Youth Digital Media

It’s been over a month since the Digital Inclusion Summit, but meaningful engagement with technology is something that’s always on my mind.  On Monday, I had the chance to help out Emily, a co-worker at the Y @ Cascade People’s Center.  She reached out to YTech hoping to use some of our laptops for a basic computer class for the folks utilizing the food bank at the Immanuel Lutheran Church across the street.  On the Mondays the food bank is open, there is a lull between when the tickets are passed out and when the individuals receive their food, so the CPC opens their doors for the interim and offers coffee and tea.  Emily saw this as an opportunity to engage with this population and provide an opportunity in addition to coffee and tea.  She felt this population could benefit from a basic computer workshop, but wanted to insure that it was taught in the most accessible and meaningful way.   The demographics of the population utilizing the food bank are predominantly Ukrainians who speak Russian.  Emily reached out to Jane, CenturyLink’s Market Development Manager, and Jane reached out to Olga, a CenturyLink employee who happens to speak Russian.

Monday morning arrived and I set up the laptops, Olga set up her PowerPoint and Jane powered up her camera.  Olga went around to each of the tables and, in Russian, invited people to participate in her presentation.  Many were hesitant to participate at first, but as Olga continued on with her presentation, people started meandering to the laptops to follow along.  As an outsider watching the interaction between Olga and those engaged, I was reminded how important it is to understand why individuals don’t have access to computers then try meet them halfway.  Emily saw an opportunity to meaningfully connect with the population using the CPC and took advantage of it.  As a bystander, I could see how pleased the individuals were when someone spoke to them in a language they understood.  After the training, Olga mentioned that many of the participants were interested in learning about programs offering cheaper internet and computers.  (Both Comcast and CenturyLink offer similar basic internet programs.)  This population is clearly interested in having access to computers but, because of the language barrier, they were unaware of the many programs in existence which many of them would qualify for.   I was happy YTech could support this meaningful training and it was reinvigorating for me to be a part of this collaboration.

Jane, Emily, Melissa & Olga

Every morning I wake up to my alarm from my iPhone, check One Bus Away to see how much time I have to become presentable, run for the bus, then arrive at work to type away on a computer. Technology has become so ubiquitous in my life and with my work at YTech I often forget not everyone is wired like me…

Attending the Digital Inclusion Summit reminded me that only 1/3 of Americans in the United States have access to Broadband…1/3 or 3.3333 people out of 10! This is a hard statistic to comprehend in Seattle – a city home to Microsoft, Google offices and Adobe offices. Laura Breedan, the Summit’s keynote speaker from the Department of Commerce, explained the true cost of digital exclusion. We use the internet every day for everything from buying a car to finding employment. With so much of our daily activities online, those who do not have access are falling further and further behind. In her keynote, Lauren spoke to libraries as being the forerunners of digital inclusion. With the help of national and local grants, like BTOP, more non-profits and organizations have taken queues from libraries to become hubs for digital access. This summit was a chance for organizations and nonprofits around Washington to share their programs with like-minded individuals. It was a reinvigorating experience reminding me why I was so intrigued with YTech when I first stumbled across it.

The format of the summit was an “unconference”. What does that mean you ask? I like to think of it as a conference for the people, by the people. Basically, the day included two workshops for folks to attend, but the sessions were decided day of by the attendees. Kinda awesome right? Well, Colleen and I decided to brave the crowd, and we presented a potential topic about our award winning Civic Voice curriculum.

The people of the conference voted and our topic was chosen as one of the sessions. Together, Colleen and shared the story of YTech to a small group of people and ensued was a great dialog about youth created media.

At YTech we are working hard every day to make technology and media more than just a toy. Like Spiderman said, “With great power comes even greater responsibility”. We are not super heroes at YTech, but we are helping the digital natives of this city harness their technology skills and use them for something meaningful.

While meaningful engagement through technology is an important priority for us digital inclusion advocates, I’m grateful that meaningful non-technological, face-to-face forums still exist. On March 4, Seattle’s Town Hall hosted a talk with California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom about his new book, Citizenville. (Not surprisingly, I learned about this event online and, not surprisingly, you can listen to the recorded $5 event for free here.)

Refreshingly straightforward for a politician, Gavin clarified that his new book was not “about” campaigning; it is about governing, and how data can be used to help. By default, he said, government is closed and only provides the most basic of information to the public out of fear of controversial headlines. To counter that government standard, Gavin’s position is that government openness should be required.

Gavin’s main point was that “slingshots of technology are tearing down institutions.”  How so? What does that mean? While deciphering that metaphorical sentence would be an excellent high school Language Arts prompt, Gavin followed up his embellished statement with an example from his days as San Francisco’s mayor:

San Francisco was one of the first cities to require their departments to provide data sets online, and city officials were anxious about that shift. More specifically, Gavin recalled that the implementation of “compost police” during his term as mayor was controversial, even in liberal San Francisco. But after the City posted information about the rules of composting online, citizens voluntarily designed easy-to-use apps relaying the information to fellow San Franciscans. By sharing their composting information online, the City catalyzed the process of making the information even more accessible to San Franciscan smartphone users, and without any extra cost in time or money to the city bureaucracy.

Gavin sees that technology can be, and already is, a platform for civic engagement. Town Hall settings will not be the future for politics, he says, because people with advocacy stickers and one-track minds take over the conversation. He expects that, following models in Brazil and New York, important political decisions like budgeting will become a more public process. Via online interaction, we can localize decision-making and opinion-sharing, enhancing the fact that everybody is an expert in something.

My coworker Melissa and I were impressed with Gavin’s candid and informed insight. Coming from YTech, though, we were distracted by the fact that he didn’t even mention that multiple barriers exist for technological civic engagement.  After his talk, Gavin personally acknowledged to me and Melissa that he didn’t even touch on issues related to digital inclusion during the talk. While he made digital inclusion issues a priority with various public housing initiatives as San Francisco mayor, he pointedly said that nobody has a silver bullet solution for digital inclusion issues. His specific comment was that continuing to drive down the prices for technology, referring to a $10 tablet in India that was recently released, will create major headway for digital inclusion issues.

Gavin openly admitted that citizens play a vital role in re-engaging politicians, who easily get caught up in the world of Politics. “The most important office is citizenship.” As a citizen in the Digital Age, I know that I can use my resources to learn about how to re-engage my politicians and fellow citizens, whether it is through searching for a politician’s address so that I may write a letter, following up with a documentary that has a corresponding documentary issue campaign, or by interacting with local youth on PugetSoundOff.org. Still, as powerful as the Internet and its resources can be, I’ve gotta say that there is nothing like a Town-Hall style event that reinvigorates my commitment to my role as a Citizen.

While Colleen and Niki were spending their time in North Seattle at Ingraham High School facilitating workshops promoting teen dating violence awareness, Lily and I were across town at Cleveland High School exploring relevant social problems with Mr. Coughran’s freshman humanities classes. The students combined their knowledge of persuasive writing with YTech’s Civic Voice Curriculum and the result was a dozen powerful Public Service Announcements.

Working in groups, students self-selected a variety of topics ranging from distracting electronics to bullying to more comprehensive sex education. Lily and I challenged the students to think creatively about how to portray their messages through PSAs. We asked probing questions and discussed example PSAs to encourage creativity while relying less on descriptive dialog. By removing certain elements from the filming and editing process (sound, color or objects) Lily and I saw the creativity flourish among the students and their projects.

After scripting, storyboarding, filming, and editing their PSAs, students were proud to share the final products with their peers and YTech staff during the final Media Viewing. Here is a little teaser of what PSAs came out of the students’ hard work – the rest can be viewed on Puget SoundOff

The students learned a variety of skills during the week including, how to hold a camera while not looking like a tourist and the importance and value of civic engagement. Our week at Cleveland allowed the students to become producers rather than consumers of technology; something we strive for everyday at YTech.

YTech is proud to announce its involvement with the 2013 Digital Inclusion Summit. The Summit, which will take place on March 14, will provide a forum to share policy, curriculum research, and other resources, and to promote digital inclusion efforts and needs in Washington State. The Summit’s unconference format will provide a unique platform for 150-200 people from the public, non-profit and private sectors to exchange best practices and trends in the fields related to digital and online information literacy, broadband adoption, and public access to information technology. Conference attendees are expected to represent a wide range of technology educators, librarians, program staff and volunteers, community leaders, researchers, developers, advocates, funders, and policymakers. Register for the event or suggest a topic that the unconference should include!

At YTech, we believe that the digital inclusion-based conversations that will take place at the unconference are necessary dialogues for our society to have. Long ago, we realized that simply providing access to technology was not enough to adequately serve all populations. To bridge the digital divide, to be competitive, and keep up with our changing economy, we must guide others in using technology. YTech teaches technology, social media, and digital media skills as a catalyst for youth to share their voices and become active in their communities. Armed with hard skills, access to technology, and a forum for expression and action, we can create the next generation of employable, engaged, and skilled civic participants.

YTech’s Civic Voice Curriculum is a digital media and civics education model that enhances students’ digital literacies, communication, and leadership skills while also developing their sense of belonging and investment to their communities. With this curriculum, YTech offers various programming to provide youth with a path toward becoming civically engaged using technology as a resource. The Digital Inclusion Summit serves as a microcosm for YTech’s goals: breeding informed and collaborative conversation around important social issues, we can make the improvements that we need to include everybody in our digital and non-digital world.