Barry is Associate Director For Digital Learning at the American Museum of Natural History. He has developed innovative programs in the areas of youth-led online dialogues, video games as a form of youth media, the application of social networks for social good, the educational potential of virtual worlds like Second Life, the educational application of mobile phones and alternative assessment models. In his position at the AMNH he works with out-of-school, on site youth programs to explore the intersection of digital media and museum-based learning, with a focus on science and cultural topics. His work can be followed at mooshme.org and on twitter at @mmmooshme.
Before his time at AMNH, he did all sorts of fancy pancy things. He served on the initial steering committee of the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning initiative and his writing appears in the Foundation’s Ecology of Games volume. (In fact, his desk is just down the hall from the room where the Foundation first launched the initiative in October, 2006). He founded and directed for twelve years Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program, when he combined youth development practices with the development of high profile digital media projects that advance 21st Century Skills and New Media Literacies. During his time at Global Kids, Barry also successfully launched Games For Change and the book project Give Me Seltzer.
