Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

We've officially begun our third year of the Global Kids Digital Media Youth Advisory, one of the more unique programs we offer in our Online Leadership Program. Whereas other GK programs aim to educate and activate young people, this program is actually looking for young people to inform and advise us and the MacArthur Foundation in regards to its $50 million Digital Media Initiative which it launched last year.

This year, we started on a number of projects. The first was having the DMYA help develop a survey that all Online Leadership Program students will take at the beginning and end of this year to help GK assess how their skills are changing as a result of being in an OLP program. See some pics below of DMYA teens testing out a draft which they later gave feedback on:

Jurrel evaluating his digital literacies

Later in the meeting, we started brainstorming ideas about issues that teens encounter in their digital lives that they would be interested in having GK trainers address in workshops throughout the NYC schools we work in. Some of the topics they came up with were privacy and safety online, appropriate parental limitations on computer use, credibility and evaluating sources, and dealing with cyberbullying and other forms of online harassment. There's a lot there, hopefully we'll be able to work together to figure how some or all of these issues can be addressed in a GK workshop.

Thanks to all the teens for your valuable feedback and ideas!