youngcriticalminds

This week, our Locke High School students explain how they developed their presentation for the Digital Media and Learning Conference in San Francisco.

Process

Going through the process of developing a presentation and practicing slides was very stressful and tiring. We felt that we were not going to be prepared for the presentation in time because being youth researchers along with being high school students and community organizers; we had a lot of work to do. Even though we would have liked to have been more prepared, everyone still managed to memorize their slides and we were  able to “bring it” during our presentation. Overall, there was a lot of time and energy put into working on creating the presentation and we were happy with the way it turned out.

The Presentation

Our presentation gave people something to take back to their homes. We gave them something that they can share with people. We showed them an example that anybody can handle college level work and that we are capable of producing great outcomes through hard work and the dedication of students and teachers collaborating. The biggest thing we think people took away, besides the understanding of the digital divide in our school, is the inspiration to go and get involved in something to help improve in their communities.

Our presentation took time and effort to put everything together.  We saw that the people in the audience at our presentation seem to be engaged because when we were finished they came up to us and wanted to talk to us about our work. It felt like people left the conference with the urge to take some kind of action within their school. Overall, our presentation was important because we’re not doing it for ourselves, we are doing it for generations to come.

Prezi

We first decided to use Prezi because we wanted our presentation to be different and we remembered seeing a fourteen year old use Prezi and he left the crowd captivated. The process of deciding what the Prezi would be about was hard. Thinking about culturally relevant curriculum we realized that a culturally relevant tool that we as the Locke group used was Facebook. After deciding that Facebook was going to be the topic of our prezi, we used snap shots of Facebook to mold the Prezi the way that we wanted it to look. For the most part, we liked the way the Prezi turned out.

Impact

At first, we think the audience underestimated us because we are youth but after we presented we think we exceeded their expectations. We think we showed people through our presentation that young people can do research. After our video at the end of our presentation the audience was left with a challenge on how they can go back to their communities to implement technology in their classrooms because it’s part of modern day culture.

What’s Next?

We want to present our presentation, “re-face the book”, to our community but more specifically the administration of our school. For example, our principals, teachers, counselors, deans, the green dot peoples, etc. We want to show them that technology is powerful, as well as to prove to them what youth like us are capable of accomplishing through doing research in our community. Along with presenting to them we will present to A.R.E. members, our partner organization for the Council of Youth Research, in order to inform teachers in other schools about the importance of connecting with students wherever they are at, even if it’s on Facebook.

Sometimes after our presentations we are asked what are we going to do to make changes in our community. We as individuals go out in our community everyday and participate in other organizations and bring the knowledge we gain from places like the Council back to our communities. We engage daily with other youth who have the same struggles in our community and we work to organize on our campus. We are engaged in organizing spaces on and off campus with organization such as: Watts Youth Collective, W.A.T.T.S. Youth Voices, Heart and Soul, Association of Raza Educators, Strategy Center, LA Youth and the Council of Youth Research. As we stated earlier, we are busy students. But we are busy because we are constantly fighting for justice. Now we ask you, “What are you going to do to change society for the better?!?”
<3,
“A Tribe Called Locke”
Council of Youth Research – Locke High School
[*this document was written collaboratively on googledocs]

Check out the video below of our presentation at the Digital Media and Learning Conference. Plus, here is the link to our Prezi: Locke HS Prezi