Hey Gariet,

So your post prodded me into doing a little responding/bloggity blogging myself. It just hit a nerve for me.

I mean, I can sympathize with you feeling like it's hard to see how what you are doing is making a difference. But I would also argue that teaching kids media production can be valuable. Key words: can be. I think it all depends on what they are doing with their skills.

You're right that the world doesn't really need more kids sitting around watching TV or spending hours on MySpace. It's also probably true that we don't need more wannabe directors and movie stars....unless those kids have a vision for how to use the skills they are learning.

For me, the power in teaching media skills to young people is not that they learn how to operate a camera and use video editing software, but that they learn alternate ways of expressing themselves, understanding the world around them, and communicating with others. Maybe there's a way to gently shift the focus of what your kids are doing so that their work has more of a socially concious edge. I'm not sure what kind of stuff they are shooting now, but why not talk about something they see in their neighborhood/school/wherever that they want to change. They can research the problem, interview people, write about how they feel, and show the finished product to people who have the power to make a change. Who knows where it might go?

One of the things I like best about where I work is that our emphasis isn't on teaching technology skills. It's about storytelling. Our goal is to teach people how to tell a compelling story: how to write a script in a personal voice that actually speaks to their desired audience, how to use visuals not just as a literal representation of their spoken words but also as a metaphor that can add a second layer of meaning, how to bring sound and special effects into their story in a way that contributes to the message. The technology just serves as a vehicle for self-expression.

A great thing about our approach is that it gives people the chance to sort of step outside their experience and view it in a different way. And of course there's potential for bringing people together once the stories start to flow. Also, the approach of helping people tell real stories from their own lives fights against the tide of "reality" TV and the other meaningless drivel that mainstream media focuses on too often. It helps people see that their stories/lives have value and gives an outlet for the voice everyone has somewhere inside.

This may seem like a lot to take on with kids, but I think it's possible. (but that's also what makes it so important!) I think it's vital that young people today learn how to communicate using multimedia tools, since media/computer literacy is now just as important as reading and writing.

So don't feel all down about not making a difference. I think it can be done. I just try to remember that it's not the media tools themselves that are revolutionary: it's what people can do with them.

--Jess