Manhattanville College Receives $5000 Grant for the Library
The Manhattanville College Library is one of ten libraries in states from New York to Alaska that have received a $5,000 grant as part of the American Library Association's (ALA) Libraries, Literacy and Gaming initiative, funded by the Verizon Foundation. The winners, representing a broad spectrum of libraries - seven public, two school and one academic - will use the funds to develop and implement gaming and literacy programs that provide innovative gaming experiences for youths 10-18 years of age.
The 10 libraries were selected out of 390 that applied for the grant and of the 10 that were selected Manhattanville College was the only academic library to receive the grant. Manhattanville College's Library and its MAP program - Manhattanville Advancement Program - will work together and use the grant money to develop an educational gaming program during a pre-freshman summer program, to enrich the academic foundation of MAP students. The ingenuity of the program is quite remarkable; it will be the first of its kind, at the college level, to bring together middle school students and college freshman to help foster academic success through the use of educational gaming tools.
The Gaming Project will be directed by Katherine Todd, Emerging Technologies Librarian. Ms. Todd will use Scratch and Pico Boards with the MAP students. Scratch, a gaming programming tool, will be used to teach students about design, working with different types of media, and basic programming concepts. The MAP students will be divided into five teams. Each team will develop a specific game: finding a book, using a general database, asking for reference help, navigating the library website, developing a time management plan. After the games have been constructed, the MAP students will, in turn, teach them to the MPALS students at their weekend sessions in February and March, 2010. The games will be assessed by Ms. Todd, and by Professor Norman Bashias, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science and a Systemic Knowledge Engineer.
Rhonna A. Goodman
Director