Opportunities for Digital Youth

thefuturecreators.com

Opportunities for Digital Youth

Michael HallissyDirector of Learning

The Digital Hub Development Agency


Digital Hub Development Agency


NCAD


Digital Media all around us

http://www.school-portal.co.uk/GroupHomepage.asp?GroupId=1111374


Digital Youth

http://www.experientia.com/blog/report-published-on-three-year-digital-youth-research-project/


They have grown up digital

• “They want a choice in their education, in terms of what they learn, when they learn it, where, and how. They want their education to be relevant to the real world, the one they live in. They want it to be interesting, even fun.”

– (Tapscott, 2008, p. 126)

• Tapscott, D. (2008), Grown up digital. How the net generation is changing your world. New York: McGraw Hill.


Time to rethink learning

• “growing consensus on the need to dramatically rethink how learning happens inside and outside schools. Much of this debate is centred on the potential for technology to play a more direct and central role in student-centred learning.”

• (Mitra et al., 2005; Christensen et al., 2008, as cited in Langworthy et al., 2010, p. 106)

• Langworthy, M., Shear, L. and Means, B. (2010). 'The Third Lever: Innovative Teaching and Learning Research'. In OECD (Ed.), Inspired by Technology, Driven by Pedagogy: A Systematic Approach to Technology-based School Innovations: OECD Publishing.


Changes in our Education System


New Programmes for Young People


Some features of Future Creators

• After-school programme designed and developed by DHDA and NCAD

• Focus on providing young people with a programme of activities in digital media

• Provide credit for young people’s work – recognise the effort they made

• Promotes self-directed learning• Promotes the acquisition of 21st century skills• Promotes ownership and pride in their work• Open their minds up to the possibilities of using digital media

– Pro-sumer notion


What young people had to say

• It has helped my self-confidence a lot...the way you get to know a bunch of people that you wouldn’t have had a clue who they were and you probably wouldn’t have said a word to them before - it encourages you to get to know people more.

• You get to learn to make things you’re interested in, get to make friends with people that you’ve never seen before.

• Because you’re with people your own age ...it’s easier to learn with people...sitting beside them and asking them ‘can you give me a hand’ and then they help and it’s easier to understand.

• Very different from school – the teacher calls from across the room...here the tutors are coming over to you and showing you, just yourself, what to do and that helps a lot and if you’re stuck there’s the rest of the kids to ask.


What young people had to say

• It’s well better here than school the teachers are also like your friends, I can tell them anything, I feel comfortable.

• In school you’re just told what to do and you’re given the material and told to learn it off and get ready for tests and do homework but in this place it’s kinda learn as you go, learn by doing, it’s not just ‘learn this’ ...it’s much more relaxed and you’re brought through it step by step and you work at your own pace which I think is really good as well, and it’s a lot broader, we can do what we want so it’s easier to teach yourself how to do something.

• The atmosphere is different from school, it is concentrated on the work but if it gets a bit heavy, if the work gets too much, you can take a break, they don’t mind, you’re allowed to talk ...it’s more relaxed...like hangin’ out with friends and getting work done as well.


Finally…

• It could be said that Future Creators is an example of the potential of learning in digital environments and digital literacy to:– ... contribute significantly to a much wider process

of developing students’ view of themselves as independent learners able to participate politically, socially and culturally in an increasingly digital society. (Hague, 2010, p. 23)

Hague, C. (2010) “It’s Not Chalk and Talk Anymore”: School approaches to developing students’ digital literacy. Bristol: Futurelab.



Contact Details

Michael HallissyDirector of Learning The Digital Hub Development AgencyThe Digital HubCrane StreetDublin 8

Email: [email protected]: www.thedigitalhub.com

www.futurecreators.com

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.thedigitalhub.com/

http://www.futurecreators.com/

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Opportunities for Digital Youth