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In this post, which was originally featured on the EDC website here, YouthLearn’s Tony Streit and Wendy Rivenburgh discuss why schools and educators should create opportunities for their students to make media. It was the late 1980s, and EDC’s Tony Streit had just been...

Deep in the jungle of western Uganda, youth from around the Nyarushanje sub-country journeyed over four kilometers a day to participate in a new initiate on media making. The Youth Media Initiative (YOMI), led by Henry Sempangi Sanyulye, worked in partnership with PeerLink...

I like to think of myself as a fairly optimistic person. In the more than 25 years I’ve been advocating for media education, technology access, and youth voice, I’ve always felt that through this work, we were moving toward some better place as a society. I have to confess though...

How to Develop an Environment That Supports Learning Learning centers have climates, just like cities or towns. It’s something you feel, something in the air. It’s more than just how a place­ looks—although that’s certainly important. You also sense it in the...

The youth media field is at a compelling and challenging crossroads in its ongoing evolution. Has there ever been a more promising time for young media makers and the field? The number of programs continues to grow. The channels of distribution are numerous. Today media making...

Good questioning skills may be the world’s most unsung talent. Ask the right questions in the right way, and you’ll engage people; do it differently, and you’ll put them off. Anyone who’s ever worked with youth knows how hard it can be to elicit...

Youth starting a media project may have a wonderful array of arts and technology tools at their fingertips. They can draw pictures, take photographs, shoot video, design graphics. They can share any message they wish with their friends, their community, the world…. All they have...

Good communication, collaboration and community-building skills are all closely related, so the good news is that when you reinforce one, you’re helping youth master the others. The most important thing is good modeling on your part. We often think of modeling simply in...

While many people know of my work with YouthLearn, not many realize that my background is in fact in filmmaking. In my early days, I worked as a freelance producer and editor on a range of documentary, educational, and commercial projects. Some 25 years ago, I was asked to lead a...

“I look for professional quality because they’re capable of it!” says Ms. Thato Mwosa.  “Don’t be mediocre – be great.” Ms. Mwosa teaches TV Production at Madison Park High Technical Vocational High School, part of Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) partner Boston...