Global Kids' Online Leadership Program

I am a nube. In Second Life, I spend a good deal of time standing in one place awkwardly moving my mouse and clicking, desperately spinning my scroll wheel trying to get my view back centered on myself. Somehow, I’m looking down from the clouds, and then in the next instant I’m zoomed in to the side of a bank examining the wood grain of digital shiplap from an inch away. When I’m inside buildings and I try to look around at the audience, somehow I end up outside, stuck staring at the party through tinted windows. Everything’s dim as I watch the other figures gyrate and flex with their programmatic perfect, looping dance moves (someone’s got the Chicken Noodle Soup dance activated in their inventory!) I am the watcher on the outside, frustrated and ashamed as my avatar stands as still as Chief Bromden.

I am, I admit, not even totally comfortable using the term avatar. The word’s entomology represents a gross change, a complete reversal in meaning. In Hindu, an avatar is the earthly embodiment of Lord Vishnu. Think about that, it’s like we’re calling Lara Croft Buddha. Second Life, the virtual world where thousands of people run around as rainbow colored, porn star-proportioned Jesuses. “Hey, I just got a new Smurf Jesus!” “Awesome, I bought leather pants and a bikini-top for my Jesus.” I’m not Christian; this doesn’t bother me, but I can imagine there are people who it would be insulted.

We have a nasty habit in this country of confusing the sacred and the profane. Every time I see shoppers lined up for Black Friday Midnight Sales, I think of pilgrims at a shrine. The people in sleeping bags, camping on the street to buy the first iPhones were like temporary ascetics, forsaking worldly comfort to be transfigured by the state of the art. Celebrity worship is at such a level of grotesquery I don’t even need to use anecdotes. We’ve all seen fans crying at the sight of musicians, hands outstretched across the metal barricade as if touching the flesh of a star would cure leprosy. We seek their advice as if fame makes one a sage, as if singing songs for money teaches one the secrets to end world poverty, and making action movies entitles a man to govern. I stand on the subway and look around me; a Hasid reads the Torah next to a hipster reading a tabloid next to a stockbroker reading the Wall Street Journal.

I am, of late, obsessed with economics. It is a passion similar, I think, to the study of gravity. All around us, an invisible force that virtually no one understands affects every person every moment of every day. There is nothing that can be done that cannot be bought or sold. Every human action and emotion has been harnessed to the economy, and when our backs ache few even realize why. We are in the ancient days, and the holy books have not been translated for the masses; the priests mediate the divine.

How many people have any idea where money comes from? Why does inflation rise and fall? What does the Federal Reserve do? Statistics are like stained glass windows showing us the Stations of the Cross, revealing symbols of ecstasy and misery in two-dimensional false clarity. This is starting to sound like a rant, but it is serious. What fool would gamble without knowing what the cards signify? Who would play chess with Death without understanding how the pieces move? Virtually everyone, apparently. Games. We play games because play is, in fact, one of our most basic human functions. We love games because they simplify and captivate, because the magic circle is as intoxicating as fine spirits. And, because games are a safe place to transgress and explore. I love how in Second Life I can walk into a plaza dressed as a washing machine and yell, “Hello! Can anybody hear me?” and instead of annoyed glances or terror-stricken flight, I get casual replies. People walk up and ask if I need help. They give me shoes, directions, designer suits, the ability to hula dance. We like play because it feels harmless. It feels inconsequential. In the virtual worlds we can do things we would never normally do. Like learn about economics.

Eve Online is a MMOG that launched in 2003 and, at a time when most games of that age would be waning, it is starting to attract a lot more attention. It’s a galactic sandbox game with a unique twist. Instead of dividing its 200,000 resident amongst hundreds of servers and distinct copies of the game world, all players exist in the same universe. Everyone is sharing the same environment, and the game is driven solely by player actions. While there are game company-created missions, assets and money, most of the drama comes from interactions between players.

Players enter a universe where humanity is divided into four factions: the theocratic Amarr, the militaristic Caldari, the liberal Gallente and the rebel Minmatar. Players pick a side and create their lives. They start careers managing recycling companies and mining operations, becoming wealthy industrialists manufacturing star ships, and compete as warring corporations. Different regions of space have varying levels of security from heavily policed to complete lawless. The game’s complexity and steep learning curve intimidate many gamers, but those willing to invest their time discover a fascinating world of anarco-capitalism. Without government subsidies, tariffs, taxes and tax loopholes, and international bankers, Eve Online is a close approximation of the classical free market imagined by Adam Smith. Players can trade in currency or barter, making deals they deem fair. The developers, CCP, implemented a change to break up monopolies, but other than that they’re generally laissez faire. Some players claim it is a vindication of Jeffersonian ideals—left to their own devices, people cooperate.

Others think the situation is more of a virtual Somalia, for the world is not without crime. Economic confidence scams abound, duping players out of their hard earned loot. Corporations have been infiltrated, their CEOs assassinated, and their coffers raided. When victimized, there is no government to petition. Wrongs are righted by oneself, with hired thugs, or not at all. On message boards, debates rage over which is superior: the liberty of tribal life, or the security of membership in an empire.

To help players understand the universe and make better-informed decisions, CCP hired the former Dean of the Faculty of Business and Science at the University of Akureyri, Iceland to oversee the economy. This month, Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, released the first 15 page quarterly newsletter analyzing the population and economy of the game world. Players are now able to use econometrics to weigh decisions. "Though the overall conclusion is that there has been more than 40 per cent deflation in Eve Online from September 2006 through 2007, it appears that there are underlying inflationary pressures due to increased purchasing power," November’s report states. The report presents complex data in a digestible format.

With so much complexity, rapid change and detailed data, the game actually works as training for real life business skills. “Once you have managed a virtual corporation that spans the universe, you can easily manage a real corporation that spans the earth,” says Trey Ratcliff—a former in game, and current real world CEO. As Eve’s lead economist, one of Gudmundsson’s roles is to work with universities interested in using the game to study economics and sociology.

Eve online is a totally unique game where individuals can play with ideas few people understand and even fewer debate. I am enthralled with it because reading the message boards is exploring intellectual territory rarely trod upon in everyday life. A debate on the merits of anarchy? A discussion on various types of monetary policy? Eve Online is a community of intrepid souls venturing into the temple to find the man behind the curtain. They are living and debating alternate realities, questioning the economic and social ideals that underpin modern America.

What’s interesting is that it took a simulation to revitalize a situation that was the norm in the late 1800s. When William Jennings Bryant and the People’s Party railed against the gold bugs and collusion between the bankers and government, it was the poor farmers who shook their fists in angry agreement. Though lacking formal education, these people understood inflation and deflation and how the large creditors controlled the money supply. Progressives in the 20th century, however, steadily spread an ethos of rule by experts and the technocratic elite. Everyday economic experiences were derided as unimportant. The logic of macroeconomic decisions was obfuscated behind an econometric screen and obtuse academic language. It is fitting, now, to see people reasserting the validity of their intelligence and common sense within the magic circle.

Games. We play games because they are safe spaces where we can test ourselves and our world. Eve Online is not a true free market because money is injected be NPCs paying players to complete missions. The invisible hand of the market is guided slightly by the digital hand of CCP. It is also not true anarcho-capitalism because in the virtual world high school boys and soccer moms are fearless pirates. With consequences ameliorated, players are liberated to manifest transgressive fantasies. They are also liberated, however, to be entrepreneurial and daring.

My hope is that players, emboldened by their experiences in Eve, will become more engaged citizens in the physical world. The lack of civic engagement in the United States is shameful. The public is kept in subjugation by its ignorance of the economic, legal, and political forces that shape our world. This has to change.

Players of Eve Online, I commend your understanding of a complex virtual environment. Your spirited socio-economic debates are laudable. Now please, for the sake of the world, please take those conversations from the message board to the bodega and the water cooler and the town hall. Bring back the public discourse that is the lifeblood of a healthy democracy. Don’t pester the web master; petition the senator. You are bold enough to be an interstellar pirate online, stand up and be a community leader in our world.

Posted by Jay at 9:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since joining GK in September of this year, I have had the wonderful opportunity to dedicate a majority of my time to a truly unique program. The D.I.D.I. Initiative, is one of the first opportunities that the work of Global Kids is able to reach so many of the world's young people, so that youth are not only building teams across state lines and borders, but committing to each other and working towards a common endeavor over a prolonged period of time.

What makes this Initiative so unique, is its breadth. Its ability to reach youth that would otherwise not have such an opportunity possible. The youth who cannot wait for the last bell to ring, but won’t leave after a two hour workshop on our island. This is what Global Kids is about. An opportunity for youth from around the world to learn about themselves and develop their skills, through their exposure to diverse prospectives and issues.

These young people learn within a global community of learners. This is how they make sense of themselves, of the world around them, and learn the skills necessary to approach any phenomenon that lies ahead.

Within this medium, youth are thinking about the "universality" of their own issue: That one person's issue is also the issue of another young person across the country, across the world. And they not only utilize the tools of this immersive environment to find common ground, but to harness their commonality towards change.

This is the power of virtual learning.
It is experiential learning in an embodied space.
It is a unique place where youth from around the world can log in at a specific time and experience their growth together, again and again.

But this education, like any education, is only as powerful as its reach, its impact.
And its reach is still sadly limited to the populations of the world that have access: access to education, access to technology, access to opportunity.

And so this month's staff reflection, is as much a resolution as it is a call to action: to work together to bring GK's work, as well as the work of others, to young people who don't yet have access.

We have the technology, now lets run with it.

Posted by Amira at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A conversation I had with a number of Second Life teens a while back got me thinking... Thinking about school. Thinking about education. Thinking about how it does and doesn't happen in different contexts. And, of course, thinking about our own work here at Global Kids, and where it fits into this undertaking of educating others. Before I go into those thoughts, the context of that conversation might be helpful to share with you. The involved teens have, of course, given consent to be quoted.

Me: how does your school do in terms of teaching global issues?
Teen1: My school's pretty adequate with global issues from hundreds of years ago >_> Yay AP Euro. :P
Teen1: My school's actually pretty good though with current events: It seems every class connects in some way to something that's happening now; especially Chinese, as there's a lot going on in CHina :O
Teen1: Math not so much.
Teen2: mine isn't that way at all. the closest I'll get to current events would be Mass Media
Teen2: and we don't get onto that subject for months -_-
Teen1: My school is less by-the-book and more teacher-preference.
Me: That's generally a better model.
Me: When you have good teachers, that is.
Teen2: ugh
Teen2: ours is all book.
Teen3: It totally sucks when you have a bad teacher
Teen3: It's in those cases that you wish the book were the law. <.<
Teen2: my math teacher this year.
Teen2: -shudder-
Teen1: Especially one that goes on.. and on.. and on.. >_> <_< and on... even after everybody has left =O (AP Euro :P)
Me: eeps.
Teen1: No handouts; No powerpoints; Nothing but words >_> <_<
Teen2: for bio.
Teen2: the teacher doesn't speak, at all.
Teen2: it's all notes and packets
Teen1: >_> <_< Does he get paid?

Clearly, a couple of things are evident from this exchange. The biggest one, for me, is that young people know the difference between good and bad education. This, in itself, is a somewhat revolutionary concept. Many in the educational community take a "We know best" approach, one that discounts the criticism (constructive or not) of young people as uninformed, as not being bolstered by years of experience and education (though never of course acknowledging that young people are the primary experiencers of education and thus experts in their own right...).

Thankfully for both GK and the teens we work with, we don't have that luxury. As nobody mandates that teens be involved in our afterschool programs or online education programs, we need to use a market based approach. If something doesn't work, isn't interesting and engaging, nobody will come and participate. Imagine if our public schools worked like that. If you don't like a given class or teacher, just don't go! It would be an interesting study to see where kids ended up. (Unfortunately, many high school students take this approach anyway. Truancy, anyone?)

On the extreme end of this market based approach you have someone like Will Wright, creator of SimCity, The Sims, and a general guru of games that are engaging and inherently educational. In an chapter I recently read about Will in the book Smart Bomb, I found his distinct opinion on young people and education:

Will warns... that if you try to give kids something they think is educational they won't touch it. He says the only way to reach kids, to make them engage with something, is through the commercial markets. "You know it only gets so far when a teacher holds something up and says, 'Here kids, we're going to do this,'" Will says. "Or the parents bring it to the kid and say, 'Here, I want you to play Math Blaster, Johnny,' as opposed to the kid saying, 'I want that, I want that, so-and-so is playing it and it's really cool.'

It can be said that Will, while generally agreed upon as a genius, has somewhat of a personal bias here given that he's a commercial game designer and has interest in promoting this view. But even beyond that, while most parents and teens will agree that it's easier to get a young person to play The Sims than it is to do their homework, I still believe that something is amiss here. Kids behavior in regards to learning is far more nuanced than this. I take myself as a case in point. When I had a good class in high school or college, I was taken with it. Smitten with ideas, concepts, theories, facts, I would devour books or push out pages on top of pages for assignments, simply out of passion for a given subject. And I know that I'm not alone in this.

But beyond the 'passion' factor, many young people are active learners in school and out because they understand the ramifications of being otherwise. We all do this to varying degrees. We realize that yes, even though we don't love math we need to balance our checkbooks, even though we don't like legalese we still need to learn a bit of it before we unwittingly sign away our power of attorney, people read newspapers or keep up with current events because they know that their lives are being effected by what's happening in the world, even when they may not do so out of passion. I would call this the 'bitter pill' aspect of education and learning, and something that is unfortunately at the heart of many educational approaches. "We know you don't love it now, but it'll be good for you down the line..." or "You'll thank us when you're older." are the maxims that exemplify this.

For me, the question is this: Neither of these extremes seems to make sense as the sole basis upon which we create an effective educational approach. I don't believe that all education and all the learning that we need to do in life will be "fun", and I don't believe that a quasi-neoliberal market based approach to all learning would result in a world that I'd want to live in, let alone one that would effectively teach all things that young people need to know. At the same time, I know that there's great power in learning that's incredibly engaging and that a learner wants to engage in rather than resents engaging in. So what's the right balance? And again, to hark back to my original question at the beginning of this post, where does Global Kids and our work fit into that balance, and what are we doing to figure that out? Perhaps, another post. :D

Posted by Rafi Santo at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the engagement of youth in a digital world. Well, duh. Of course I have, it’s what I do for a living. This is different, though. Of course youth are engaged in a digital world. It’s natural for them; they are digital natives. This new generation interacts with the world through digital media. Their outlook on life is filtered through their experiences, which are completely different from the experiences of my generation. I’ll give you an example.

I consider myself a digital immigrant. I did not use a computer till late in High School; my high-tech gadget as a teen was an old-fashioned ‘beeper’ that I wore on my hip; I played Pitfall! on Activision. I may be a fairly early adapter, but my brain was wired before I learned these things. I’ll never be as quick, as natural as my 15-year-old sister at thinking in a digital world.

I’ve recently begun sharing the responsibility of running a household that includes a 16-year-old high school student. Now, I have a background in education. I’ve studied how people learn, think, and use technology. None of this is the same as experiencing it first-hand. Danny, my new housemate, is a smart, creative, well-adjusted teenager. An outsider may think, “Man! That kid’s a recluse! He never leaves his bedroom, he doesn’t go hangout with kids on the corner, he doesn’t go to parties.” I know better. Danny is well connected, well spoken, and quite social. I know this because I see him in a constant stream of text messages and IM’s. We discuss over dinner his latest conquests in WoW, which he plays on multiple servers in order to enjoy the camaraderie of his old friends from Florida, as well as his new friends in New York. He tells us about the mature and collected way he convinced his school principal that the chains hanging form his pants were in no way a threat, and need not be banned from his wardrobe. I realized the other day that I know Danny is home safe from school when I see his AIM away message change around 2:30 every afternoon (of course the first thing he does is sit down at his computer and reestablish his connection to the digital world!)

So, this is my most recent perspective as I consider my work at Global Kids, and, specifically, in the D.I.D.I. Initiative. We knew from previous experience with Global Kids in TSL that teens like interacting with us. Our workshops work. We engage them; we keep their interest. This is the case for 1-2 hour workshops. It’s even the case for 8-week long summer camp programs. The D.I.D.I. Initiative is a little different though. We are asking kids to come to workshops in TSL, and they do. They come, and they respond to IM’s and they excitedly show us the things they want to build for their venture. What they don’t do, it is starting to seem, is continue the same level of engagement when they log out of TSL and turn their computers off.

The D.I.D.I. Initiative requires these teens to take some initiative. We support them, we prod them, and we poke them. We can’t, however, bring them into a classroom and put a paper in front of them and say, “Today we are going to fill out your action plans. Take out your pens.” We’ve had no problem getting teens committed to working with us in TSL. Our struggle is this crossover into their lives away from the computer (I don’t dare call it their ‘real life’ as that insinuates that what they experience with us in TSL is not real.) They are excited to participate… in TSL. Not so excited to fill out the paperwork, needed to continue this participation, however. I consider that it’s just a natural struggle to get teens to fill out tedious paperwork. Of course that’s not fun, or engaging, it’s just a necessary part of processing their projects. We can’t avoid having an action plan. We need to be sure they’ve thought the project through, considered different aspects and needs, and really committed themselves to taking part in something sustainable. Does it mean that they are not serious about these ventures? I hope not. I don’t think so.

The action plans are rolling in, with some serious attention from the DIDI Staff. Going forward, I wonder how this can best be addressed. Can we make the application process more interactive? What needs to change? Perhaps we should ask them.

Posted by Meghan at 2:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today we did something really fun in VVP. we made our own little comics. We got to take pictures to create the comics. My group did a project on Multi-tasking. It was a lot of fun making these comics.

Posted by VVP Tarana at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We finished another good week at Playing 4 Keeps this week. Despite the Thanksgiving break, everyone came back ready to work and think, and I was happy to se how little cajoling it took to get everyone focused and on task. Partly as a way to reflect on the luxury many of us had experienced over the weekend, we discussed world hunger on Monday. As usual, we used a mix of role-playing and video game playing to examine the issue. We also had a principal and teacher from a high school in Connecticut as guests. They’re considering bringing P4K to their school, and I think they were impressed with how we blend the digital with the physical to examine serious issues.

We began with an activity where students pretended to be a country’s food suppliers, and it was always distribution, not production that kept their population hungry. When we started our discussion after the role-playing, many students were surprised to learn that hunger is caused by political and economic issues, not by an inability to grow enough food. After discussing the exercise and establishing a foundation on knowledge, we moved to the computers to play 3rd World Farmer.

The game, while using simple drag and drop mechanics, is very effective at communicating the hardships faced by farmers in impoverished nations. Some people find the game to be too slow to sit with for a long time, but our students were very engaged. They were constantly frustrated by the random hardships that would sweep in and destroy the fruits of their labor. During our discussion, it was satisfying to see their understanding of the game develop to grasp how frustrating games can teach lessons about frustrating realities. We were also able to compare the game to our own Ayiti, and see how different approaches expressed similar ideas. We also looked at how our role playing exercise compared with 3rd World Farmer, discussing the strengths of both types of learning.

Today, we spent almost the whole period playing games in order to look at how different core mechanics influence the play experience and values of games. From the manic Subway Scramble to the elegant Flow, we surveyed a variety of play types. Each game appealed to different players for different reasons. In our analysis, I especially stressed the strengths of Flow, because it is such a simple and unique game. I don’t need to spend much time praising it here (there’s enough of that online) but it just represents how diverse games can be when designers liberate themselves from the traditional trappings of the game industry’s “bigger is better” mentality. Our game, I emphasized, can succeed by embracing a similar philosophy, trying to be cohesive, clean, and engaging, without being loud and ostentatious. It is that approach, I think, that holds the most promise for independent game makers trying to expand the traditional audience. Many of our students loved the game, and I think the game made a real impression on them.

Posted by Jay at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During Thanksgiving I picked up a book I had always heard about but never read, Alvin Toffler's Future Shock.

“Future shock [is] the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time.”

Future shocks was published just a few months after I was born, in 1970. It's hard not to belittle their sense that their rate of change was fast compared with our own.

A phrase that really caught my eye, right on the first page was the following: "Change is the process by which the future invades our lives."

This is a curious sentence as it inverts time. When he writes "our lives" he is really saying "the present." In other words, change is the process by which the future invades the present (not that the present is invaded by the future). That is to say, the norms of the future first take hold through contrast with previous norms, which we humans experience as change.

Not all change will last into the future, yet anything new that does continue over time must first start as experienced change. And this change, like an invasion, is not something we can stop or avoid. It is a force of nature. This is very McLuhan, the media critic who was most active in the years leading up to FutureShock.

According to McLuhan, you don't start or stop major social forces created through new technology (or media). Rather, you try and predict its flow and influence its overall course. It's not a fatalistic approach, in which humans have no agency, but its more sociology than psychology, looking at overall systems and their dynamics.

This led me to think a lot about Global Kids work exploring formal methods for utilizing the informal learning within digital media.

FutureShock is described as a disease. Nowadays, especially for today's youth, change is the norm. How would people respond if there were no advances in cellphones over the next ten years? Or if MP3 players were the same capacity as back in 2005?

Creating learning in such an environment means predicting the future. It means identifying which new media - and the forms of social relationships they will support or discourage - will become ubiquitous, and beginning the process now to prepare.

If the established digital media of the future is continually invading our present in the form of change, and change is now the norm, how do we pick out which threads to follow?

From the start of the Online Leadership Program we have tried to ride these waves, these FutureShock waves, in reverse. We started with online dialogues, then online games, followed by blogs, virtual worlds and social networks. Along the way we tried a few waves that crashed or plateaued, like podcasts, and got swept by others unaware, such as video sharing through YouTube and photo sharing through Flickr. Other waves we got swept under, unprepared, such as cellphones.

I like this quote from FutureShock as it helps to frame why the OLP is continually looking at the "new". It also helps to identify why riding the front of a wave can be stressful and take such resources.

What it does not do, however, is help us decide which wave to follow? How do we analyze the present from the perspective of the invading future?

Posted by Barry at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This month swept by like a breeze. I have to say that it feels like things are moving really fast in the OLP department in general. Just yesterday I was setting up my second life account and today I am having a meeting about streaming live video into second life. Time flies when you're having fun. I'm feeling grateful that I am working with such a dynamic group of people.

As for the VVP program, I am looking forward to watching our participants grow and expand their minds. I am also looking forward to becoming more knowledgeable about digital media issues and our youth.

Posted by Kathy at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today in my group we had to act out multi-tasking. The play was really fun and I think we did a good job.

Posted by VVP Tarana at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last workshop in the VVP program, we started off with a human barometer, which is a activity to see who agrees, disagrees, or feels unsure about a certain statement. The human barometer gives you a sense of who has conflicting or different ideas, or who thinks alike. It's sometimes good to see everyone scattered because opposing views give people a different perspective on things.

After that, we went on to getting to know our Macs. I think this is a new addition to the program because I do not remember doing this last year; however, it is good that we got to do this workshop since it's important for us to get to know the laptops we will be using for the remainder of the year. After getting the laptops, we took a picture of ourselves using the Photo Booth application in the Mac computers. It was great to see everyone add effects to their images using a mac for the first time. We used the pictures as the background to our desktops. So, from now on, when we turn on our laptops we can always look back at that day.

Then we got little slips of paper, and it gave instructions on something interesting you can do on a mac. The slip that Yessenia and I got instructed us to take a screen-shot. I think this is probably one of the best unique features of the mac because, unlike in a PC, you can just highlight the part of your screen that the shot is of. It's almost like focusing a camera or zooming in onto something. After we got to know how to do it, we had to go up and show it to everyone else. It was great to teach everyone something about the mac, and it was also wonderful to learn something from the other VVP participants.

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Participants deliberate over the issues, and one shows his support for Ron Paul

This past week we held the first in a series of Fireside workshops titled What's Your Stance?, which focuses in on a selection of presidential candidates to figure out their stances on the issues that teens that participate feel are the most important. We focused on Rudy Giuliani for the first in this series of workshops, and plan to alternate between Democratic and Republican candidates, exploring each.

The approach of the workshop was a unique one, one where I hoped to not only have participants become informed about where a participant stood, but also learn skills relating to finding credible sources online. They were tasked with first voting on what they felt were the most important issues (the options included topics like Campaign Finance Reform, Immigration, Social Issues like abortion, Global Security and others), and then broke into teams go scour the web to find out Rudy's stances on the issues, and include where they got their information from and why they believed it to be credible.

The participants did a great job of finding information on a host of issues, stating Rudy's stances on a number of them (no timetable for Iraq, claims to keep taxes low, little to no sound policy on the environment), but I think that the lesson learned is that it takes a bit more time than we expected to find and source all that info within one workshop (we'd planned for 25 minutes of research and it took more like 50 minutes), so we may need to tweak the structure to cut some of the time involved. We'll be sure to update on what works for future workshops like this one.

At the end of the workshop, we all (well, almost all, there were some protests...) put on Giuliani heads and took a pic together. What a hoot!

Posted by Rafi Santo at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The warriors prepare for the upcoming battle of wits

The event started like any other, “Welcome everybody, and thank you for joining us for this event: ‘The Teen Grid – Evolving, or Devolving? What we can do to help’.” Alex Harbinger began, “The event will now officially begin, starting with a human barometer moderated by myself. If you have never participated in a human barometer before, this is a quick rundown of how it works: There are three options you may pick: Agree, Not Sure, or Disagree. Upon choosing an opinion on a statement I will say, you move to any of the three areas, and may share your opinions.”

The Event, ‘The Teen Grid – Evolving, or Devolving? What we can do to help’, which took place last Saturday (November 10th, 2007) was filled with heavy opinions. Kicking off the event was a Human Barometer (see above) where some basic statements were made, and the participants would state their opinions:

Not everybody agreed with everything, just as not everybody disagreed with everything

Statement 1) The Teen Grid is exactly where it should be.
The mainstream opinion is no: The Teen Grid is not where it should be. It lacks many aspects, for example the grid's economy was brought up by a few of the participants – the Teen Grid’s economy is frail, and almost non-existent, where people will go to only the best known names making it hard for new designers to start off. The Teen Grid is too small – one’s problems are the next’s as well.

Statement 2) Fixing sign-ups and premium should be Linden Lab’s top priority over anything else.
The mainstream and almost unanimous belief is that Linden Lab should make it their top priority to fix the now virtually defunct sign-up system. This has also given Second Life a bad name among teens when they are unable to join.

Statement 3) The Teen Grid has become isolated from the Main Grid; with less and less Linden help and supervision.
The mainstream belief is that the Teen Grid is slowly becoming more and more isolated from both the Main Land, and from direct Linden contact. The only Lindens seeming to help are Blue and Teeple. The Teen Second Life website hasn’t been updated in nearly two years, and the farther along the timeline of TSL gets, the less enthusiasm Lindens visiting seem to display: From Lindens coming over just to hang out with Teens to now coming over only when absolutely needed (chore-like).

Statement 4) Overall, The Teen Grid’s performance has INCREASED recently.
The mainstream belief is that the Teen Grid’s performance has increased recently, and since the dawn of the Teen Grid, but not due to Linden help. It was the opinion of the participants that the Teen Grid’s performance increase is due primarily due to Teens acting on their own to better the Grid.

In a nutshell, the mainstream thoughts seemed to have been that the Teen Grid could be better, but has had a recently uptrend. However, this is not due to Lindens, but rather to the hard work of Teen residents. Linden Lab is slacking, and should fix Teen Grid problems, as well as provide better support.

After the Human Barometer, an informal discussion went underway, where participants could build upon the opinions of others, rather than being grounded to one topic.

“The Circle of Deep Thought”

A basic rundown of the discussion is that the Teen Grid is becoming increasingly stale, and any adult activity has decreased, as well as non-existent promotional sims as there are on the Main Grid. Grid Unification was brought up multiple times as well. The tie between the Teen Grid economy and the Main Grid economy caused some dismay – If the economy on the Main Grid is poor, it affects the Teen Grid (An example being the removal of stipends: The Teen Grid’s main source of revenue).

The event was successful, and a magnitude of topics were discussed. It is quite obvious that the Teen Grid is not in a stable state, but there are those dedicated to making this second world into a better tomorrow.

A special thank you to all of the Teens that participated in the event, as well as moo Money who dropped in with her approved Teen Grid avatar (Machinima Guru) to voice her opinions as well. ^.^

Posted by Alex - SL Intern at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Moo Money posted an excellent overview of the event held on Global Kids Island by one of our interns Alex Harbinger and the issues that were raised by the teens. You can view the full post below or here, where you can also read the great comments left by others.

Teen Grid: A sad state of affairs
by Moo Money Nov 13th 2007 @ 5:33PM

I logged into the Teen Grid this Saturday to attend a Machinima tools presentation by HVX Silverstar. Before I could teleport to Eye4You, I ran into a group of teens gathered on Global Kids island. Alex Harbinger was holding his monthly intern meeting, with this one being about the state of the Teen Grid.

Since this topic concerned me, I decided to stick around and weigh in. What I learned was downright depressing. Most of the teens were very unhappy with their current experience on TG. I gathered some of their experiences, including pictures, to share with the Massively readers. I hope this helps you get an accurate description of what they're facing over there.

The first part of the event involved a human barometer, with three choices. For each statement, you would choose from Agree, Not Sure, or Disagree. Some of the results were surprising. The second part involved an informal discussion where they could sound off about anything.

Continue after the jump to see the questions and highlights from the event ...

Statement 1: The Teen Grid is exactly where it should be.

* The economy could be better.
* Population is so small that everyone is up in your drama.
* Teens shouldn't be exposed so much to adults because they're too quick to trust.
* Can't buy mainland.
* Educational islands coming in and treating teens like test subjects.
* Adults are coming in easier than teens, many of whom can't sign up because they don't have cell phones from carrier list.
* Grid is so small that people shop in same areas, not allowing new designers to make money.
* People are scared to invest, which hurts their economy.
* Adults coming into TG should pay higher prices for land to subsidize it for teens.

Statement 2: Fixing sign-ups and premium should be Linden Lab's top priority over anything else.

* They should fix the lag first.
* Because signups are nerfed, TG can't grow their population and economy.
* There should be a 100% TG team at LL. Teens are the future MG customers, and they have trust issues with the brand already.
* SL TG has a bad reputation among foreign teens in schools because they are unable to join.
* LL should work to improve the image of SL so that more people will join.

Statement 3: The Teen Grid has become isolated from the Main Grid; with less and less Linden help and supervision.

* One person messaged three Lindens and none replied back.
* Blue and Teeple are the only two Lindens that seem to care.
* We don't make as much money for them as MG does, so we're not as important.
* The only two Lindens that seem to log in are Blue and Spike, and they do it sparsely at best.
* The TSL website hasn't been updated in two years.
* When the entire grid was smaller, the Lindens used to like coming over to hang out with the teens, but now they act like it's a chore and get defensive about it.
* You used to just be able to randomly bump into Lindens while flying around, but now they only come in to fix things.
* What happened to the community manager for TG that they were looking to hire for?
* If they spent more time on TG, they'd lose profit. Then there would be no grids.
* There should be two Lindens dedicated to TG affairs.

Statement 4: Overall, The Teen Grid's performance has INCREASED recently.

* Performance is worse than before.
* Since teens haven't been relying on LL, they've been improving the quality of TG themselves.
* They've become better at building and just about everything on their own.
* Too many islands are closed off to the teens.
* There is less newbie behavior.

The overall consensus was "The mainstream thoughts seemed to have been that the Teen Grid could be better, but has had a recent uptrend. However, this is not due to Lindens, but rather to the hard work of Teen residents. Linden Lab is slacking, and should fix Teen Grid problems, as well as provide better support."

Points of their informal discussion:

* TG hasn't gone anywhere lately. While it has evolved and grown, it's become stale. Some sims are little more than prim wastelands.
* Furries cause a lot of problems on TG.
* Some of TG's more prominent members are leaving. LL should take note, especially to those paying large amounts of tier.
* Why aren't there islands on TG for promotions like CSI?
* The two grids should merge.
* Mozilla wouldn't be responsible for the porn that they might look at in Firefox, so why should Linden Lab be responsible for them on the Main Grid?
* Linden Lab is supposedly working on an "all ages area".
* There is no difference between the rules for PG sims on either grid. There should be shared PG areas.
* They go through sex education in school, so they should be mature enough to avoid adult areas.
* It's easier to create an MG account than a TG account.
* If the economy collapses on MG, it affects the finances of TG.
* Economy on TG should be separate from MG.
* Stipend removal cripped the TG economy. It was only put in place to reduce inflation on MG.

In my opinion, the Teen Grid is in sad shape. Teens shouldn't have these feelings of abandon, but they're left with no choice. They can barely get the help that they need, aren't visited by the Lindens that they adore, and they're used as cheap labor by many educational institutes.

If Linden Lab isn't going to completely overhaul TG, they should just merge it. As broken as the Main Grid is, it's not even one quarter as bad as TG. I'm totally heartbroken whenever I visit.

I'd like to give thanks to many of the teens that participated in this discussion. Lucky Figtree, Storm Basiat, Alex Harbinger, and Anna Normandy were particularly helpful!

Posted by joyce at 3:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Motorola announced this past week the recipients of their new Foundation Grants program. Global Kids was picked as one of the recipients with our proposal of creating further virtual world focused curriculum, this time spotlighting teaching science through virtual worlds.

Read the press release below or here.

Motorola Foundation Grants $3.5 Million to Inspire Next Generation of Inventors

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Educational Programs Will Reach Children Across the Country

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. – 14 Nov. 2007 – The Motorola Foundation announced today the recipients of its Innovation Generation Grants, a $3.5 million initiative to inspire young people to embrace science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

The 2007 Innovation Generation Grants support 106 breakthrough programs that use innovative approaches to develop interest in technology-related fields while strengthening leadership and problem-solving skills. The grants target programs that encourage girls and ethnic groups currently underrepresented in technology fields. Of the recipient programs:
▪ 41 percent serve African American students
▪ 19 percent reach Hispanic youth
▪ 31 percent specifically target girls

“Motorola wants to show the next generation of inventors that science is fun, challenging and possible,” said Eileen Sweeney, director of the Motorola Foundation. “Through the Innovation Generation Grants, organizations across the country are helping students develop a passion for science and math by making the connection between the cool technology they enjoy every day and the educational foundation they will need for greater success in the classroom and beyond.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs requiring science, engineering or technical training will increase 24 percent between 2004 and 2014 to 6.3 million, making critical thinkers and practical problem solvers fluent in today’s technology even more crucial.

The programs supported by the Innovation Generation Grants range from after-school and summer science enrichment programs to activities that promote innovative technology use and teacher-training initiatives, including:

* Global Kids, Inc. in New York will develop and test a high school curriculum that will enable educators to utilize the virtual world of Second Life to engage students in exploring global science, technology and programming.

* Half Moon Bay High School in Half Moon Bay, Calif., will implement a new way of teaching algebra in Spanish that engages students in learning math concepts using new technology and hands-on learning, inspiring interest and pursuit of math, science and technology careers.

* The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York will work with four public schools from the Young Women’s Leadership Foundation to develop curriculum, train teachers and host student workshops in school classrooms and aboard the former aircraft carrier turned museum to cultivate a deep interest in science among young women.

* The Marine Science Institute in Redwood City, Calif., will engage students in conducting scientific exploration of the San Francisco Bay on its 90-foot research vessel, at its pier lab, in the classroom and through the Internet.

* The National Society of Black Engineers in Alexandria, Va., will meld the engineering design process with math and science knowledge in a fun and interactive environment at its Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) Camp.

* Working In The Schools’ (WITS) new Chicago workplace mentoring program will provide a literacy program with a math and science focus, matching elementary school students one-to-one with business volunteers.

“With our Innovation Generation Grant, we are involving girls at an early age in hands-on design and engineering experiences," said Kathy Cloninger, CEO for Girl Scouts of the USA, which will launch new FIRST LEGO League teams across the country and expand its Design and Discovery Camps with its grant. "Thanks to Motorola, we can challenge traditional perceptions of girls' abilities and close the well-documented gender gap – so they can continue to strengthen their role as members of the STEM workforce.”

Beyond funding, Motorola is linking recipients of the Innovation Generation Grants with each other through a new company-hosted portal site that helps expand and enhance the global network of advocates for innovation in science, technology, engineering and math education.

Many of the grants also will engage Motorola engineers and scientists as volunteers to guide, mentor, tutor and provide valuable insight into the opportunities and excitement of their line of work.

Since 2000, Motorola Foundation has contributed more than $35 million in grants to a variety of programs that expand student access to science and technology fields.

For a complete list of Innovation Generation Grant recipients, visit www.motorola.com/giving.

About Motorola Foundation
The Motorola Foundation is the independent charitable and philanthropic arm of Motorola. With employees located around the globe, Motorola seeks to benefit the communities where it operates. The company achieves this by making strategic grants, forging strong community partnerships, fostering innovation and engaging stakeholders. Motorola Foundation focuses its funding on education, especially science, technology, engineering and math programming. For more information, on Motorola Corporate and Foundation giving, visit www.motorola.com/giving.

About Motorola
Motorola is known around the world for innovation and leadership in wireless and broadband communications. Inspired by our vision of seamless mobility, the people of Motorola are committed to helping you connect simply and seamlessly to the people, information and entertainment that you want and need. We do this by designing and delivering "must have" products, "must do" experiences and powerful networks -- along with a full complement of support services. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and impact, Motorola had sales of US $42.8 billion in 2006. For more information about our company, our people and our innovations, please visit www.motorola.com.

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © Motorola, Inc. 2007. All rights reserved.

Posted by joyce at 2:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

UNICEF just posted a new video report, and transcript, about our Convention on the Rights of the Child Summer Camp, which we ran last summer in Second Life.

Please check it out here.

Posted by joyce at 3:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In some parts of the world many of the teenagers our age do not have the same chances as we do here in the United States to attend college. Including here, some of the students cannot have the same education due to their legal status. In some of the countries worldwide teenagers do not have an opportunity to attend college because their parents don't make enough money to pay it off. It is sad to see that teenagers our age are unable to attend college just because of their economical status. In other places, people are only able to receive an education up to the third grade. This is what we talked about today in our VVP workshop.

Posted by VVP Julio at 5:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi ,
is me again, for the first time I am early to Global Kids and it feels good. Today, we are suppose to make are own avatars. I think that it is going to be a good experience.

Posted by VVP Michael at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We only have one day of P4K this week, so we kind of made it a mash up of issues that would be discussed in separate sessions. The topic was war games, and we watched some videos that examine the intersection between virtual combat and real world conflict. We planned to watch more videos than we ended up seeing, but that was mainly because discussion (thankfully) lasted longer than expected.

First, we viewed The Shock Doctrine, a short film by Alfonso Cuaron and Naomi Klein based on her recent book of the same name. The film summarizes how CIA interrogation techniques developed in the 1950s have been applied on a global scale. Populations are “shocked” through war or political upheaval in order to pacify them as radical neo-liberal economic reforms are implemented. Next, we briefly discussed America’s Army, the free, online first person shooter released by the US Army as a recruitment tool. We then watched documentation of media artist Joseph DeLappe’s project Dead In Iraq. DeLappe logs in to an active America’s Army game, drops his weapon, and begins typing the name, age, branch of service and date of death for each American casualty in Iraq. Other players inevitably kick him off, and he simply signs back in to another game and repeats the process. Finally, we watched a CNN report on the Predator drone—America’s unmanned aerial vehicle. The Predator is a large remote controlled plane that is flown by pilots using joysticks and video screens based in either Iraq or Nevada. They perform reconnaissance and can also fire Hellfire missiles.

Reactions to the short videos varied from shock and outrage to tentative approval. The Shock Doctrine was shocking. Students, inured to violent movies and violent events in their neighborhoods, were nonetheless reduced to silence by scenes from 1950s mental hospitals and modern interrogation rooms. The clinical language of the CIA’s Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation manual is somehow more disturbing than buckets of on-screen gore. A monotone description of how suffering should be inflicted on prisoners is more frightening than fictitious fangs gleaming in the darkness. There was deep contemplation as we discussed how the reality of interrogation techniques and economic upheaval relate to the rhetoric of making the world safe for democracy and consumer freedom. I fear seeping myself in economic theory, realpolitik, and current events has made me cynical. It was comforting to see young people getting emotional as they wrestled with issues of freedom and security, and what price the world should pay to ensure our comfort.

The video of DeLappe’s protest triggered a discussion of personal responsibility and video games. The students (like the larger world) are divided as to what effect violent video games have on players. Some felt people need to control themselves better, and not make excuses for their actions. Even those who don’t believe violent games have any effect on themselves, however, think younger, less reflective players could be susceptible. We ran out of time, unfortunately, and weren’t able to discuss DeLappe’s protest directly, and what good, if any, they felt it could do. We also weren’t able to show a video of a group of Iraq Veterans Against the War protesting America’s Army.

“I knew those things existed in video games and movies, but I never thought they were real,” said one wide-eyed student about the Predator drone. Some students were glad that new weapons technology keeps US soldiers farther from the front lines and out of harm’s way, but were distressed that such weapons could ultimately lead to escalating violence. One student drew parallels to the atomic bomb, another weapon initially justified as a way to save soldiers’ lives.

Teaching is part preparation and part improv; the ratio of one to the other varies every week. Yesterday, I planned to do more than could actually be accomplished. We had technical glitches and some organizational confusion. It happens. Despite those bumps, however, we also had what matters most: thoughtful minds eager to examine difficult issues. Our students impress me every week. They are growing up in difficult times and struggling to make sense of it the best they can. They want to do right in the world; we need to buy them time so they have a chance.

Posted by Jay at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello everybody! I am Nicholas Kit ingame! This is my first year as an intern and I was really excited to know that I got accepted. This wednesday, I held my first intern event, called CRC@18. What it basically was, was the celebration of the CRC's 18th birthday. The CRC is the Convention on the Rights of the Child. What it basically does is gives all minors a stress-free and healthy life to grow up with. It was written by the United Nations and has been accepted by every country except Somolia and the United States. Even though every country has it, it doesn't mean that it is enforced. That is what the goal of this event was.

The main goal of this event was to teach teens about there rights, as given to them by the CRC. Most teens do not know what all their rights are, so this event was really helpful. We started the event off by showing 10 one-minute machinimas which were created by the CRC Machinima Camp this summer.

It seemed like everyone really enjoyed these films. After the showing, I had some of the people who made the films speak for our audience. They told what the best part about the camp was and how they felt after learning about the CRC. They also talked about how important the CRC really is. They told how that without it, many rights would be ignored.

Lucky Figtree Speaking

And then, for our final act, we went outside and took some pictures with our "Children's Rights Rocks" and had a party. That party lasted forever.

This event was very fun and interesting. I cannot wait to do another one in the coming months. Well, I see everyone then!

-Nick
-Nicholas Kit

Posted by Nick - TSL Intern at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday afternoon was the beginning of a new exciting collaboration! Students from Peggy Sheehy’s tech club at Suffern Middle School are joining TSL to take part in the D.I.D.I. Initiative! Three students logged in during yesterday’s after school technology club and ventured over to D.I.D.I. Initiative Island! GK Staff, Ramapo teens, and some of our TSL regulars spend the next hour talking, touring DIDI Island, helping to learn Second Life, discussing our DIDI venture ideas, and getting to know each other! The TSL ‘oldbies’ were so impressed that the Ramapo kids got to go onto TSL during school! The Ramapo kids were excited to be new members of a global community as they got to know other teens from across the US and even the UK!

Here we are hanging out at DIDI's Coffee House!

We can’t wait for the rest of the Ramapo tech club to get their accounts! Soon we will be running customized D.I.D.I. Workshops and getting them started towards launching their very own Social Ventures!

Posted by Meghan at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thing that I like about coming ground is that I get to know how much I know on other things and what I don't know. I get to learn new things too.

Posted by VVP Jamila at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Computers are one of the most important machines that are used today. Using computers allows people to go online and do much more than what they may expect. Computers make life easier for students and many adults. The computer allows me to do many projects at a much faster pace because you can do everything on computers.

Posted by VVP Julio at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thing that I like about computer is that you get find information on anything. Another thing that I like about computer is that you get to chat.

Posted by VVP Jamila at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What I like about common ground is how it helped us get to know about each other and what we do online.

Posted by VVP Christopher at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Please join me on common ground if you care about things like racism and child violence.

Posted by VVP Michael at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think it was good because you get to see what you have in common with other people.

Posted by VVP Rashad at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At first I didn't understand the game common ground. Now I have a better understanding of what it means. I think common ground is good way to know what other people have or understand what they believe in. I was surprised how some people did not know two African countries but I also know that almost every one has an electronic device.

Posted by VVP Juan at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I liked the fact that we got to learn more about each other that we didn't know before.

Posted by VVP Tarana at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I liked when they let us use computers, it's fun.

Posted by VVP Myles at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like common ground and the fact that I get to know that other young people have alot in common and that we all do similar things, such as myspace.

Posted by VVP Doldech at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What I like about common ground is that I was able to observe how many teens have access to the internet and how many teens use digital media.

Posted by VVP Justin at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thing I liked about common ground was that we got to see how many people have experience with various things.

Posted by VVP Thein at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What I like about common ground is that we as a whole can share ideas that we might have in common.

Posted by VVP Jin at 5:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think the activity 'Common Ground' was an interesting game. It wasn't like a regular question-and-answer type of thing teachers would ask. I like the fact it also gave us a chance to stretch our legs. Ha ha. Above all, I think it gave us a chance to see who is strong in some areas in computers.

Posted by VVP Yessenia at 5:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I liked how we came to know that everyone has similarities. Even if we are different race/country/religion every one is the same in some way or another.

Posted by VVP Harpal at 5:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My opinion about common ground is that I like that we share our hobbies and ideas.

Posted by VVP Mathew at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What I like about common ground is that I get to learn about other people's opinion and what they like as well.

Posted by VVP Brian at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What I liked about the game common ground is that I got to learn new things about new people. What I didn't like is that the noise from the heater made it hard for me to hear some people.

Posted by VVP Natalie at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think computer is a amazing invention Now more use it every day. it makes life easy for people . To tell you the truth i like about computer is that there is a lot fun games to play online and communicating with other people around the world

Posted by VVP Juan at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thing I liked about common ground is we get to learn new things from others.

Posted by VVP Sabina at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What i liked about common Ground is that it gave us a chance to see how connected we all are to the internet and how much we rely on internet access for different things.

Posted by VVP Vanessa at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like the common grounds because I got to know more about the kids in global kids i didnt like the common ground activity because they only ask a lil bit of question

Posted by VVP Gabriel at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I loved doing this activity again for the second year of the Virtual Video Project; I realized that, similar to last year, most of the teens that are in the program are heavily involved with using digital media in their daily lives.

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week’s P4K was on a controversial topic that is near and dear to me: values. I work part time at Global Kids, and other hours of my week are filled at the Tiltfactor Lab, a game research organization based at Hunter College. Tiltfactor’s main project right now is Values At Play, an investigation into how values manifest in game design and how designers can be more conscious of the worldviews they embed in their games. Everything created is a reflection of the creator’s beliefs and video games are no different; I touched on this in my staff reflections post last month. It’s a topic on my mind a lot.

What bothers me is that the term "values" has become such a loaded word because it is used almost exclusively by Christian conservatives. No one, however, has a monopoly on values, and the purpose of the Values At Play project is not to impose a particular belief on games, deny that every game already has particular values (good and bad) or criticize the values in games today. We do, however, criticize the general lack of value diversity in commercial games, and aim to help designers understand how to be more intentional about the values their games express. Playing 4 Keeps’ games, of course, are great examples of new values that can be explored in video games. Ayiti deals with poverty and education and the forthcoming Consent addresses racism in prison medical experimentation. I can’t think of a single other game that deals with those issues.

Enough introduction though; what did we do and how did it work? The students started by playing a very entertaining game Feeding Frenzy; swimming around as little fish eating littler fish, trying to grow to be big fish. When we discussed the game and what themes (values) were in it, I was impressed to immediately hear ideas about status, competition, and “no matter how big you get, there’s always someone bigger.” From that analysis we moved on to some other games they like: Grand Theft Auto, Devil May Cry, and others. Students immediately recognized the Grand Theft Auto is primarily a game about the importance of status. Violence is a means of gaining status for oneself, one’s gang, and one’s neighborhood. They were also quick to notice how stereotypical all the characters are in the game; the minority males are violent, the women sex objects. These are common criticisms of GTA, of course, but it was interesting to hear the students identify them on their own. The idea that values are embedded in design can seem abstract upon first hearing, but can become quite obvious upon reflection.

Once the students became comfortable with thinking about how values are designed into games, we moved on to our next exercise. The majority of the afternoon was spent using a tool developed in the Values At Play project: Grow-A-Game Cards. The cards can be downloaded off the Values At Play site and used as part of a larger curriculum or on their own. The included instructions are merely suggestions, and users are free to modify the cards and use as they please as long as it’s not for commercial purposes. For our class, we did a two-card exercise. The class was divided into four groups and each group selected two cards from the deck; two groups picked a game and a challenge (global issue) and two groups picked an action (game mechanic) and goal (value). The groups had to design games that involved teamwork and the two cards they selected. After twenty minutes, the groups all presented their games and the groups voted for the one they liked the best.

The results were great. I know I’m starting to sound like a boastful parent in these posts, but the kids make me do it. None of the games were fully developed, but all showed thoughtfulness and potential. There was a complex, expanded version of team tic tac toe. I didn’t fully understand it, and there was a lot of math involved, but the creators at least were able to play it fine. A game called Phoenix was actually invented by some members of one group outside of the program and then adapted for the exercise’s constraints. It involved monkey bars and helping teammates cross lava fields, and seemed to be excellent training in case a volcano ever erupts while you’re on a playground. Another game addressed racism and Tetris. The different pieces represent different racial groups and players have to make lines composed of equal numbers of each piece.

The winning game really impressed me. After picking the “disease” challenge card and “Monopoly” game card, one group invented a pharmaceutical company Monopoly game. Players would be competing pharmaceutical companies and would use advertising (propaganda they called it), manipulation of the media, and dirty tricks (spreading false information about the competition) to win. I got a little misty eyed when I heard the presentation, and I would love to see it produced. The design demonstrated an understanding that many serious games lack: it is fun to be bad. Video games are a safe space where we can transgress social boundaries, and serious games can teach by letting players be the villain. Molleindustria’s McDonald’s Game is fun because you get to run the greedy corporation, but it still teaches you real lessons. Serious games are often didactic and dull; pharmaceutical Monopoly would teach everything a blatantly anti-pharmaceutical company game could and still be entertaining.

It is during the game design exercises that I feel most confident Playing 4 Keeps is working. I love to hear students analyze games and discuss global issues, but when they design games the knowledge is applied. From their first modifications of musical chairs, to the Canarsie rock, paper, scissors games, the found objects games, and now the games from the Grow A Game cards, the students have demonstrated an increasingly complex understanding of serious game design. They understand serious issues and how decisions about rules, goals, and mechanics can produce games that explore those issues. I am optimistic about the future of video games because twice a week I meet future game designers who prove to me they’re capable and eager to push the state of the art.

Posted by Jay at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Transcript of USC presentation

[18:03] Tori Annenberg: Hi Everyone
[18:03] Tori Annenberg: Welcome
[18:03] Tori Annenberg: If you have not done so already, please play your video
[18:04] Tara5 Oh: just a sec let me see if i have enough CPU to do it while logged in
[18:04] Tara5 Oh: they are quite large files
[18:04] Tori Annenberg: This event is hosted by Common Sense Media, the MacArthur Foundation, Global Kids, and USC Annenberg School.
[18:05] Titian Littlething: sound is terrible?
[18:06] Tori Annenberg: This event will be a streamed panel. Please feel free to chat along side the panel presentations.
[18:06] Tara5 Oh: nice!
[18:06] Titian Littlething: is anyone able to understand this?
[18:07] PsyBorg Leonov: what ?
[18:07] Tori Annenberg: We will not be streaming this back to the live audience, however we will make this conversation available after the event and hope to have an equally engaging conversation here in SL.

[18:11] Schmilsson Nilsson: Everyone can hear Julia Stasch?
[18:12] Meredith Snookums: yes here
[18:12] Abaris Brautigan: I can...
[18:12] Frans Charming nods
[18:12] Anna Annenberg: I've got audio
[18:12] Ivy Innis: i can
[18:12] PsyBorg Leonov: no audio here
[18:12] Anna Annenberg: PsyBorg, do you have video?
[18:13] Schmilsson Nilsson: Video is working for me.
[18:14] Tara5 Oh too
[18:14] Titian Littlething: /in the us
[18:17] Abaris Brautigan: Will the Jenkins essay be available online somewhere? Can you provide a link please?
[18:17] Tori Annenberg: Will all of you here let us know where your are from and if you are here with an institution, which one?
[18:18] Tori Annenberg: Yes I will provide a link from our web. :)
[18:18] Tori Annenberg: uscpublicdiplomacy.org
[18:19] Ring Talaj: Hi, Tori, all. Ring Talaj, here from City College and the New York City Department of Education.
[18:20] Tori Annenberg: Thanks Ring.
[18:20] Tori Annenberg: Others?
[18:20] Rissa Maidstone: Kim Smith with CMP out of Seattle.
[18:20] Meredith Snookums: Meredith Snookumns from University of Delaware
[18:20] Ivy Innis: Ivy Innis, from Bard College MAT, NY
[18:21] PsyBorg Leonov: Psyborg Leonov from Venus
[18:21] Frans Charming: Jeroen Frans from The Vesuvius Group
[18:21] Ozma Malibu: Sandy Andrews, ASU Applied Learning Technologies Institute *and the Nonprofit Commons in SL
[18:22] Schmilsson Nilsson: Welcome Ozma!
[18:22] Titian Littlething: Arlene Shipley - AngelHEROS sl and rl
[18:23] Rhiannon Chatnoir works for Global Kids, is the editor of and runs their blog http://www.holymeatballs.org
[18:25] Tori Annenberg: Thank you alll!!
[18:27] Griffin Wrigglesworth: Tim Rayworth from Massachusetts Env Ed Society
[18:29] Titian Littlething: /what was this mans name/
[18:32] Tori Annenberg: This is Doug Thomas, professor at USC
[18:33] Titian Littlething: /ty torry
[18:34] Tori Annenberg: moderated by Jim Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense Media
[18:35] Tori Annenberg: Has anyone here delt with these issues?
[18:36] Titian Littlething: /raises hand
[18:38] No room to sit here, try another spot.
[18:39] Larysa Freenote: / text Educational Technology Specialist
[18:40] Binara Takashi: ...
[18:43] Binara Takashi: have they gotten to SL's stuff yet?
[18:43] Meredith Snookums: not yet
[18:44] Binara Takashi: ok
[18:44] You: not yet, Barry Joseph is next to speak.. and he will on that
[18:45] Binara Takashi: Well, 13 year olds shouldn't be on SL, it's mainly for adults
[18:45] Binara Takashi raises hand
[18:45] Binara Takashi: but some of the teens like to sneak through the barrier
[18:46] Tori Annenberg: For your records - Yasmin Kafai spoke first from UCLA and this is Barry Joseph from Global Kids.
[18:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir is filming machinima of Barry talking about machinima... meta :P
[18:48] Morris Dawes: ah....made it
[18:50] Binara Takashi: who's taking all the pics?
[18:50] Frizzy Lisle: /sit
[18:50] Tara5 Oh Binara!
[18:50] Binara Takashi: ...
[18:50] Binara Takashi stares at the screen
[18:50] Tara5 Oh: / me
[18:51] Tara5 Oh: /hard to get a nice screen shot in SL!
[18:52] Tara5 Oh: /actually many people taking pics it seems!
[18:52] Frans Charming: /=D yep
[18:53] MonicaMarlo Martinek: nice back of the head shot. :)
[18:53] Binara Takashi: she's in front of the cam
[18:57] Larysa Freenote: Great question!
[18:57] Binara Takashi: Dude, literacy is a good thing!
[18:59] Tori Annenberg: Thoughts to this?
[19:00] Tutti Barbosa: i'm in the amphitheater
[19:00] Frans Charming: Well.. voice is becoming a standard in vw and games very rapidly.
[19:00] Binara Takashi: Well, the virtual worlds have an outlet for social interaction
[19:00] MonicaMarlo Martinek: yeah but not great quality voice yet, and that matters.
[19:00] Stargazer Blazer: Likeminded people are able to meet up with each other
[19:00] Ozma Malibu: Binara, I love your remark "literacy is a good thing"
[19:00] Frizzy Lisle: i don't see the media tab
[19:01] Stargazer Blazer: regardless of geography or other physical prejudices
[19:01] Binara Takashi: ^_^
[19:01] Griffin Wrigglesworth: If voice is incorporated, then at least inflection is there- up to 75% of communication is carried through non-verbal cues...
[19:01] You: I agree with that... that you are able to connect with others irregardless of geography
[19:01] Dirk DaSilva: not seeing mediatab either
[19:01] Stargazer Blazer: People can communicate about Who they are, the physical becomes less important
[19:01] You: Adam Aberman spoke at SLCC one on one of the non profit panels
[19:02] Binara Takashi: well, text doesn't go away...
[19:02] Stargazer Blazer: It is different, not necessarily a bad thing.
[19:03] Stargazer Blazer: they are reading and writing in a social context, isnt' more reading and writing a good thing?
[19:03] Binara Takashi yawns
[19:04] You: and problem solving, working on social ineraction skills in other ways.. tons of useful skills
[19:04] Binara Takashi: I hate getting up early in the morning and not getting a nap
[19:04] Dirk DaSilva thinks that's one way of getting people to look at your profile
[19:04] Stargazer Blazer: The need to connect, it doesn't go away just because we shelter our children from the "outside world"
[19:05] Griffin Wrigglesworth: R U sure this m8kes for literate kids?
[19:05] Binara Takashi: Well, once that kid gets out on his/her own, being sheltered becomes shell shock.
[19:06] Stargazer Blazer: if you can read and write, is that what you mean by literate?
[19:06] PsyBorg Leonov: hoo is liter8 these days?
[19:06] Titian Littlething: egg actly ;))
[19:06] Griffin Wrigglesworth: :)
[19:06] Binara Takashi: somewhat. at least it's better than some chatrooms they could be learning leet in.
[19:06] Stargazer Blazer: Spelling and literacy are two different things.
[19:07] Titian Littlething: im literate - in typo ;))
[19:07] MonicaMarlo Martinek: but to use l337, you have to have a pretty strong command of what you're changing..... hmm.. is that so bad?
[19:07] PsyBorg Leonov: digerate perhaps, but letters and reading have morphed
[19:08] Stargazer Blazer: me too, I can understand what you are saying... but what about people for whom English is a second language?
[19:08] PsyBorg Leonov: I speak "typonese" quite well now
[19:08] Binara Takashi: I really hate chatspeak
[19:08] Ozma Malibu: Isn't this just a different sort of language. Still literacy, still communication. Trent Batson at Gallaudet said that this sort of communication is closer to living English, and easier for hearing impaired to learn
[19:08] MonicaMarlo Martinek: to each his own. :)
[19:08] Tori Annenberg: BTW - I'd like to invite all of you to join us in the MacArthur Foundation SL Eventsto receive info about events like this.
[19:08] Griffin Wrigglesworth: If literacy is the ability to communicate ideas, then this "Language" is superiorly efficient.
[19:08] Stargazer Blazer: and more accessible for people with hearing impairments
[19:09] Griffin Wrigglesworth: (Which make me virtually illiterate)
[19:09] Stargazer Blazer: not to mention other limitations
[19:11] Binara Takashi: I'd love to have an accredited uni here in SL offering classes
[19:11] MonicaMarlo Martinek: woot to that Binara~
[19:11] Dirk DaSilva: perhaps once LL makes sitting easier
[19:11] Stargazer Blazer: There are accredited unis offering classes in SL
[19:11] MonicaMarlo Martinek: snarf~
[19:11] You: you mean a free standing university solely offering classes via SL
[19:12] Binara Takashi: really? which unis? *wants to take a Japanese course on SL*
[19:12] You: yes, everyone from MIT, etc have taught classes in SL
[19:12] You: there are a few language focused educational groups
[19:12] You: a good resource if you are interested in educational related topics is to join the SL educational lists
[19:13] Claudia Linden: http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Institutions_and_Organizations_in_SL#UNIVERSITIES.2C_COLLEGES_.26_SCHOOLS
[19:13] Binara Takashi: I'd also love to take an arcaeology class
[19:14] Dirk DaSilva: I am quite serious.. sitting doesn't work in SL. That's level one. If they don't pay attention to the little things, why worry about anything else?
[19:14] You: SL would be a great medium in regards to archeology.. you could build up dig sites and hold excavations via scripted means.. would be great
[19:14] You: normally sitting does
[19:14] Dirk DaSilva: nope
[19:14] Dirk DaSilva: look
[19:14] Tori Annenberg: We've been aware of this, and were not able to get it fixed before this event.
[19:14] Binara Takashi drools over the idea of digging in an egyptian ruin
[19:14] Dirk DaSilva: "There is not suitable..."
[19:14] Dirk DaSilva: I understand
[19:14] Frans Charming: /we know Dirk it is wierd here. The builder should have tested and dropped some sit scripts in.
[19:15] You: the way these benches are built it doesn't allow for it easily, there is a script error
[19:15] Dirk DaSilva: it is not your fault
[19:15] Dirk DaSilva: LL has to show us users that they mean it
[19:15] Stargazer Blazer: my legs aren't tired :)
[19:15] Dirk DaSilva: the essentials have to work
[19:15] Dirk DaSilva: not just poseballs
[19:15] Dirk DaSilva: simple things
[19:15] Dirk DaSilva: sitting on benches
[19:15] Tori Annenberg: No worries -
[19:15] Dirk DaSilva: etc etc
[19:15] MonicaMarlo Martinek: besides, we can all fly- why do we need chairs? Is it helping our sense of presence here to sit, or are we adhering to tradition?
[19:15] Dirk DaSilva: Sitting lets us focus on the subject at hand.
[19:15] Frans Charming: /yea it is really annoying. especially because there was a time that sitting was working as you would expect
[19:15] Dirk DaSilva: Standing distracts. At least it does to me.
[19:16] Dirk DaSilva: Sitting simply cannot be this hard to implement correctly.
[19:16] You: I think there is something in that we take to things that are familiar in our virtual surroundings
[19:16] You: as they would be in RL
[19:16] Dirk DaSilva: Yes, and those RL things are important.
[19:16] Dirk DaSilva: If they where not we would be having this conversation on IRC.
[19:16] MonicaMarlo Martinek: I think I sit because I am used to coming into a learning space to sit and focus, but I'm not sure that isn't anything more than my conditioning....
[19:17] Binara Takashi: if anyone's coming in after this to here, I'm greeting 'em
[19:17] You: so everyone knows, there is also a companion event going on in the SL teen grid ... this is being broadcasted there and the teens are also discussing
[19:17] MonicaMarlo Martinek: good point! Gaming the system takes game ;)
[19:17] MonicaMarlo Martinek: would love to see teen transcripts.
[19:18] MonicaMarlo Martinek: or machinima :)
[19:18] Griffin Wrigglesworth: Any way to get the chatlog from the teen grid?
[19:18] Binara Takashi: hehe
[19:18] MonicaMarlo Martinek: booyah!
[19:18] Ivy Innis: wiill that be on the blog?
[19:18] Meredith Snookums: I think some can be found on youtube. . the machinima
[19:18] You: well they should be saving them and all of the stuff we compile will be put up on our blog http://www.holymeatballs.org
[19:18] Meredith Snookums: from global kids
[19:18] MonicaMarlo Martinek: no I mean machinima of teens reaction to this talk.
[19:18] MonicaMarlo Martinek: how much we impose what we think vs what they know of themselves.
[19:19] MonicaMarlo Martinek: the snickers would tell a lot.
[19:19] Tori Annenberg: Yes, chat log will be available from both events.
[19:19] You: yes, we have at this point almost 2 years of posts, videos and information learned between that blog and the various other social media outlets we post to.. like YouTube
[19:20] You: that same thing happened with the very first contest that Global Kids ran in the teen space.. there became almost a cheat code that arose to help other teens solve the problems and get the rewards
[19:21] Frizzy Lisle: kids are amazing like that
[19:21] You: yes
[19:21] Tori Annenberg: Please feel free to stick around and chat about your experiences with some of these issues. We would love to share your experiences
[19:22] Ivy Innis: do you think that was because they were used to hints and cheats in gaming?
[19:22] Stargazer Blazer: heeh, they were forming community
[19:22] Ozma Malibu: im for anything that speeds learning
[19:22] You: I imagined it probably popped up cause it was a natural gaming thing to do
[19:22] Binara Takashi: a bit of altruism, eh?
[19:22] Stargazer Blazer: Teamwork and collaboration?
[19:23] Ozma Malibu: collaboration
[19:23] Ivy Innis: do they think of TSL as a game?
[19:23] Stargazer Blazer: And if you designed it right, they might actually learn something, hehe
[19:23] Ivy Innis: :-)
[19:23] You: no, but that event was a contest.. so I think that is why that became something to think of that way
[19:23] Ozma Malibu: That would be the goal stargazer :-)
[19:24] Ivy Innis: got it
[19:24] You: too bad they didnt have interaction the other way back.. would be great to have had questions or comments come from the teens to the panel
[19:24] Claudia Linden: yes. definitely
[19:24] Binara Takashi: and us
[19:25] Frizzy Lisle: yes. it could have been done with a projection screen
[19:25] Ivy Innis: tha would've been great (and us...)
[19:25] Stargazer Blazer claps
[19:25] Tori Annenberg: Transcripts and video will be available on our website: uscpublicdiplomacy.org
[19:25] Eureka Dejavu: excellent!
[19:25] Griffin Wrigglesworth: wouldhave been a neat bridge between teen and adult SL
[19:25] Binara Takashi smiles politely
[19:25] You: and also on the GLobal Kids blog
[19:25] Dirk DaSilva claps
[19:25] Tutti Barbosa: where do we go for the cocktails>
[19:25] Griffin Wrigglesworth: /Thanks all!
[19:25] Ozma Malibu: wonderful!
[19:25] Morris Dawes: Do we get cocktails?
[19:25] Meredith Snookums: thanks for making that possible - that was very good
[19:25] Tori Annenberg: YES! Also at GK!! :)
[19:26] You: we are about to release the first installment of our Second Life curriculum as well
[19:26] Frizzy Lisle: Thanks for offering this to us!
[19:26] Tara5 Oh: /great when should i look out for them (the transcripts!)
[19:26] MonicaMarlo Martinek: yeah, but drunk avatars just aren't as much fun.
[19:26] Ozma Malibu: yes
[19:26] You: so stay tuned to teh blog
[19:26] Tutti Barbosa: Xcellent
[19:26] Claudia Linden: thanks for hosting it here
[19:26] Binara Takashi: If anyone wants a cola, I've got a few
[19:26] Frizzy Lisle: blog?
[19:26] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: If anyone wants a OneWorld t-shirt, let me know.
[19:26] You: oh... and one last thing.. GLobal Kids is hiring.. another thing to look at if you visit the blog
[19:27] You: if you are an educator and interested in working with them on various programs that involve teens in NYC and in teen SL
[19:27] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: OneWorld will be holding daily SL events from the Bali climate change conference in December.
[19:27] Binara Takashi: Jeff, you don't have shoes
[19:27] You: http://www.holymeatballs.org for all of that
[19:27] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: shoes are overrated.
[19:27] Binara Takashi: but you don't want your foot accidentally stabbed, do ya?
[19:27] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: if people are interested in seeing how SL is being used to bring people together around climate change issues, check out Oneclimate.net
[19:28] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: I've got tough feet.
[19:28] Binara Takashi: some kind of Halfling then?
[19:28] Stargazer Blazer: A lot of issues raised here, not exclusive to kids either
[19:28] You: no
[19:28] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: something like that, Binara.
[19:29] Binara Takashi: a tallfellow
[19:29] Binara Takashi: ^_^
[19:29] You: some of these same thoughts on the merit of virtual space apply to many other educators, etc.
[19:29] Tutti Barbosa: ok, this has been great
[19:30] Rissa Maidstone: Thank you all!
[19:30] Rissa Maidstone: Great job.
[19:30] Schmilsson Nilsson: Thanks for coming Rissa!
[19:31] Rissa Maidstone: My pleasure.
[19:32] Ozma Malibu: Bye all, see you next time!
[19:32] You: if anyone wants to stick around we can informally chat about the presentation
[19:33] You have offered friendship to Frizzy Lisle
[19:34] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: I was particularly interested in flollowing up on the idea brought up near the end about non-profits using SL to further their missions.
[19:34] Tutti Barbosa: I like the fact that the presentation was more socially conscious
[19:34] You: there is a large coalition of various non profits called the Non-profit Commons ... which is spear headed by a group Tech Soup
[19:34] You: they are a great resource if you are interested in that
[19:35] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: yeah I've heard of it. I need to check it out.
[19:35] You: they meet weekly at 8:30 am (SLT) on Fridays in the Non-Profit commons
[19:35] Stargazer Blazer: The potential we have here to affect change in rl...
[19:35] You: I agree
[19:35] Tutti Barbosa: how about the socially-environmentally media campaign that microsoft emailed us today in hotmail?
[19:35] Ivy Innis: absolutely
[19:36] You: I originally was drawn to this space for the great artistic outlet it was.. but what kept me here was hte ability to connect and reach out to various causes and non-profits
[19:36] Griffin Wrigglesworth: I'm especially interested in the way SL can enhance, rather than replare RL experience. Any case-studies?
[19:36] You: MacArthur''s president a few months back did a mixed reality event here in SL about virtual philanthropy
[19:37] Binara Takashi: well, I'm anecdotal on that
[19:37] Binara Takashi: it helps me overcome my shyness
[19:38] Frans Charming: It has helped me a great deal too, Binara
[19:38] You: I am not sure if there are formal case studies.. but organizations like American Cancer Society have been able to engage many and successfully fundraise here.. and there are numerous support and educational outreach groups
[19:39] Tara5 Oh: oops sorry didn't mean t bump you!
[19:39] Stargazer Blazer: np :
[19:39] Stargazer Blazer: :)
[19:39] Griffin Wrigglesworth: oops. me neither.
[19:39] Stargazer Blazer: hehe, it's ok
[19:39] You: yup
[19:39] You: although it is funny how acutely we are aware of personal space even in a virtual world
[19:40] Stargazer Blazer: I have friends here who have rl disabilities and they love sl because they are treated like everyone else here
[19:40] You: yes
[19:40] Stargazer Blazer: Then there are some who bring their wheelchairs and prostetics in-world with them
[19:40] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: Is anyone here particularly interested in climate change? Let me know and I can tell you about how OneWorld is using SL and other networking tools to help galvanize action.
[19:41] You: i have met some amazing people who have blossomed in this space either for reasons liek taht or as was said in the presentation.. using it as a safe testing ground for personal growth
[19:41] You: cool, what are you doing here in SL
[19:41] Frizzy Lisle: I am interested in how kids interact in the teen grid with few adults around.
[19:41] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: we've got an island called OneClimate Island.
[19:41] You: the holymeatballs.org blog is a good place to find info on that Frizzy
[19:42] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: During December we'll be holding daily simulcasts of events from the UN negotiations in Bali on climate change.
[19:42] Frizzy Lisle: I will check it out.
[19:42] You: we even have an editorial system set up and the teens themselves blog about their experiences
[19:42] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: I'll be there with a colleague interviewing those taking part in the negotiations and holding interactive sessions in SL.
[19:43] Griffin Wrigglesworth: I work for an outdoor org and env educators who all feel competition with webby and other "indoor" stuff- I'm looking for ways to encourage connections b/t the indoor and outdoor realms
[19:43] You: great Jeffrey.. you should speak to Barry Joseph about seeing if some of that can be broadcast into the Teen SL space
[19:43] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: Anyone interested in climate change can come to our island and get connected to what's going on at the conference everyday.
[19:43] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: that's a great idea.
[19:43] Stargazer Blazer: what island?
[19:43] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: OneClimate Island
[19:43] You: his main grid avatar name is globalkids bixby for anyone here who would like to IM questions to him directly
[19:43] Griffin Wrigglesworth: Jeffery- I look forward to exploring there!
[19:44] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: Great, Griffin.
[19:44] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: We're just getting things polished up now.
[19:44] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: So they'll be ready for the beginning of the conference on Dec 3.
[19:44] You have offered friendship to JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear
[19:44] You: great
[19:45] Tutti Barbosa: which conference ... NMC? OR??
[19:45] You: and you should definitely check out the weekly non-profit commons meetings
[19:45] Frizzy Lisle: barry's grid avatar is global kids bixby?
[19:45] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: the big UN climate change conference in December in Bali.
[19:45] You: globalkids bixby
[19:45] Tutti Barbosa: ty
[19:45] Frizzy Lisle: HE seems to have a lot of energy
[19:45] You: the first is all one word
[19:47] Frizzy Lisle: Do you work with kids in rl too?
[19:47] You: yes
[19:47] You: started randomly when I ran across Barry in SL while he was initially thinking about how to use SL to run programs
[19:47] Griffin Wrigglesworth: / Frizzie Are you asking all of us?
[19:48] You: I think that was for me
[19:48] Frizzy Lisle: I was asking rhiannon
[19:48] Griffin Wrigglesworth: sorry...
[19:48] You: but yes I do
[19:48] Tori Annenberg: Thanks all! Have a good night.
[19:48] You: take care Tori.. tell everyone hello over there
[19:48] Tori Annenberg: will do :)
[19:48] You: say hi to Barry
[19:48] You: :P
[19:48] Frizzy Lisle: Good nite tori
[19:48] Frizzy Lisle: thanks
[19:48] Ivy Innis: thanks tori - this was good!
[19:48] Tori Annenberg: I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
[19:49] Tutti Barbosa: BYE
[19:49] You have offered friendship to Tutti Barbosa
[19:49] Tori Annenberg: We're trying to ask tough questions.
[19:49] Tori Annenberg: night.
[19:49] You: yes went well
[19:49] You: and glad some of stuck around to chat
[19:49] You: :)
[19:50] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: Rhiannon, do you work at GlobalKids?
[19:50] Stargazer Blazer: Yes, very interesting and engaging :)
[19:50] Stargazer Blazer: see you all later, thanks for the great conversation :)
[19:50] Frizzy Lisle: Well, I need to go but very nice to meet all of you. I enjoyed it very much.
[19:50] You: take care
[19:51] Stargazer Blazer: you too
[19:51] Tutti Barbosa: good night all
[19:51] You: and if any of you ever have questions.. feel free to IM me.
[19:52] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: and if anybody else wants to be kept informed about the climate change events taking place Dec 3-14, just give me your info (or friendship) and I'll make sure to be in touch.
[19:52] You: thanks jeffrey
[19:52] JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: thank you, Rhiannon. This was a great event.
[19:52] Griffin Wrigglesworth: Please- I'm interested!
[19:52] Ivy Innis: thanks rhiannon, i was glad they did this on sl.
[19:53] You: yes worked well :)
[19:53] Tara5 Oh: Yes thanks a very interesting event
[19:53] Ivy Innis: take care all
[19:55] Griffin Wrigglesworth: Thank. Look forward to more another time. And maybe keeping the conversation up
[19:55] You: yes.. :)
[19:55] You: look to either website for the transcripts and video
[19:55] You: :)

Posted by joyce at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week (like every week) was a big one at P4K. Monday we combined serious discussion and serious games and examined global crises. Thursday we combined ping-pong balls and plastic necklaces, and that worked well too.

On Monday we had Barry and our Danish intern Christopher helping out with the workshop. Having so much extra help made life a lot easier and helped me realize what a big job teaching alone would be. Teachers are superheroes, and if any of the teachers who I’ve harassed while I was a student are reading this, I apologize profusely. Being able to pass back and forth between facilitators for a couple hours is a breeze compared to being a middle school teacher standing in front of a class for six straight hours. Seriously, to any teachers I antagonized as a youth, you have my utmost respect. And to Barry and Christopher, thanks for the help.

We discussed environmentalism and pollution on Tuesday, and I’m always impressed with how thoughtful our students are. Responsibility for the Earth’s stewardship, they explained, lies with both the individual and the organization. Governments need to make laws to protect the environment and corporations need to be responsible for their actions, but each person must be conscious of his or her impact as well. That wasn’t the exact wording of the discussion (I think the word “like” was in there a bit more) but it was the sentiment. We also had some interesting debate as to whether reducing consumption means embracing poverty, and how standards of living factor into conservation efforts.

Thursday was a great test for everyone as Radhika introduced a game design exercise developed by the independent game company Gamelab. Found Objects Game Creation involved the students breaking into small teams and selecting items from a random pile. There were obvious game objects (jump rope, playing cards, dice) but also very unconventional ones (popsicle sticks, loofah, Mardi Gras beads). My personal favorite was the plastic coat hanger and I lobbied every group to use it. I’m happy to say one listened.

Click To Play

P4K is like a spinning plates game, and once the groups had their objects, Radhika and I spent a half hour running around snapping pictures and giving little suggestions to keep each group’s whirlwind of ideas focused. The students’ different personalities emerged during the exercise, with one group huddled around a pile of popsicle sticks devising an RPG from complex diagrams and quiet whispers. Other groups gyrated wildly, developing kinetic games of dexterity and hand eye coordination. The results were successful in different ways, none perfect, all showing promise. For a first attempt at game design the results were very encouraging. At P4K there’s no shortage of ideas and enthusiasm, only time.

Posted by Jay at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I like computers because they give you information and you can also use them to talk to your friends.

Posted by VVP Rashad at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like my PC because I like to look at videos of certain shows and find information online.

Posted by VVP Justin at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi, I am a GK leader and today I would like to speak about how important and how easy computers make my life. I like everything about computers, but the thing I like the most is that I get to do my homework faster because of internet.
michael a friend

Posted by VVP Michael at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The two things I like about computers are the various sites I can go to for information such as Wikipedia. The other thing I like about the internet is the entertainment, such as online game sites.

Posted by VVP Christopher at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The first thing I like about computer is that they allow you to explore new things and express new ideas to everyone in the world.

The second thing I like about computers is that they allow people to create infinite amount of things that reflect their personality.

-thein

Posted by VVP Thein at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thing I like about computers is that they allow you to speak to others from a distance or at home.

Posted by VVP Myles at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like my PC because I can hook it up to the internet and go online.

Posted by VVP Harpal at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love computers because it opens up opportunities for so many different people-even those that are disabled and have so many limitations in real life. Also, it allows you to communicate with others from all around the world, which helps you see different perspectives on issues. So overall, it's just a great tool!

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two things I like about computers is that they enable me to work easier in typing out my work, without making a mistake and having to redo everything from start.
The second thing I like is that it gives me some sort of entertainment like watching Anime and other things. In other words, its a reliable source of data.

Posted by VVP Doldech at 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What I like about computers is the ability to go online and explore the web. This allows me to do many things like research my projects, find jobs, talk to friends and much more.

Posted by VVP Jonathan at 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like computers because I can get a chance to research, type my work, go online and be creative.

Posted by VVP Tarana at 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like computers because I can play games, go online, find information and chat with trusted friends, especially chatting with someone really special who I am really in love with.

Posted by VVP Mathew at 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love to use computers for a lot of reasons.

Posted by VVP Gabriel at 5:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Computers are fun and they are very helpful. I think computers are the best technology ever made next to the TV. I really don't stay on the computer 24 hours a day but when I have some time, I am on the computer exploring as always.

Posted by VVP Swanieka at 5:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the main things I like about computer is the internet. Internet gives us the option to know about the world. Internet makes it easy to communicate with people around the world. It's easy to find information on anything.

Posted by VVP Sabina at 5:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What I like about computers:
It gives a fast way to the internet. With the internet I'm able to communicate with friends fast and easy. Another thing I love about computers is that I am able to upload photos. So I can edit them. For example, I can crop people out or change the color to someone's shirt. Its very cool and interesting Wooooooooo.

Posted by VVP Vanessa at 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello my name is Natalie. I'm part of the Global Kids Virtual Video Project. Today we were asked to write about computers. Personally I think computers are the best invention ever. They can help you with a wide variety of things. Anything you can think of, computers can do, from helping you with your homework or looking up a recipe, the computer can do it. It can help you do any task in a matter of seconds. What's not to love about computers?

Posted by VVP Natalie at 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are many things I like about the computer. One out of many things I like to do on the computer is chatting.
A second reason the computer is an entertainment to me by providing music and game.

-Jin

Posted by VVP Jin at 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What I like about computers is that you can get so much information about all sorts of stuff. I can play World of Warcraft on my notebook and listen to music as well. I can study for a test and also learn to type faster. Those skills can help me in my future job and for college.

Posted by VVP Brian at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like computers because you could be creative without limitations. You could do things that you would never do in person. For example, you could fly around the world in 2 hours.

Posted by VVP Yessenia at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 14th, at 6:00 p.m. PST, Barry Joseph will be presenting as part of What Are Kids Learning in Virtual Worlds? conference being held at the University of Southern California.

The LIVE SIMULCAST of this event can be viewed on the Web here.

Additionally, this event is being live simulcast into Second Life at Annenberg Island and Teen Second Life on Global Kids Serious Gaming sim.

We will post additional information and coverage of the event below as it comes in.

Here is a videolog taken over the course the day by Barry Joseph, in which he asks everyone he meets: "When you hear the phrase virtual worlds, what comes to mind?"

A transcript from the Second Life live simulcast event that took place in he Annenberg sim. Of interest is the discussion that took place after the event.

Full video coverage of the presentatio below or view it here.

Click To Play

From MacArthur's blog, Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning comes a post by Connie Yowell entitled Week’s Theme: Posts by Forum Panelists (re: Virtual Worlds and Learning), which overviews the forum event. The post also has links to further information and thoughts by each panelist that presented.

• Anastasia Goodstein:
  Learning In Virtual Worlds
• Doug Thomas
• Yasmin Kafai
• Barry Joseph:
  Using Virtual Worlds to Foster Activism Through Youth Media

Other press and blog coverage of the event:

• from C/net news.com's site: What kids learn in virtual worlds
• from the NCS-tech blog: What are Kids learning in Virtual Worlds? A MacArthur Foundation Panel webcast

Posted by joyce at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The teen SL resident Storm Basiat reported in a recent SLNN.com article about the new D.I.D.I. Initiative. It is an informative article and written from a teen perspective - congrats Storm!

Students gather at a workshop on the teen grid to discuss their ideas.

Global Kids launched a new Teen Second Life project called Do It, Dream It, or DIDI Interactive. The project awards grants up to $1000 U.S..

Teen grid residents have worked extremely hard to help the DIDI Interactive team develop the simulator by building and scripting objects.

At recent DIDI workshops teens can find out how the D.I.D.I. Initiative can help them start their own ventures such as clubs, organizations, and businesses.

The workshop allow teens to brainstorm ideas surrounding what they care about , and educate teens about other ventures created by teens around the world.

Amira Fouad, the coordinator of the project, who is behind the SL Avatar Amira Gkid, said, "The workshops are a chance for young people to come together and brainstorm about issues in their communities that they care about and discuss with other teens from across the world on how they can begin to create change around those issues and have a real impact on the world around them. It's been an incredible experience to watch as teens from different parts of the world relate to both one another, and the common issues across communities, that they want to bring change to."

Daniel Voyager, a TSL Resident from the United Kingdom, attended one of the workshops run by D.I.D.I Interactive. "Taking part in DIDI was really cool. We learned about making our own venture project dealing with an issue that has affected us and coming up with great ideas. I really enjoyed the workshop as we all had a good time chatting and showing our ideas."

For more information about the DIDI Interactive program, e-mail Amira Fouad at amira@globalkids.org or visit the Teen Grid simulator .

Posted by joyce at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday afternoon Barry hosted an open house and job fair in our Global Kids office space in the main grid. We had a good crowd that showed up and almost all stayed for the hour long talk and question and answer session. There were many questions on the various positions that Global Kids is currently looking to fill. The transcript of the event is after the click.

We also are encouraging anyone who attended or others interested in furthering the conversation by adding comments to this post.

[13:15] You: k Barry is logging back in
[13:15] You: he had crashed
[13:15] globalkids Bixby: am I back?
[13:15] AJ Brooks: wb
[13:16] You: yes
[13:16] globalkids Bixby: thank you all for your patience
[13:16] You: lets hope for some stability
[13:16] You: there are some grid issues out and about
[13:16] globalkids Bixby: IS everyone ready? Shall we begin?
[13:16] Meredith Snookums: ready :)
[13:17] AJ Brooks: ready
[13:17] mTea Box: Yes
[13:17] metrocake McLeod: Ready. :)
[13:17] AuntFun Ellison: eady
[13:17] AuntFun Ellison: ready
[13:17] globalkids Bixby: Please clap if you are rady
[13:17] Kim Grigorovich: All set
[13:17] globalkids Bixby: \/clap
[13:17] mTea Box: /clap
[13:17] globalkids Bixby: hee hee. Nice
[13:17] Meredith Snookums: and looks like I'll be ghost typing for a while lol
[13:17] globalkids Bixby: So let's go around, beginng with Meredith on my left
[13:17] globalkids Bixby: and say what brought you here today
[13:17] globalkids Bixby: we'll go around the circle from there
[13:18] Meredith Snookums: well, I am an ed tech teacher at a university and am therefore interested in but unable to visit the TG
[13:18] Meredith Snookums: so like to hear what is going on there
[13:18] globalkids Bixby: Please feel free to type your response NOW just don't hit send until the person next to you finishes
[13:18] globalkids Bixby: THank you meredith. Welcome
[13:19] metrocake McLeod: I work for one of the organizations in nonprofit commons -- CCFA -- and had met Rafi out the other night. I was very impressed both with your organization's mission and with what he had to say. :)
[13:19] AuntFun Ellison: I am a program director for a national academic program and, to be honest, I am exploring doing something different. The job announcement looked very interesting
[13:20] AJ Brooks: I work in higher education and am looking for a change. Any number of people famliiar with Barrry and GK mentioned that it would be a good match. I also met Barry and Rafi in Chicago and was equally impressed, so I thought I'd pop by
[13:20] Aldon Huffhines: I'm an old guard geek... been in virtual worlds for a long time (back in the days of MOOs) very interested in social activism, politics... non profits and educations etc... Checking things out...
[13:20] Kim Grigorovich: I'm in Connecticut, have been loking for a way to combine my background in molecular biology, education, and political activism.
[13:20] globalkids Bixby: cool
[13:20] Aldon Huffhines: (Kim and I are married)
[13:20] globalkids Bixby: ah! :-)
[13:20] metrocake McLeod: (Sweet!)
[13:20] Kim Grigorovich: (full disclosure!)
[13:20] You: lol
[13:20] You: that works :)
[13:21] globalkids Bixby: Anyoen else?
[13:21] mTea Box: I've always admired Global Kids. I am also curious about recruiting (and pretty much anything else) in SL. I am an AT&T Education Advocate.
[13:21] Ivy Innis: I'm an ed prof working with K-12 schools and teachers, esp in science, history, math. I'm very interested in what GK is doing, I've been going to way of VW for a while
[13:22] globalkids Bixby: Thank you all for coming. Rhiannon, please introduce yourself.
[13:22] You: hi everyone.. I got a chance to talk to some of you a bit before hand.. but I am a full time employee for Global Kids, but working remotely
[13:23] globalkids Bixby: We stick a phone in the meeting room of the 45 of us with her hpoto on it for the staf meetings
[13:23] globalkids Bixby: the rest of us working in NYC
[13:23] You: I work on projects that revolve around Second Life, help with those, I am also the administrator of the blog http://www.holymeatballs.org
[13:23] You: nod
[13:23] AJ Brooks: lol
[13:23] You: yup I get to cheer from afar :)
[13:23] metrocake McLeod: XD
[13:23] globalkids Bixby: Global Kids is a 18 year or so old educational organization
[13:24] globalkids Bixby: that primarily works with youth in person in after school programs withn high schools in low-income communities of color
[13:24] globalkids Bixby: 8 years ago we began the Online Leadership Program
[13:24] globalkids Bixby: which I, barry joseph, direct
[13:25] globalkids Bixby: We use digital media to support youth to become global citizens,. community leaders
[13:25] globalkids Bixby: either in person or directly online
[13:26] globalkids Bixby: we focus on serious games, online dialogues, social networks and, now, virtual worlds
[13:26] globalkids Bixby: or VW work grew out of our work iwth gaming and positioned us to be ready whn the teen grid opened in jan 2006
[13:27] globalkids Bixby: we begcame the first adult-owned island run by non-lindens there, and it remained that way for the first year
[13:27] globalkids Bixby: of course, we only exepected to stay a few months. We didn't realize what a fatastic learning environment it could be as an extension of our programming
[13:27] globalkids Bixby: I wont get into our programs in detail righ now
[13:28] globalkids Bixby: you can read all about them at http://www.holymeatballs.org
[13:28] globalkids Bixby: But I will say that we have expereinced tremendous growth in th past year, specificalyl around SL
[13:28] globalkids Bixby: We complted a hiring round in sept and turned around to begin a new one
[13:29] globalkids Bixby: We have created a, shall we say, unusual job application process, which I will explain momentarily ,and will begin interviews in a week
[13:29] globalkids Bixby: and as part of the outrach for thos epositions we decided that I shoudl maek many typos at a job fair
[13:29] millay Freschi: hahaha
[13:29] metrocake McLeod: XD
[13:29] AuntFun Ellison: lol!
[13:29] globalkids Bixby: Before I actualy descrbe the positions, ar there any questions so far?
[13:30] Mini Magne: ja, det er det vistnok
[13:30] Meredith Snookums: none here
[13:30] AuntFun Ellison: none here
[13:30] globalkids Bixby: so, here's the deal
[13:31] globalkids Bixby: Please give a "woot" if you have already seen the job descriptions
[13:31] AuntFun Ellison: woot
[13:31] AJ Brooks: woot
[13:31] Kim Grigorovich: woot
[13:31] Aldon Huffhines: woot
[13:31] Meredith Snookums: woot
[13:31] metrocake McLeod: w00t
[13:31] mTea Box: woot
[13:31] Mini Magne: woot
[13:31] You: if anyone has just popped in, feel free to grab a seat
[13:31] globalkids Bixby: Cool
[13:32] globalkids Bixby: So, as you know, there aer so many ways we can organize these psoitions that we decided to make a choose-your-own job description
[13:32] globalkids Bixby: that means there are a variety of ways we can fill our current slots
[13:32] globalkids Bixby: totally 3-4 people in the end
[13:32] globalkids Bixby: Some ar efull tiem staff, some are parttime staff, some are consultants
[13:32] globalkids Bixby: most are located within NYC buta few can be done remotely
[13:33] globalkids Bixby: Some are ASOCIATED with project management in Second Life
[13:33] globalkids Bixby: Some are associated with social networks (including SL)
[13:34] globalkids Bixby: And some are asociated with TEACHING using SL - in the real world AND/Or in Sl
[13:34] globalkids Bixby: So, when you break it down, there are 11 possible options we came up with:
[13:34] globalkids Bixby: 1. Second Life Producer (MacArthur Foundation & International Justice Center; full-time; NYC) 2. Second Life Producer (MacArthur Foundation; full-time; NYC) 3. Second Life Producer (International Justice Center; half-time staff; NYC) 4. Social Networking Specialist (teen digital media site; half-time staff; NYC) 5. Social Networking Specialist (International Justice Center & teen digital media site; full-time staff; NYC) 6. Second Life Educator (MacArthur Foundation & Science Program, full-time staff; NYC) 7. Second Life Educator (MacArthur Foundation, half-time staff; NYC or remote) 8. Second Life Educator (MacArthur Foundation & Science Curriculum, full-time staff; NYC) 9. Second Life Science Consultant (Science Curriculum; consultant; NYC or remote) 10. Second Life Educator (Science Program, half-time, NYC) 11. Second Life Educator (Science program coordinator and curriculum developer, full-time staff, NYC)
[13:34] globalkids Bixby: wow, that looks messy. Hold on
[13:35] AJ Brooks: :)
[13:35] globalkids Bixby: Joyce, can you make anote card dispenser and I will give you a note card for it?
[13:35] You: sure
[13:35] You: pass me a notecard
[13:36] globalkids Bixby gave you Global Kids Job Possibilities.
[13:37] AJ Brooks: ty
[13:37] You: there we go.. the big 'i' beside you
[13:37] globalkids Bixby: Joyce is making a dispsner to make it easier ot read
[13:37] Information owned by Rhiannon Chatnoir gave you 'Global Kids Job Possibilities' ( http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching/235/170/25 ).
[13:38] globalkids Bixby: So, that's the deal. We thought it would be good to gather people together to see if they had any questions.
[13:38] globalkids Bixby: You are the people
[13:38] You: yup
[13:38] globalkids Bixby: Do you have any questions?
[13:38] globalkids Bixby: If so, don't be polite
[13:38] metrocake McLeod: /raise hand
[13:38] globalkids Bixby: Just shout them aout
[13:38] globalkids Bixby: the4m out
[13:38] You: a choose your own career adventure Q&A
[13:38] globalkids Bixby: I Or, actuallym, IM them to Joyce
[13:38] globalkids Bixby: and she
[13:38] globalkids Bixby: To rhiannon
[13:39] globalkids Bixby: and she will mc asking them
[13:39] Kim Grigorovich: Question - how tied are you to the idea of a traditional educator developing the science curriculum - are you open to a scientist with some education background and lots of political background?
[13:39] Rhiannon Chatnoir is also Joyce :P
[13:40] globalkids Bixby: Kim, I think what we need is someon who knows the content - we are considering PAIRING that person with the eeducator who will write the currculum and a third educator who will implemen the science curriculum in NYC at a high school
[13:40] Kim Grigorovich: nod
[13:41] globalkids Bixby: The content is freshman level physics, or engineering, or related
[13:41] globalkids Bixby: That teaches things that leverages SL's unque aoofrdances
[13:41] Kim Grigorovich: I developed an education outreach program at (big pharma company) and the practice of scientists pairing with educators worked really well
[13:42] globalkids Bixby: Meredith Snookums: When would the positions start?
[13:42] globalkids Bixby: When we tell you to.
[13:42] globalkids Bixby: Seriously, asap
[13:42] millay Freschi: hahahaha
[13:42] Meredith Snookums: lol
[13:42] AJ Brooks: lol
[13:42] metrocake McLeod: How crucial is it to have a background in education if you're interested in production or being a network specialist?
[13:42] globalkids Bixby: metrocake McLeod: :) How crucial is it to have a background in education if you're interested in production or being a network specialist?
[13:42] globalkids Bixby: Important
[13:43] mTea Box: Are the remote positions totally in SL or will you be using other tools?
[13:43] globalkids Bixby: Please send questions to rhiannon
[13:43] globalkids Bixby: mTea Box: Can we have just a little overview of each job?
[13:43] globalkids Bixby: For an overview, please go to the job site to rad about each one. Joyce, please paste the url here
[13:43] globalkids Bixby: Butm, in general
[13:43] Kim Grigorovich: Will you be looking at other science disciplines (otehr than physics/engineering)?
[13:44] Mini Magne: Would you want collaboration partners from Europe?
[13:44] globalkids Bixby: Kim, we are open to proposals for other areas
[13:44] Kim Grigorovich: cool
[13:44] globalkids Bixby: Questions to that are new send to rhiannon please
[13:44] globalkids Bixby: I will list a brief overview of the programs here
[13:44] globalkids Bixby: in a minute
[13:44] You: http://globalkids.org/?id=73 is the URL for all of the job descriptions
[13:45] globalkids Bixby: Rhiannon seems o of questions o I will take hte ones I see here
[13:45] You: you can also check out our blog http://www.holymeatballs.org which will give you a good overview in depth of what Global Kids has been doing with programs and has links to descriptions there as well
[13:45] globalkids Bixby: The positions that can be done remote can also be done outside the US
[13:46] globalkids Bixby: But we pay in Lindens
[13:46] globalkids Bixby: ;-)
[13:46] metrocake McLeod: !!
[13:46] AJ Brooks: lol
[13:46] You: wow
[13:46] AuntFun Ellison: lol
[13:46] Meredith Snookums: lol
[13:46] Kim Grigorovich: heh
[13:46] millay Freschi: sign mp!!e u
[13:46] You: for non US?
[13:47] globalkids Bixby: Ivy Innis: Do these jobs have an end date?
[13:47] globalkids Bixby: Well, NYC is a state in which anyone can be fired at any point
[13:47] Meredith Snookums: lol
[13:47] globalkids Bixby: but each position is tied to a grant
[13:47] Ivy Innis: :-)
[13:48] globalkids Bixby: most of which are a year
[13:49] You: I should also add... as a level of optimism for a broader future with Global Kids that I have been working in some capacity with them for alm ost 2 years.. whether contract or employee
[13:49] globalkids Bixby: She volunteer to make us some flowrs
[13:49] globalkids Bixby: Now look at her!
[13:49] Meredith Snookums: :)
[13:49] globalkids Bixby: The Second Life Science Project - Global Kids will be launching a winter/spring after school program to use Second Life to teach global issues, basic science, and computer programming. It will either be at Global Kids or Canarsie High School, beginning Winter 2008.
[13:49] You: lol
[13:49] globalkids Bixby: The International Justice Center - The International Justice Center in Second Life will provide a hub for raising awareness and increasing engagement around the International Criminal Court and its activities by offering educational programs, dialogues, and online and offline outreach material while supporting collaboration between individuals and organizations.
[13:49] globalkids Bixby: MacArthur Competitions in TSL - Global Kids will bring five areas of the MacArthur foundation into Teen Second Life -- Affordable Housing, Community Change, Juvenile Justice, Global Migration and Human Mobility, and Conservation and Sustainable Development -- through a year-long series of competitions and workshops.
[13:50] You: and sent lots of friends to help.. from pixel flowers born seeds of the now :)
[13:50] globalkids Bixby: We are also launchign a web-based social network for teens around the world who are passionate about consuming and creating digital media, with a connection to social issues
[13:51] AJ Brooks: thats excellent
[13:51] globalkids Bixby: mTea Box: Are all of these jobs directly involved with students? Which grades? Any teacher training?
[13:52] globalkids Bixby: Connections with students - yes, many do, either in person or online, but we also designed them so you can be involved adn NOT work with teens
[13:52] globalkids Bixby: High school age mostly
[13:52] globalkids Bixby: yes, we do a lot of internal profesioanl development
[13:52] globalkids Bixby: we better
[13:52] globalkids Bixby: given what we pay
[13:52] Mini Magne: what about problems for teens outside of the US - apparently they cannot become members unless they make batch registrations
[13:52] globalkids Bixby: THat was a joke, btw
[13:52] globalkids Bixby: Meredith Snookums: so, it is safe to assume hirees would be writing grants to conitue their jobs?
[13:52] Meredith Snookums: we weren't sure if we should laugh!
[13:52] AJ Brooks smirks
[13:53] globalkids Bixby: Now, THAT is funny
[13:53] globalkids Bixby: Well, that would be my job, not yours, re: grants. We like to keep people on staf whenw e hire them
[13:53] globalkids Bixby: but that is mroe up to th e market than us
[13:54] globalkids Bixby: AJ Brooks: i see from the web site that there is an outreach component, urban areas around the world, is it focused on certain countries?
[13:54] globalkids Bixby: For the web-based social network on digital media - china, south korea, and india
[13:54] globalkids Bixby: for the International Justice Center - everywhere!
[13:54] globalkids Bixby: AuntFun Ellison: Does the web based social network for teens use existing tools? Or are you creating new ones?
[13:55] globalkids Bixby: This is a partnership with TakingItglobal and their existing toolset
[13:55] globalkids Bixby: Any more questions?
[13:55] globalkids Bixby: I think we are starting to wrap up
[13:56] Kim Grigorovich: Thanks Bixby - this was great.
[13:56] Mini Magne: I'm wondering if any of you have similar problems with teen registrations from outside of US?
[13:56] Meredith Snookums: thanks
[13:56] metrocake McLeod: Thank you!
[13:56] You: Again http://globalkids.org/?id=73 is the URL for all of the job descriptions ... and their are in depth PDFs to view there as well for each position
[13:56] globalkids Bixby: I would love to hear geeral responses to what I had to share
[13:56] globalkids Bixby: please talk over one another, popcorn style, adn just shout it out
[13:56] AJ Brooks: very exciting - moving at the speed of light, too
[13:57] globalkids Bixby: mTea Box: What are the next steps?
[13:57] globalkids Bixby: Apply!
[13:57] metrocake McLeod: :)
[13:57] Kim Grigorovich: UI am fascinated with the idea of teaching science in second Life - could be so powerful
[13:57] Kim Grigorovich: Have lots adn lots of ideas percolating about applications in molecular bio . ..
[13:58] Ivy Innis: the work sounds exciting - doing this with teens in the city is great the city
[13:58] You: also.. you can leave comments on the blog with further questions or comments
[13:58] globalkids Bixby: Thank you all for coming
[13:58] globalkids Bixby: Feel fee to Im me when I am offline with follow-up questions
[13:58] AuntFun Ellison: Thank you!
[13:58] mTea Box: Thank you.
[13:58] You: I am going to post the chat log of this for anyone who couldn't make it.. so that post would be a great place to add to
[13:58] Meredith Snookums: thank you Rhiannon and Barry
[13:58] globalkids Bixby: We will be posting photos and the transcriptfor the public as well
[13:58] Kim Grigorovich: thanks!
[13:58] You: http://www.holymeatballs.org
[13:58] Mini Magne: if we're talking Global kids, how about those outside of the US
[13:59] metrocake McLeod: Thanks, everyone, for setting this up.
[13:59] globalkids Bixby: at http://www.holymeatballs.ogr
[13:59] globalkids Bixby: org
[13:59] Buddy Cuddihy: I've the same question: how does teen from outside of US registrater?
[13:59] globalkids Bixby: where you might want to read the new staff section as well
[13:59] Ivy Innis: thank you - good way to get info about this work
[13:59] globalkids Bixby: We are working to get Linde to fix the problem so non-US teens can register - this is amajor problems that concenrs us greatly
[13:59] Mini Magne: Thank you for your concern!
[14:00] globalkids Bixby: Also, we might start having monhtly check-ins in the main grid about our work in the teen gid.
[14:00] globalkids Bixby: Would that be of interst to folks?
[14:00] Aldon Huffhines: Yes, that would be great.
[14:00] Mini Magne: certainly yes
[14:00] globalkids Bixby: We have 10 other staff who can come by and share about oru work
[14:00] globalkids Bixby: Soon to be 14!
[14:00] You: yes the diversity and opportunity for all to be able to have the same levels of access it very important
[14:00] You: yes.. think it would be great ;)
[14:01] globalkids Bixby: I have to run but any IMs will go to my email
[14:02] Buddy Cuddihy: I still wonder how you are able to work with children from over the world, when teen from outside of US can't register?
[14:02] metrocake McLeod: have a good weekend!
[14:02] millay Freschi: thank you for your time
[14:02] globalkids Bixby: Have a nice weekend all and we look forward to reviewing your applications

Posted by joyce at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You are invited!

As part of the job search to fill a number of positions within Global Kids Online Leadership Program (OLP), we will be holding an open house and non-profit career fair this Friday within Second Life.

When:
Friday, November 9, 2007
4-5 PM (EST) / 1-2 PM (SLT)

Where:
Second Life main grid at the GK office space in the NMC campus sim Teaching

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Teaching/211/164/25

Additional information about available positions can be found at http://globalkids.org/?id=73. The application deadline has been extended to November 15. Feel free to check the status of positions or ask questions here: http://tinyurl.com/2dfrrd.

We look forward to meeting with possible candidates this Friday - see you then!

Posted by joyce at 12:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last week the P4K program saw a major change, and while there were growing pains (or in our case shrinking pains) the move was definitely for the better. The P4K team finalized the selection process last Wednesday and decided to reduce our group size to around 30 students.

Since our first meeting back in October, we had seen 59 students attend meetings. The selection process was tough for everyone involved. All the students are bright, excited, creative contributors, and I think all the trainers wished that we could’ve kept everyone. With new young people showing up every day, though, the group was simply becoming unmanageable. It’s no surprise that cramming 40 students into a computer lab is going to create a lot of noise and confusion, and make every activity take too long.

Thursday was the first session with reduced class size and the difference was remarkable. During the lessons I found myself pausing, slightly disoriented that I wasn’t struggling to quiet the group down. During our discussions, kids on one side of the room could talk, and people on the other side of the group could hear them. It was amazing. From the beginning of our program, I had been impressed with the students’ ability to analyze games, and it was incredibly satisfying to see how much more could be discussed with a smaller class size.

I was not happy choosing who could stay in the program and who couldn’t, but I am very pleased with the results of that process. It was an honor to see so many kids coming out for P4K, and as an educator, I wanted to be able to help everyone. What I found, however, was that in trying to accommodate the largest number of students, I couldn’t give adequate attention to any of them. Anyone not selected was encouraged to join other GK programs and assured that they would be put on a wait list in case some students in the program left. We’re moving on now, and with our new leaner team we can focus on the long, exciting road ahead.

Posted by Jay at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Online Leadership Program “staff reflections” blog entires is digital therapy for the virtual soul, and every month the intelligent bunch of OLP staffers will collectively process their thoughts, perspectives and ambitions about their various OLP projects on this luminous blog. The staff reflections section provides committed bloggers, Internet wonderers, youths and digital media folks a pipeline into the beautiful minds of the staff.

From Lesile-Ann learning how to cope with working 9 to 5 to Kathy finally feeling more comfortable with her video editing skills, a general theme of learning and novelty arose in each of the OLP staffer’s post this month.

All of these blog entries are honest and are telling about the intricate nature of when play, digital media, youth development and a lyrical progressive staff join together to create avant-garde digital education for young people globally, and of course locally. Sit back, fluff your seat pillows and enjoy reading our reflections about the delights and struggles of being creators and educators in the digital literacy field. Also, check us out next month for more groovy tales of life in the Online Leadership Program.

Read our blogs:

Amira:
Preliminary Questions on a Participatory Culture and the Sociology of Virtual Worlds

Barry:
A Tale of Two Second Live Promotions: The Office Vs. CSI

Jay:
Playing with Sadism

Kathy:

My first reflection

Leslie Ann:
Diaries of a 9 to 5 hipster

Meghan:
An early Thanksgiving?

Rafi:
On Youth Development vs. Child Labor vs. Client Relations

Tabitha:
off to a good start!

Enjoy!

Posted by Leslie Ann at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've officially begun our third year of the Global Kids Digital Media Youth Advisory, one of the more unique programs we offer in our Online Leadership Program. Whereas other GK programs aim to educate and activate young people, this program is actually looking for young people to inform and advise us and the MacArthur Foundation in regards to its $50 million Digital Media Initiative which it launched last year.

This year, we started on a number of projects. The first was having the DMYA help develop a survey that all Online Leadership Program students will take at the beginning and end of this year to help GK assess how their skills are changing as a result of being in an OLP program. See some pics below of DMYA teens testing out a draft which they later gave feedback on:

Jurrel evaluating his digital literacies

Later in the meeting, we started brainstorming ideas about issues that teens encounter in their digital lives that they would be interested in having GK trainers address in workshops throughout the NYC schools we work in. Some of the topics they came up with were privacy and safety online, appropriate parental limitations on computer use, credibility and evaluating sources, and dealing with cyberbullying and other forms of online harassment. There's a lot there, hopefully we'll be able to work together to figure how some or all of these issues can be addressed in a GK workshop.

Thanks to all the teens for your valuable feedback and ideas!

Posted by Rafi Santo at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

What Are Kids Learning In Virtual Worlds?

Wednesday, November 14th, 6:00 p.m. PST
Davidson Conference Center, University of Southern California
3415 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, California

Watch the live stream here:

This stream will be active during the event only.

Posted by Radhika at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Monday of this week, I hosted the second monthly Fireside Workshop of the month surrounding the topic of Media Piracy. Many of our interns showed up to participate, as did a few other residents. After introducing myself and the workshop topic, I asked the participants to head over to our very popular "Human Barometer" platforms to begin the first activity. During this activity, I presented the group with a series of 3 statements and then asked that they move to the platform which best showed their personal opinion on the topic. The options, if you aren't familiar with the barometer activity are: agree, disagree and not sure. The statements I presented were: Downloading licensed & copyrighted music without purchasing it is ethical, It’s ok to share files of TV shows with others, given that networks air them publicly anyway, and Downloading licensed & copyrighted movies without purchasing them should be legal.

We received some really interesting responses to these different statements, most of which were leaning toward the view that media piracy is not something that is ethical and should remain illegal. It would be interesting to know how many of these teens actually *do* download music illegally, however. That question still remains!

The next activity was centered around the definition of media piracy. As a group, we broke down the meaning of media and then piracy. Afterwards, I asked the group to define the phrase media piracy, which they all defined correctly and immediately grasped the meaning of. During this portion, I asked the participants to pre-type what they thought the definitions were and then press enter when I said to do so. This was really effective and allowed the group to compare their results at the same time. It also helped to garner results at quicker pace.

The final section of the workshop was the longest. I briefly discussed intellectual property safeguards with the group that are built-in to certain items and used Second Life's permission system as an example of that. I also touched on Second Life specific intellectual property rights that residents are entitled to. After doing so, I presented everyone with the same scenario and asked them to present a solution as either an object, texture, snapshot, clothing, or notecard.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The notecard scenario:

You are the CEO of a popular content development company that has established a strong brand and presence within Second Life over the course of 3 years. Your company is one of the oldest and most renowned content development companies in Second Life. Your company’s annual net income is $1,000,000, with your average product selling for $1. One day, someone discovers an exploit, which allows anyone to copy content your company has created and resell it or give it away to others for free. Someone informs you of this exploit a couple weeks after it is discovered and you have to respond immediately. How would you respond to such an exploit?

(Things to think about)

How much of an affect do you think such an exploit would have on your sales?

Do you feel that your long-time, dedicated customers will continue to purchase your items instead of receiving them from someone else for free? How about purchasing them from someone else for less?

Would it make a difference if the person copying your content were selling it for more or less than you charge?

What are your legal options, and are they worth taking?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

We received some great solutions, but the winner was Mariel Voyunivef, who Rafi and I thought most effectively resolved the problem presented. Mariel chose to exercise both social and legal action against the person(s) illegally copying her content. She created a notecard to further explain..

This was her resolution:
"I would notify the Lindens in order to identify the criminals and be able to take legal action against them in court.
At the same time, I would try to get the customers involved with the problem by being open about it - in other words, just explain what has happened, making sure to let them know it's from my viewpoint.
I would tell people that, to fix this problem and other related ones, everyone must cooperate. I'd encourage them to buy my products from my store and not from the others by openly asking them to do so and by showing my appreciation in a way that benefits them, like lowering the prices of the products that have been already made, giving some away as freebies and holding lessons on building/texturing/whatever my company does for those who'd like to learn.
I'd prepare for the obvious economic losses by finding other ways to make the needed profit, like advertising, etc. "

Mariel would also provide a notecard giver in her store that would send out the following text:

"IT'S TIME TO TALK.

It has come to our attention that someone has found a way to distribute our items illegally. The Lindens have been notified and in-world and offline legal action will be taken against the people who are related to this activity. However, to solve this problem, we need your cooperation.

We ask you to please take into consideration the effort that had to be made in the creation of each of the products before you buy them at a cheaper price. It's not only illegal to buy them elsewhere - it also affects content creators all over the grid.

To show you how much we appreciate your cooperation, we have decided to discount 20% of the cost of the products that have been made so far, give some as freebies and hold building/texturing lessons for free for customers who may want to start creating content of their own.

Work towards a fair grid!"

What a wonderful event this was! After announcing the winner and congratulating everyone on a job well done, I handed out free pumpkin heads to everyone just for participating!

Posted by Mercury at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday night Oct. 14th, 2007,

In her mismatched sweat-suite -- brown plants, orange shirt and a gray scarf tied haphazardly on her head, my mother held on tightly to the high-powered iron she had acquired from one of those perpetual Macy’s sales, and started to meticulously shape my clothes into a person.

“Leslie Ann,” she screeched, slightly raising the iron from my brown cotton slacks, “I am only going to do this once, then you will have to learn how to iron properly.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I replied venturing back into my jungle of a clothes -- searching for more things that she can iron. Off course, I know how to iron, but having a Caribbean mother who grew up in a concentration camp generation of straight pants seams, A line skirts, and the cleanliness is next to goodliness concept--it’s always impossible to please.

As she goes on about clothing, my sister Arlene called on my cell phone to wish me good luck on my first day of work with Global Kids.

“Have fun and don’t be afraid,” she said, while she shushed my niece who eagerly played in the background.

“Thanks,” I said with a flowery smile.

“You should go to bed early,” she added, “yah don’t want to be at work all sleepy.”

I turned on my parents and sibling autopilot response and barmy said, “ah…..okay…..” -- quickly handing my mother the phone, so they can have their Sunday debriefing session about household items, their weekly social forecast and the unbelievable cute things my niece had done that day.

Everyone was excited about my new job as an Online Program Assistant with Global Kids. I was also, but a bit afraid. I have been a commitmentphobe in every aspect of my life: I opted out of having a cell phone contract because two years seemed a like a decade.

For the past year I have been working as a freelance journalist because I love writing, but partly because I had autonomy over my schedule, and in my grandiose mind of a geeky writer: If the Government ever called me to do a secret spy job in London, I would be able to drop my work immediately and answer the call.

Now, I was planning on having a full-time job, 9-5 (a counterfeit hipster nightmare). But my life’s dreams were greater than my fear.
My life’s dreams snippets:
A. Becoming a famous well-respected writer.
B. Using digital media to expand conventional African (in the Diaspora and continent) storytelling.
C. Advance my knowledge on how digital media can be used as a tool of empowerment for marginalized groups to tell their stories without the gaze of otherness.
D. Star a Nigerian movie.

Monday morning, I stepped into my brown trousers, white shirt, facing fear (that I may become a 9-5 robot, though Barry who interviewed me looked real) facing the anxieties of a new job, and embracing my future. I walked into the office where fingers typed two million words per minute, eyes glued to their computer screens, and their unique distinct aura circled around their desk-- a white teeth with elastic cheeks turned their heads away from their Mac Books and embraced my “freshmen” smile.

I sat in front of my desk reading the OLP Wiki pages, consuming….

I ask a relentless amount of questions, Barry eagerly responded.

I consume…..

I am quickly gaining mental weight at this job, so many facts to eat, so many ideas to devour, so many terms to chew on, I am never satisfied.

It feels good being part of a vanguard project that is changing my perspectives on we engage in digital media.

Posted by Leslie Ann at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was invited today to share our work at GK in virtual worlds with the folks attending the regular meetings at the Nonprofit Commons. It was a nice opportunity to speak with others about all we are doing.

Posted by Barry at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October was a rough month for me. Life is changing, and quick. Along with various personal trials, I suffered the loss of my father. I write about this not to dwell on my hard times, but to be thankful for the support and understanding I have received from my fellow Global Kids.

Maybe it’s due to the fact that this is a non-profit organization, or maybe I’m just lucky, but I have never met a group of such genuine, real people. The timing was difficult, as I was out of the office much of the week that we scheduled to launch the D.I.D.I. Initiative project. This week, above any other, I truly felt part of a team, as everybody, including many of our terrific interns and GK Leaders stepped in to help make the launch party and DIDI Island a great success.

So, I wanted to take this short time to reflect on how lucky I am to work with such people. Thank you, Global Kids, for your kind words, your hugs, and your support.

Posted by Meghan at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)