Monday, August 17, 2015

Knight Foundation Prototype Grant

Project title: CLOH.org: Creating Literate Olympians Here

What is your project (200 word limit):

The CLOH.org project is to further develop, refine and release open-source, scalable, tools and an on-going process for building conation especially for teens, communities and media partners.

Tools include:
  • Digital Badges
  • Mobile Apps
  • Admin Software
  • Wiki Pages
  • Ebooks
  • Kits for coaches, teams, camps, leagues, communities, schools, public safety officers, and newsrooms to guide the deployment of the digital badges on Goals from CLOH.org.
  • Campaign assets for marketing such as email outreach bots, posters, demographic target lists, maps, info-graphics, YouTube channel, etc.
Process includes:
  • Mindful discussions about volition, conation, striving and the brain's executive functions.
  • Goal setting approaches, lessons and examples for consumers.
  • Expert interactions of many different sports.
  • Amplifying purposeful media coverage of striving Olympians and their support teams.
  • Partnerships and re-branding strategies for media executives.
  • Researching outcomes.

What assumptions will you test? (200 word limit):

CLOH.org tests social media growth in 2016, with the Rio Olympics. CLOH.org can amplify mindful striving on a world stage. Individuals, support systems and the process of goal setting gets celebrated. Social media hooks to goal-setting spins forward as athletes prepare to compete. Athlete research happens on wiki pages we fortify and host.

The mindfulness trend and buzz gets tested among athletes, sports and inter-city youngsters facing deprived opportunities. Digital badges cost next to nothing to deliver yet have great intrinsic value. Mindful pursuits and building conation can fix the American Dream.

Conation refers to the act of striving, of focusing our attention and acting with a purpose. Conation means striving in a way that results in our energy's being managed and focused on a goal.

Three capabilities / faculties of human behavior are: Cognitions, which is knowing; Affection, which is the ability to value things or people or ideas; and Conation, which means striving in a way that results in our energy's being managed and focused on a goal. Conation is an inclination (as an instinct, a drive, a wish, or a craving) to act purposefully.


Who is the audience / user of this project? How will they be impacted? (200 word limit)

Teens are the prime audience as well as parents, guardians, coaches, teachers, mentors, athletic administrators, guidance councilors, league officials and public safety personelle. Everyone can embrace open-source digital badges as they are free and can help with goal-setting, a universal act that more can do.

All get a better appreciation for the goal-setting process, a life-changing endeavor that can help in sports, school and career.

It is easier to reach engaged teens who are active in school and club sports teams. Celebrity athletes can draw a lot of attention. Post-Olympics, many can share their story of striving to goals and present a goal-setting foundation for others with the CLOH.org digital badges.

Superstars can speak about digital badges to help lead the future generations on their quests.

News directors, reporters and sports media professionals are an target audience as CLOH.org hopes to spin coveage to better illustrate the cognition cycle. Media coverage of goals, (similar to Sports Illustrated's Face In The Crowd) are expected. Media partnerships and education and branding opportunities with digital badges can occur with those in media conference rooms.

Media outlets have enriched and additional, localized coverage for their reuse.


Who is on your team? (200 word limit):

Mark Rauterkus, executive head coach of the Swim & Water Polo Camp, sponsored by the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp, and conducted with Pittsburgh Public Schools Summer Dreamers Academy since 2010. Rauterkus has coached since 1976 and was recently women's water polo coach at Carnegie Mellon University. His aquatics programs have more than 30 on the staff. and in his career he has coached more than 10,000 and published more than 100 books.

Kay Atman, Ph.D., has the formal rank in the University of Pittsburgh School of Education as Associate Professor Emerita. Since 1972, her sideline company, Curriculum Innovators & Implementors, Inc. has provided educational materials and support to adults interested in improving their own record of goal accomplishment as well as teachers of pre-school and post-secondary students and parents who want to learn how to coach the maturational development process at work in their students/children. Her career has be devoted to goal-setting research and a new, peer-reviewed article is due next month concerns approaches with conation and cancer survivors.

Richard Swartz, CEO of the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation, a 501(c)(3), community development organization in Pittsburgh.


What progress, if any, have you made on this project?

In 2015, programs received $5,000 in foundation funding from The Sprout Fund and Pittsburgh City of Learning. More than two dozen digital badges were designed and introduced this summer. A pilot program for Summer Dreamers in 2015 was operated called, Mindful Eating, Yoga and Multimedia.

Cooperation with many partner agencies, locally and nationally, continues to develop including Pitsburgh Public Schools, Citiparks, Eastside Neighborhood Employment Center, American Water Polo Assocation, SKWIM USA, The Pittsburgh Marathon, and GNC.

More than 50 7-inch Android tablets were obtained for campers in 2015 and are on-hand for future use and events. A crowd-source campaign was planned but not implemented.

A suite of CLOH.org web sites and a wikia with more than 5,000 pages at wikia.com exists. Prior experience with app creation, publishing coaching books, and software insure these outcomes can be a reality with the prototype assistance.



Visual Media. (Up to 3 files)


Organization: Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation

Location: 5149 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224



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