Global Kids' Online Leadership Program

After 6 days worth of activities completed on camp Gk, and our first project builds being unveiled, it was time for the 7th day of camp. A few residents, including my self, turned up a little early and took a seat in the Camp GK hut while waiting for the rest of the Camp GK participants, for the days activities, to arrive. Barry got teleported into the hut and said hi to everyone, he had been away from GK for a while on leave. After saying hi, and suggesting we all post/comment on this blog more, he left again to see to his recently born son.

This was the first session that Zach GKid was able to turn up to, and took a seat with everyone else in the hut. He decided to introduce himself saying;
"Zach GKid: I'm really happy to finally be here. I've been following along watching over Rafi or Lori's shoulder, but of course I prefer being able to interact with everyone directly. I joined the GK team at the beginning of the camp application process and have been getting to know GKs and SL quickly in the last month. I've been studying theory about virtual worlds but there's nothing like actually being embodied in one. I look forward to getting to know you all a bit better."

Zach decided to get things started for the second day of week two's camp by going over the guidelines with the GK Campers. Zach told us that today's "workshop" would involve interconnectedness, being mainly economic, and got Rafi to lead us all to "the factory" that had recently been built by Brooke. It was divided into different sections where campers had to go, Ghana, Turkey, Mexico, Haiti and China.

Myself, Brooke and Spunky all went into the Haiti section, and were dropped a note-card with useful information about the country we were in. Then Rafi told us all that we were about to play a game. He, Mercury and Zach were looking for a country to build a factory, which supposedly would bring a lot of good things to the chosen country. We were told to earn points, we need to create a proposal, including;
- Child Labour Laws
- Environmental Regulations
- Conditions for Worker Organizing
- Minimum Wage Laws
- % rate of taxes company must pay to the country

Crates were placed around the factory and each had with floating text representing choices Campers could make. Most groups decided to use IM to prevent people copying what they were saying. Everyone then placed there bids with crates.

Guess who won the first round?! You got it! Spunky, Brooke and I. :) On to the second round and Rafi explained that this time, the company was giving us a chance to create a better deal for the factory builders. 5 minutes were given for us to plan our bids, then Rafi looked at Turkey to start with, commenting on them having to many regulations, and the same with China. Rafi then said that Haiti had good taxes, but not good enough with everything else. Mexico got a lot of praise from Rafi as they didn't really care about their country, offering to charge no taxes on the factory for using there country. After the game had finished, with Mexico winning, we discussed whether it was right for country leaders to ruin there country so that they had a factory making money there.

Rafi then started the next activity, with Mercury rezing the whiteboard, and showing us a presentation. We then went out side to the human barometer and were given this statement to decided whether we Agree, Disagree or are Not Sure. "Globalization can only produce positive results when it is regulated by governments." We then went onto a second statement, "Ultimately, the interaction between cultures that is made possible by the advances in technology that come along with Globalization will be good for the world."

Once we finished discussing this, it was time for the end of camp. Rafi thanked us for sharing our views, and explained they had a small surprise. On went the audio streams, and we soon discovered it was Brooke’s birthday and the Gkids were singing happy birthday to him in perfect harmony. (Well almost :p )