Youth Advisory Board

We are the Youth Advisory board, an After School Matters program located in Chicago. We plan and complete projects towards community involvement, civic activism, and youth engagement. The current project we are working on is turning a vacant lot in the uptown neighborhood into a place for the community to take root for a day. We plan to use this tumblr to document the process of placemaking, a well as our group's future endeavors.

[yab-yab-blog]

Some of our final planning and set-up for tomorrow's event!! We have Imara sorting through our supplies, an updated fundraising thermometer, Riley working on the schedule, a near-final agenda, Riley planning out everyone's lunch breaks, Alice making a sign, Chuy after a paint war, him working on a sign, and Nnenna spray painting a sign for arts and crafts. 

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Tomorrow is the day!! Pop-up Summer is going to be open for Only ONE DAY, bring friends and family. Everything is Free so come and have Fun!

    -Children under 10 years old must be accompanied by someone 15 years old or older.

[nextcityorg]

Taking a neighborhood-based, data-driven approach, the Cook County Land Bank Authority is seeking new ways of dealing with vacant properties. Other cities will be watching. Read more at nextcity.org: Chicago’s Land Bank Will Use Big Data to Target Vacant Homes.

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The other half of the group wanted a break so they went out! 

[yab-yab-blog]

Some great photos of yesterday's youth outreach session. We came back with some great (and creative) ideas for seminars, activities, and prizes for Pop-up Summer. Some of my favorites were:

A book writing class

Unicyling

Tag

Gymnastics

As far prizes go my favorites were:

School supplies

Lemonade

Action figures

It was a fun a rewarding experience. Now back to the drawing board!

[yab-yab-blog]

Hidden treasures in the basement promise lots of fun (and mess!) tomorrow.

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Nothing like a little break in the middle of planning!

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This is Davvid! Our marvelous Technology information provider. Davvid is currently working on our official website. Here's a couple of questions for Davvid.

If you could have any superpower what would it be?

A: Between teleportation and time control.

How do you want to save the world?

A: Orchestrating Pokemon into the modern day world.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A: New and improved Computer Scientist by attending IIT.

If you could be any animal what would it be?

A: Not just any old Lion, a cute Lion.

[yab-yab-blog]

Introducing one of our main design heads, Riley! When she's not hard at work helping Davvid with our app, making flyers, or generally messing around on photoshop, she's helping us brainstorm new ideas to help our group.

When she grows up, she wants to head her own non-profit, or work for the government. She plans to save the world through promoting diversity, especially culturally. If she were an animal, she would otter, and if she were a superhero her power would be telekinesis. 

[aros]

nourishmat: making urban farming easy

[yab-yab-blog]

In Russia, Electrolux Engineers constructed an Bio Robot Refrigerator. 

http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/06/21/bio-robot-refrigerator/

~ Tyler J. Robinson

[yab-yab-blog]

So we missed a group member of the Youth Advisory Board and here he is: Tyler! He is an important and valued member of our group, and currently he is working with Oba to find sponsors and donations to make our placemaking project possible. 

[yab-yab-blog]

We are the Youth Advisory Board. 

[soundbitecity]

What it takes to convert an underutilized street into a pedestrian plaza

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So we got things done today! We have a meeting with the alderman at 3pm and its all because our boss leaving the room. But actually it could not have been possible without him.

Thanks, Ryan

[yab-yab-blog]

The Future Of Education? MOOCs In The Spotlight

It's the education craze that has been sweeping the nation... for the past one hundred years. The newest reincarnation of "remote education" comes in the form of MOOCs (mooks.) These Massive Open Online Courses are taught through mediums like Coursera and edX, and attempt to educate the masses completely for free.

So far they've grown, and fast. One Coursera course enrolled nearly 160,000 students. They have 70 partner universities across the globe, and have 4.05 million users. Courses taught through Coursera and edX, unlike most remote courses, are not "at your own pace." They set syllabi, have class dates, and even have conferences and meet ups with other students through forums and skype. Courses like these allow anyone from overachieving high school students to bored housewives to people in developing nations without access to higher education. These courses have also been praised for "toppling the ivy tower", and bringing Ivy League and world class education to the world.

Like any innovation, MOOCs have drawbacks. As of right now there are only very limited systems in place for getting credit for the work you put in. As they are new, people, especially employers, aren't quite sure how to approach them as an actual form of education. More importantly, there isn't an adequate source of funding for these courses. One of the best things about MOOCs in that they are free. However it is very, very difficult to run such large organizations with zero funding. As of right now, Coursera runs on education grants and donations, while edX is funded with Harvard and MIT money. There are a couple solutions bouncing around, such as paying for receiving a certificate or credit, or perhaps "pay what you can" classes.

Regardless of the set backs, MOOCs definitely have the education world talking, and hopefully they are here to stay. The ability to reach people around the globe through education is definitely revolutionary and world changing.

[yab-yab-blog]

Parallels is a new computer device that is changing the smarts and efficiency of today's computers and challenging them to their fullest capacity. It is basically a super computer. No not the ones seen in many an old school movie that usually belongs to supervillians. Parallels is a super computer that is now available for everyone's use. It's energy efficient and made specifically for processing complex software quickly and simultaneously. It will make object tracking, speech recognition, and holographic heads-up display stronger and quicker than it is today. This is the new innovation in computer programming, and at the overwhelmingly low price of $99 I suggest everyone get their hands on this amazing new piece of technology ASAP.