ByLine: Developing Adolescent’s Civic Engagement through Online Community Journalism

The ByLine project explores how collaborative web-based journalism can support young people in developing civic engagement. ByLine is grounded in a theory of “pedagogical praxis,” which suggests that information technology makes it easier for adolescents to become active participants in the life of their community, and that professional practices such as journalism can provide constructive models for such activity.

ByLine extends this theory by:

1. Investigating journalism as a context for learning;

2. Developing a web-based tool for youth journalism;

3. Creating an after-school program where 40-50 adolescents from underserved neighborhoods in Madison work as journalists and, with local mentors, create a web-based newspaper; and

4. Using a randomized, controlled study to determine whether and how such a program can help adolescents: (a) understand issues impacting their community; (b) develop technological fluency; (c) develop critical thinking and academic skills; and (d) refine their the ability to appreciate the perspective of others.

Plans for collaboration are in place with The Neighborhood House, a community center near the UW campus with an after-school program for local youth from underserved neighborhoods. Two professors in the UW Department of Journalism have agreed to participate in the project. Technology development will be done in collaboration with the UW Division of Information Technology’s Learning Solutions Group.

Developmental Challenges

One way adolescents learn to become “civic actors” is through meaningful work that impacts the lives of others in their community (Youniss et al., 1997). In so doing, young people develop political, social, and cultural understanding, critical thinking, and the ability to appreciate the perspective of others. Recently civic education has focused on community service and service learning (see, eg, Holzberg, 2000). However, new technologies have brought dramatic changes to the lives of adolescents (Youniss et al., 2002). It is thus important to explore how technology can help adolescents develop the skills they need to become constructive members of a civil society.

The Theory and Method of Pedagogical Praxis

New technologies make it possible for young people to participate more directly in adult activities, and thus to learn through meaningful work. Dewey (1915) argued that knowing and doing are tightly coupled, and thus learning needs to take place in the context of activity. Schon (1987) suggested that professionals learn to think in action through their professional experiences by taking action and then reflecting on the results. Through this reflective process the norms, habits, expectations, abilities, and understandings of a community of practice become part of the identity of the individual (Wertsch, 1998). Such practices are thus useful models for engaging young people in meaningful learning experiences. Pedagogical praxis seeks to uncover the principles embedded in professional practices (a problem of cognitive anthropology and descriptive ethnography), develop technologies to help students participate in these practices (a problem of engineering and technology development), and then create environments where students learn through participation in a community of practice (a problem of program design and action research).

Extending Pedagogical Praxis to Youth Civic Engagement and Community Journalism

The method of pedagogical praxis was developed through a series of studies that led to the creation of Escher’s World–an environment where middle school students learn geometry in a computer-aided design studio through graphic design activities (Shaffer, 1998). Subsequent studies have suggested that (a) pedagogical praxis can be used to design effective learning environments for adolescents from a range of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds; (b) a learning environment based on professional practices can support adolescent development in the domain of civic engagement; (c) the professional practice of journalism can inform the development of learning environments for adolescents; and (d) technology can support adolescents in practices of community journalism. These studies also validated a prototype tool to let adolescents collaborate with practicing journalists as they work on stories.