Not-so digital natives need our help: Lessons from a Digital Inclusion Pilot

Wildscreen have just wrapped a pilot of the NatureStory Young Creators Programme, supported by the DSIT Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund. Our NatureStory Programme Manager, Charlie Whittaker, reflects on the programme and why interventions like this are so crucial for young people to develop the confidence to unlock their creativity.

Simple idea: young people already have smartphones, so let’s help them use them creatively to tell stories about nature, build digital skills, and feel more connected to the world around them, using NatureStory as a safe digital space to set a learning programme, give feedback and follow their progress. When it worked, it really worked. We saw confidence grow, creative skills develop, and young people start to notice and engage with nature in a completely different way.

Access to tech or data wasn’t the main barrier for our participants. Most already had that. What made the difference for engagement and completion of the programme was time, structure, and support to learn to use those tools creatively. Where groups worked together, with confident guidance, engagement was strong. Where it was left open or self-directed, it often didn’t happen. Creative skills need more support than ever, and maybe more unexpectedly, so do so-called “digital natives”.

At the same time, we’re seeing less space for creative exploration in formal education. Teachers have less time and emotional space than ever to deliver “nice to have” supplementary creative programmes, despite them being the best trained and placed people to do it. Yet the future of our creative industries, and arguably how we communicate some of the biggest challenges we face, depends on people being able to create content that inspires, provokes and educates.

It’s made me think about the momentum around limiting young people’s access to social media in the UK, too. Not all digital spaces are the same. NatureStory is a small, wholesome community learning space run by a charity, with no algorithms and no behavioural data collection. Where does this feature in sweeping reforms and responsibilities for big tech?

There’s a big difference between passive consumption and active, creative participation. Between platforms designed for attention and those designed for learning and wellbeing; but it’s an uphill struggle for a generation that is conditioned by tech for consumption.

Our takeaway from this pilot is pretty simple, if we want young people to create, we need to support them to do it, not just with safe, productive digital spaces but with expert guidance.

We’re taking that into the next phase of NatureStory – focusing more on supported, community-led delivery and continuing to build spaces where young people can develop creative confidence through storytelling and connection to nature.

If you’re working in education, youth engagement, or digital inclusion I’d love to hear your thoughts on this – how can we give young people the confidence to unlock their creativity? Want someone to support you with nature storytelling and creativity? Give us a shout!