Youth Leadership Online Panel - from the Archives

Before blogs, there were email exchanges, sometimes organized around a particular topic, like the online panels once hosted by the America Connects Consortium at EDC. In light of the horrific events at Virginia Tech, I was compelled to look back at the Panel on Youth Leadership that I facilitated - the online dialogue commenced on September 10, 2001. Because this panel coincided with 9/11, the youth panelists were thrown into a public forum at an extraordinarily difficult time, a time just like the WireTap Blog (above) notes about today, for "mourning and reflection." It may be of interest to review the thoughts this group of teens shared at that time, and to consider how much more - dramatically more since then - young people use online spaces to come together, to talk, to explore issues, and to create media and their own messages.