I've devoted my career to researching how young people take up new technologies like computers, mobile phones, and the Internet and make them their own. If we pay attention to what young people do when they are socializing and having fun with these new media, it's clear that they are both highly engaged and learning a great deal.
My biggest challenge has been to find what it would take to get alignment between the energy that kids bring to video games, text messaging, and social network sites and the learning that parents and educators care about.
{and i'd add.. let's question what parents and educators are saying they care about... and push back on why?.. maybe we'll find more of a bend toward kids pull to relationships than any amount of content to learn..maybe there's more in what kids are doing than we can even see ourselves...}
YouMedia space in Chicago Public Library's Harold Washington Library Centre in downtown Chicago. The space was teeming with teens sitting on bright comfy sofas, chatting and eating, playing Rock Band, mixing music, heads down in front of laptops, and getting feedback from digital media mentors.
this is the reform..
this is how we do it..
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