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I really like the ideas about real-time feedback on activities via Twitter. Will be interesting to see how Twitter does play with a younger audience. I've not yet come across any younger twitter-packs as it were...
@dk I think you've got some of the story, but missing bits of it when it comes to social network sites (also want to call you out slightly on your claims to have inspired the first youth work blogger, and the next one and the next one... be careful to make sure you can back up that claim...). Organizations and agencies shouldn't push their way into MySpace and Facebook - but MySpace doesn't = exclusive young people's space. Providing engagement is based on a voluntary principle (young people can ignore it if they want), and respects young people's right and privacy - then it's important for /some/ youth-supporting professionals to engage with the social networking space (after all, bands, brands and others are in there... are you willing to argue that they should get out...).
I'd agree that SNS shouldn't be described as a frontier if that means we're diverting effort there. But SNS should feature as a tool youth workers, youth professionals can and should use in their work, where appropriate and based on their professional and ethical values.
On the otherhand it also became a nuisance as some used it like msn with constant updates about things not related to what we were doing. In retrospect this could have maybe have been easily managed but really it killed off us using it as eventually it became more of an irritation than useful.
I think twitter is a brilliant tool for freelance types and useful both for updates like Dave Briggs provided at the event this week and also for the 'water cooler' element - I don't think in its raw format its a practical tool to use for evaluation purposes in youth activities though. It isn't designed for people to just sign up for a particular project and the biggest issue is to do with cost, with some providers including twitter updates within normal text allowances but others charging for them. I don't think it will be long before theres an alternative that is suitable, but the biggest factor will be cost.
For social networks I find myself jumping from one side to the other constantly - yes its everyones space, but then yes I can see how it could be interpreted as invasive, yes its a limited space and you have to play by somebody elses rules, but then again they're hugely popular and thats the space where people are at, yes we should develop applications that take advantage that people are comfortable interacting in those spaces, but then again we can't assume everyone is in a particular space and if we do we risk excluding some....... and so on! Regardless what I'm sure of is that Social Networks are a brilliant way of introducing people to use the web and we should definitely encourage practitioners to explore them even if its only with a view to them becoming more comfortable online. What we then need in place is things to support them to explore the possibilities beyond those spaces.
At this moment I think most people involved with youth work are at stage 1, so I think it does make sense right now that there is some emphasis on just trying to get them online and into a comfortable place where they can explore and become familiar with user generated content etc. What needs a bit more thought is where they go from there and for what purpose.
I think if we were looking at predictions two or three years out rather than one then I would be expecting most young people not to be paying for their texts at all (or having unlimited data services which make SMS less relevant) which is when the emergence of twitteresque platforms becomes interesting... (where the key element is being able to direct a status update at someone/an entity within your network which could be a provider of youth services...)
Social Network Sites are not a single space. Each site is made of many sub-spaces. There are some we should interact within, there are some we shouldn't go near.
By analogy: It's ok for the youth worker to approach me & mates hanging out in a group in the park, providing we can tell them to get lost if we don't want to talk - It's not ok for them to barge in when we're meeting at each others houses.
Of course, we're still working out what is analogous to what in terms of social networking spaces - but they key is to identify these as vast and complex spaces where patterns of engagement need to be negotiated and constantly renegotiated.
Re: exclusion
Social media has to be about additional forms of engagement - and becoming literate in what platform to use when - rather than about wholesale moving into one space.
Promoting inclusion involves equipping both workers and young people to be blended facilitators - connecting one space to another and always having an eye on inclusion. That might involve taking the photos of a face-to-face session onto Flickr, feeding them into a Facebook group, and pulling out the discussions from facebook onto print outs to discuss face to face again.
I agree with the thing about engaging in the common spaces too - of course the occupation and 'invasion' of space goes two ways too - I have many requests from young people I barely know to become 'friends' on my personal profile. I think this just takes time as people become clearer about how those spaces are used and what is appropriate etc. and links well to the various discussions about having a 'professional profile' (although that too provides an interesting thought the other way which is that young people too may wish to separate their personal persona from their 'professional/volunteer/project' one - some potential here for personal aggregation etc.)
I'm on the cynical line re I think that social media and youth services will move slowly forward next year so there won't be big changes. In my hopes would be greater on and off line collaboration. The development of youth work projects along the lines of those that the education sector seem to be doing so well, so collaborative work with young people from different areas on things that matter to them as well as youth workers sharing and developing information across a range of subjects, but online. Young people being supported to use the medium to challenge, promote and develop themselves. I would hope that young people could access information and have access to an individual online who can work with them to support them in which ever way they are looking for.
Just a few thoughts at the moment, would be good to have a 5 year vision as well!
I think too that the formal education sector has a clear edge in its embracement of technology, albeit facing many of the same access restrictions. With that in mind I've dropped the 'work' bit of Digital Youth Work so as to appeal to both audiences - more on that in the new year. So far haven't yet managed to spend anything like as much time on it as I'd hoped as still getting caught up in other bits of work but I definitely will be doing so in the new year.
I think next year I'll suggest predictions for short and long term so that people can get really creative with those long term visions!
Would appreciate your thoughts.
I had a quick look at the demo although its a little hard to appreciate it without more example data in there. Is it basically a custom CMS designed for Youth Workers to input data and that will then provide the various relevant reports they need? I saw mention of the curriculum that some of the authorities were using but no details about what was involved in that - so maybe its designed around services using that particular curriculum?
Either way it would be interesting to hear how you get on with getting Youth Workers using it because if you're successful that may help pave the way for a bit more online activity & interaction from within the youth work world!
Applaud your efforts in raising the discourse and focus on sns and youth work, we just have a different take on it fella.
re: inspiring first three statutory youth work bloggers - info here ( http://oneyouthworkbloggercampaign.com/ and on every one of the youth workers blogs 'about' page citing us as the reason they started ) although feel free to drop us an email or give us a call if you have specific info to the contrary...
Two key points:
>Good youth work is about relationship - social networking (whether through social network sites, or through other social media tools) is also about connections which can provide foundations for / support for relationship building. Hence, whilst in part the focus I've taken on SNS was driven by the need to have focused research questions I do find that engaging with online social networking (the activity, not the sites) is a key part of youth work engaging online.
The story may be different for other professional groups whose role is about 'promotion' (health promotion / activity promotion etc.) where creating dynamic content may have a greater importance.
>On holism - related to the above, holism requires not simply using many different tools, but having a rational that relates and integrates them. And crucially, a rationale that relates social media tools with people's day to day existing practice.
I know from experience that offering that rationale when dealing with audiences from vastly different work settings, and from very different levels of experience using technology, is tough indeed. But I would argue for it being a core part of introducing tools and technologies to the sector.
I'm really keen on the integration into every day lives and by doing that I think a lot more people will see benefit in using web tools. It is at a further stage though and I think that was apparent by the reaction to discussions at our meeting in Exeter.