Programs

It’s best to start planning the curriculum (and professional development) while you’re planning and building out the space.

Here's a few examples of YOUmedia signature programs with more detailed information on programs.

In Library of Games, one of the signature programs for example, teens critique video games and create podcasts and blog posts of their reviews. The project focuses on developing skills of collaboration, critical thinking, and key digital literacy skills.

The program engages teens who come to the space to play video games. Students write, record, and edit podcast reviews of video games. The program allows for various roles, including podcast contributor, host, feature producer, podcast editor, audio producer, web developer, web master, graphic designer, writer and senior writer. For example, as producers, students read gaming blogs and magazines and pick one story that they feel has enough content for a 30-minute discussion. They then write five discussion questions that will guide the podcast.

Here’s an example of a recent podcast, and here's a blog post.

For staffing, it’s important to determine what teens need to learn and what they want to learn. There should be at least two mentors in the space daily, so that while one mentor is holding a workshop, the other mentor can be connecting one-on-one with students, encouraging them to try new things.

At ARTlab+ in Washington DC, for example, staffing has grown with attendance. On a typical weekday, ARTlab+ has between 25 and 30 teens visit and between 35 and 45 on weekends. When it’s really busy, they have three to four staff working, plus a cybernavigator (the staff member who is the equivalent of a clerk at a library: he or she is the greeter, registers people for the day, checks out equipment for teens, and performs other tasks). ARTlab+ also has between one and three mentors per shift, depending on the size of the group.

YOUmedia is designed to support a leveling up process, which is a concept derived from the video gaming community that reflects how gamers advance through various challenges. Each level becomes slightly more challenging than the last. Players remain in a level until they have mastered it and are ready to advance.

Youth at any level of expertise should be able to begin a program based on their personal interests and work individually and in collaborations with peers to gain experience. Once they have mastered the skills in a particular interest area, they move to the next level of engagement.

For example, in the student-developed video game podcast at YOUmedia Chicago, students level up by moving from being organized and directed by a mentor in creating a podcast to creating their own rotating feature for the podcast. A student must propose a feature, receive feedback from the mentor and group and then determine the content of the feature. Or they might level up to writing their own reviews to post on the student-run blog, along with creating the graphics for the post and maintaining the site with updated side bars, managing comments, connecting to social media.

Students can also level up by taking on specific roles within the production team including audio producer, host, editor and web master.

Leveling up happens not only in terms of critical thinking about video games but also through acquiring digital skills. Students also level up by acquiring soft skills like friendly and constructive communication; one cannot become the host unless you can manage the flow of conversation and diffuse possibly contentious situations. For more information, see the Signature Project, “Library of Games.”

Mentors help youth develop skills as they pursue their interests more deeply.

Youth who reach a level of expertise in their pursuits ultimately produce a digital media artifact that is socially significant, personally meaningful, and can be performed for or otherwise shared with their peers and beyond.

ARTlab+'s Ryan Hill discusses how they use a sound studio in their programming at the Hirshhorn Museum.

Here’s another example of sound studio programming—this time with Daniel Robbins, a 17-year-old Chicagoan, mixing music in a sound studio at YOUmedia in Chicago. It also shows how mentors are critical to helping teens stretch their abilities.

Here are some documents about sound studio certification:

Basic Studio Certification.doc
Certification and guide.doc
DYN STUDIO RESERVATION.pdf
Garage Band Cert guide.doc
ProTools Cert guide.doc
YOUmedia Song Posts.doc

Also, please take a look at this post by the Audio Mentor at Artlab+ on how they handle certification.

Brother Mike, the lead mentor at YOUmedia at Chicago's Harold Washington Library, offers some advice on how to effectively collaborate.

The options are limitless. YOUmedia Chicago, for example, has partnered with the Art Institute’s afterschool programs on exhibits of project work. They have participated in the spoken word competition, Louder than a Bomb. They also hold weekly performances at YOUMedia (which they advertise using social media; good practice for budding public relations specialists). Brother Mike offers some advice and insights.