continents.

You will find us in:

Cape Town, South Africa
Faro, Portugal
New York, New York, USA
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Languages

We work primarily in English. Members of our team also speak Hebrew and Portuguese.

Interests and Expertise

We achieve our foundation’s objectives by drawing on our collective leadership and award-winning competencies in multiple fields including digital art, design, education, media, policy, research, science and technology, and expertise in the academic, business and non-profit sectors.

MaMaMedia Creative Center Activities in Production

Icon	Activity Name	Description	Last Build	l10n & Status	Mime types
Drawing & Media Creation/Editing
	Flipsticks File:FlipSticks-RC-1.4.xo	Using keyframes, program a stick figure to twist, turn, tumble and dance	622	Part of the MaMaMedia Creative Center Beta 1.4.
	Cartoon Builder File:CartoonBuilder-RC-1.7.xo	Animate a cartoon character by creating a sequence of poses inside a filmstrip	622	Part of the MaMaMedia Creative Center Beta 1.4.
	Joke Machine File:JokeMachine-8.xo‎	Start a multimedia jokebook and invite your friends to add jokes to it via the mesh	622	Part of the MaMaMedia Creative Center Beta 1.4.
Math & Science
	Poll Builder File:Poll-15.xo	Create a poll, collect votes and analyze community opinions	622	Part of the MaMaMedia Creative Center Beta 1.4.
Games
	Jigsaw Puzzle File:JigsawPuzzle-1 20071030.xo	Classic picture-constructing game	622	Part of the MaMaMedia Creative Center Beta 1.4.
	Slider Puzzle File:SliderPuzzle-3 20071030.xo	Slider Puzzle to improve on puzzle solving skills	622	Part of the MaMaMedia Creative Center Beta 1.4.
Teacher and New User Tools
	MaMaMedia Creative Center File:MaMaMediaMenu-1 20071030.xo	Currently displays a static suite of MaMaMedia Creative activities, but will become a user-customizable "Make Your Own Favorites" activity.	622	Part of the MaMaMedia Creative Center Beta 1.4.
	MaMaMedia Learning Center File:LearningCenter-2 20071030.xo	Resources for students/teachers exploring the XO and MaMaMedia Creative Center in-class and independently	622	Part of the MaMaMedia Creative Center Beta 1.4.
Documents (Read, Write & Share)
	Story Builder File:StoryBuilder-12.xo	Graphical story constructor with a variety of characters and backgrounds and simple word-processing capabilities for writing and sharing via mesh.	650	Part of the MaMaMedia Creative Center.