KidsonKeyboards.org is a non-profit organization that helps to provide a digital
balance for our youth. Find out how to help all of our young people ride the wave together. For more information or to speak with the founders, please contact:
Bryan Beam
Computer and networking technologies allow us to connect with each other in ways that could not have been imagined even a short time ago. Yet depending on whom has access to these tools and how they are employed, they may negatively impact our overall social, economic and cultural circumstances. KidsonKeyboards.org seeks to make visible the opportunities and risks associated with using computer and networking technology. It offers youth a more complete perspective of the role of technology in society by offering programs that emphasize and support a balanced life experience.
While computers and networks are wonderful tools for connecting people in rich ways across vast distances, they can also isolate us from our families, our friends and our direct experiences of nature, if we become too dependant on them. Cell phones, beepers, PDA’s video games and computers “call us away” from other “real-world experiences. A teenager sitting in the room with a Gameboy is often oblivious to the people around him. The experience of the game captivates their attention and leaves no time for others. Cell phones offer a great convenience, but also intrude on our lives when there is no barrier between home and business.
Globally, most children of the new Net Generation are not growing up digital. In fact, “more than half of the 1.2 billion children in the world aged 6- 11 have never placed a phone call,” according to Nicholas Negroponte, the Director of the MIT Media Lab. Yet those who do make it onto the net will have an overwhelming influence on the rest of the world.
The Internet creates a global culture that gives us a common language. While it opens doors to new cultures and perspectives, the dominant platforms for connecting us and the cultural and entertainment values being conveyed emanate from the United States. When our most powerful mediums and messages are created by one set of values, diversity suffers. American culture is the dominant force in technology. As long as this is true, it is up to us to take the leading role in supporting the presence and preservation of other cultures and values in our mediated environments.
KidsonKeyboards.org seeks to give young people the opportunities and the means to reflect on the values and ideas which surround them; to explore them sensitively and critically in natural and constructed environments, with the help of new technology and media.
Eighty million strong, the Net Generation includes kids from age two to twenty-two. This generation is the first to grow up surrounded by digital media. They have been the target of corporate advertisements and media since the day they were born. Yet, they are the first to move media beyond broadcast toward interactivity, from viewers or listeners to users. More likely than not, however, they have had little or no foundation training in creating or interpreting media. Youth in this age group have already been exposed to computers and the Internet and are more than open to the possibilities they afford. During this crucial period of their lives, they will begin to define a framework for incorporating it into their lives.
While KidsonKeyboards.org seeks to have a long-term impact on this entire generation, it initially targets kids between the ages of 13-18 that come from a diverse set of cultures and socio-economic environments. It is an extraordinarily challenging time and filled with competing demands and pressures. The rising tide of drug use, of gang culture and street violence is harsh evidence of the pressures and tensions that young people face.
During this time period, kids begin to more fully comprehend the larger economic and social landscape they are a part of and start to picture themselves in terms of how they might fit into such a landscape. Peers are incredibly important at this stage and role models can have a large influence.
Young people deserve the opportunity to gain a more balanced understanding of technology, how it impacts their individual sense of self, and how they may shape its potential. They also deserve alternative role models- people who employ technology in innovative and creative ways and who balance its importance in relation to real and authentic experience. Currently these kinds of opportunities are rare. Despite the enormous impact technology and media has on their lives, there are virtually no public or private programs that offer this perspective. Most popular initiatives today tend to be focused on providing access to the tools. Few offer help in understanding their true potential.
KidsonKeyboards.org is in a unique position to create new initiatives and programs that offer young people a chance to develop a balanced approach to technology. It will seek to do this with the help of mentors in intimate, natural settings. It will work with qualified partner organizations that can share insights into such areas as media literacy, art and technology, cultural diversity, nature and the body. KidsonKeyboards.org seeks to give young people the opportunities and the means to reflect on the values and ideas which surround them; to explore them sensitively and critically in natural and constructed environments, with the help of new technology and media.
The mission of KidsonKeyboards.org is to give young people the opportunities and the means to reflect on the values and ideas which surround them; to explore them sensitively and critically in natural and constructed environments, with the help of new technology and media.
KidsonKeyboards.org seeks to:
· Motivate young people and raise their confidence and self-esteem
· Develop their skills of communication and of social interaction
· Encourage cultural tolerance and understanding
· Promote a sense of social responsibility and participation
· Promote inclusion and combat exclusion in a world of rapid social and economic change
Kids on Keyboard’s pilot program are centered on sharing a balanced perspective of technology through role modeling. During the summer of 2000, KidsonKeyboards.org will launch its first youth camp. The camp will be physically located in a national park, preserve or similar environment, where nature can surround their experience. It will be staffed by a diverse and talented group of people who model a balanced approach and perspective of technology. This will include people in a variety of age ranges who have skills and/or interests that are furthered through their use of technology and networks.
An interdisciplinary approach will be taken overall, with emphasis on cultural diversity, creativity and self-knowledge. Staff will include those with various expertise. Yet each individual discipline will be explored from two points of view - the natural and the technological.
KidsonKeyboards.org goes beyond the traditional idea of summer camp with a program that specializes in nature and technology. Young people can also enjoy physical movement programs, sports and the great outdoors along with their main interests. The spectacular natural setting will set the tone for our series of programs and activities.
Kids can experiment in new activities, develop existing talents and discover new ones. There are a wealth of opportunities to stimulate the mind and body. We provide the means to explore new ideas and balance them with traditional summer fun.
Successful applicants will come from a broad array of cultures and soci-economic backgrounds. The only basic requirement is that they share their own unique experience or cultural background in the activities of the camp. Scholarships to the camp are provided to kids who need them.
Recorded music and images, broadcast and printed material, consumer items mainly made mechanically, live entertainment, digital information, games and recreations, educational aids, food and drink, travel and holidays, drugs and cosmetics: these are the languages of commercial culture as spoken to young people. An adult view sees them as an ever-increasing mountain of goods and waste, which require great effort to manage. For young people, they are important as a means of communication of the identities they are busy creating. Young people select and discard a huge range of available material, ideas, words and images with impressive speed. The past and other contemporary cultures provide them with the material to create individual style. Young people require flexibility of the things they take over. Their great skill is in transformation. They can make ordinary and mundane objects special with new uses and combinations. They adapt and invent. These inherent traits should be supported.
Balance Beam.org focus is on supporting a digital balance in this process. It partners with many individuals and organizations with varying expertise in revealing and sharing this balance with teenagers. The following areas of focus will be explored and shared. They are followed by representative examples of classes, event or programs:
Media Literacy- A set of skills which help young people to understand their roles and abilities as active interpreters and creators of media messages. This includes the creation of their own media.
What's in the NEWS?
Kids take a look at how current events (world, national, state and local) are covered in the media. Get participants to analyze the variety of media messages on a particular current event each week. Help them hone their skills in distinguishing fact from opinion, positive from negative reporting, and more.
Compare and contrast media access, media messages, and the role of media in other countries compared to that in the United States. What role do politics, government and religion play in shaping the role of media? How do cultural values influence media messages? How does information about science and technology get transmitted by media? What forms of media are most popular in other countries and why?
World War II Propaganda: Mobilizing Artists to Mobilize Others:
This lesson on World War II propaganda posters and accompanying lesson on "Rosie the Riveter" will expose students to the numerous propaganda themes and tactics for WWII, support student research on a particular war propaganda theme, and illustrate the changing roles of women in the war effort through a documentary entitled, "The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter."
Cultural Diversity- To enable young people to understand the evolutionary nature of culture and the processes and potential for change. To enable young people to recognize, explore and understand their own cultural assumptions and values. To enable young people to embrace and understand cultural diversity by bringing them into contact with the attitudes, values and traditions of other cultures. To encourage an historical perspective by relating contemporary values to the processes and events that have shaped them.
Digital Storytelling- In this workshop young people bring stories and experiences from their own families, friends, neighborhoods and cultures. They incorporate these in digital video productions, Websites, Web animations, and music CD’s. The focus here is on generating new media critical thinking skills and media production skills.
Cultural Identity- Young people appropriate and adapt cultural artifacts or products to their own need for a sense of personal and group identity. In doing so, they also shape the commercial environment in which they live. This program gives young people the opportunity and the means to reflect on the values and ideas which surround them, to explore them sensitively and critically in a range of different ways.
Art, Science & Technology- The relationship between the arts the sciences and technology has always been dynamic. Technology makes new forms of expression possible. Artists drive technology to new levels of sophistication. This is happening now with digital technologies and it redefines our systems of wealth creation broadly defined.
Primitive Streak- In developing this project, the fashion designer Professor Helen Storey and the developmental biologist Dr. Kate Storey worked together as artist and scientist in producing a fashion collection chronicling the first 100 hours of human life. The exhibition was attended by many school groups and is being used as a model project for both primary and secondary school students.
Exploring Science Through the Arts- explaining and exploring scientific themes through drama, dance and music. Participants devise and perform the pieces themselves.
Body, Space & Presence- New technology forces us to redefine our sense of place. By extending our senses across time and space using networks, we uncover new ways to look at our physical environments. The Internet and its offspring of bots, agents, cookies, webcams etc., reframes our presence in space. At the same time, movement-based practices in physical space like dance, yoga, Pilates and the martial arts offer us an awareness of our physical bodies and a real sense of presence.
Just Think is based on the belief that a better understanding of the media surrounding us facilitates a better understanding of the society in which we live. Just Think strives to equip young people with the literacy tools critical for their future. These tools include the ability to comprehend the content of media and master the technical skills to produce media messages in various forms, from broadcast public service announcements to websites.
Young people spend twice as much time with media than they do with their parents and teachers combined"(American Medical Association, 1996). The Just Think Foundation considers that young people need to be able to understand media messages and have the ability to think for themselves. In response to the facts that demonstrate the amount of time young people spend with media, Just Think teaches them to think critically and
creatively so they can evaluate messages and produce their own media messages using a variety of media.
Creative Disturbance is an Internet based network for incubating innovation and expression. It was founded to dramatically improve the artist and innovator’s ability to execute his or her visionary project, and to directly connect investors, patrons and other resource providers to new opportunities.
Creativity and innovation arise most often when people are free to follow their own natural instincts and interests in their own natural environment. Creative Disturbance seeks to unite those with creative breakthroughs and those who support and fund their visions. Whether it’s a book, software, video, film, artwork, invention or new start-up business, Creative Disturbance is the premier network for creating compelling new applications and services at the edge of art, science and technology.
The mission of OpNet is to bridge the digital divide by: Creating economic development opportunities for low-income young adults; Increasing the employment of women and people of color in the digital economy; and Helping to meet the growing demand for skilled new media workers.
OpNet was founded in 1997 by Dan Geiger, a highly experienced business and non-profit executive who holds an MBA from the Haas Business School, and E. David Ellington, Founder and CEO of NetNoir, Inc. OpNet is a compelling national model that forges a strong business-community partnership to benefit both the new media industry and low-income youth. OpNet was founded and is fiscally sponsored by Local Economic
Assistance Program, Inc. (LEAP), the non-profit affiliate of Community Bank of the Bay.
This precedent setting program targets 18-25 year-olds from economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area, and works closely with the region's burgeoning new media businesses.