More often than not, those youth who have developed the most comfort with the onlineworld are the ones who dominate classroom use of computers, pushing aside less technicallyskilled classmates

every child deserves the chance to express him- or herselfthrough words, sounds, and images, even if most will never write, perform, or draw profession-ally.

Informal learning communities can evolve to respond to short-termneeds and temporary interests, whereas the institutions supporting public education haveremained little changed despite decades of school reform

We suspect that youngpeople who spend more time playing within these new media environments will feel greatercomfort interacting with one another via electronic channels, will have greater fluidity in navi-gating information landscapes, will be better able to multitask and make rapid decisions aboutthe quality of information they are receiving, and will be able to collaborate better with peoplefrom diverse cultural backgrounds

luing geek cred is a unique feature of geeking out as a genre of participation and is signifi cantly different from the ways in which information is assessed while messing around.

a fi fteen-year-old boy who chose the pseudonym 010101, discussed the way he keeps up with information about his interest in technology by creating a customized Google home page with various RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds so he can keep tabs on different sites of interest.

he ability to mess around requires access to media, technology, and social resources that are not always available to youth. Just as in the case of hanging out, messing around is a genre of participation that is driven by young people’s own interests and motivations.

However, after a song or a band piqued his interest, he turned to online sites, searching for a particular band on iTunes, doing a Google search to learn more about the band, or identifying Google images to download a picture for his binder.

s Eagleton and Dobler (2007), Hargittai (2004; 2007), Robinson (2007), and others have noted, the growing availability of information in online spaces has started to transform young people’s attitudes toward the availability and accessibility of information

Video downloads and sites such as YouTube mean that youth can view media at times and in locations that are convenient and social, provided they have access to high-speed Internet.

As with earlier forms of music sharing, the digital music on iPods and MySpace profi les are still about the sharing of media and media tastes with friends and local peers.

Sites such as MySpace often extend this kind of music-driven sociability online,

As we describe in this book’s introduction, contemporary teens generally see their peers at school as their primary reference point for socializing and identity construction. At the same time, they remain largely dependent on adults for providing space and new media and they possess limited opportunities to socialize with peers and romantic partners without the supervision of adults.

t is clear that different youth at different times possess varying levels of technology- and media-related expertise, interest, and motivation.

shared culture

GameCube

Although Geo Gem’s family lives in a wealthy area of the San Francisco Bay Area, the media and technology she uses every day do not necessarily refl ect the family’s economic status. The “kids’ computer” is a secondhand desktop computer that sits in the living room and the GameCube is dated. Moreover, Geo Gem’s parents decided not to buy cable in an effort to

I n c l o s i n g , t h e c l u b h o u s e w a s c r i t i c a l i n h e l p i n g L u i s t o d e v e l o p t h e k i n d s o f t e c h -nological fl uencies that may position him for further learning and creative work

Links between the clubhouse, home, and school were present but could have been stronger.

The clubhouse work motivated and made possible diversi fi cation of Luis’s learning opportunities.

The clubhouse was critical for the development of Luis ’ s skill and identity as a producer of stop-animation fi lms.

he found ways to use opportunities at school to advance his own learning and production.

His parents attributed some of this to his spending too much time on his extracurricular computer projects, like the computer animation, and sought to limit his work.

His mother and older brother were central fi gures in the development of his projects.

setting goals

Luis’s workspace at the clubhouse was frequently crowded with boys who were very much a part of the scene, laughing and giggling while making sound effects, and gesturing with the action fi gures that appear in the movies.

feedback

Luis describes his process in a nutshell as, “think about it, get some supplies to make it, and then do it.”

h e c l u b h o u s e c o o r d i n a t o r s i n c l u d e d L u i s i n fi e l d t r i p s c o n n e c t e d t o h i s i n t e rests, including one to the game design company Electronic Arts.

The paper drawings evolved to claymation, from which Luis then developed his own style,

just asked [the clubhouse coordinators] what it was and they old me and it was for taping and stuff, so I just started running around taping my friends, trying to do scenes and stuff....”

Our representations of Luis’s activities in narrative form provide what might be called a wide-angle view of learning, losing direct observation of micro-interactional phenomena but offering a glimpse at the dynamics of learning and interest develop-ment over weeks, months, and years

Youth who lived in the community served by the Simmons Computer Clubhouse, on average, had much less access to computing tools at home than their Silicon Valley neighbors whose parents worked in the technology industry (Barron et al., 2009 ) . The goal of the clubhouse study was to better understand how this intention-ally designed space provided opportunities for learning and how it intersected with

C o m m u n i t y t e c h n o l o g y c e n t e r s c a n p r o v i d e a n i m p o r t a n t s p a c e f o r y o u t h w i t h l e s s home access, offering multiple opportunities to learn through mentors and material resources

Studies of school-based access to learning opportunities show that it is the more economically advantaged communities that offer electives focused on advanced topics such as computer science

M o r e c o m m o n are socially motivated genres of participation such as social networking and texting.

A teenage girl sits at a large green table with her head bent over a Venn diagram. A younger boy sits at a nearby computer searching for images on the Internet using Google. This familiar scene of after-school concentration can be found in any number of American community contexts, including a public library, a local school, or a family kitchen.