Eliza Dresang’s research found what librarians have long suspected - young kids progress faster when the adults who look after them are more confident and competent with reading skills.
Karen Fisher organized “Teen Design Days” to support immigrant minority youth by providing targeted information and digital literacy training.
Michael Lee held a week-long camp for high-school girls titled, “Computers Demystified: Your chance to learn everything you wanted to know about computers but were afraid to ask!”
Katie Davis presented “Today's digital youth: Growing up in a hyper-connected, multi-tasking, media-rich world,” at the 2013 UW Upward Bound summer program orientation.
What We Do
Digital Youth explores the interactions of young people with digital information and technology. Beginning with young children learning literacy skills through young adults and their information seeking behavior, faculty and students at the University of Washington Information School conduct research to understand how contemporary youth consume and create information through both traditional and 21st century technologies.
News & Events
Digital Youth Seattle Think Tank ‘14
The University of Washington’s Information School hosted Digital Youth Seattle Think Tank ’14 in October. This National Leadership Forum invited digital youth scholars, designers, professionals policymakers and youth to spark collaborations and to envision the future direction of research.
Who is the learner of tomorrow?
Project Information Literacy interviewed Katie in June 2014 and discussed how technology is changing the nature of learning for today's youth and emerging adults. They discussed technology's negative impact as well as its potential for powerful learning across the age spectrum using innovative ideas, such as digital badges. Read the news item.
Katie Davis at Town Hall Seattle
In The App Generation: How Today’s Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World, Katie Davis traces the history of the digital revolution and its effect on creativity, as well as the many potential benefits of work organized around apps, suggesting that these tools can even serve as a springboard for creative thinking and life goals beyond the tasks they’ve been designed to fulfill. Watch the video of the April 23rd presentation at Town Hall Seattle.
Beverly Cleary Professorship
Eliza Dresang held the endowed Beverly Cleary Professorship in Children and Youth Services at the University of Washington Information School until her passing in April 2014. Cleary graduated from the iSchool in 1939 and the Professorship was endowed to honor her work and commitment to youth librarianship. In 2008, Cleary was selected to receive the University of Washington Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus Award, the highest honor the University of Washington can bestow on a graduate. Learn more about Beverly Cleary.
Featured Projects
Through a three-year Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Research Grant, Eliza Dresang is developing tools and measuring early literacy outcomes for children from birth to entering kindergarten attending public library storytimes and using innovative public library and school partnerships. Join the Facebook page for updates. Visit the website for more information.
A research project, awarded through a competition organized by HASTAC and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with support from the Bank of Bermuda Foundation, investigating the general effectiveness of digital badges and badging systems to motivate, recognize, and assess learning in K-12 education. Katie Davis and Ph.D. student Sean Fullerton are examining how students and educators engage with and experience badges, looking in particular at motivation levels, learning pathways, the availability of novice to expert trajectories, and any implementation challenges faced. They are also exploring how badging systems fit into the broader public school framework, with specific attention given to how the Common Core standards are integrated and assessed.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has identified bullying as a serious health risk for adolescents. In today’s age of social media and smartphones, this health risk has taken on new forms and extended its reach. While traditional forms of bullying have been steadily decreasing over the course of the last two decades, cyberbullying has emerged as a major concern among parents, teachers, and other professionals working with young people. Because cyberbullying is a relatively new phenomenon, it is not yet clear what strategies educators should adopt to stem its rise.