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Digital Promise Launches Student Immersive Video Project with UN and Oculus

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 04/17/18

Digital Promise's efforts to help young people tell their stories in 360-degree form has gone global. During the recent "Global Festival of Action" in Germany, the education technology non-profit announced a partnership with the United Nations SDG Action Campaign and Oculus to launch the MY World 360° project. The new goal: to support youth worldwide in creating immersive media that shares their perspectives on how to advance the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The UN goals are "an open call for all people to join together to create a more sustainable and equitable world," according to Director Mitchell Toomey. Under the new campaign, he said, students will learn about the goals and gain the language "to describe challenges" along with the skills "to document the SDGs in a local context and the knowledge to influence and make change."

The program will pilot in India and Germany, where Oculus will provide students with 360-degree video production gear and support from "local media mentors." However, there will also be opportunities through the MY World 360° website for submissions of videos and photos from young people not participating in the pilot.

This initiative expands on an existing program in the United States. Under the 360 Filmmakers Challenge Digital Promise Global teamed up with Oculus VR for Good, a unit within Facebook's VR headset division, to help students produce videos on topics that mattered to them.

"We are excited to partner with Oculus and the UN SDG Action Campaign to help young people around the world develop their digital skills," said Karen Cator, president and CEO of Digital Promise Global, in a prepared statement. "By using emerging technology, more learners can bring their ideas and experiences to life in new and powerful ways."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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