Digital Youth

Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century poses important and provocative questions about what constitutes learning and how that process is best achieved in current times through examples of how some people in some places are getting it right, i.e. fully engaging the learner. My primary concern about using technology for learning is accessibility. Does every child have a computer or a smart phone? Are we heading toward a society of further disparities because only certain people have access to technological tools? Chicago's Digital Youth Network (DYN) provides a case study in how community access to those tools can transform youths' opportunities, vision, learning, and how they perceive themselves in society. It's an example of what the education process is supposed to do: enable students to discover and pursue their individual passions. It also demonstrates that technology, be it for photography, music, filming, requires the full breadth of traditional and contemporary literacies. Through digital media, students are literally discovering and connecting with their passions, the community, and the world. DYN founders saw young people pushing personal projects a step further, a step higher, a step in a different direction. Youths would start in a workshop and finish as instructors. Now that is empowering!