Postbac Benjamin Robison Awarded MacArthur Grant

Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program student Benjamin Robison was awarded a $72,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Competition for his project "Fractor: Act on Facts," a web application that matches news stories with opportunities for social activism and community service.

Selected from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants, Robinson’s project is expected to produce promising innovations in the use of digital media for formal and informal learning.

The first-time Digital Media and Learning Competition, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and administered by the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC), is part of MacArthur's five-year, $50 million digital media and learning initiative designed to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life. Winners receive funding for a year of work and will share their results on a public website, as well as at a conference next year.

Robison and his collaborators Hugo Berkeley and Josephine Dorado, will use the grant to develop a web application that aggregates news and nonprofit needs, where, organized on a single, intuitive page, every news story will be linked to real-world actions that users can take.

As part of their prize, Robison and his colleagues will receive special consultation on everything from technology development to management training. Additionally, the team will showcase their work at a conference, which will include venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, educators and policymakers seeking the best ideas about digital learning.

For more information on the Digital Media and Learning Competition, please visit http://www.dmlcompetition.net.

To learn more about Robison’s project, visit http://www.fractor.org.