Youth Engagement in Entrepreneurship, Technology and The Arts

Youth Engagement in Entrepreneurship, Technology and The Arts

“As an artist, you have to think about the sustainability of what your doing from an entrepreneurial standpoint-you can’t ride on your sheer creative skills or ‘genius.’ Those days are gone, if they ever really existed.” Lance Weiler (American filmmaker and storyteller) The Misfit Economy (Clay & Phillips, 2015)

Fantasy World creation for a Digital Arts Festival (Eisen, 2017)

Although the above statement is focussed on the arts I think it is true for many aspects of the future economy. The digital natives being taught today come with a set of technological skills and interests that we as teachers can really tap into. Many of these students already possess the drive to become entrepreneurial, ability to effectively market themselves on social media, use boundaries as catalysts for innovation (Thomas & Brown, 2011), and socially interact with new media and online games.

Never before in our history have students had as much access to the tools of the working world. In most schools today students can have access to: website design programs, Microsoft office programs, Adobe creative suites, 3D printers, coding software, or and many more (software being very accessible, while hardware not as prevalent). Not only are the tools available at school but with decreasing costs of digital technologies students are now able to access these systems from home. Students who are truly driven will even go the extent of pirating software, building their own systems, or ‘hacking’ to create the tools they need. Due to the prevalent use of hand held and tablet technology, costs of digital technologies has dropped, making more technology available at home.

In my own experiences, students who are shown the basics of digital software in school are finding ways to create their own work on the side whether that is playing or building entrepreneurial ventures for themselves. For example those who excel at Adobe software programs are able to become freelancers and market their work out to companies or private individuals who are looking for website designs, logos or other creative work. In one particular case a grade eight student developed t-shirts to market as part of our annual Vertigo performance. She sold them at the performance, with a portion of the proceeds going to charity, and then continued to sell the t-shirts online. Not only have students done this on their own, but hey have used the skills of others in the community to collaborate and support each other. Students with businesses such as bands, baking, crafts, soap making etc.,  will use the services of their friends to create posters and websites. Others will help record and edit songs for others, or create movies for each other.  As Ito M. (2010) explains:

“New media practices are becoming a vehicle for some youth to exercise more agency in defining the terms of their own work practices. The new media skills and talents that these kids are exhibiting make the productive labor (as opposed to preparatory work) of childhood more visible (at least in the new media domain), and they challenge the status of educational institutions in defining the training of youth for high-tech work.” (Ito M., et al., 2010, p. 300-301)

Much of the spark for this work has been created by having teachers creating opportunities for students to use these technologies. Students at Calgary Arts Academy in particular become digitally skilled because they often will have to work in digital formats to present their learning or skills. They will work to present performance posters through Photoshop, create worlds in Minecraft, create 3D printed objects to show their learning, record and edit movies and music for large scale performances, and build websites. Other students are driven by social good and work in clubs such as the Fair Trade Club. Some learn the financial and entrepreneurial aspects of the working world through in class projects like managing money in a large scale Catan game, or the many Dragons Den competitions that occur. 

Students selling crafts at the Annual Art Harvest (Chu, 2017)

For adults/non-digital natives, the future is a scary place. Where will the jobs be? How will children be successful in a modern world? I truly believe that although the work they do will be different than anything we have seen before, kids today will find a way to make it work. Students today are born in a world of ‘hacking’ and will find ways to work around and make the impossible possible. It then becomes a part of our job as educators to give students the opportunity to play with some of the technology, to build in skills around entrepreneurship and find ways of making them resilient, caring, and collaborative community members.

References:

Clay, A., & Phillips, K.M. (2015). The Misfit Economy: Lessons from Pirates, Hackers, Gangsters, and other Informal Entrepreneurs. New York, NY: Simon and Shuster Paperbacks

Chu, J. [jchu photgraphy] (2017, October 1). Calgary Arts Academy Annual Art Harvest [Facebook post]. 

Eisen, J.  [@LedgEisen] (2017, January, 30).  Fantasy World Creation For the Electronic Arts Festival [Tweet]. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/LedgeEisen/status/826102924853981184

Ito, M., Baumer, S., Bittanti, M., Cody, R., Stephenson, B. H., Horst, H. A., ... & Perkel, D. (2009). Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out: Kids living and learning with new media. MIT press.

Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Seattle, WA: Create Space.