Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

10.31.06 | While we are closing the digital divide we are on the verge of creating a participation gap as technological tools become ubiquitous.  The new divide will not be caused by access to technology but rather by lack of access to mentors, environments, and activities where the use of digital media is the language of communication.

To begin to tackle this problem we at the Center for Urban School Improvement have designed a new media literacy program for urban youth, Digital Youth Network, that combines the affordances of the different contexts (home, school, and afterschool) where youth spend their time into one learning environment that not only teaches youth how to use new media literacies but also creates meaningful opportunities for youth to use their new media literacies through explicit connections to school-based curriculum, running of new media literacy interest-based clubs, providing remix competitions and “open shop” times (both virtual and place-based) where youth are supported in using new media literacies to explore their own questions and push their imagination.

What are other approaches to creating opportunities for participation for all youth that are based in the communities of the youth being served?