To help celebrate our 20th birthday, Mouse has asked a dozen leaders in learning, technology, youth development and design to share their thoughts.  We are especially delighted to start the weekly series with Amanda O'Donnell, SVP of Finance at Intersection, and a member of the Mouse Board. (More on Amanda here) 

Mouse celebrates its 20th year this coming spring.  How would you characterize  -- at the most fundamental level -- the changes we've experienced in the past two decades in the way digital technologies are used for learning?  

First, congratulations to Mouse on that milestone!  Second, wow! Twenty years in tech time seems like an eon. Besides all the silly nostalgic stuff (remember CD-ROMs and Netscape Navigator?), I think where digital technology has had the most significant impact is two areas: access and collaboration, especially in the context of learning.  

With regards to access, the fact that all you need is an Internet connection to take a free MIT course on Darwin or watch a Richard Feynman physics lecture is pretty astounding. Unfortunately, too many learners still don’t have reliable Internet access which is a problem we need to solve.

And I truly believe collaboration is a critical skill for our future innovators. From Twitter to Google Docs to Minecraft, young learners today have an opportunity to use technology as a platform where they can rally around a cause, help each other with homework, or build an imaginary world all while learning and practicing team dynamics. And that collaboration could happen with a neighbor or with someone on the other side of the planet, which means there is an opportunity for real diversity of perspectives in a collaborative setting.

What do you see as the near-future for learning within ever more urbanized space, especially for young learners?  What factors do you believe will be the key drivers of new tech applications for learning?

It’s interesting that there is a lot of activity now around technologies and tools that aim to increase parent involvement in K-8 education. We know that parent engagement is an important success factor for young learners. In our sometimes over-crowded urban schools, the more that parents are involved and the easier it is for parents and teachers to communicate, the better.  

I think relevance will be a key driver in new tech applications for education. The ability for kids to make connections between technology and its direct impact on the world around them is important. This is what I love about Mouse’s hands-on, design-thinking approach to technology education!

How should we best define success in digital learning, especially since learning outcomes may take years to manifest and since attribution of cause & effect can be difficult in social endeavors?  

This is a challenging question, especially in the context of the current gender gap in tech. I’m thinking of the statistic that while women earn 57% of all undergraduate degrees, they earn only 18% of Computer Science degrees, which mirrors their underrepresentation in the industry in general.  

Perhaps we can look at the ways technology education does (or does not) evolve to better represent our diverse populations. If we are truly successful at expanding access to digital learning opportunities, then we would expect to see changes in the diversity statistics in the industry.  

How you might imagine ever more experiential learning and "serious play" entering the formal education section?

We recently did a very cool project for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston that is a stellar example of the potential in this space. We worked with game design company Gigantic Mechanic, the Institute of Play, and ESI Design to create a full-scale replica of the U.S. Senate where the goal of the technology is to enable role-play and, as ESI Design’s Ed Schlossberg’s eloquently stated, to support an “experiential and a constructivist approach to learning by doing.”

Intersection's tagline is: "a technology and media company redefining the urban experience."  Tell us more about the centrality of urbanism for learning and experience generally.  I am thinking, for instance, of Edward Glaeser's recent bestseller Triumph of the City  and research at the Santa Fe Institute demonstrating nonlinear gains in economic and creative productivity within cities.

I do think that kids growing up in cities have a potential advantage in terms of the exposure and opportunity that urbanism affords, as pointed out in recent research. On the other hand, cities continue to face segregation problems, so we have to keep focusing on solutions that address that issue to ensure that all city residents can leverage those urban advantages.

On “redefining the urban experience,” shared experience has been a common thread in our urban infrastructure projects. With both the MTA wayfinding kiosks and the LinkNYC projects, a key goal is to provide excellent access to communication and a great user experience across an incredibly broad user base -  whether you are a visiting dignitary, a student, a neighborhood resident, a commuter, or an international tourist.

Intersection is one of the lead companies creating LinkNYC, a pioneering public/private partnership to bring free Wi-Fi access to all five boroughs of NYC (and replacing 7,500 now-defunct pay phone kiosks in the process).  What lessons related to learning & how we learn can you share from the ongoing beta roll-out of LinkNYC?

Historically, we’ve always taken an agile, iterative, and research-driven approach when designing technology solutions and with LinkNYC in particular, we knew from the very start that this approach would be critical. Our goal is to deploy the world’s largest and fastest municipal Wi-Fi network and do it in our hometown of New York City, one of the world’s most diverse cities (and where we aren’t shy about voicing our opinions!). That’s why, before we launched, we met with a range of community groups representing the broad spectrum of the city’s population, from digital natives to elderly to homeless teens.

Anytime that you are tackling something brand new, you have to build with flexibility in mind. The beta stage has been full of specific learnings for us. We are constantly working to improve our deployment processes and to gather information from the community and users so that we can incorporate that feedback into future stages.  

One particularly important source of learning has been the Street Team program, which is staffed by graduates from our partner Per Scholas, a workforce development non-profit that focuses on technology training. The teams help introduce and educate passersby on how to use the Link kiosks. They have been a significant source of insightful data as they have the opportunity to interact with people directly and get their immediate feedback. There’s no substitute for just asking someone what they think… and listening!