Author: Kendra Hurley

In 2003, a National Research Council report found that students learn better when schools foster caring and supportive relationships and high expectations. This month the American School Board Journal reports “few victories are more important than raising expectations.” If poor and minority children do not believe they can learn as well as those with advantages, “it can be difficult–if not impossible–to convince students that education offers their best opportunity for a better life.” And “it doesn’t take much to have low expectations of poor people and people of color,” warned the founder of the Haberman Educational Foundation, which helps high-poverty school districts hire teachers and principals. “All you have to do is grow up in American society, and you’ve built them in.”

In a Time Magazine cover story, Steven Spielberg talks about his new movie exploring the aftermath of the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. He also reveals his plan for improving Israeli-Palestinian relations: “There’s a project I’m initiating next February that I think might also do some good,” he said. “What I’m doing is buying 250 video cameras and players and dividing them up, giving 125 of them to Palestinian children, 125 to Israeli kids, so they can make movies about their own lives—not dramas, just little documentaries about who they are and what they believe in, who their parents are, where they go to school, what they had to eat, what movies they watch, what CDs they listen to—and then exchange the videos. That’s the kind of thing that can be effective, I think, in simply making people understand that there aren’t that many differences that divide Israelis from Palestinians—not as human beings, anyway.”

A football player at a New Jersey Catholic high school was expelled last October for blogging about his coach. Now he’s considering suing the school. “It’s outrageous that a private institution can wave their proverbial hand into students’ homes where they are being monitored by their parents,” the student’s lawyer told MTV News, the Media Center Blog reports. The school says it prohibits students from blogging on sites like MySpace and Xanga to protect not the school, but students from Internet predators.

A Tennessee high school paper was confiscated for publishing birth-control information as well as a photo of an unidentified student with a tattoo her parents did not know about. The episode sparked another First Amendment rights debate about student publications. “This is a terrible lesson in civics,” a University of Tennessee journalism professor told the Associated Press (here via the Los Angles Times). “Either the students are going to have a voice, or you’re going to have a PR rag for the administration.”

“As the commercial press is hammered by shrinking profits, layoffs and falling circulation, college newspapers are thriving,” reports Newsweek. Advertisers eager to reach the college demographic have flocked to student papers, resulting in inflated budgets for some campus publications, as well as elaborate newsrooms and increased circulation. “We work with 1,800 papers, reaching 11.4 million students,” said the senior vice president for a marketing firm that links college papers with national advertisers. “It’s not a little niche thing.” Critics point out, however, that bigger budgets don’t necessarily translate into better journalism.

“Virtually no colleges exist where one can earn a degree or certificate to be a media educator,” wrote Steven Goodman, director of the Educational Video Center (EVC), earlier this month. “Perhaps the most common way that media educators learn their craft is through trial and error, and they largely do so in isolation.”
Isolation, in part, motivated film educators and administrators in New York City to revolutionize the way they learn their craft. Energized by a convening of colleagues at the Open Society Institute nearly two years ago, Manhattan Neighborhood Network’s Youth Channel director Hye-Jung Park realized youth video groups in New York City could begin learning not only on the job, but from each other. Since then, EVC, MNN, Global Action Project, Paper Tiger Television, Ghetto Film School, TRUCE, and DCTV have formed a study group that meets every six weeks during the academic year. Over bagels and coffee, they discuss teaching practices, their students’ work, and the educational theory behind it all. This year, group members have been observing each other in the classroom.
While the idea of getting together to discuss one’s practice sounds simple, group members say that in a field just beginning to define its methods, the group’s impact has been immense. “It gives people a place and time and a space to talk about strategies and the big ideas and issues,” said Goodman. “It’s helped us develop a shared culture across the organizations that takes the work seriously and frames all of us as learners. It’s also building a social network. People will check in and say, ‘We’re working on this,’ or ‘There’s a demonstration you should know about.’”
Goodman provided the following tips for how other youth media organizations can run their own learning groups.

Rotate facilitation. Take turns hosting and leading meetings. This encourages groups to share responsibility for planning meetings and gives everyone a chance to view one another’s home sites.

Combine theory with practice. Spend time at each meeting discussing reading related to the job as well as time examining student work and the challenges and successes of producing it.
Challenge the group to read material that can provide a theoretical framework, such as readings on critical literacy and educational thought. The New York group has examined readings by John Dewey, James Paulo Gee, Paulo Freire, and Kathleen Tyner. Youth media practitioners, says Goodman, are “standing on the shoulders of other people and there’s a whole history to what we’re doing.” But acknowledge that some of the readings might be abstract and that practitioners are being asked to stretch a bit in examining them.
Consider having a theme to explore at meetings, such as how to encourage young people to move away from telling their own stories and into reporting.

Practice nonjudgmental observation. When observing each other’s work with young people, for instance, instead of saying, “I noticed the kids were bored,” try the less loaded, “I noticed there were two kids in the back of the room that didn’t talk.” This helps to cultivate a sense of trust and openness.

Keep group momentum and encourage consistency. Aim to have a core body of members who you can count on to show up. Schedule regular meetings, aiming to convene every one to two months.
Check in frequently to determine what’s working and what isn’t about the group. Especially in its beginning stages, the group is a work in progress and needs room to accommodate members’ needs, wants, and even a few whims.
Serve food. Snacking while learning can create a relaxed, supportive atmosphere. This is important, says Goodman, because groups are “a way for people to be colleagues. Many of us share some of the same challenges in our teaching and we can really learn from each other and support each other.”
This article is part of a series exploring a new phase of introspection in the youth media field, in which educators have begun placing a premium on reflecting on their work and thinking and planning on a macrolevel.

Continue reading Coffee, Colleagues, and Collaborative Learning

“Nonprofits subsist on a tragic irony,” writes fundraiser Jeff Brooks on his Donor Power Blog. “While they seek to do good in the world, they rely on fundraising–which is a bad thing. That’s balderdash. Self-destructive balderdash. Donors love to give.” Brooks, who has been serving nonprofits for 18 years, shares his expertise with tips and musings on topics including “Down with focus groups!,” “How to get donors to do your work for you,” “The best day of the week to send email,” and “If THEY build it they will come.”

A recent survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that over half of all American teenagers could be considered web “content creators,” meaning they have created a blog or webpage, posted their own writing, art, photography, or videos online, or made their own creations by remixing preexisting online content. Findings indicate the web has given rise to a new generation at ease with digital publishing technology.

Twenty teen girls from New York City high schools are now on staff at 3iYing, a new design and marketing firm that advises companies on what works and what doesn’t when marketing to girls. The girls, who call their ideas “Girl Made, Girl Approved,” have come up with concepts for selling and designing everything from condoms and lingerie to cell phones and food. “To design for a 13-year-old girl, it doesn’t matter how much we observe them — we live in the mind-set of a 25- to 45-year-old,” one client told Business Week.
“These young girls are tackling serious subjects like feminine products, which have been traditionally designed and marketed by men at big corporations — [men] who don’t have a clue to the emotional needs of the customer,” observed another. “That’s pretty powerful.”

“Many highly educated, well-intentioned, middle-class nonprofit professionals attempt to reach out across the class divide. All too often, these attempts fail,” reports a recent Public Education Network Weekly Newsblast. “Though rarely discussed in America, the subtle differences between social classes lead to major misunderstandings in the classroom, the workplace, and in many nonprofit settings. Understanding how social class shapes conceptions of the individual may ease tensions and promote equality. Teachers encourage sensitivity and self-expression. Lower class parents want toughness and discipline. Social service providers expect cooperation and disclosure. Their economically disadvantaged clients find their prodding intrusive and impolite.” The full article, written by an anthropologist, can be found on the Stanford Social Innovation Review articles page.