Students use YouTube to plan and document education protests in California

Today, thousands of California students and teachers are protesting proposed cuts to public education across the state - and they're uploading proof to YouTube.

California has seen its fair share of education-related protests in the past few months - upon hearing about tuition hikes across the University of California system, students took to the streets in anger. College students are still a large part today's movement (see this video from UC San Diego), but now, they're not the only piece of it.

Here's a footage from a protest at a middle school in Millbrae, California, uploaded recently to YouTube:

And students are also using YouTube as an organizing tool - this video uploaded yesterday features a cast of student voices and asks fellow students at Monterey Trail High School to join them in today's activities.

The video above is an interesting throwback to the immigration protests of 2006, when high school students used social media like YouTube to stage massive school walkouts.

StillerStrong: Ben gives Lance a run for his money

Watch out, Lance. Ben Stiller is stealing your fundraising mojo...

This week, Stiller launched "StillerStrong," which is self-described as "stealing great ideas from other charities to build a school in Haiti." Hear from Stiller himself about this new project and his new headbands:

Even though the video itself is funny and well-done, what really impressed me was the neat and functional use of external annotations to drive action to various social networking and fundraising platforms. Looks like Livestrong may have some serious competition...check out www.stillerstrong.org for more information.

How Do We Build Better Schools? Ask the Students

Okay, YouTube -- it's time to trade in those water balloons for some #2 pencils. A new school year is upon us!

Thankfully, an organization called Architecture for Humanity (AFH) is trying to make the idea of heading back to school a bit more palatable. Earlier this year, they launched a competition for architects to design a "classroom of the future" and address the challenges schools face in trying to provide smart, safe and sustainable learning spaces.

A large number of entrants used YouTube to convey student input on their designs. This mashup shows how youth from schools around the world were involved in the planning process. Students also learned how to use various building tools through a YouTube series sponsored by AFH. In this video, students are taught to do modeling using Google Sketchup:



Architecture for Humanity had over 1,000 teams from 65 countries participate in the challenge and today they announced the winner, who will receive up to $50,000 to build or upgrade a classroom. Here's a video about the winning design from the Teton Valley Community School:



Interesting features of the Teton Valley project include a building that is heated and cooled geo-thermally, a greenhouse, and an outdoor area for each grade level.

What features do you think are essential to the classroom of the future? Leave your ideas in the comments below.