Smartphone camp: Poughkeepsie students learn to create at Vassar | Poughkeepsie Journal

Nina Schutzman, Reporter at Poughkeepsie Journal writes, "A camp that encourages young people to spend hours on their smartphones may seem unnecessary — after all, research shows teens already spend more than one-third of their days using the devices."

More than two dozen Poughkeepsie Middle School students are participating in Vassar’s Digital Literacy smartphone camp.
Photo: Courtesy/Kevin Arce

But on the Vassar College campus, Poughkeepsie Middle School students are learning to use smartphones for artistic creation, music and movie production, and more.

Vassar’s Digital Literacy smartphone camp, known as D-LIT, is a two-week summer program that helps youths maximize the potential of devices many of them carry everywhere. It's sponsored by Vassar’s Urban Education Initiative, in collaboration with the Poughkeepsie-based arts and media organization Art Effect...

A report from Common Sense Media in 2015 found that teens ages 13-18 consume an average of nine hours of entertainment media a day, while tweens (ages 8-12) typically used six hours of their days on entertainment media — not including time spent using media for school or homework.

But only 3 percent of the average teen's digital screen time is spent creating: writing, coding, or making digital art or music, according to Common Sense Media. Most of the time is devoted to watching, listening or reading, playing games and web browsing, or using social media.
Read more...

Source: Poughkeepsie Journal