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Paper:
Specific findings of the YouthHub project are articulated in a fall, 2005, concept paper entitled, "Technology and at-risk youth: moving from access to social embeddedness."
NCAL is already pursuing several of these questions and developing new technology tools to assist at-risk youth and adults in identifying and navigating the array of learning opportunities available to them, through a Lumina Foundation-funded project entitled Learning Connections.
TECHNOLOGY AND AT-RISK YOUTH:
MOVING FROM ACCESS TO SOCIAL EMBEDDEDNESS
July 26, 2005
The National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL) at the University of Pennsylvania has just completed a preliminary study of technology and basic skills education for at-risk youth, including in-school and out-of-school adolescents and young adults.
Educators and policymakers have long observed that the very high incidence of high school dropouts, including as much as 50% of minority populations in urban areas, is devastating both to the inadequately skilled, at-risk youth themselves and to the economic and social fabric of communities across the United States. With over two decades of experience in adult literacy, and especially uses of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to reach adult learners, NCAL sought to explore possibilities for extending those interventions earlier in the lifespan of individuals, to reach at-risk youth and young adults. With the support of a one-year planning grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, YouthHub was born.
The YouthHub project involved field case studies, a review of current research and practice in the literature; workshops and focus groups with leaders and participants in youth-serving organizations that use technology; and consultation with an advisory committee of leading experts from academic, corporate, government, and non-profit organizations on basic skills for at-risk youth. The in-depth case studies were conducted at eight diverse organizations that serve youth through technology-based activities, including focused GED completion programs; community-based organizations offering formal and informal access to technologies; programs that teach web design, multimedia, or computer repair skills; and initiatives that involve youth in community projects and service learning involving the use of ICTs.
Researchers began by questioning two prevailing assumptions of the past decade about youth and technology: first, that youth are "early adopters," motivated by access to new technologies; and second, that ICTs had the potential to multiply the impact and scope of successful programs targeting youth. Their findings complicate both of these assumptions.
On technology as a motivator, for instance, NCAL found that access to technology is necessary but not sufficient to draw youth into programs. The stakes are higher: sophisticated and targeted skill-developing software and hardware may be required to maintain interest. Further, project-based activities that are integrated into community needs offer structure and authenticity that motivates youth participation.
And on technology as a vehicle for multiplying the impact of successful programs, NCAL found that it was less about quantity and more about quality: personalized, small programs are more successful with at-risk youth participants. Programs that offer technology in the context of "safe zones," as an integral part of the overall program curriculum, and with community-based facilitators, also have greater impact. Longer programs, with more "time on task," foster more effective skill development and increased community involvement. The most successful programs, in fact, often arise out of grass-roots community activities, co-created by youth and adult leaders to meet a specific, local need.
In sum, ICTs that are socially embedded into youth culture and local communities - where the technology offers a seamless, almost unconscious, learning opportunity for the user, or where the technology is culturally situated as an integral part of the youth's community - have the greatest motivational value and impact. It is not the technology itself that multiplies the impact of successful programs; rather, it is the ways in which the technology is incorporated into those programs that make the difference.
Preliminary findings of the YouthHub project are already helping to refine the uses of technology among participating programs. A concept paper identifying elements of successful programs that could be easily replicated - as well as a bibliography of relevant research references and an annotated directory of electronic databases and resources for practitioners and policymakers - will be available on NCAL's web site, www.literacy.org.
YouthHub is an exploratory project, and its findings are complemented by new questions for further research to shape policy and practice. For instance: which technologies are most advantageous in which contexts, and which are most accessible and appealing to diverse sectors of the population of "at-risk" youth? Who is left out of programs serving youth, and how can they be reached? How can ubiquitous mobile technologies, so central to youth culture, be harnessed as a platform for basic skills development? How should community-based program facilitators be trained? And what evaluation strategies and measures are most appropriate in defining "success" among youth programs using ICTs?
These and other questions are shaping the direction of future research, both at NCAL and at other organizations that share our commitment to assisting at-risk youth and young adults achieve their full potential. Technology alone is not the answer, but it can be a crucial component of success.
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