Youth Development Insight

By Kate Walker I am the new editor of the Journal of Youth Development (JYD) which is dedicated to advancing youth development practice and research.  JYD serves applied researchers and evaluators as well as practitioners who work in youth-serving organizations or the intermediaries that support them.

By Ann Nordby Anyone who has been around teenagers in the last five years knows that they are constantly online. 91% of them use smart phones daily . These devices are like extensions of their bodies. How should youth workers respond? Your impulse might be to ask youth to put their devices away to avoid distraction but what if you harnessed them as learning tools? The internet has been disrupting institutions for about 20 years now, and youth programming is no exception -- when people have computers in their pockets, they get to decide what to pay attention to. Since we’re in the business of facilitating interest-driven learning, this is not a bad thing. In past 10 years, those of us who design online learning environments have come to realize that online learning shouldn't stand apart from face-to-face youth programming. Nor must it be a solitary activity. It can be integrated with the myriad learning resources that youth have -- mentors, books, interest groups, videos and e