Rafi Santo
Formal Education___________________________________
Indiana University, Learning Sciences Program, Bloomington, IN
Ph.D., Learning and Developmental Sciences, expected 2014
Research focus: Digitally Mediated Informal Learning and its implications for Educational Design
New York University, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York, NY
Bachelor of the Arts, graduated May 2004
Concentration: Integral Approaches to Understanding the Mind
Honors: Magna Cum Laude, Founders Day Honors Scholar
Research and Professional Interests______________________
New media facilitated pedagogy, youth development and leadership, participatory culture, new media literacies, civic education, technology and civil society, online communities and organizing, global issue and peace education, curricular design, educational program design, implementation and evaluation, alternative models of assessing learning, service learning, games and learning, virtual worlds and the public good, intellectual property education, social media writ large.
Professional Experience in Education & Learning___________
Global Kids Inc.
Program Associate – Online Leadership Program January 2006 – July 2008
Senior Program Associate – Online Leadership Program July 2008- June 2010
New York, New York
Educational Program Design & Implementation
- Managed Newz Crew, an afterschool and web-based youth program utilizing online dialogues on global issues as a medium for leadership development. Responsibilities included curriculum development, direct work with low income youth to develop media literacy, digital literacy and global issue awareness, online community management and engagement on the site (NewzCrew.org), development of site features in concert with a programming team, and coordination with project partners at NewsHour Extra, the Online Newshour’s student site.
- Conceptualized, developed and implemented Media Masters, a pilot afterschool new media literacy program in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Project New Media Literacies that incorporated global issues, new media literacy and media production through a variety of formats including blog posts, photos, customized maps, Wikipedia entries and comic books.
- Conceptualized, developed and implemented educational programs utilizing virtual world-based experimental educational models dealing with global issues and youth advocacy in the virtual world of Second Life. Work in this area included:
- a month long intensive summer camp in which participants from 4 countries logged into Second Life from their homes and created a collaborative group project to educate their peers about child sex trafficking, reaching over 2,500 teens.
- a fully virtual afterschool leadership program, titled the Power of Citizenry in Second Life, which took Global Kids’ core global issue and leadership development model and adapted it to a distance learning context to train teens to develop their own educational events and projects within Second Life.
- an intensive collaboration with UNICEF to create a virtual festival and building contest in which twenty teams of teens competed to create educational “builds” within the virtual space to educate their peers about children’s rights issues.
- a two week summer program in which Global Kids worked with youth leaders at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to design a virtual museum exhibit about the role of bystanders during Krystallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass.
- Conceptualized, developed and implemented the Focus Dialogues, a series of online conversations held first in 2007 and then again in 2009 in which teens debated and discussed the role of digital media in their lives. The 2009 dialogues, a collaboration with Harvard University’s GoodPlay Project and Common Sense Media, were cross-generational, including parents and educators, and specifically dealt with ethical issues surrounding digital media usage.
Professional Development, Capacity Building & Consulting
- Developed and implemented trainings for varied educational organizations on how to leverage social media to meet their missions.
- Conducted intensive capacity building programs for the New York Public Libraries which trained branch librarians to conduct Playing 4 Keeps, a social issue oriented game design program, and Media Masters, a new media literacy development program.
- Facilitated the Global Kids Digital Media Youth Advisory which supported grantees in the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning initiative through youth voices and perspectives.
Educational Assessment & Research Projects
- Chaired Global Kids’ intra-organizational working group on evaluation and impact assessment which shaped pilot projects and overall organizational strategy in this area.
- Developed strategies and measurement instruments for assessing digital literacies in informal learning environments in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Center for Children and Technology, and Indiana University.
- Developed a research initiative between UW-Madison’s Games, Learning and Society group and Global Kids which studied learning within and the educational affordances of narrative and non-narrative based virtual worlds for use in semi-formalized educational contexts.
Strategic Planning and Grant Writing
- Participated in an intra-organizational working group that led the development of a five year strategic plan created in collaboration with McKinsey & Company.
- Developed concepts for and wrote sections of numerous grant applications to foundations, federal agencies and corporations.
Museum of Jewish Heritage, Classroom Educator & Docent, New York, New York January 2004-May 2004, March 2003–June 2003
- Educated diverse groups of high school students regarding World War II, the Holocaust, Jewish Heritage, and social activism through in-classroom education both before and after bringing the students on tours of the museum.
- Led tours of the museum with high school students using a ‘learning through artifacts’ model.
North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center, Group Worker, Roslyn, New York, July-August 2004, July-August 2001
- Directed therapeutic support groups with at-risk youth ages 8 to 10.
- Conducted preventative recreational groups with Latino youth ages 5 to 10.
Pierce Country Day Camp, Head Ropes Course Instructor and Supervisor, Roslyn, New York, June 2003 – August 2003
- Facilitated team building and individually oriented activities through the administration of high and low ropes courses.
- Supervised and trained six ropes staff members in the maintenance of safety for children ages 5-14 that participated in ropes activities.
NYU America Reads/America Counts, Tutor/Mentor, New York, NY, September 2000- March 2003
- Taught first grade students basic reading, writing, and math skills.
- Tutored ethnically and socio-economically diverse seventh and eighth grade students in literacy, spelling skills, essay writing, and analytic reading.
- Assisted teachers with classroom management, grading papers, and conducting group activities with students.
Professional Experience in Community Organizing & Advocacy_
The Interdependence Project, Director of Integral Activism, New York City, New York, November 2008- Present
- Directed a grassroots effort to explore the intersection of Buddhist meditative traditions and political action and advocacy through the implementation of community based campaigns and projects.
- Directed Back to the Sack, a state level campaign to eliminate single use point-of-purchase bags in New York through legislative action, awareness raising, and providing sustainable alternatives.
- Managed ongoing relationships with volunteers, partner NGO’s and CBO’s, and elected officials to achieve campaign goals.
New York Insight Young Adult Sangha, Co-founder and facilitator, New York City, New York, November 2006 – Present
- Founded a community meditation group aimed at addressing the needs of young adults.
- Facilitated regular group meditation sittings including giving instructions on insight meditation technique.
- Sat on the Diversity Committee of New York Insight, the meditation group’s parent organization.
Professional & Academic International Experience__________
Salokha – A Centre for Communal Harmony, American Jewish World Service – World Partners Fellowship, Bombay, India , September 2004-March 2005
- Drafted and edited annual reports and group work training manuals
- Wrote grant proposals for the implementation of a university course in peace education and for a national conference on Kashmir
- Conducted field research on Islamic Madrassas as well as an informal literature review on the Kashmiri conflict
- Directed the organization of a national conference on the Kashmiri conflict
- Planned and implemented conflict resolution programming with interfaith youth populations
Buddhist Studies in India, Antioch Education Abroad, Bodh Gaya, India, September -December 2003
- Lived in a Burmese monastery in Bodh Gaya, India following a strict schedule and code of conduct
- Studied Hindi language, Buddhist philosophy and traditional Buddhist meditation traditions
- Conducted one month of independent, in-field research on Pedagogical Methodologies of Meditation Traditions in Burma
Independent travel experience in: India, Burma, Thailand, Israel, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, France and Italy
Professional Experience in Administration_________________
North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center
Development Associate, Roslyn, New York, July 2005 – January 2006
- Oversaw website updates and developed web content and strategies
- Maintained Raisers Edge database including inputting donors, processing payments and creating financial reports
- Coordinated mass mailings for annual giving campaigns, fundraising events and the organization’s monthly national newsletter
- Managed correspondence with donors as well as general inquiry requests about organizational programs
- Provided general administrative support to the development department
Research Assistant
- Conducted field research review for policy directed studies in adolescent anxiety.
- Inputted and conducted basic analysis of statistical data on the topic of adolescent anxiety.
Publications________________________________________________
Santo, R. with James, C., Davis, K., Burch, L., Katz, S. & Joseph, J. (2009) Meeting of Minds: Cross-Generational Dialogue on the Ethics of Digital Life disseminated at the Cooney Center’s symposium, Breakthrough Learning in the Digital Age, October 28th
Santo, R. & Klink, F. (2009) From Theory to Practice published in Threshold Magazine
Santo, R., Joseph, B., Nataf, Z., & Feldman, L. (2007) Engaging Youth with a New Medium: The Potentials of Virtual Worlds published in Youth Media Reporter
Santo, R., Joseph, B., Nataf, Z., & Feldman, L. (2007) Virtual Worlds, An Educational Medium for a New Century published in the Journal of Media Literacy, Volume 54
Presentations_______________________________________________
Invited Colloquia & Presentations
Santo, R. (2009) “Using Digital Portfolios to Promote Metacognition: Media Masters Case Study” presented at the National Writing Project’s Digital Is conference, November 18th
Santo, R. (2009) “Technology for the Global Classroom” presented at Asia Society Partnership for Global Learning Annual Forum, July 10th
Santo, R. & Rosenzweig, S. (2009) “Program Case Study: Media Masters”, presented at MIT’s Learning in a Participatory Culture Conference, May 2nd
Santo, R. (2009) “Wikipedia in the Classroom”, panel presented at MIT’s Learning in a Participatory Culture conference, May 2nd
Santo, R. (2008) “Networked Collaborative Education” guest lecture presented at Parsons – The New School for Design, Networked Collaboration Course, November 20th
Santo, R. & Fouad, A. (2008) “Teaching New Media Literacies through Second Life” presented at the annual Second Life Community Convention, September 6th
Santo, R. (2008) “Education in the Digital Age” presented at the Covenant Foundation Symposium, October 28th
Santo, R., & Koester, J., (2008) “Fireside Chat: Gaming and Learning in Second Life” presented at the annual Games, Learning and Society conference, July 10th
Santo, R., Bachhuber, J., & Joseph, B. (2008) “A Short History of Social Issue Games” presented at the annual Games, Learning and Society Conference, July 11th
Santo, R. (2008) guest lecture presented at Parsons – The New School for Design, Virtual Learning Environments Course, July 7th
Santo, R., Fouad, A., & Joseph, B. (2008), “Youth Engagement through Technology” keynote presented at Calworks Association Annual Youth Conference, January 15th
Santo, R. & Fouad, F. (2007) “Virtual Worlds, Real Skills”, presented at MIT/Home Inc. Creating and Learning in a Media Saturated Environment Conference, October 27th
Santo, R. (2007) “Media, Afterschool and Beyond”, panel presented at MIT/Home Inc. Creating and Learning in a Media Saturated Environment Conference, October 27th
Santo, R. & Sheehy, P. (2007) guest lecture presented at Boise State University Virtual Education Course, October 15th
Santo, R. (2006) “Games as a Documentary Form” panel presented at the annual Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival, November 11th
Professional Meetings & Trainings
Santo, R. (2009) “Organizational Assessment Needs at Global Kids” presented at the annual meeting of the 21st Century Assessment group, led by James Paul Gee and funded by the MacArthur Foundation held at Arizona State University, November 20th
Santo, R. (2009) “Social Media Tools for Global Learning” presented at the Asia Society International Studies Schools Network Summer Institute, July 8th
Santo, R. (2009) “Social Media for the Social Good” presented at the Kehillah Partnership Educators’ Training, June 14th
Santo, R. & Joseph, B. (2009) “Playing 4 Keeps: Social Issue Gaming Development” presented to the New York Public Library, April 28th
Santo, R. & Rosenzweig, S. (2009) “Social Media for the Social Good” presented at the Covenant Foundation’s Annual Project Director’s Meeting, February 10th
Santo, R. (2007) “Youth Journalism and Social Action in Second Life” presented at the annual Knight Foundation Journalism Advisory Committee Meeting held at MIT, November 9th
