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Digital literacy is the new hidden curriculum. In the 1960’s, we talked about access to opera, encyclopedias, theaters, museums, and dinner table conversations about culture and world events. The research showed us two things – those with access to this hidden curriculum developed learning skills that enabled them to do better in school. Today, the ability to navigate social networks, play games, or participate in online conversations affects the way young people present themselves to the world. There’s an informal learning that takes place as they interact with digital media, which gives way to certain skills, competencies, and literacies. — Henry Jenkins, Co-Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program

As the digital divide closes and everyone that wants access to computers and the web has it, a new, equally significant inequality forms: the participation gap. The participation gap is the space between people who are able to operate in the new information landscape of blogs, YouTube, social networking sites and user generated content.

The DCPL has the opportunity to help close the participation gap by providing content creation stations for its community. This includes both hardware and human support.

To simply ask someone to use a computer to create some content leaves open too many possibilities. With a constraint, people can focus more and produce a better product. To get people invested in the production of their projects they should be given the opportunity to tell a story about their lives. Topics they could address include:

• What is your typical day like? How is it different from other peoplesʼ?
• What is your favorite thing to do on a Saturday?
• Tell the story of your life in 2 minutes.
• What is the funniest thing thatʼs ever happened to you?

The best stories will be collected, and with the permission of the participants, be put on display online and in the Neighborhood Libraries. The exhibitions will be good promotion for the Library. It will demonstrate the types of skills people can acquire at the library, and it will feature the patrons of the library. Not only will this attract the friends and family of the storyteller to the library website or Neighborhood Library, but it will catch the general publicʼs attention as well. People notice people faster than they do institutions.

The hardware for the projects is making its way out to Neighborhood Libraries. If you’d like to get yours soon, email us.