Doctoral student Colin Rhinesmith recently received a fellowship to the attend this year's Digital Media and Learning Research Associates Summer Institute to be held June 11-15 at Microsoft Research New England in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The one-week institute, entitled "Thinking In and Out of the Box: How Innovation and Policy Shape Networked Learning," will examine the convergence of public policy and innovation and its effects on digital media and learning (DML). Specific topics will include the recent debates around network neutrality, digital inequality and DML, and the implications of digital citizenship and online safety as DML develops further. Participants will be mentored by senior scholars working in the emerging field and will be encouraged to build relationships with key researchers at institutions across the country and globally. Institute activities will include visits to the MIT Media Lab, Harvard’s Project Zero, and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
"It is a tremendous honor for me to be selected as one of this year's twelve DML Summer Institute Fellows," said Rhinesmith. "The experience will help me to refine my dissertation proposal and research agenda focused on the intersection of civic media, digital inequality, and public policy. I look forward to joining the extraordinary group of students and mentors at this year's program."
As a summer 2012 fellow, Rhinesmith plans to focus his research on investigating digital media and learning initiatives that have received funding though the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). His goal is to develop a theoretical and methodological framework that researchers, practitioners, and policymakers can use to consider how youth and adults, particularly in low-income communities, are leveraging digital media and learning to promote social and economic development.
Rhinesmith also recently presented a paper on broadband adoption and public policy at a workshop in Washington, D.C. The daylong workshop, "Defining and Measuring Meaningful Broadband Adoption," was convened by the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute and included over 30 researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working toward the development of more effective broadband policy frameworks.