According to a 2005 study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life project,6 more than half of all American teens—and 57 percent of teens who use the Internet—could be consid-ered media creators
this is amazing how much that percentage has grown over the years as more and more people gain the skills to navigate social media like that.
Blake Ross was 14 years old when he was hired for a summer internship at Netscape. By that point, he had already developed computer programming skills and published his own Web site. Frustrated by many of the corporate decisions made at Netscape, Ross decided to design his own Web browser
this is understandable, because so many cooperations try to take over people's creative designs just for the profit. I think it's a smart idea that Ross decided o make his own browser.
For example, in a study of technologically sophisticated youth in Silicon Valley, (Barron, Martin, Takeuchi, & Fithian, 2009 ) , w e f o u n d t h a t p a r e n t s a d v a n c e d t h e i r c h i l d r e n ’ s l e a r n i n g w h e n they collaborated with them, learned from them, brokered outside learning opportu-nities for them, provided nontechnical support to them, or hired them to do technical work. Parents also played instrumental roles when they shared their technical expertise through informal teaching processes or provided their children with learning resources such as books or new media tools.
This is interesting because it's allowed both parents and kids to learn from each other when it comes to discovering new technologies
. 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
this is very interesting to see how well other kids have developed with technology who haven't had much access to it growing up.
Although the family did not have Internet access or a printer, his older brother had an analog video camera. When Luis was 10 years old, his brother showed him how to shoot video and use the animation special effects avail-able within the tool.
even though luis didn't have access to internet, he was still able to gain skills in technology through his brother's camera and through that he found what he loves to do even though he didn't have much access to technology growing up.
The camera set, which could be used to shoot both video and still images and came with its own editing and special effects software, became Luis’s main tool for creating. He returned to the cameras again and again, experimenting with different methods
It shows that even though Luis has such little equipment, it's all about what you do with it that really can either make or break the story in a film.
He also was able to generate design process ideas from examples in mass media, such as when he picked up the ideas of developing concept art (drawings to guide digital look and feel) and storyboarding from a special feature in a video game
Luis was able to incorporate examples from mass media into his own work and found inspiration in order for him to improve his work.
. In addition to initially introducing him to and teaching him about video production, at his brother’s house, Luis used his faster computer and played games with him on his Xbox. He also received impor-tant feedback on his video design work.
this is very useful, because Luis is gaining more skills to use technology which will advance him in his video editing techniques.
At the time of his fi nal interview at age 13, Luis had fi rmly established himself as a video production artist. He had over 30 items stored in his folder on the clubhouse server, including movies and sound fi les. He estimated that he had taught fi ve boys at the clubhouse about stop-animation movies.
It's extremely impressive that Luis was able to not only create something that he loves to do, but also was able to teach other boys more skills with technology
At the same time, the close attention Luis’s mother paid to his work at the clubhouse allowed her to recognize the importance of capitalizing on his outside interests to motivate his production. She does not seem to have the same detailed level of understanding about what is going on in school.
This is important to realize, because Luis was passionate about his production that he wanted to produce.
A l t h o u g h a c c e s s t o c a m e r a , c o m p u t e r , a n d t h e e d i t i n g a n d e f f e c t s s o f t w a r e d e s i gnated the clubhouse as the main site for his movie production, Luis was able to work on elements of his movies in multiple contexts. His work in the clubhouse was often directly impacted by what was occurring in these other contexts.
Yes, while all of this is very helpful to have the right tools for making film, he still needs to focus on telling the story is the best way possible to the audience
Luis worked tirelessly to position, shoot, and edit his movies. He added his own sound effects and music, sometimes using the clubhouse sound studio. Once the shots were assembled in the Digital Blue software, Luis added edits and special effects to enhance the narrative.
I'm currently majoring in Film and TV and I find it very interesting that Luis went from making paper animations to editing and shooting things for his film.
Other studies show that youth who live in communities in areas of lower socio-economic status (SES) like Luis’s often are not using technology at home or at school to do much beyond basic Internet searching, social networking, or typing out a report using Microsoft Word (Barron et al., 2010 ; Warschauer & Matuchniak, 2010 ) . While these skills are certainly important, there are still stark differences among children and adolescents in access to learning opportunities that will help position them to use computers in ways that can promote their own development (Goode, 2007; Warschauer & Matuchniak, 2010 ) .
They're not using as much technology at home, because it's expensive to be able to afford devices and wifi in order to stay connected. They are right abut the fact that these skills are necessary but these kids are going to be able to have better communication skills rather than having their head always in a technology device.