In a rapidly changing world, with rapidly changing technology, young people are constantly challenged to learn, adapt, and plan for their future. With the Envision 2020 program, Nokia and Pearson help children to meet that challenge directly, by asking them to imagine the future and by nurturing key skills they’ll need for success in the years ahead.

Envision 2020, a project of Nokia’s Mobile Learning Institute and the Westchester County government in New York, offers residencies that give middle school–age youth training in 21st-century literacy skills. And it does so in a way that encourages participants to think positively about their future and to examine their own life goals and aspirations.

The Year 2020

As in all MLI residencies, young people in an Envision 2020 residency, with the guidance of a team of media professionals from the Pearson Foundation, are taught how to create a digital story using the latest in digital technology and software. Envision 2020 adds something else to this curriculum: the program asks students to imagine what the world will be like in the near future – the year 2020 – and to imagine what they will be doing in that world. The theme challenges young people to have a positive “20-20” vision about themselves; to see themselves as successful, creative, socially engaged young adults. This is an opportunity for students not to just be consumers of media but to be creators of media, media that reflects their individual point of view.

Westchester County, Summer 2008

In the summer of 2008, the Mobile Learning Institute worked in partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Mt. Vernon, Tarrytown, and New Rochelle, the Don Bosco Community Center, the youth organization Cluster, Inc., and the White Plains School District to offer the Envision 2020 program. More than 120 youth attended two-week sessions at sites in Westchester County.

Prior to the summer program, teachers from across the White Plains School District took part in a three-day professional development workshop in which they earned Continuing Education Credits by creating their own digital stories. Then, the student workshops began with an inspirational field trip to Marc Ecko’s Sweat Equity Enterprises, where young interns work to create designs for consumer products. Next, students collaborated in small groups and wrote scripts for three-minute original stories. Using Nokia’s N95 cell phones, they shot video scenes, and they learned to use state-of-the-art computer software to edit their footage into finished digital stories.

Ongoing Program

The Mobile Learning Institute is following up this success with an ongoing Envision 2020 Initiative in White Plains. During the 2008–2009 academic year, this program offers classroom teachers additional support through in-class digital arts residencies and further resources for ongoing professional development.