Youth Radio
Are you up to date on what’s happening with Youth Radio in Oakland, California?
Here’s a quick run down.
What is Youth Radio?
YR is a media production company started in 1992 to offer young people a way to bring their voices to various media streams by creating content and engaging other youth through technology. YR offers practical course work in journalism, creative arts, digital photography, web design, social media, video production, technology, app development, and podcasts (to name a few). And as you can guess from the name, Youth Radio produces a weekly radio show with original content and topics relevant to today’s youth.
YR and MIT App Inventor
YR takes creating content very seriously and they even developed an app to help them deliver their original content! Students created 5 different prototypes of an app and with the help of Google, MIT, and the University of San Francisco, narrowed down the many options to include the following functionality: story sharing, collecting media from listeners and a podcast rating system. Here are a few screenshots of the final product.
Download the Youth Radio App Inventor App on the Google Play store and start tuning in!
App Making
The YR website offers links to app making tutorials suited for beginning, intermediate or advanced app developers. Doing tutorials is necessary when learning new technical skills, but what about when you want to venture off on your own to make an app from scratch? How in the world do you get started? Maybe you have no idea what to create or maybe you have too many ideas and can’t pick just one. YR has a DIY Toolkit to help you unravel the Mobile App Ideation process.
Make a Hip Hop History App (you know you want to!)
This tutorial reviews the basics in case you’re a beginning coder and need a little introduction to App Inventor. Once you have the hang of navigating the App Inventor platform, the Hip Hop History App tutorial will have you diving in to uploading media, defining variables, creating lists, making a slider and creating a player. These tools will come in handy for any app you make and will most probably inspire you to create other apps that will display images, use audio samples, or make use of a slider.
Listen Up!
Be sure to check out the latest news and podcasts offered by Youth Radio.
Online: Click the "Listen Now" button in the bottom right hand corner of the YR website or type this URL into your browser
On your mobile device: Download the YR app!
