This is my 32nd year in the field of education. In 2021 I founded my 4th company. In-Formation is a startup that is focused on helping people find new ways of interacting with media. The name of the company and the logo represent that we are always in the state of growth - lifelong learning. In 2022, I was a recipient of the Carolyn Markuson School Library Innovation Grant Award. In 2023, In-Formation LLC released an MVP (minimal viable product) version of the first system aimed at helping people overcome challenges where media resources are a major part of the product. The product is called VAST Journey. It has earned a Silver Award at the International Serious Play Conference in Toronto for creating transformational change in users outside of the platform. The product is now in the final stage of production to be used by educators, clinicians, parents, and children ages 14 and older. The product has already proved itself in case studies by reducing anxiety, improving quality of communication between peers, increasing student focus on schoolwork, significantly reducing time spent on mobile devices, and helping users appreciate pursuing activities that are creative and enjoyable. Users reflected on their progress in their journals and were able to see positive changes in themselves and reflect on feeling more connected with social groups and family members. 2024 is the initial year of Research & Development for Vast Discovery. This system/product is focused on delivering a significant fun and exciting way to interact with all media/artifacts for all age groups. This endeavor tackles the metadata records allowing our patrons to find the media they want to interact with. Aside from significantly improved metadata, the system has play elements that lets patrons level up based on their topic of interest and challenge themselves, or their friends, in their pursuit of knowledge in a specific area of interest. The mission of In-Formation is: Empowering humanity’s innate curiosity and developing transformational change through media interactions which lead users to become the best version of themselves. Both Vast Journey and Vast Discovery aim to help patrons achieve this with curated media resources. Vast Discovery will be a "knowledge game" built through crowd sourcing. Dr. Karen Schrier describes knowledge games in her book Project MUSE - Knowledge Games (jhu.edu)Vast Discovery will be built on the premise librarians have been seeking for years with linked data. In Vast Discovery you will not just learn about the creator of the media but you will be able to access information on all that is in the fiction or nonfiction media source such as the people mentioned, places mentioned, things mentioned, topics within the media item, related media, the activities you might do after interacting with the media and much more. In my presentation I will provide a few examples from media suitable for elementary, middle school, high school and adults. I will provide examples how you can benefit by using this system in your libraries for discovery or use it for teaching a specific individual media resource. Please feel free to sign up to be part of this endeavor of crowdsourcing. I look forward to interacting with you at the conference. Ariel Dagan In-Formation, LLC Opportunity Awaits
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