By Leslie Rule

Youth-created media….It’s a big topic. Pedagogically complex, cognitively complex, resource and time intensive, yet ubiquitous, and an essential component of today’s educational environment. Have you integrated youth created media into your curriculum? Or are you at a loss as how to start or unsure where to go next? Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) has created a robust site that you can access. From providing a context for youth media making in education to detailed content that illustrates the “how-to” of youth-centered media creation, the AYV Essentials site provide comprehensive conceptual overview, detailed lesson plans, and strategies for successful exhibition and distribution of student work.

Print, Video, Photography, and Animation are the curricula categories, each category holds a range of project materials: lesson plans, step-by-step how-to’s, and examples of youth-created media.

Overview of the process

All of the materials on the site rest firmly on two principles: 1) projects are student led, educator facilitated; and, 2) technology is a means, not the end. The materials focus as much on the idea-driven why and what of youth media creation as they do on technology-driven how. This underlying AYV philosophy ensures that the goal of enabling youth voice is front and center, and it gives deep credibility to the tagline, “Create with purpose.”

P.S. You do have to register to access the site, but your information is not used or sold. You receive an email once a quarter informing you what new content has been added and you are free to unsubscribe at any time.