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Vermont's Digital Future Conference at Champlain College on May 8 generated great discussions and recommendations for action to assure all Vermonters can take advantage of online tools and technology. Gov. Shumlin emphasized that the infrastructure will be in place to allow all Vermonters high speed access by the end of 2013. Keynote speaker Nicoo Mele traced the not coincidental parallels between politics, computer development, and his concerns regarding corporate dominance of the internet.

Panelists focusing on the day's four tracks (Creating Economic Opportunities through Connectivity, Connecting Communities, Building Digital Literacy, and Education Innovation) spurred conversations that lasted through lunch and well into the afternoon breakout sessions. The morning speakers were filmed for broadcast by CCTV and will be available on their web site. A summary report of the conference will be posted here in a few weeks.

April 19, 2012 - Manchester, VT - Students as early as 4th grade, are building incredible 3D computer games with just one class period of training! Through May 18th, 4-12th grade students across the state of Vermont will be given the opportunity to participate in a game design competition sponsored by Digital Wish. Kodu Challenge is a game design contest broken down into two categories, grades 4-6 and 7-12, and each member of the the grand prize winning team will be awarded an Xbox 360 with Kinect, courtesy of Microsoft. Runners up will receive Xbox game bundles. You can visit the Kodu Challenge website here: http://www.digitalwish.org/kodu-contest/index/home

Kodu Challenge invites students to create a fun, innovative computer game using Microsoft Kodu Game Lab, a game design software that requires no experience. Students can enter either as a team of up to 4 people, or as an individual. Each individual or team may only submit one game. Kodu Game Lab is a free program and can be downloaded here: http://fuse.microsoft.com/page/kodu

The students are discovering that Kodu software is incredibly easy to use. Digital Wish has been teaching the Kodu software in its after-school clubs, where high school students act as mentors for elementary kids in grades 3-6. Within the first class period, all the participants succeed in building a 3D world with terrain, objects, characters, and controls. Over the course of just 4 class periods, the students are developing complex behaviors, paths, reactions, dialog and surprisingly advanced gaming strategy.

For educators, adoption of the Kodu software is made easy. There is a wide array of included tutorials that allow students to literally follow along and try out complex features that challenge students to think critically and use their problem solving skills. Upon teaching an introductory lesson to Kodu, Digital Wish’s Executive Director, Heather Chirtea, noted that “Kodu gives students the ability to solve complex problems using nothing more than simple mouse clicks. By the end of the first lesson, students were soaring through the beginning tasks and moving on to discover creative new ways they could program their characters!”

For more information, visit the Kodu Challenge website here: http://www.digitalwish.org/kodu-contest/index/home

About Digital Wish: Digital Wish is a non-profit on a mission to solve technology shortfalls in K-12 classrooms. The www.digitalwish.org website is designed to help teachers locate much-needed funding for classroom technology. Here, teachers can make technology wish lists...and supporters make those wishes come true. PTA’s and PTO’s can start online fundraisers for new classroom technology in just a few mouse clicks, complete with credit card processing. Over 28,000 classroom technology wishes have been granted!

Joanna Cummings of the Snelling Center for Government talks about the e-Vermont project and the Digital Futures Conference on May 8th.

Manchester Center VT, March 6, 2012 - Digital Wish, one of the e-Vermont Partner organizations, has been awarded a $25,000 grant by the A.D. Henderson Foundation for the Vermont School Modernization Initiative. The initiative supplies classrooms the computers, training, and curriculum necessary for students to develop 21st century skills. These funds will support the research and development of resources to help schools identify and secure sustainable funding streams for their technology programs. Click here to read the article.