Chip Bruce's Work on Youth, Media, Community Action & Personal Growth

If you've read this blog before, you know that I am very interested in connecting social media, community-based learning and social entrepreneurship. That's why Prof. Chip Bruce's talk (below) sounds so interesting to me.

I'll be there. If you're here in Champaign-Urbana, I hope to see you there. If not, look at Chip's work, his blog and the fascinating things going on in community informatics here at the University of Illinois.
Brown Bag: How Young People Use New Media for Community Action and Personal Growth


CITES Research and Learning Technologies would like to invite you to a Brown Bag talk scheduled for next Wednesday, April 22, 12-1 PM at 23 Illini Hall.
Professor Bertram (Chip) Bruce of Library & Information Science will be talking about "Learning at the Border: How Young People Use New Media for Community Action and Personal Growth".


"Learning at the border" refers to learning that occurs in the border settings between the highly-structured realm of schools and life in neighborhoods, including after-school programs, boys and girls clubs, libraries, museums, and community centers. A second meaning relates to participants who've been placed on the border because of their language, cultural background, race, or social class, hence denied full participation in the public sphere.


In the Youth Community Informatics project, university students and faculty work with community members to help young people learn about new technologies and develop academic potential through self expression and community building. Young people learn through modules such as community journalism, oral history, multimedia and podcasting, GIS/GPS, protest songs, and setting up a community technology center. A common thread is that the young people learn how to use ICTs for community building, thus becoming active sustainers of their own communities.


Bertram (Chip) Bruce is a Professor in Library & Information Science, Curriculum & Instruction, Bioengineering, the Center for Writing Studies, and the Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During 2007-08, he held a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the National College of Ireland.

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