Youth Community Informatics: Using New Digital Media to Foster Personal Growth and Community Action

During fall 2007 a new collaboration between the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Extension 4-H network was initiated. Funded by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, the goal of this collaboration, titled the Youth Community Informatics (YCI) project, is to develop and integrate new and existing strategies to involve youth ages 11-18 from underserved communities in using information and communications technologies to meet community goals. By involving youth from these communities, it is reasoned a sustainable program can be developed through the provisioning of new generations with the knowledge they need to face an information-oriented society. The project is modelled on the work of John Dewey and the American Pragmatists and seeks to create communities of inquiry that bring together professionals, pre-professionals, community youth leaders, and community youth to address community goals in underserved communities. This paper will review the early development of an YCI pedagogy and inquiry units as a means of sharing the curriculum, in addition to highlighting the lessons learned from the first year of this project.