[staff] How does youth engagement cross from DM into RL
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the engagement of youth in a digital world. Well, duh. Of course I have, it’s what I do for a living. This is different, though. Of course youth are engaged in a digital world. It’s natural for them; they are digital natives. This new generation interacts with the world through digital media. Their outlook on life is filtered through their experiences, which are completely different from the experiences of my generation. I’ll give you an example.
I consider myself a digital immigrant. I did not use a computer till late in High School; my high-tech gadget as a teen was an old-fashioned ‘beeper’ that I wore on my hip; I played Pitfall! on Activision. I may be a fairly early adapter, but my brain was wired before I learned these things. I’ll never be as quick, as natural as my 15-year-old sister at thinking in a digital world.
I’ve recently begun sharing the responsibility of running a household that includes a 16-year-old high school student. Now, I have a background in education. I’ve studied how people learn, think, and use technology. None of this is the same as experiencing it first-hand. Danny, my new housemate, is a smart, creative, well-adjusted teenager. An outsider may think, “Man! That kid’s a recluse! He never leaves his bedroom, he doesn’t go hangout with kids on the corner, he doesn’t go to parties.” I know better. Danny is well connected, well spoken, and quite social. I know this because I see him in a constant stream of text messages and IM’s. We discuss over dinner his latest conquests in WoW, which he plays on multiple servers in order to enjoy the camaraderie of his old friends from Florida, as well as his new friends in New York. He tells us about the mature and collected way he convinced his school principal that the chains hanging form his pants were in no way a threat, and need not be banned from his wardrobe. I realized the other day that I know Danny is home safe from school when I see his AIM away message change around 2:30 every afternoon (of course the first thing he does is sit down at his computer and reestablish his connection to the digital world!)
So, this is my most recent perspective as I consider my work at Global Kids, and, specifically, in the D.I.D.I. Initiative. We knew from previous experience with Global Kids in TSL that teens like interacting with us. Our workshops work. We engage them; we keep their interest. This is the case for 1-2 hour workshops. It’s even the case for 8-week long summer camp programs. The D.I.D.I. Initiative is a little different though. We are asking kids to come to workshops in TSL, and they do. They come, and they respond to IM’s and they excitedly show us the things they want to build for their venture. What they don’t do, it is starting to seem, is continue the same level of engagement when they log out of TSL and turn their computers off.
The D.I.D.I. Initiative requires these teens to take some initiative. We support them, we prod them, and we poke them. We can’t, however, bring them into a classroom and put a paper in front of them and say, “Today we are going to fill out your action plans. Take out your pens.” We’ve had no problem getting teens committed to working with us in TSL. Our struggle is this crossover into their lives away from the computer (I don’t dare call it their ‘real life’ as that insinuates that what they experience with us in TSL is not real.) They are excited to participate… in TSL. Not so excited to fill out the paperwork, needed to continue this participation, however. I consider that it’s just a natural struggle to get teens to fill out tedious paperwork. Of course that’s not fun, or engaging, it’s just a necessary part of processing their projects. We can’t avoid having an action plan. We need to be sure they’ve thought the project through, considered different aspects and needs, and really committed themselves to taking part in something sustainable. Does it mean that they are not serious about these ventures? I hope not. I don’t think so.
The action plans are rolling in, with some serious attention from the DIDI Staff. Going forward, I wonder how this can best be addressed. Can we make the application process more interactive? What needs to change? Perhaps we should ask them.
