Project: Connect, the fifth annual Digital Media & Learning Competition (DML5), is awarding up to $10,000 to support summer learning projects that bring together youth, programmers, designers, and educators to develop prototypes for social tools, including apps, badges, and curriculum in pursuit of a better Web.

Among the more than 200 entrants are several project proposals from Pittsburgh Kids+Creativity Network members:

EpicSkills from Assemble

EpicSkills is an Open Badges summer intensive for students to interact, create, and develop expertise with different types of technology. This one-week workshop is available for 12-15 students, age 11 through 15, from technology newbie to online pro. Students will work one-on-one with technology experts to experience the creative process of working with technology, including open source software, mobile technology and digital publishing. Students will be able to earn Mozilla Open Badges and have the opportunity to present and speak publicly about their work.

Youth Express Radio from SLB Radio Productions, Inc.

Youth Express Radio is a youth-built 24/7 Internet radio station bringing authentic commentary, creative writing and more to peers and adults. Activities include (1) creating assets for broadcast, (2) launching a crowd-sourced distribution system to ensure reliable 24/7 operation, (3) promoting the station to the community and (4) sustaining it as a way of life in Pittsburgh — and as a model for other cities. The project involves our first-ever deployment of multi-user radio-program creation software that we have spent hundreds of hours perfecting with development teams from two other countries. We are confident that we can teach youth how to use it to create and operate their own radio station.

MakerSwarm Learning Labs from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, in collaboration with MAYA Design, proposes the delivery of four, two-hour, teen learning lab workshops utilizing Human-Centered Design (HCD) techniques. HCD is a learnable and repeatable process for generating creativity and innovation, and the focus will be on MakerSwarm, an authoring tool for the Internet of Everything. The two-hour learning lab workshops will alternate across the four Library learning lab locations at the CLP’s Main Branch Oakland, South Side, Allegheny, and East Liberty.

Summer Video Modules from Steeltown Entertainment Project

Steeltown’s video modules empower teens to tell the stories that are most important to them through the medium of digital media. Students work together to identify common issues of interest and then define their roles in project, alternating between director, editor, camera-person, sound-person, producer, actors, and researchers. Each student who participates gets a foundation in the technical skills, but also gains crucial lifeskillls that will help them in whatever field they pursue post-high school: brainstorming, collaboration, communication, compromise, scheduling, contacting community members via phone and email, seeing a project through to the end.

Pittsburgh Poems Project from the Literary Arts Boom

The Pittsburgh Poems Project is a pop-up communications lab. It’s all about getting Pittsburgh people — whether natives, transplants, or tourists — to share a piece of who they are in light of where they are and where they’ve been. In spring 2013, the LAB worked with 5th grade and high school students to write Pittsburgh poems. Now it’s time to engage a broader community to build connections among and between generations and neighborhoods.

Visit dmlcompetition.net to cast your vote today and help support the innovative work of your fellow Kids+Creativity Network members!