Youth and Media Festival (YAMfest)

Goals: The Youth and Media Festival is an annual event that we hold at our school and is centered around modern day technology. By participating in the committee that plans this event, I hope to have increased my global citizenship in ways that I had not thought of before. The importance of technology in our world is growing and I hope that I can learn a lot about the roles that technology has in connecting me with other people in the world in ways that can help revolutionize industry and human well-being. As the presence of technology grows, I hope that my knowledge about it can also grow so I can have a better understanding of out growing technological world.

   The Youth and Media Festival is held at Grimsley High School every year and is run by a committee of students who volunteer their time to plan it. The festival consists of two parts: first, there are guest adult speakers who speak about the various sections of the technological world that they specialize in followed by a few student speakers who present a few projects that they have been working on and how they used technology throughout their processes. Planning this even was extremely fun because I took the role of being a liaison to a guest speaker, Professor Bryon Turman. I had previously known Professor Turman and remembered that he had spoken before and the previous YAMfest, so I suggested that we ask him to come speak again. My job consisted of coordinating with the professor, reaching out to him to ask if he would be able to speak again, and then conducting follow ups to make sure that he had the materials and technology he needed for his presentation. Aside from being the professor's liaison, I participated in various tasks throughout the process. First, I went to our local grocery store to see if they could donate any water bottles for the festival or gift certificates for the raffle that was to be conducted at the end of the festival. Luckily, I obtained two $10 gift certificates that could be included in our raffle. Aside from getting the adult speakers, we also had to create a list of student speakers, so I suggested a friend of mine, Santiago Elliot, to be a speaker since he is a photographer. The group agreed and we immediately contacted him asking him to present, to which he happily said yes! One of the hardest parts of the planning period was to advertise the event. We set up two slots for two different news shows and sent some of our committee members to advertise on the morning news shows in our city, which helped circulate the information. After much communication with the speakers, we finally established a final schedule for this year's YAMfest. Our guest speakers were as follows:

• Richard Barcus- Presented on the importance and use of Linux, a method of software collaboration.
• Professor Muthka Jost-Presented on the positive and negative roles technology has in our lives.
• Professor Bryon D. Turman- Presented on the use of technology in the evolution of hip-hop and rap, thus aiding in the cultural and pop culture movements that paralleled with the different musical movements.
• Ruhani Agrawal- Led a workshop on how to use Scratch, a programming software.
• Sean Deamrel and Matthew Jones- Discussed their experience making a feature-length film over the summer.
• Santiago Elliot- Presented on the technology behind photography and specifically the photo editing involved to make the photos that appear on magazines today.
• Reid Anderson- Discussed the advancement of technology in the photography world.
• Jordan Robertson- Presented the technology behind music development and recording.

  The day of YAMfest was extremely stressful because we wanted everything to go as planned, however I learned a lot from the guest speakers at the same time. As soon as we got there, we had to set up all of our signs to direct people where to go, set up our information booth, and set up the snack booth. I was in charge of greeting the speakers and audience members, and then throughout the rest of the day, I was in charge of setting up the materials for the speakers as well as notifying them when their time was almost up. The festival was a great success and I was so glad we got to learn and teach others about the growing role of technology in our lives. 

Here is the link to the Youth and Media Festival's website: 

http://yamfest.weebly.com/

Learning Outcome: Considered Ethical Implications

  Technology can either hurt or help us as it can aid in research, yet provide us distractions from that same research. Being able to be a part of a festival about technology really helped me think about my personal involvement with technology. Facebook and Twitter can be very helpful for people who want to stay connected but cannot see each other every day, yet at the same time it can be a huge distraction from our every day activities and cause us to depend on it more than we should. Professor Jost's presentation was very thought provoking in this sense because she discussed the balance between technology as a tool and as a distraction. There are many elements of our smartphones that enable us to become more organized and resourceful since we can look up any questions we have on the internet. However, are there times where we rely so much on our phones that we use it as an easy way out instead of putting in the hard work? For example, reading a synopsis of a book online is much easier and accessible, however this accessibility often keeps us from reading the book itself. Another very interesting idea for the promotion of technology is how much more eco-friendly we have become because of it. Instead of printing out hundreds of sheets to give to students, teachers are now able to create websites where they can essentially have a paper-free class if they choose to do so. 

Learning Outcome: Engaged with Issues of Global Importance

   As the world continues to grow, technology can help us stay connected with each other. I enjoyed helping out Professor Turman in his presentation because he brought up very important points that tied technology to many different cultures and countries around the globe. His use of music and technology was, in my opinion, very interesting because it showed how different musical advancements aided in the cultural movements that were happening at the same time. Technology can help start revolutions and expose us to problems around the world that we might not have been able to learn about without the internet. Listening to and analyzing different music through the internet can help us increase our global citizenship as we are more aware of reactions to these movements and revolutions. I am extremely glad I volunteered to be on this committee because it helped me think about the bigger issues that technology can address in out growing world.