I'm OBSESSED with hyperlinks. I can no longer just quit my internet browser and expect to open up a new, clean, empty window. I always go to History --> Reopen all windows from last session and watch as at least 20 windows magically appear before me. I keep all sorts of stuff open to read (at some point) and hyperlinks are so very dangerous for me. I just started using Diigo, a great site to store websites for future use (I love the tag feature to help organize them all).

So...welcome to a regular blog post called Hyperlink Roundup. Each week I'll post a handful of links, videos, and images from a sampling of what I've been reading, thinking, and talking about.

This video is an interview with Nichole Pinkard, who founded the Digital Youth Network in Chicago. This network, known as DYN, focuses on helping youth learn about how to use digital media and also be critical consumers of the media they encounter every day. The program has many facets, including co-founding YOUMedia at the Chicago Public Library and the Remix Learning. What Pinkard talks about in this video really hits home with what myself and the other Community Ambassadors are doing in our Digital Literacy for All Learners grant project.

From Edutopia, an article about the problems with dividing the whole into digital natives and digital immigrants. After working so closely with kids and adults and technology, I so clearly see the problems with saying that my generation can be classified as "digital natives." By using that term, you're implying a privilege that not everyone has (aka the access to technology and some sort of guide on the side to help you learn). Technology is not inherently learned; those skills are taught.
Also from Edutopia (we were looking at it for a class), an article called Deconstructing Blackness. The author, Nicol R. Howard, PhD, gives tips on how to have constructive classroom discussions about race with students. The focus is on dialogue and asking questions to draw the students out into articulating what is swirling around in their heads. Seems appropriately published with Starbucks' "Race Together."

Code Combat is another way for kids to learn coding. It uses the foundation of a role player game paired with the blocks I've come to associate with Scratch. You can even choose what type of coding language you want to work with (I chose Python since I'm still in the process of conquering that language). It's definitely meant for middle to high school students (they are your youngest age group). I liked it though because you were working towards a challenge yet had to do some figuring out on your own.

I just started reading Amy Poehler's book Yes Please. This means I'm laughing all the time, feeling inspired to write (in what spare time!?!), and finding every opportunity to read this book instead of doing other stuff. #whoops. It also means that this SNL sketch, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton Address the Nation, must be watched. I will never get tired of this sketch because it's funny and manages to capture that chemistry that Tina and Amy have when they are together. I also love how in both Amy and Tina's memoir, this sketch is mentioned. Amy was just about to have her first baby and Tina was flying back from something (it's been a little bit since I read Bossypants).