Youth Media

For the 2009-2010 school year I was fortunate to participate in the Youth Media Workshop in Champaign-Urbana sponsored by WILL. The goal of the program was to empower young people, specifically African-American youth, and increase connections between generations in the Champaign community.

http://www.will.uiuc.edu/community/youthmediaworkshop/default.htm

The team of adults working with our students included a classroom teacher from Jefferson, one University of Illinois intern, two WILL staff members and myself. Our school’s workshop was for African-American girls. The girls were all recommended by teachers and then completed an application for final admission. Throughout the year we discussed and worked on a variety of skills including goal setting, interviews, community history, camera work, editing and production. The girls met weekly for instruction at the beginning of the year and then began interviews towards the end of the year. Every week was a delight. The girls learned about generational differences in topics like education, fashion, sports, and family values. Their support and encouragement of each other throughout the year was beyond my expectations. Overall the project was a great deal of fun and you can still see some of the photos archived online at http://illinoisyouthmedia.org/projects/year-7/search/jefferson

Another great feature of the program was monthly meetings where we met with leaders from the other middle schools and past project coordinators. It was so valuable to be able to share with the other teachers that were trying to help teens find their voice.

During the project I got to watch our students develop at different rates. One student in particular, Sonie, showed exceptional interest and talent in research, interviewing and production. And she had a strong storytelling voice. I was inspired by her exit interview as she talked with passion about being dedicated to achieving her full potential and wanting to inspire her peers to commit to their educational opportunities as well. I was very excited to learn that she was awarded an internship this year at WILL as part of the Letters to the Future 150th Anniversary of Champaign, Illinois celebration. She continues to work with members of the WILL team to increase her skills and work towards being a better reporter. Her most exciting moment this year has been getting to interview Allison Krauss! Feel free to watch her videos or read her blog at http://illinoisyouthmedia.org/projects/letters-to-the-future

One of the things I liked the most about participating in this program was the level of excitement the students showed at being responsible for creating and publishing their interviews. The question then becomes, if we know students are interested and motivated to use and learn about technology, then why are we not incorporating more hands on technology into their daily education? Why are schools trapped in a 20^th century educational mindset? The future that students are being educated for includes all kinds of technology and requires a completely different skill set than just 20 years ago. So how can we rationalize not making sure every student has the necessary skills for the future? There has long been an achievement gap in core subjects like reading and writing between certain ethnic and socioeconomic groups, but I think the disparity between student access to technology is also a concern. Clearly creating groups and opportunities like Youth Media is an ideal way to get kids involved. And being actively involved is another beauty of this program. Students are expected to share ideas and are given a voice. This type of empowerment is critical in their development as active participants in society.

In the future, I think it would be great to offer this kind of work as part of a language arts or social studies class. The research and production made the learning authentic since they were all working towards publication of their interviews. Until education is dictated by something other than state and national tests I don’t see this getting worked into the curriculum any time soon. And that is unfortunate.