We are only one away from discussing connected learning at the ALA Annual YALSA President’s Program, A Burning Need to Know: How Passion Connects to Learning. One thing about this event that grabs me is the word “passion”, something I strive to foster in the teens that come to our library. We hope to give them a voice, and a place to share their passions and interests with each other through anime clubs, cosplay groups, book discussions and more.
This summer, we are featuring a series of fandom events for teens. Some programs focus on a specific fandom, some celebrate all fandoms from Doctor Who to photography. If you love it, we want to help you dive deeper into it. As I prepared for these programs I encountered the challenge of at the intersection of fandom and fair use.
Trying to explain to my anime club why we can’t just stream their favorite anime from Crunchyroll or making Frozen buttons in the button maker can be a disheartening activity for any librarian. Their eyes are lit up, they are excited, passionate about what they are doing…and you have to gently let them down. I try to see this as a learning opportunity, that via our favorite movies, TV shows and books we can talk about copyright and the rights of creators to maintain control of their work.
In our fanart and animated gif workshops we encourage our teens to bring their favorite fandom with them, to use as a launch pad for the skills they will acquire. Writing up some notes on animated gifs, I thought it might be a good opportunity to talk about fair use and copyright law when you are dealing with your favorite Disney movie, or a clip from Supernatural. As I tried to translate fair use and copyright from legalese to English, I realized, even I (a librarian) hadn’t thought about fair use in a long time.
We tried to look at it from the creators perspective, sympathizing with an artist on DeviantArt, if their work is copied all over the internet without their consent. Although it can be hard to muster sympathy for multi-billion dollar companies like Disney, my teens lovingly agreed that they would want control how their work is shared or used (even if they want to share it freely).
Passion leads to learning opportunities and I find that often that learning starts with copying someone or something you love. Imitation is a great way to practice skills, learn new ways of doing things, and the passion that drew you to the topic in the first place will keep you hard at work through the dead-ends and bugs in your project. But we need to remember that when we borrow from someone else, we want to make sure we do it the right way.
When offering learning opportunities based on your teens passions and interests, think about including information about copyright and fair use. Let’s foster a generation of library users that always uses attributions, both in their research papers, and on their Tumblr accounts.
Last week the Metropolitan Museum of Art revealed the renovation work on its fashion galleries, reopening them to the public. Michelle Obama remarked about the important role galleries like this play in the fashion world. Showing everyone that fashion isn’t just for the elite, or only worn on the runway.
Fashion is something we all interact with every day, but many of us overlook the complicated skills needed to work in the industry. Journalism pieces like Planet Money’s T-Shirt Project have shed light on what it involves to take a drawing and turn it into a piece of clothing. Michelle Obama also commented on the variety of tools a designer needs to have at their fingertips. “It’s a career that involves, science, engineering, accounting, marketing and so much more. Maybe they’ll learn about the math behind Charles James’s designs. And they’ll think to themselves, maybe I should pay closer attention in geometry,” she said speaking to students. This is another perfect example of connected learning, providing opportunities to learn new skills while diving into a passion for fashion.
Our teen cosplay club printed this crown with our 3D printer to go with a costume.
The Johnson County Library has been encouraging teens to show their style since 2008 with our first teen fashion show (pictured above). Since then we have branched into a cosplay club that meets regularly to design, sew, critique and wear costumes from their favorite books, movies and TV shows. The cosplay club is a great example of connected learning happening naturally and quietly at the library. Club members are required to make a project plan for each costume, set goals and deadlines, define budgets, and critique designs and help other member learn new skills (like 3D printing). The club has made appearances at local conventions in group costumes (most recently the Sailor Avengers) and continues to encourage members to grow and improve. Not all of these teens will become fashion designers but the skills they have learned to budget, plan and collaborate will serve them well in whatever career they choose. The Library is happy to provide a place for them to explore their passions.
If you want to find out more about connected learning please start with the wonderful posts on the YALSA Blog, starting with this one. Don’t forget to mark your calendars to attend the YALSA President’s Program, A Burning Need to Know: How Passion Connects to Learning, Monday, June 30, 1-3 pm.
Over the past two weeks, the YALSA President’s Program task force has been meeting with connected learning coaches who will facilitate discussions in Las Vegas to discuss their experience with and use of connected learning ideas. The diversity of these discussions cemented the feeling that connected learning comes in all shapes and sizes and we can’t wait to hear from you at our program at ALA Annual.
As we dove into discussion with the coaches a few themes kept recurring and we wanted to share them with you. Connected learning is already happening in many libraries, some just don’t have that term in their vocabulary to label what they are already doing. Libraries are poised to be the place where passion-directed learning happens. Already a community hub, we can help connect teens with the resources, mentors and spaces that will help them follow their passions. Now that we know what connected learning is and can see it already happening in our libraries, we can begin to foster it with intention.
As we begin to plan programs, services and classes with connected learning in mind, we have to stay flexible. Self-directed and passion-based learning is difficult to direct without derailing the learners enthusiasm. This is an easier goal for public libraries, who likely do not have to prove the learning happening at their programs, and can let the process take as long as it needs to. Schools face the challenge of identified outcomes to every class or program, but there are some great examples of librarians using the concepts of connected learning to add additional value to their testable outcomes.
Connected learning is happening in all types of libraries, as evidenced by the diversity of our coaches. At A Burning Need to Know: How Passion Connects to Learning they will help participants identify connected learning already happening in their environments, and as a group we will discuss ways to level up what we are already doing. There are small things we can do to bring big rewards to our teens.
If you want to find out more about connected learning please start with the wonderful posts on the YALSA Blog, starting with this one. Don’t forget to mark your calendars to attend the YALSA President’s Program, A Burning Need to Know: How Passion Connects to Learning, Monday, June 30, 1-3 pm.
We are only one away from discussing connected learning at the ALA Annual YALSA President’s Program, A Burning Need to Know: How Passion Connects to Learning. One thing about this event that grabs me is the word “passion”, something I strive to foster in the teens that come to our library. We hope to give them a voice, and a place to share their passions and interests with each other through anime clubs, cosplay groups, book discussions and more.