Entries for January 15 2008
Youth Work(ers) Challenged
[SUMMARY—MediaSnackers referenced.]
(GBR) Michael Bracey leads youth support services for Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and also writes for Youth Work Now.
His latest piece entitled Conquer your technology demons is a great challenge to his colleagues:
But where are we? Ready to take non-formal education forward into the digital age? Prepared to use all this new technology to empower young people? In a word, no. We're to be found somewhere at the back.
Check out YouTube and do a search for 'youth work'. Apart from an entertaining clip of Tom Wylie, former chief executive of The National Youth Agency, in a hoodie and a great film from Liverpool Youth Service, it's not great. And it's even worse over on MySpace. These sites should be bursting with content showcasing young people's achievements.
An issue reflected in our posts listed below—fancy joining the discussion/campaign Mike.
Related posts: Wanted: Youth Work Bloggers and How To Become A Leader
Filed by DK on January 15 2008
MediaSnackers Button Theory
[SUMMARY—One of our theories.]
(WORLD) This is purely experiential and non-academic. We talk about it a lot with clients and in our talks plus it's one of the reasons 75% of our training is with adults and not young people.
Get ready to chew on this for a while:
A young person would push a button to see what it does—an adult would ask what the button does before they pushed it.
It's very subtle but vastly important in terms of social media and technology.
It's why young people don't read manuals and navigate the web much quicker than older folks (for them, there's always a back button…). Call it the arrogance of youth or that they haven't learned how to 'fail' yet—they at least don't have the same consideration to the consequences.
Some say that's dangerous. Others, (like us and in this context) think it's a quality to regain and a healthy part of the nuances of being young.
You can hear me talk about it a little more in the MediaSnackers 100th podcast.
Filed by DK on January 15 2008
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