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History The GoodWork® Project is a large scale, multi-site effort to identify individuals and institutions that exemplify good work--work that is excellent in quality, socially responsible, and meaningful to its practitioners--and to determine how best to increase the incidence of good work in our society. Led by Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and William Damon, the project began as a social scientific investigation of how members of different professions approach their work at a time when circumstances change rapidly and few if any forces exist to counter overwhelming market forces. From 1996 to 2006, members of the research team conducted over 1200 interviews with leading professionals and our findings have been reported in numerous books, articles, and papers. Current Projects While we continue to write and speak about good work, at present most of our attention is focused on the following research into new domains and practices; the application of our ideas; and the expansion of successful initiatives. The Developing Mind and Digital Media (DM2) Project is currently investigating the intersection of human development and new digital media (NDM) in both cognitive and social domains. The project's position paper "Developing Minds and Digital Media: Habits of Mind in the YouTube Era" synthesized the leading theories of cognitive development (Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner, Erikson), education and media studies (Turkle, Papert, Jenkins), and empirical findings about young people's digital media. In the tradition of the GoodWork and GoodPlay projects, DM2 is interviewing excellent and reflective educators across a variety of domains who can speak to cognitive changes they have observed in youth over time. These results will be further refined to focus on changes specifically associated with NDM engagement. Website: http://www.goodworkproject.org/research/devminds.htm The GoodPlay Project is investigating the ethical character of young people's activities in the new digital media, including online games, social networking sites, blogs, and other virtual communities. Our broad aim in this research is to discover how young people are changing because of digital media; our particular concern is with the ethical fault-lines that surface online, including those related to identity, privacy, ownership and authorship, credibility, and participation. We seek to understand how young people conceptualize their participation in virtual worlds and the ethical considerations that guide their conduct. Website: http://www.goodworkproject.org/research/digital.htm The Trust & Trustworthiness Project is exploring how young people think of issues of trust in a media-drenched digital world, and how that might compare to earlier times or earlier generations on whom findings exist. We seek to ascertain the role, if any, that trust plays when young people consider their goals as they carry out their school work, participate in different communities, and eventually take on new roles and responsibilities--particularly civic ones--in the broader society. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop interventions to help young citizens understand issues involved in determining the trustworthiness of their fellow citizens, key institutions, and sources of information. We aim as well to nurture trustworthy individuals--literally, individuals worthy of trust--who can help to establish or re-establish powerful models of trust in their communities and on the national scene. Website: http://www.goodworkproject.org/research/trust.htm The Quality Project: Over time, and even just in the decade of our GoodWork study, it is clear that innovations change the nature of work in people's lives. Most recently, rapid advances in technology have changed the ways in which people work. Though these changes can quicken the speed and broaden the available resources with which people can work, shop, and research, it is important to consider whether the care, attentiveness, precision, and ultimate quality of the work being produced is at risk of being diminished. What are the many ways (both positive and negative) in which quality of work is impacted by these changes in industry? Does quality matter and if so, how can we encourage people to care about it? Through in-depth interviews and surveys of individuals at different ages and in various lines of work, as well as through an analysis of research and literature already produced, we seek to explore answers to these questions. Contacts: Wendy Fischman, Project Manager; Lynn Barendsen, Project Manager The GoodWork® Toolkit encourages high quality and meaningful work while at the same time, catalyzing thinking about the work's consequences for others. Through a series of cases and accompanying activities, individuals consider themes central to "good work." Participants are asked to think critically about what constitutes a "good" professional. Is a "good" journalist one who frequently gets her stories on the front page, even if her tactics are questionable? Or is a "good journalist" one who will not compromise professional standards (such as fairness, honesty, and accuracy) but whose stories garner less attention? The primary purpose of the Toolkit is to engage individuals in questions that all professionals should consider. Website: http://www.goodworkproject.org/practice/toolkit.htm For more details on The GoodWork® Project, please visit GoodWork Project.org. Principal Investigators Project Managers Lynn Barendsen |
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