YALSA Teens & Technology Institute
Linda Braun: The Three C’s of Teens: Community, Collaboration, Creation

Linda Braun, author of many books and articles, teacher at 2 library schools, and fan of the Gilmore Girls, began with an exercise to prove you can be whoever you want to be online, and to show in a somewhat tangible way how wikis work. We got a multiple choice checklist of characteristics that define her and had to select the right choice, and she invited folks to come up and do an introduction of her based on their choices. Walter Mayes did a fabulous funny and uninformed job, and it really drove home the points about identity and authority that Linda wanted to make.

She started a dialogue by asking the group, “How do you build community?” Responses were

• common interest
• stuck together in the same room for another way
• identity
• collaboration
• through exposure/introductions

Blogs are examples of online communties. Linda shared a quote by Jill Walker that basically said when you blog, you read and write a lot. It teaches you how to connect ideas. She said she didn’t really learn to write until after library school, and that not always having to cite and document frees you up.

Blogging allows teens to make sophisticated reflections and connections. For example, on Charlotte’s blog – an end of the year review of the past year’s worth identities made a girl see how she’d changed in 12 months. From there we examined Livejournal which has an “Interests” feature -tagging and folksonomies to create communities. Community is built on the users terms.

We couldn’t venture into talking about online communities without talking about MySpace. It’s like “a yearbook on steriods” said Frances Jacobson Harris. Linda asked folks what they’d heard and how they were using it. I cited the school that banned students from using it or mentioning the name of the school on any blogs. “We built into curriculum because it gives an illustion of privacy that they do not have,” said Walter Mayes.

Why do teens like MySpace (original concept was for music sharing)? asked Linda. We responded:

• sophisticated – 16+
• it’s theirs
• easy to build
• easy to communicate & connect instantaneously
• you can be whoever you want to be
• expands your community
• it’s cool

Linda reminded us we have to be careful about taking over teen spaces. We need to know what’s going on, but they don’t necessarily want us directly in their communities.

MySpace can be horrible & dangerous & scary, but it can also be a parental supervision tool. If we ban MySpace it doesn’t give them skills to cope out there on their own. It should be noted that teens are aware of some of these issues and make stuff up to be less findable. And MySpace has protections built in to protect yourself – who has permission to contact you. Finally, the literacy and asset-building happening on MySpace is a way to justify it’s use. The Ford Memorial Library set up a MySpace for their library at http://myspace.com/thomasford

Next, we moved into podcasts. “I am addicted to podcasts,” admitted Linda. Podcasting is also a great way to communicate and collaboration and build community. A podcasting resource is
Podcasting Transforming Middle Schoolers into Middle Scholars by Larry Anderson. “I think creating a podcast is a great way to teach outlining skills,” asserted Linda. You can talk off the cuff but sometimes that results in a pocast consisting of giggling and “this podcasts stinks I have nothing to say.”

Some examples of teen podcasts:
Pod Princess (15) did Google tips in one show. It’s well-organized and edited. In one segment, Christina played with voices and putting in own ads with a spoof of an SNL skit and holiday parady of pop music: “Dirty Little Secret” by All-American Rejects, “Golddigger” by Kayne West, and “Because of You” by Kelly Clarkson.

Emo Girl Talk (15, west coast)
Informal. Plays Emo music and talks off the cuff. Martina is noted for being the first teen podcaster to get advertising on her show; some teens are complaining that she sold out!
This experience is really teaching her marketing skills and financial literacy and media literacy. I noticed the show notes on Emo Girls website are a way of documenting sources and providing more information to listeners.

“I don’t read as much – I listen” said Linda. A librarian who doesn’t read?! She said looks at text all day – online, papers, articles.” (Personally, I find much of my own reading is now online, in games, or listening to podcasts – BG). “We need research on this…it has incredible implications for our services.”

To find teen podcasts, visit the Teen Podcaster’s Network. Linda gave examples of two schools producing podcasts: Bush School, and East Oakland Community Podcast (Oakland CA). We got to hear a sample of East Oakland – it was obviously scripted, but still so powerful – podcasting is a way to builds community and allows teens to feel they are not alone.

“We need to give teens their voice,” said Linda, inviting comments, and a fantastic dialogue started:

Linda suggested we help them create, we can help them filter what they say AND what they listen to in response to Walter, who said “If the story moves you it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not,” as he admitted he was torn between encouraging storytelling and being overwhelmed by all the noise.

One audience member pointed out there has always been this noise, it just was in the form of bad poetry and bad websites. It’s only that the medium has changed.

Sara Ryan reminded us not to forget about fan fiction. The criticism that happens knocks people down a peg but also results in improvements to the medium (writing fan fiction, fan art, podcasting, blogging, etc).

I argued that self-centeredness doesn’t have to mean narcissism, it can result in high self-esteem – gamers who are used to being heroes of their games have great self awareness and selfworth as a result of their self-centeredness.

Having teens speak to one another is a relief from the bombardment of media and toys and consumerism, suggested another participant.

What about lower income? asked one participant. This is where libraries come in! Also, podcasting doesn’t have to be listened to on an iPod – it doesn’t have to be elitist. And the Pew study on the digital divide was brought out – interestingly enough, kids felt like they were beng held back because of adult fears that couldn’t access or wouldn’t be able to access.

With only a tiny amount of time left we whizzed through wikis. A wiki is content creation software (note: it’s not cool to correct your own page on Wikipedia).

The exercise that Linda started with is an example of Wiki. She suggested that show notes be wiki? The listeners add the content and resources with timestamps.
Staples High School has a wiki where teens & teachers write the content about the school. A public library could do this too! Next, Linda showcased MyOwnCafe – a website for teens hosted for through a grant at the SouthEastern MA Library System. Teens enter your library card and it authenicates you for database and catalog. Teens can submit their music, a TAB for the website decides what goes on the site. It has many discussion boards old technology, yet heavily used. Each board has a teen moderators and they seed it to keep it going. No adults are posting on this. Some topics: New here? Gaming, News & Politics, Music, Books, Local, etc. Topics decided by teens. Because technology expands the world, they have a global focus as well.

We didn’t have time to do Linda’s final exercise, so – a homework assignment:

• Why are teens drawn to the 3 C’s?
• What are 3 barriers?
• How can barriers be overcome?
• What are the literacy connections in the 3C technologies?

Please discuss amongst yourselves.