On Our Radar

News and trends we’re watching and curated content from other youth media sources.

The Virtual Reality Dreams Of The 90’s Are Alive At E3

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The last time most video game players were excited about virtual reality was the 1990s. Before internet browsers were commonplace and game consoles were still actively marketed by the number of bits they could process, virtual reality held out the shimmering promise of the cyberspace envisioned by science fiction authors like William Gibson: the future was going to be accessed by way of immersive technology that would project digital avatars of ourselves into detailed virtual worlds.

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(Photo Credit: Sophie Asia)

Photovoice Exhibit: Scenes And Stories From Young Women

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Ten women from Alameda County were given cameras to document their lives in low-income communities. Their photographs went on display this Monday at the California Endowment as part of a project called, “How We See It.”

The project focuses on how poverty affects one’s health. And the method for exploring this issue is a research method called Photovoice, where participants take photographs of their community and develop narratives to accompany the photos. They discuss them as a group, and then craft outreach or action plans.

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High Tech Carnival Gets Kids Interested In Science And Math

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Anyone ever wonder what a carnival in the year 2020 would be like? Probably lots of cool technology, games and huge robots.

Well, we won’t have to wait until 2020 to find out. Inventors Brent Bushnell and Eric Gradman will be launching the Two Bit Circus, a revamped version of the classic carnival, next spring in Los Angeles and San Francisco. I spoke with the inventors and learned more about their new and improved version of the carnival.

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New Guidelines: Keeping Track Of Teen Suicide Attempts

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This week, clinicians, researchers, insurers and patients have a new handbook for diagnosing mental disorders. The DSM-5 (the fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) contains changes that will affect young people specifically, including new guidelines on how to measure and document suicidal behavior in adolescents.

Dr. David Shaffer, Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Columbia University, worked on this section of the new manual, and he gave us a little background.

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(Ruthanne Reid)

Sending Messages: Voices From Juvenile Detention

As many stories as there are about juvenile detention centers, it’s rare to actually hear from the young people who currently live in them. “Sending Messages,” a podcast produced by Spy Hop, is changing that. Since 2012, Spy Hop has worked with youth in secure-care facilities in Salt Lake City, Utah to create half-an-hour-long shows on themes ranging from loyalty to childhood. Each episode is a variety of interviews, stories, and poetry. We’ve posted one of their episodes titled, “When I Get Out,” below.

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Schools In L.A. Ban “Willful Defiance” Suspensions

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Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) made headlines this week by prohibiting schools from suspending students for “willful defiance.”

If you aren’t following every twist and turn of the debate in Calif. over school discipline, you might be thinking, what’s the big deal? After all, we’re talking about one tiny line-item in the CA education code.

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Luis Flores

Young Immigrants Torn Between Their Futures And Their Families

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Tucked away in the student center at University of California Berkeley, the Undocumented Student Programis designed to be a national model. It makes college possible for students without legal status. Meng So runs the program. He’s totally passionate about the work, and insists students here couldn’t wait for national immigration reform. “So we said, as the number one public institution in America, we’re gonna take a lead, and we’re gonna act when others won’t,” said So.

That means: low cost housing, financial aid, and free legal services, on top of the in-state tuition and grants that California offers many undocumented students, who attended three years of high school.

All to support students like sophomore Carlos Hernandez Martinez.

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