Tech-centric Ideas for Teen Tech Week
Teen Tech Week, taking place March 4-10, is a national movement to ensure teens are ethical and educated users of technology. It’s also a chance for libraries to spotlight their knowledge and usefulness in regards to information technology and online resources, or evaluate whether work needs to be done to stay relevant with new tech trends. Since March will be here before you know it, get a head start on planning using our top ideas below.
Internet of Things
Host an internet safety and best practices fair for teens. Include information on netiquette, the perfect password, social media do’s and don’ts and how to create a safe persona on the internet.
The Nostalgia Factor
For a fun event, have a retro gaming tournament inside the library featuring old classics like Oregon Trail, Zork or Super Mario Kart.
Highlight the Library
If you have a variety of online resources available for patrons, make sure everyone is aware – including teens. Have a simple event featuring cupcakes or other sweet treats to introduce teens to everything your library has to offer. If any attendees don’t currently have a library card, take the opportunity to sign them up right then and there.
Volunteering
Teenagers have grown up in the age of technology. It’s second nature to them. So why not ask them to share their knowledge with the less-informed? Have teen volunteers sign-up to run computer, smartphone and any other tech-related classes in the library. It will help your older patrons and provide teens with valuable skills.
Citation Scavenger Hunt
With so much information flooding the internet, make sure teens in your community have a good grasp on finding and citing sources when conducting research. You can make this educational programming fun by having a citation scavenger hunt – award the first one done with a small prize!
Future in Tech
Introduce teens to tech-related careers by inviting members of the community who are in relevant professions to come share an overview of their job, including their typical day-to-day. Some good professions to highlight include engineers, programmers, information security analysts and developers.
Creating a Trailer
Inspire teenagers to explore the possibilities of technology by challenging them to create a movie trailer for a book. Once the deadline has passed, invite all the participants to come in for a pizza and viewing party of all their work.
Do the (Copy)Right Thing
A main goal of Teen Tech Week is helping teens become good, ethical digital citizens. You can do just that by providing information on copyright laws, including the rules and regulations concerning digital reprints and downloads.
For easy tech programming, or to enhance any one of the ideas above, show a tech-themed movie!
Here are some of our top-booked titles:
