Working for HASTAC has it's perks. Today's Presidential announcement about National Lab Day was the culmination of several frantic months of percolating, planning, wondering, worrying, creating, and kvetching. And it was all worthwhile to see the big public launch of this incredible strategic initiative to improve education and address global challenges

As President Obama called for new efforts to reimagine and improve education in science and math, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced a $2 million open competition for ideas to transform learning using digital media. The competition seeks designers, inventors, entrepreneurs, researchers, and others to build digital media experiences the learning labs of the 21st Century that help young people interact, share, build, tinker, and explore in new and innovative ways. Administered by HASTAC, the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory ("haystack") through a grant to the University of California at Irvine and Duke University, the competition was planned and announced in partnership with National Lab Day, a movement to revitalize science, technology, engineering and math in schools that was highlighted at a White House event today.

The New York Times has just revealed the outlines of an enormous and visionary educational initiative to improve the sciences and mathematics in the United States, including the third HASTAC/MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition that will be announced by the President today. 

Here's the url to "WHITE HOUSE PUSHES SCIENCES AND MATH EDUCATION" by Kenneth Chang in the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/education/23educ.html?_r=1&emc=eta1