A few months ago, I was invited to attend a new lecture series called Selah, a program of the Janet & Jake Farber Teen Experiential Educator Network. Selah brings teen educators high-quality speakers, discussing tangible, needs-reflective topics about the field of Jewish Experiential Education. The goal is to grow the community and encourage greater knowledge-sharing and relationship-building between the teen educators across the Los Angeles geographic and Jewish landscapes.
The February lecture was given by Dr. Mizuko Ito, who spoke about Teens in the Digital Age. Dr. Ito is a cultural anthropologist specializing in learning and new media, particularly among young people in Japan and the US. Her current research focuses on how to support socially connected learning experiences for young people. With the support of the MacArthur Foundation, she helped launch the Connected Learning Alliance, dedicated to realizing a world where all young people have equitable access to learning opportunities that are social, participatory, driven by personal needs and interests, and oriented toward educational, civic and economic opportunity. Additionally, she chaired a MacArthur Foundation research network on Connected Learning with an interdisciplinary group of researchers seeking to study and design for connected learning environments.
Here are some of the questions and puzzles that Dr. Ito raised in her lecture at Selah:
- What happens when digitally-engaged kids enter an education space? Much of Dr. Ito’s research focuses on teens’ sharing and communication outside of traditional education spaces. The behaviors that teachers dislike in the classroom (students going on Facebook or crowd-sourcing test answers) are useful communication skills in other contexts. Kids using technology to disengage in a learning space is a signal of disconnected learning.
- In the changing ecosystem of learning opportunities, the gap between families’ investment in informal learning is growing along socio-economic lines. All families feel an urgency to enrich their children’s educational experience with out-of-school programs. There is a growing sense that it is not enough to achieve in formal learning contexts. Currently, however, there is a $9,000 spending gap for out-of-school enrichment programs between families of high vs low socio-economic status. As public schools deliver fewer services and opportunities for hands-on/arts education, families who need the most are getting the least.
- Kids are now learning in an era of abundance. The internet has opened up webs of formal and informal learning opportunities. Learning does not take place solely within the walls of a school; online affinity groups (fandoms), meetups, MOOCs, gaming, etc. offer learning opportunities to connected youth.
- As educators and parents, how do we help kids connect the dots and leverage learning opportunities? Young people are struggling to connect learning across domains. When students have a hard time understanding how their diverse experiences fit together, we can ask ourselves: What aspects of a child’s environment are hampering learning? What can an educator or organization do to support learning?
These are some crowd-sourced tips for supporting digitally-engaged kids:
- Affirm the learning that is already happening and name the skills that kids are building.
- Be intentional about the purpose of school learning (connect skills to career paths)
- Mentorship is key. The Great Jobs, Great Lives Gallup-Purdue Index Report found that meaningful relationships between students and professors impacted the long-term well-being of college grads.
- Identify trends in interests and free-time choice: “What about these activities is interesting to you?”
- Help kids connect their play to their learning, and affirm their emerging identity.
My biggest takeaway from Dr. Ito’s lecture is this: It’s not a capacity problem. It’s a matchmaking problem. No one organization will meet all of the needs of all learners. I am energized by the idea that the Skirball fits into a landscape of informal learning in LA. Even thought we don’t have the staff capacity or budget to launch a super in-depth teen program right now (compared with some of our peer institutions nationwide, who are doing amazing and awe-inspiring work with teens), Dr. Ito’s lecture helped me re-frame the work we are doing. I am looking forward to deepening the connection between the interests of our current teen corps members and staff expertise/museum resources while moving the teen volunteer program into closer alignment with the Skirball’s mission (particularly around social justice, equity, and access).
mindful museums 