Learning at the Border: How Young People in Informal Settings Use New Media for Community Action and Personal Growth
Author(s)
Gretencord, Timnah Card
Jeong, Seong-Hoon
Mendoza, Karyn
Lin, Ching-Chiu
Şerbănuţă, Claudia
Cruz-Santiago, Michelle
Lowe, Laura
Bishop, Ann Peterson
Bruce, Bertram C.
Issue Date
2007-11
Keyword(s)
learning
border
institutions
partnerships
Youth Community Informatics
Abstract
"""Learning at the border"" has two meanings here. First, it refers to learning—the formal or informal practices of altering participant knowledge and selfhood—that occurs in border settings that exist between the highly-structured realm of schools and the more diffuse realms of life in neighborhoods and on the streets. These settings include after-school programs, boys and girls clubs, libraries, museums, and community centers. The second meaning of ""learning at the border"" comes from the lived existence of program participants on the borders of society; marginalized because of their language, cultural background, race, or social class, they are denied full participation in the public sphere. “Learning at the border” refers to the learning done by participants and others associated with them and/or these programs, as all involved may learn from each other at or over social borders.
This paper describes two of a set of connected programs in which university students and faculty work with community members to create border-bridging spaces in which young people have fun, learn about new technologies, and develop academic potential through self-expression and self understanding. A common thread is the goal of enabling young people to become active creators and sustainers of their own communities who cross borders via social entrepreneurship. In this way, young people learn how to use ICTs to promote community building. As such, they become junior community informatics researchers themselves.
The variety of projects by young people in these settings is diverse. We will discuss the complexity and challenges for enabling community participation in these projects, and the insights we have gained from looking across multiple sites."
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