My 5 take-aways from INFO 287   I loved this class, and I enjoyed interacting with everyone. Wishing you all the very best, Elena

For my Inspiration Report, I developed a “Life Skills” class, bringing back a combination of what was “Home Ec” and “Shop” class in American High Schools, until the 1980s. I believe these skills, learning to care for yourself, your home, and your belongings are useful. Furthermore, many of the skills are best taught in-person, which brings together community and potentially builds trust and mentorships.    

Years ago, a tenant of high school education was “home ec” and “shop.” Typically, girls were assigned Home Ec and boys went to shop, but not exclusively. These programs fell-out of popularity, focusing students on academic subjects over the practical instruction that helped us live life. Admittedly, despite conquering the beginnings of Calculus in high school, the most useful math I use daily is a ratio: it helps me convert recipes, and figure out %-discounts on purchases. While Calculus was a mind-bending (and growing!) academic experience and exercise, it proved useless for living my life—other than expanding my mind, which is arguably the reason I can have “more reason” in…

“Tell your story. People want to hear your story.” My friend, Al Baccari.    Stories are the thread that weaves between generations: A mother’s tale, a father’s anecdote; a family’s saga. We each bear a story, guardians of our past. History reminds us that we are accountable now and later; it is in the looking back that we can plan forward. Each story is a thread, and the threads weave together to create the patchwork quilt blanketing our community, nurturing our young, asking them each to one day add their particular stitch to the story. The story-tellers, sages of the ages, the historians who protect our glorious and sometimes sorted…

Innovation Strategy & Roadmap: Reading the Future with Ray-Ban Metaglasses   The Idea Using Ray-Ban MetaGlasses we will create a reading lab to support our literacy volunteers in teaching children and adults alike to read, or sharpen their reading skills. This technology can also read to those with low vision who can no longer read to themselves, easily expanding the documents available to non-sighted patrons. According to the ALA, 7% (12 million) Americans suffer vision impairment, with that number set to double by 2050. (2025). Ray-Ban MetaGlasses (herein referred to as “metaglasses” or “the glasses”) are available with clear, non-prescription glass. The glasses require very little training, and can be…

Consider NYPL’s launch of InstaNovels: digital novels presented through Instagram. In short, it is a graphic novel experience in an animated format. New stories and classics both in a new-wave format. At first, I scoffed, and then I reflected: my older son, now 13, struggled to find his way to reading anything half his lifetime ago. While other parents “humbly bragged” about how many books their little geniuses had devoured, I was struggling to get this kid away from Flat Stanley readers, which were, frankly, boring. And then DogMan (Dav Pilkey) arrived. At first, I hated it: endless comic strips of a dog policeman. But night after night my son…