Supporting young new media producers across learning spaces: A longitudinal study of the digital youth network

In this symposium, we will report on a mixed method, three-year longitudinal study that documented a learning environment intentionally designed to provide urban youth with tools and learning opportunities that would allow them to create, collaborate and communicate with new media production technologies. The design of this in-school and after-school program was motivated by concern over growing divides with respect to access to learning environments that can support empowered and generative uses of technology. Through a unique program that offered both a wide array of special interest after school clubs (e.g. robotics, graphic design, digital broadcast and movie making, music recording and remixing, video game development) and mandatory media arts classes during the school day, learners were able to develop broad and deep experiences across the middle school years. The program of research involved an ethnographic study focused on the learning environment, nine case studies of young producers and their learning ecologies across home, school, and community, and quantitative tracking of the entire cohort over time. In this session, four papers will be shared that describe 1) the environment; 2) the theoretical framework guiding the research, research questions, and associated methods; 3) the development of learners as creative producers; and 4) the role of artist-mentors as media arts instructors. The contributions of the symposium include sharing a unique interdisciplinary collaboration and the results of a unique experiment designed to bridge divides while innovating a new ecological model of learning.