Strategies to Connect, Communicate and Collaborate

with Youth in the Digital Age

2008 Youth Academy February 26, 2008

Growing Up Digital

Today’s students – K through college – represent the first generation to grow up with technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music

players, video cams, cell phones and all the other toys and tools of the digital

age. ..Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are

integral parts of their lives.” - Marc Prensky

Youth Activities Online• Some 93% of teens use the internet, and more of them than

ever are treating it as a venue for social interaction – a place where they can share creations, tell stories, and interact with others.

• Nearly half (47%) of online teens have posted photos where others can see them, and 89% of those teens who post photos say that people comment on the images at least "some of the time.”

• Content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64% of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57% of online teens in 2004.

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, December 19, 2007

YouTube: The Moral Compass of the Internet Age

A Dunkin Donuts clerk, Dustin Hoffman (not the actor), foiled a robbery attempt. When asked what was going through his mind, he said he wondered what the robbery would look like on YouTube.

What’s the Result?“Today’s youth think and process information fundamentally differently than their predecessors.”

• Second generation web-based communities and hosted services, such as social networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies, that allow users to generate and share content.

• Websites are updated often (daily, weekly, or monthly).

• “Upload” as opposed to “download”

The Read/Write Web or Web 2.0

• Changing the face of education, business and politics (and workforce to a lesser degree – Let’s change that!).

• Requires a new set of skills in information/media/online literacy.

• Applications are mostly free and easy to use.

More about Web 2.0

Language of Web 2.0

In the interest of full disclosure I do not actually own a red scarf or black sling back shoes as worn by my Avatar.

Podcast Avatar

Blog

RSS Feed

Widget

Wiki

Connecting in the Digital Age

Communicating in the Digital Age

http://www.employeeevolution.com/ http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/http://newlycorporate.com/about/ http://www.pursuethepassion.com/

More Communicating in the Digital Age

Collaborating in the Digital Age

This video was created by an professor and 200 students enrolled in ANTH 200: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, Spring 2007. It began as a brainstorming exercise, thinking about how students learn, what they need to learn for their future, and how our current educational system fits in.

More Collaborating in the Digital Age

Literacy in the 21st Century

The American Library Association defined information literacy in their first national report on the topic in 1989. They said…

People who are information literate are good at "knowing when they have a need for information, identifying information needed to address a given problem or issue, finding needed information, evaluating the information, organizing the information, [and] using the information effectively to address the problem or issue at hand."

Digital Literacy (information + media) Skill set

In addition to being able to read and write youth need :

“ social skills that have to do with collaboration and networking. These skills build on the foundation of traditional literacy, research skills, technical skills and critical analysis skills which should have been part of the school curriculum all the long.”

-David Rheingold

Need for Digital Literacy is Real

People use the Internet every day to buy things, research important information (where to go to college, find a job, find a mate) and communicate with family and friends.

Without the proper skills, users may share too much information online, be unable to locate the information they need or rely on bad but easily located information.

"If it’s on the Internet, it must be true."

14 year-old Zack: "I'm working on a history paper about how the Holocaust never

happened."

Long pause. "Zack, where did you hear that the Holocaust didn't happen?”

Zack: "The Internet. It's on a Web page at Northwestern University."

Zack found his "information" from a Web page at http://pubweb.northwestern.edu/~abutz/di/intro.html,titled "Home Web page of Arthur R. Butz."

On his low-key home page, Butz explains that he wrote "A short introduction to the study of Holocaust revisionism" and that his material is intended for "advanced students of Holocaust revisionism."

At the top of the page Butz identifies himself as

"Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northwestern University."

How Did This Happen?

Source: Alan November

On a lighter note….Visit:

The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus Page at: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus.html

Sponsored by Greenpeas.org working to save the world from humans and The Wildlife Fund. The WF works to preserve genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity throughout the world.

Source: Alan November

How Do We Address This Problem?

• Authority

• Accuracy

• Objectivity

• Currency

• Coverage

At the very least, youth must be taught to review web sites for:

Source: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html

Start a blog for youth or better yet- help them create their own around a topic of their choice.

Develop Networking/Collaboration Skills

Get SocialBuild a social networking site to market and or connect to youth

Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow goes digital on MySpace

Create a viral video to market your program and post on YouTube for real feedback.

http://admissions.kettering.edu/stickman/schooldaze1.cfm

A Call to Action

• Do you have policies to address the use of Web 2.0 tools with youth?

• Do you have staff and/or youth ready and willing to integrate these tools into your way of work?

• What happens if you don’t integrate these tools?

Points to Ponder

For additional information,please contact:

Victoria Gray

NYS Department of Labor

Career Resource Office

Victoria.gray@labor.state.ny.us

(518) 402-0440