The Digital Media and Learning Initiative

The Power of Youth Voice: What Kids Learn When They Create With Digital Media

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Program Information

The Power of Youth Voice: What Kids Learn When They Create With Digital Media is a public forum designed to open discussion in the Philadelphia area to educators, parents, researchers, students, and community members about the potential of learning through engagement with digital media.

There are many questions around what it means for young people to be widely involved in digital media use today—whether it is playing video games, using the Internet for research or social networks, or using mobile devices. By bringing in experts in the digital media and learning field and showing examples of how digital media is used to create powerful learning experiences for young people in and outside the classroom, we hope to encourage dialogue regarding opportunities to make learning meaningful and relevant to the next generation.

The forum will take place at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Wednesday, November 18, 2009 from 6:00 pm-8:00 pm. The event will be broadcast in Second Life—a virtual world—and available via streaming video. For those who attend in person, before the panel and discussion a reception will be held, during which examples of youth work involving digital media will be on display.

Registration details.

6:00-7:00 PM • Reception and Displays of digital work

7:00-8:00 PM • Panel and Discussion

The panel will include:

Renee Hobbs, Founder of the Media Education Lab at Temple University and Professor at the School of Communications and Theater and the College of Education;
Nichole Pinkard, Founder of the Digital Youth Network and Senior Research Associate, as well as the Chief Technology Officer and Director of the Information Infrastructure System project at the Center for Urban School Improvement at the University of Chicago;
Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, Director of National Programs and Site Development at the National Writing Project, University of California, Berkeley

The panel will be moderated by Connie Yowell, Director of Education in the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Program on Human and Community Development.

Media Education Lab
The mission of the Media Education Lab at Temple University is to improve media literacy education through scholarship and community service.

Digital Youth Network
Digital Youth Network gives students tools to be engaged, articulate, critical and collaborative. Facilitate the ability to become creators—designers, builders & innovators—who can envision new possibilities.

National Writing Project
The National Writing Project focuses the expertise, knowledge and leadership of our nation’s educators on sustained efforts to improve writing and learning for all learners.