As new initiatives to exploit technology and digital media for learning sweep the country, a learning center for teens at the Harold Washington Library in downtown Chicago demonstrates both the challenges and opportunities these efforts present, this report from the University of Chicago
Consortium on Chicago School Research finds.

 

The study:

-Illuminates how the design of YOUmedia shapes youth participation
-Describes the teens that YOUmedia serves, their patterns of participation, and the activities in which they engage
-Provides examples of the benefits youth perceive from their participation
-Characterizes the roles adults play in engaging teens and the ways programmatic choices have shifted
-Offers suggestions for organizations intending to launch similar initiatives
-Illustrates how YOUmedia instantiates elements of the emerging Connected Learning Model

 

Opened in the fall of 2009, YOUmedia Chicago, attempts to capitalize on teens’ interest in technology to motivate them to create, innovate and become active learners by providing them access to digital media, a safe, inviting space and staff members who serve as mentors. There currently are 30 learning centers across the country being modeled on YOUmedia Chicago and funded by the MacArthur Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.