Youth Media Learning Network

Submitted by tstreit on August 20, 2009 - 4:16pm.

 The Youth Media Learning Network (YMLN) is an initiative to promote professional development and capacity building for the youth media field on a national scale. Created collaboratively by the YouthLearn Initiative at EDC and Educational Video Center, the central goals are to:

  • Strengthen youth media teaching and learning practices
  • Extend the reach of youth media practices into the broader spheres of formal education and youth development
  • Foster communities of reflection for youth media educators
  • Support the development of sustainable peer learning networks

The project was launched in the fall of 2006 with pilot support from the Open Society Institute
and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Drawing upon the success of prior youth media field-building efforts and informed by established professional development models and strategies from related fields, YMLN seeks to grow a site-based networking model in regional locales organized around core activities, including:

  • The Youth Media Fellowship identifies and supports leaders within the youth media field.
  • Youth Media Institutes bring together educators from youth media, youth development,
  • and K-12 schools to explore promising practices.
  • YMLN.org facilitates online dialogue and the sharing of teaching methods and materials.

The focus of YMLN’s programmatic work to date has been on pedagogy related to youth media practice. By engaging youth media educators in reflective peer-to-peer professional development experiences, YMLN seeks to identify a common set of strategies and standards related to their habits, skills, and practices around teaching and learning. YMLN engages practitioners who employ a variety of media forms in their work with young people, including video, radio/audio, print, and Web development. Over the last three years, YMLN has developed communities of practice in cities and regions where conditions are supportive of local networking as part of a sustainable strategy for connecting youth media, education, and youth development.

For more information on YMLN, visit the project website at:

http://www.ymln.org