Why Bother Using the Web in Youth Work

September 28th, 2008 by mas | Filed under Education & Skills, Innovation & Technology.

Jon Jolly organised an interesting debate at UKYouthOnline, challenging people to think about why they would use social networks at the local level - do you really need to use Bebo to ‘network’ if you already meet in person each week?

I added a bit in to this to ask the simple point - “why bother?”. We facilitated this by inviting people to jot their reasons & motivations for using the web in youth work on sticky notes. Then others ‘endorsed’ the reasons they felt had the most value.

It wasn’t a very scientific approach and it was the final session of the day so possibly a few couldn’t be bothered inputting too much into the actual chart but it did achieve the main objective which was to provoke some thought about the benefits of using the web. Unfortunately lack of time prevented us from taking this further and building an argument for how to use web tools effectively but that would be a nice thing to build on in the future.

I’ve attached a summary of the responses and you can see them displayed in a chart format in the image. The main motivations were communication - either directly communicating with young people or broadcasting a message to them or about them.

There was some discussion about the value of being able to keep records and share memories - I interpreted this personally as encouraging creativity but actually that’s not what was within the debate (ie. I’d view encouraging use of social media as fostering creativity but I think most people regarded photo & film hosting as convenient methods for storing photos & films).

The benefits of the web being a low cost medium was a small consideration/benefit, though there was an alert that this isn’t always the case either financially or in time.

I added the use of the web as a means of providing additional support to young people based on how we’ve previously used online messengers, email and forums to support volunteers, but actually this wasn’t on many peoples radar either.

That the web is regarded as primarily a communication tool isn’t surprising - that’s what the web was created to be, however I am surprised that more thought isn’t given to the potential for using the web for personal development and support. Possibly some reason for this is that the current debate about the web in youth work is very much biased towards the use of social networks and that was reflected at yesterdays event, and consequently people aren’t especially looking to use wider web technologies just yet. Another possible reason is that many people are still getting to grips with using the web themselves and so aren’t yet skilled or confident enough to begin regarding the web as a ‘tool’ that they can adapt towards personal development and support (much as they may use arts/sports etc.)

In the next few weeks I’ll start to get some thoughts up about practical ways that different web tools can be used in youth work and how they can be linked together towards forming a ‘digital youth work strategy’. In the meantime if you have your own thoughts about reasons & motivations for using the web in youth work please do add them in the comments.

Download a summary of the responses here

Related posts

« UkYouthOnline & Open Source Youth Work
Digital Youth Work - Rationale »

Viewing 5 Comments

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    Nice chart Mike. A bit slicker than the orignial! I agree that general online youth work discussion is dominated by social networks. I'm really enjoying some more collaberative and conversational technologies like Google Docs and simply commenting on blogs. The virtual connections I've made with real world people have been invaluable. Looking forward to that series on the tools!
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    Really interesting.

    This looks like it should match up with the strategies typology in the Youth Work and Social Networking Report (right towards the end of the document).

    We definitely need some more examples for people to get a handle on of how digital technologies can be part of the day-to-day toolkit of supporting young people (although it may be that for some people that falls into keeping in touch...)
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    Hi Mike

    Sorry I couldn't be there but it sounds like this was an interesting discussion. I definately think that most people where I'm working view the web as a communication tool, although I think some have started to move towards using some of the photo and arts areas to support personal development in any arts work they are undertaking with young people.

    I'm really interested in how else we can use the web as I think it is this area that has a lot of potential so I'm really looking forward to the tools and suggestions you've been talking about.
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    hey mas - this looks really interesting - sorry i couldn't make it on sat - was feeling awful! although i am really interested in the personal development stuff for young people, i was wondering whether there is an opportunity to develop a new way of working that doesn't end up as trying to use the web as tool but really looks at how the web can change the way we interact.

    For example, many people are willing to interact in a different way with work colleagues and that has a huge impact on the way they work and engage at work and develop ideas etc - could that be applied to youth work?
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    Hi Ade - that wouldn't be self inflicted awfulness would it?!

    What I think is lacking at the moment is a link between the brilliant range of online tools & resources available, and those young people that for whatever reason we want to motivate/support to make a difference. This link being Youth Workers/practitioners et al.

    So for me regarding the web as a 'tool' (or maybe a toolbox) is the correct approach at this moment in time. What concerns me is that the opportunities available through doing this are currently being passed over because not very much concern is being given to having an online strategy - or probably even more so that consideration isn't being given to the potential of using the web in other programmes.

    If what you mean is can we develop a new approach to using the web, then yes thats what I'm hoping will come out as ideas for the programme develop. What I'm not planning is a programme that says 'use youtube for this'....and heres how to use youtube - there are plenty of people doing this already (and for anyone that needs that please go over to timdavies.org.uk and use the one page guides Tims created).

    And of course if this isn't what you mean please keep on inputting as it develops and maybe you'll get what you want by stealthy contributions ;-)

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