Next Gen Public Media: Community

Next Gen Public Media Learning & Design Collaborative

Reaching tween and teen audiences is complex, and we’re committed to supporting the public media field through opportunities to share together as they do this work. The Next Gen Public Media Learning & Design Collaborative is an innovation network focused on peer-to-peer learning, professional development, and hearing from experts on tween and teen engagement. Together we will learn, share, and create new ways to meet the needs of tween and teen audiences. 

The Collaborative includes three key elements: a peer learning community (PLC), webinar series, and professional development workshops. 

• Peer Learning Community
  Meeting monthly, the PLC is a space for deep and interactive conversations driven by public media professionals engaged in tween/teen work.
  Sign up for the PLC here.
• Webinar Series
  The NGPM webinar series will feature experts from a range of fields including youth development, digital literacies, mental health and wellbeing, and other areas related to serving tweens and teens. The series will launch in 2022.
• Professional Development Workshops
  Designed and facilitated by field leaders, NGPM’s youth engagement workshops  focus on how to effectively collaborate with tweens and teens to give them “a seat at the table” to shape content and local initiatives.
  • Workshop I: Models of Youth-Adult Collaboration for Public Media (April 26, 2022)

    Ben Kirshner, Professor of Learning Sciences and Human Development at the University of Colorado Boulder, discussed his work with CU Engage, a center at the University of Colorado that works with community groups to address complex public challenges through academic courses, research projects, and creative work. Ben shared his experiences developing equity-oriented partnerships with youth organizations and his approach to youth-adult partnerships. Watch the video here.

    We also heard from Molly Josephs, the founder of This Teenage Life podcast, and youth crew members about what it takes to create an authentically collaborative experience for young contributors.

  •  Workshop II: Understanding Youth: A Prerequisite for Creating Programs By/For/With Tweens and Teens (May 26, 2022)
    
    Public media stations know young children well, informed by decades of work and research. Work with tweens and teens, on the other hand, is new for most. Learning about this Next Gen audience requires relationships and connections– with youth themselves, with others doing this work, and with research– in order to generate insights that inspire experimentation and innovation.  Drawing from the Cooney Center’s upcoming research brief, Understanding Youth: A Prerequisite for Creating Programs By/For/With Tweens and Teens, this workshop aims to help stations consider strategies for deepening understanding about youth. Dr. Jason Yip, associate professor of digital youth at The Information School at the University of Washington and Director of KidsTeam UW, shared insights on participatory co-design of new technologies with youth, including equity-based strategies for relationship-building and adult roles of facilitation and support. Watch the video here.
  • Workshop III: Content and Platform Innovation with Youth (July 13, 2022)

    Now more than ever, youth are looking for opportunities to use media in creative, interactive ways. Whether creating videos, spearheading social media campaigns, or sharing original artwork, today’s youth are proficient content creators and sharers. In order to reach youth audiences, public media creators are finding innovative ways to engage youth as not only viewers, but as co-creators as well.

    Drawing on research about youth-adult collaboration, and insights from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s Next Gen research, this workshop offers content creators with effective strategies for engaging in collaborative projects with youth.

    Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, professor at UCLA and founder of Center for Scholars and Storytellers and members of the Center’s Youth Engagement Team share insights about ways in which adults and youth can co-design innovative media projects.

    Watch the video here