Author: maya

As part of my work as a Children’s Librarian with the Vancouver Public Library, I recently attended an informative presentation on the topic of technology and homeless youth, by researcher, Jill Woelfer.  The topic that day was specifically focused on the role of the public library in the lives of homeless youth.  But the data presented came out of Woelfer’s major area of study “the role of information systems in the lives of homeless young people”.  I’d like to share with you some of the highlights of the presentation, as it relates to our ongoing dialogue about how youth engage with various forms of multiliteracies.

Jill Woelfer is a Fulbright Fellow, a PhD candidate in Information Science at the Information School, at the University of Washington, in Seattle. If you are interested in more information about her distinctive and relevant research please the Information School “People” page at: http://ischool.uw.edu/people/phd/woelfj

For her study, Woelfer interviewed 202 young people (101 from Seattle, 101 from Vancouver.)  There were 122 males, 75 female and five participants who self-identified as transgendered.  (Woelfer was careful to point out that the number of transgendered youth was proportionately high.) The other number that was quite interesting to me is the disproportionate number of female to males. Woelfer didn’t speak to this statistic, but I wondered if this is reflective of the fact that so many young women who are homeless/at risk of being homeless are recruited into the sex trade industry and therefore not counted amongst those being “homeless”.)

The participants were representatives of various ethno-cultural groups including, Indigenousness peoples, “mixed-race” individuals, and African Americans (in Seattle).  But the majority, in each country, were Caucasian. (Woelfer found this to be surprising; as did I.)

Woelfer’s data was poetically framed within the context of the “ordinary vs. the extraordinary”. (Woelfer, 2012).   For example:  It is ordinary for a youth to access music on his or her iPod; while it is extraordinary for that same youth to have little access to the electricity to charge her iPod. It is ordinary for a youth to download free movies to his or her laptop; it is extraordinary for that individual to not be able to charge her laptop where he or she sleeps at night.

The participants had technological devices such as cell phones, laptops, and music players. But though they owned such devices they often faced unique accessibility issues.  One of the common threads throughout the presentation was the issue of access to electricity.   (Something many of us never consider.) Simply finding a place to charge their phone/laptop/music device is an obstacle. Finding an outlet to recharge their devices and finding Wi-Fi access proves to be a constant challenge.  The usual places that many people gain access to free wireless (cafés, restaurants, etc.) are off limits to them because eventually they will be accused of “loitering”.

Personal Stories from the youth that stuck with me:

1. A young woman describes her daily visit to the library. She uses her 1.5 hour on the Internet to stay in touch with friends and family (via Facebook and email) and downloads movies, while her friend goes to another area of the library where she can use a plug to recharge her laptop. Then the girls go “home” to a “tent city” in Seattle and they watch movies together until their battery runs out.
2. A young woman explained how she was in an abusive relationship and everyone in her family was worried about her when she went to live with the boyfriend at his friends’ place. In this dwelling, they had no electricity or heat.  The young woman explained that her boyfriend was “doing the whole isolating [me] thing” and wouldn’t let her leave the house. The couple heard from a friend that her mother had posted a plea for information on her daughter’s whereabouts on Facebook, and warned that she would be calling Missing Persons if she didn’t hear from her daughter that day. Because of this warning, the boyfriend “let hour out” and she went straight to the library, just to write to her mother via Facebook.  (She eventually got out of the relationship.)
3. A young man got rid of his iPod because he felt that his behaviour, his obsession associated with his music and downloading, had become “an addiction” and he was trying to live addiction free.
4. A young woman had to create two Facebook accounts so that she could secretly stay in touch with her younger sister who was still living with her parents, from whom she had fled.   She was concerned for the safety of her sibling and the multiple Facebook profiles enabled her to “keep an eye on [her] sister” without her parents surveillance.
5. One young man had 20 library books in his bag when he was interviewed.  He had nowhere to sleep at night, but he carried those books around.

These youth accessed technology at the library for the following (un-ranked) reasons: social connections/job search/resume assistance/housing search/accessing community organizations/health sites (clinics, etc.)/self-education /Library services/resources (some participants surveyed took 1-2 bus rides just to get to a public library branch)

IMPORTANT DETAILS TO KEEP IN MIND

• The youth that were interviewed for this study “looked like “college kids”.  They dressed the same, had the style of clothes (many had new and expensive donated clothing) the same taste in technological/recreational activities, etc.)
• Their access to technology during the day is integral to their stabilization process and moving out of homelessness. (Shelter policies state that the youth are not there during the day; they are expected to be out of the shelter, “working on their [work/school/accommodation] plan”. (Unless, Woelfer noted, there are specific additional challenges the young person faces, such as extremely low IQ, or debilitating disabilities.)  So even though there are stipulated hours of daytime absence required for residence in shelters, their Case managers expect the youth to have access to computers and the Internet during the day.  This highlights the need for daytime access for homeless youth to technology/computer/Internet access.

I was reminded during this presentation of the myriad “unknown” in the lives of our students.   As educators, we must be highly aware that anyone in our class could be homeless, in transitional housing, or at-risk of homelessness. We might never be informed of the situation.  The school counselor may never be informed.  It’s a possibility for which we should be mindful.

I complete this post with the following information from the Covenant House (youth shelter) website, for those of you who would like additional information about homeless and at-risk of homelessness youth in Vancouver.

How many homeless youth are there in Vancouver?

The number varies depending on the time of year and how homelessness is defined. However, it is generally accepted that on any given night there are between 500 and 1,000 homeless and at-risk young people on Vancouver’s streets. A street-involved young person can be someone who is absolutely homeless (no address), someone who is “couch surfing” by moving from one friend’s to another, or someone who is still living at home but getting involved with life on the streets. (Covenant House site)

Our Mission

Providing love and hope to Vancouver’s street youth.

We help youth aged 16 – 24 who have fled physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse, those who have been forced from their homes or those who have aged out of foster care.   (http://www.covenanthousebc.org/about)

Works Cited:

“Jill Woelfer | Information School | University of Washington.” Jill Woelfer | Information School | University of Washington.  2012. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.

When I did my presentation on Visual Literacy I mentioned a great resource we could use in the classroom called Book Cover Creator, which is an interactive tool on the educational website Read, Write, Think.

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/bookcover/

I didn’t end up using this tool for my Reading a Novel Cover lesson, but was still curious about it. So my son and I created a book cover tonight. It was actually ideal that I was discovering how to use  it with him, because I had to teach it as I myself was learning. And of course, he noticed elements that I missed. My son has only been on a computer a few times and figured it out right away, so it’s obviously a very intuitive tool.  So if you want to try it and you’re pressed for time or have a class with varrying levels of  computer literacy I would say you’re safe to use this tool. It was really fun!

This is what we created!

And this is what we were inspired by….

And acutally, my son wanted to name our picture the same as the original, so I had to introduce the concept of copyright!

Works Cited:

Wells, Rosemary. Morris’s Disappearing Bag. USA: Viking Juvenile Press, 1999. Print.

Read, Right, Think. “Book Cover Creator.” ReadWriteThink.Org Web. Accessed Nov 26, 2012.

www.tagxedo.com (2007) Retrieved Nov 26, 2012

When exploring the Internet for examples of e-literature I found one I’d like to share with the class. Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading is an online literary magazine devoted to keeping new and emerging literature at the forefront of popular culture, by connecting authors/editors and independent publishers to an online readership. It was created as an alternative to the passive selection of new literary works that readers often resort to because they are either too busy to research new works to read, or they aren’t sure where to start looking in the deep and chaotic world wide web. In short, it’s an anecdote to simply choosing from the “best seller” shelf at the big chain stores or the virtual equivalent on the online bookstores.

How it works:

Every week the editors of the magazine select a new story to publish.  The next week, they highlight an excerpt of a title by an independent publisher. The next week, an author recommendation. And the final week a piece from their archives. Each week there is also a note from the editor(s) introducing that week’s partner, and outlining their mission and body of work. So they are literally doing all of the leg work for us in terms of keeping up with new and independent published authors.

All writings on their site are available free. (But there is a donation option, starting at .25cents, to help pay the authors, who are all compensated for their work.)

Readers can subscribe by email, RSS Feed, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

I’m hooked! I subscribed! I’m so excited for next weeks instalment!  Is this how it felt to eagerly await the next installation of Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers in 1836!?!!?

The model of this online literary magazine inspired this idea I could incorporate in my English Language Arts classroom.

Week One: Ask for a student volunteer. Ask this student to recommend any online resource (webpage, wikki, blog, e-lit story, etc.) for another person in the class to examine. That person does so.

Week Two: This second student reports to the class on their findings/thoughts related to that resource. In turn, they recommend to another student another a new resource (webpage, wikki, blog, e-lit story  etc.) that they were led to through their interaction with the initial site. The student does so, and returns the next week to do the same. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

We keep a digital record of every site throughout the year/term and at the end we have an electronic archive of our classroom community e-travels!

To view a three minute video about what inspired the online literary magazine Recommended Reading, view their You Tube video posted on their site:   http://recommendedreading.tumblr.com/about 

Thanks!

Maya

Web 2.0, first defined by Tim O’Reilly, is supposed to “deliver software…that gets better the more people use it…”  (emphasis, mine.)   (Oreillynet.com newsletter, 2005.) I would argue then that for students the meaning and relevance of online content and resources will increase the more they themselves are authors and contributors of its content.

Recently, our library (Vancouver Public Library) adopted a new OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue), Bibliocommons, to provide library patrons with an online, interactive catalogue to create opportunity for user-generated content as well as a virtual community gathering space. This software is multifaceted, but in relation to our topic and reading this week, it supports teens in our community to engage with the library collection in such a way that through their own content creation (book reviews, tags, booklists and “bookshelves”)  they become “experts” of their own collection.

Many scholars and critics argue that Web 2.0 refers not to a second generation of technology, but to a new generation of cultural philosophy toward how we engage with these these technologies. (Potts, David A., 2012). This is an understanding to which I am aligned, and I believe that teens have led the way in this cultural shift.  The prevalence of teens reading and authoring online allows them to share their writings and opinions with a real audience in a significant and I would argue, rewarding, way.  They are instantly “authors”, “published” and valued (through inferred readership) for their opinions and recommendations.  This alone can act as encouragement to continue writing and reading for both personal and academic purposes  (Schreyer, 2012.) and is motivation enough for we as educators to support our learners’ engagement with Web 2.0 technologies.

It is critical that we acknowledge young adults as both experts and pioneers in the field, of Web 2.o and consider what we can learn from them on this subject. How can their participation in the architecture of Web 2.0 inform our pedagogical approach and professional development?

One such way I have chosen to do this (which can be implemented in a classroom setting) is I have stopped using “adult” and “professional” book lists to promote titles on my Teen Reads bulletin board in my Teen Section of the branch. I will only post teen written reviews (that have been created by youth, and shared on the Bibliocommons site), as well as genre/theme Booklists which I compile by searching tags created within the site.   This is a way to blend traditional library research tools (the catalogue and Library of Congress subject headings) with new literacies/social media (user generated tags) to provide services and resources to teens, through a teen-centric, teen-created lens.

This allows me to empower teens by demonstrating a commitment to a Teen-Led (library lingo) approach to services. These services are authentic and appreciated by teens because instead of my acting in a traditional authoritative role I am now acting more as a conduit of sorts, supporting the delivery and dissemination of content and information from groups of teens to others in their demographic, thus supporting them to become their own meaning-makers and experts in how they engage with resources.

Resources:

http://oreilly.com/

(Check him out if you are not familiar with his work; he is integral in the fight for Open Source Software and resources, which is increasingly important for educators and students, alike!)

David, Potts A. Cyperlibel: Information Warfare in the 21st Century? Toronto, Canada: Irwin Law Inc., 2011. Print.

http://www.bibliocommons.com/

Schreyer, Jessica. “Adolescent Literacy Practices Online.” New Media Literacies and Participatory Popular Culture Across Borders. New York: Routledge, 2012. 61-73. Print.