Global Kids' Online Leadership Program

This past week has been a whirlwind of events here at Global Kids. Monday we were part of the second MacArthur sponsored Philanthropy in Virtual Worlds, which spotlighted civil liberties in online virtual spaces and how they compare or need to be akin to real world laws and liberties. The event went great, we had crowds in both the main grid and teen grid who took part in active conversation over the topic.

This was followed by Wednesday's press junket event we scheduled in Teen Second Life. It was truly a momentous moment because up until that point, access and information about the teen grid itself and some of the great programs Global Kids and others have been running within the space has been very limited. With the blessing and help of Linden Lab and Blue & Claudia Linden, we were able to invite press into the teen grid space to hear and see what Global Kids has been doing in TSL. There were amazing talks from some of the various Online Leadership Program leaders and teens that were part of the programs and then we all convened to dance in our newly launched sim for our pilot program focusing on Global Kids developing science focused curriculum and teaching Science in Second Life.

Wednesday also saw the start of the actual Science in Second Life classes that are being held at the High School for Global Citizenship in New York. Aside from being an amazingly innovative happening, actually using virtual worlds as a tool to teach high school teens science, it is also double cool cause I get to take part in it first hand. Well, maybe not right there in person, sort of first hand…

…I have an interesting work environment with Global Kids in that I work almost entirely remotely. So all of these great projects I get to interact with and talk about here on the blog, I interface with via working from home. Of course that is one of the great parts about online and virtual world spaces; they allow for things like geography to not be a boundary to being able to effectively work ‘alongside’ and connect with your co-workers.

By now, of course, I am quite used to it and we have worked out a lot of the technical and ogistical bugs and for the most part, there isn’t much difference in what I am doing whether I am in the office or not. So when the first day of the Science in Second Life class began I was already connected via Skype into the classroom in a video chat. After some minutes of going over details with Barry and the teacher Ms. Rebe, the students themselves started to wander into class.

I had a good view of the overall classroom and found it interesting to observe the reactions the students had to my presence ‘in the classroom.’ From their perspective, once they walked into class there was a laptop set up on the desk with my smiling face full-screened onto it. It caught off guard some of the teens and touched off questions wondering if I was there ‘live’ or if I could hear them and then commenting on it seeming a bit creepy interacting with the ‘talking head’ that was amongst them. As the time went on I think they adjusted to the concept more and even caught some smiles and waves to me when I was referred to.

This will prove to be an engaging class for all of the teens involved and a chance to learn new concepts and ways of learning through online social media spaces and virtual worlds. A truly new journey in educational science based learning via a plethora of new media tools and a trip that will be sometimes guided by someone on the other side of the screen. During my involvement in this class, I plan on creating daily short screen-captured video blog posts of the process and hope to offer up my experiences…from my side of the looking glass at least. Stay tuned :)

video from day 1
video from day 2

Posted by joyce at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two weeks is probably the shortest trip I have made to India. The trip was fabulous, with all good things packed into a short amount of time. One of my closest friends got married and it was a lot of fun being part of all the celebrations. The rest of my time was spent with family, reconnecting with my friends and eating lots of good yummy food.

Everyone I met was really excited to hear about the work I have been doing. Game design is still a very new field in India and even newer is its application in the areas of learning. They were very excited to hear about what Global Kids does and how such programs would be so applicable in the Indian context as well. There is a dire need for young people in India to become more aware and involved in the world around and take action. Helping schools in India setup GK leadership programs would be a very exciting project that I would love to be part of some day.

Posted by Radhika at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Screen captured footage of the second day of the HSGC Science in Second Life class.

Today we went over how to blog and took the teens through logging into Movable Type and how to create posts. In this video you get a good idea of what the flow of conversation between the actual classroom and my imput via video and the collaboration back and forth.

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

Yesterday, to celebrate the two year anniversary of Global Kids in Teen Second Life, with the support of Linden Lab, we held the first ever press junket to the GK Estate and announced the launch of three new projects.

View the chat log of the event, including the presentations about new projects from GK staff and those of D.I.D.I. Venturers too after the jump.
We announced the first four round of grants in the D.I.D.I. Initiative and heard from the youth receiving funds to create their own social ventures around health issues (partnering with YouthVenture and funded by Robert Wood Johnson), announced the upcoming Philanthropy in Virtual Worlds program focusing on global human rights and conservation issues (funded by the MacArthur Foundation), and did a virtual ribbon cutting on our new science island established to host our new high school science class (partnering with the High School for Global Citizenship and funded by the Motorola Foundation) and held a dance party to celebrate.

It was very exciting to have so many journalists and prominent SL bloggers present to hear from both us and TSL residents about these upcoming projects.

View photos from the event.

The first reporter to "file" his report is Adam Balkin, from NY1, the Time-Warner news channel in NYC whose content is broadcast around the country. The text can be read here or you can watch the news clip below.

As other reports come in, we will post them below. Thank you to everyone at Linden Lab who helped to support this event and everyone along the way who offered inspiration.

The USC Institute for Network Culture and Global Kids present a discussion on Philanthropy and Virtual Worlds: Considering Civil Liberties.

This second event in the MacArthur Series on Philanthropy and Virtual Worlds will be held Monday, January 28, 2008, 12:00 p.m. PST.

Jonathan F. Fanton, President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, will chair a discussion about the rights of users in virtual worlds. Joining him will be Robin Harper, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development from Linden Lab, and Jack Balkin, professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School.

Douglas Thomas, Professor at USC and Director of the Institute for Network Culture, and Barry Joseph, Director of Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program, will preview upcoming events exporing philanthropy in virtual worlds. USC and Global Kids have received funding from MacArthur. Funding for this event is part of MacArthur's support for a year-long set of activities to explore the role of philanthropy in virtual worlds.

If you want to submit a question during the event, send an email to usc.network.culture@metaversatility.com.

To guarantee a spot at the event, please RSVP to usc.network.culture@metaversatility.com.

This event will be streamed live into the virtual world of Second Life on the main grid at the University of Southern California's Annenberg sim and within the teen grid on the Global Kids estate.

Audio from the event:

powered by ODEO
Or download the audio here.

The following video was produced for and shown during the event:

Also thanks to In Kenzo who captured footage during the event and created the following machinima.

If you attend either event and take pictures, please tag them with the tag: mac012808

View photos posted with the mac012808 tag.

Transcript during event from within Teen Second Life.

Presenters:

What Barry Joseph had to say.

Coverage of this event via blogs and other media will be posted as we receive them.

Avatar Rights are Human Rights
By Prokofy Neva

Virtual Civics
By In Kenzo (inkenzo)

The SLDM aiming for Avatar Rights
By Roland Legrand

http://www.massively.com/2008/01/30/cinemassively-civil-liberties-in-teen-second-life/
By moo money

Terra Nova's announcement of the event
By Dan Hunter

MacArthur MacArthur Series on Philanthropy and Virtual Worlds

Real life boundaries in borderless worlds
By Jimbo Hoyer of SLNN.com

Second Life ... Rights
By Grace McDunnough

So Say I All
By Rheta Shan

Posted by Barry at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Hey! One thing that I learn from global kids is how to make 10 second movie. But we had to put our ideas into that paper before we make the movie. We had an exciting time while reading other people's ideas.

Posted by VVP Jamila at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As the new kid on the block at Global Kids, I’ve had several opportunities to practice the “Elevator Pitch” describing our work:

"I work for a youth-oriented non-profit that helps teens in New York and beyond use technology to be better students and global leaders."

"I use virtual worlds to educate young people about important global issues and empower them to be better global citizens."

"I work for a non-profit called Global Kids. We connect teenagers with the technical tools and the knowledge to be better informed citizens and more successful students."

Yeah, I know, these suck.

Watching old hands like Barry and Rafi tell the GK story to various audiences large and small, I’m inspired to develop my own soundbites that communicate about our mission and work succinctly and convincingly.

Throughout my entire career as a non-profit organizer, I’ve had difficulty condensing what I do into something that is easily told at, say, a dinner party or in a bar. Too often I have found myself responding to the question of “So what do you do?” with a mumbled reply about “do-gooder activist stuff.” Usually by the time I finish explaining it, the person has moved on to the cheese platter.

Global Kids and the Online Leadership Program in some ways is much easier to explain to people: We help young people, we work with new technologies, we teach about global issues. The rest is just details.

But it is in the details where I get tripped up. The phrase "virtual worlds" often needs to be unpacked for anyone over the age of 25 (and lots of people under 25.) Not to mention "machinima," "Second Life," "the International Criminal Court," and "sustainable development." Just two days ago, I had to explain to a well-educated friend what a foundation was.

What I have found is that people quickly focus in on certain aspects of our mission. Some respond strongest to our work face-to-face with teens-of-color in some of the poorest neighborhoods in New York. Others are inspired by the potential of connecting teens around the world using virtual worlds. Some really get jazzed about digital filmmaking, others want to know more about the human rights and environmental education.

But none of them are bored by what we do. It's always the beginning of an interesting conversation.

Often the conversation ends abruptly when I have to admit that I don't know much more beyond the generalities of our game creation work or our young social entrepreneurs project. But as I inculcate the details around the different strands of our mission, I look forward to more in-depth conversations with folks -- from the guy sitting beside me on the airplane to my cousin visiting from the Philippines.

So the next time someone says, "And so what do YOU do?" my response will be more interesting than the cheese platter.

Posted by Rik at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This month, I have spent much time thinking about design and responsibility. I’m thinking about how we make things, why we make things, and why we make things how we make things. I’m thinking about how we distribute and consume the world’s resources.

Our society has a grossly distorted perception of cost. We dye upholstery with toxic chemicals because doing so is “cost effective.” We buy toys from Chinese factories because it costs less to make them there. We shop at Wal Mart because it offers “good value.” Before Hurricane Katrina, some of FEMA's most vital services were outsourced to private contractors who then outsourced to others who outsourced even more. Forty years after construction on the levee system began it was still incomplete and under-built because it wasn't a spending priority. All these cost/benefit analyses are extremely myopic.

What makes carcinogenic rug dye cheap if living with it gives us respiratory problems? How inexpensive is a toy covered with lead paint if our children suck on it and suffer brain damage? Does Wal Mart really have good values if its practices bankrupt our local economy, and its cheap plastic-wrapped products end up lying in landfills, outliving our children’s children? What does it matter if government outsourcing saves money if it costs lives? How can the government say it funds a war on terror to protect our way of life while neglecting basic domestic responsibilities? Americans have an obsession with their right to cheap petroleum. My friends, fuel is not cheap if it darkens our skies, destroys our wildlife, propels a military-industrial plague and legitimates plutocrats’ wars of empire.

I am aware that there are plenty of angry progressives (and cowboy-hatted rock stars, and smiling politicians) championing sustainability. It is becoming fashionable to speak of reducing waste, and reducing resource use. Captains of industry regularly speak about corporate responsibility, and being good corporate citizens. At the World Economic Forum this year, much of the discussion focused on the current crisis in the world economy, and how inventive belt-tightening was needed. In a Foreign Affairs article from last month, Executive Director of the WEF Klaus Schwab wrote an article entitled Global Corporate Citizenship. It laid out some of the new responsibilities for transnational corporations discussed at Davos. He wrote, “International business leaders must fully commit to sustainable development and address paramount global challenges, including climate change, the provision of public health care, energy conservation, and the management of resources, particularly water.”

Sounds pretty good, right? Sounds like a nice change from the days of robber barons and the injustices that raised the ire of the anti-globalization movement. But wait a minute, there is a brief phrase that bares notice: the management of resources, particularly water. He did not say water conservation; he said management. Management means control. In 1995 World Bank vice-president Ismail Serageldin said, "If the wars of this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water." If there are to be wars fought over water, I certainly do not want corporations managing water the same way they manage ammunition or Iraqi reconstruction. Read General Smedly Butler’s book War Is A Racket about profiteering in World War I and tell me if you think corporations should be managing such a precious good.

Even if wars are not to be fought over the single most valuable resource on Earth, consider how corporations have managed water so far. In India, Coca Cola plants have been using so much water the wells in surrounding communities have run dry. Coca Cola is then discharging toxic wastewater back into the ground. When Sharad Haksar, one of India’s best photographers made a billboard criticizing Coke’s practices, they threatened to sue him. According to the book Blue Gold by Maude Barlow, “Since water services were privatized in France, customer fees have increased by 150 percent. The government of France also reports that the post-privatization drinking water of over five million people was contaminated.” These are but two of dozens of alarming case studies about corporate water management.

We surround ourselves in poison because we think it saves money, and we let corporations manage our resources because we think they can do it better than us. And we are all suffering because of these misperceptions. There is a solution, however. We need a new industrial revolution. We need to reconsider how we make and use the world’s gifts, and that revolution has nothing to do with sustainability. Sustainability, though now a popular term (and seemingly better that the militarized, endless consumption that currently dominates our world) is a rather boring idea. As William McDonough, one of the founders of the Cradle to Cradle movement said, “If someone asked you how your marriage was doing, and you said, ‘it’s sustainable,’ that would be rather depressing.”

The Cradle to Cradle movement is a new way of designing that looks to nature for inspiration. And nature has nothing to do with sustainability. Sustainability is about less—reduced energy use, smaller homes, smaller cars, smaller meals. Theses ideas sound good, but in our current society I believe such rules would only apply to those who couldn’t afford to consume as much as they want. We talk about sustainability and efficiency, but efficiency can be terrible. Factories are much more efficient than small workshops, but deadening to the human soul. Nazi concentration camps were quite efficient, but I don’t think anyone in his right mind would applaud such judicious use of food, clothing, and Zyclon B.

Nature is simply not efficient. Look at the number of fish eggs spawned to the number of fish that hatch to the number of fish that survive to mate. Cherry trees are not conservative in their production of cherry blossoms. Nature’s abundance is one of its most admirable and sublime features, and its most effective. In nature, waste equals food. Over production benefits the environment. This is the foundation of the Cradle to Cradle movement. The industrialized world is the way it is because its behavior patterns and values developed at a time when the Western Culture understood very little about the world and believed it so vast and powerful that no human activity could alter the oceans or the trees. We thought we could take all we wanted and dump what we didn’t need and nature would never notice. We were, of course, terribly mistaken about this.

This miscalculation has proven tragic, but at least it is only a mistake and not inevitability. We have the power to do everything right. We have the power to produce as nature does. McDonough’s design firm has worked with major corporations to rethink production in ways that benefits the environment. They worked with a Swiss fabric maker to design an upholstery that’s so safe you can eat it. The excess material is ground up and used as mulch for rose bushes. The water that leaves the plant is cleaner that the water that enters it. The factory, no longer relying on hazardous materials to manufacture its product, has become a safer, more pleasant environment for its employees. We can make every factory and every product like this.

Humans are amazingly resourceful, creative, and industrious. The Manhattan Project was an example of what can be accomplished when great minds are networked, given the necessary resources, and set on a common goal. The result was monstrous, but the effort was laudable. What if we had a Cradle to Cradle Manhattan Project? What if we fought a war against waste?

I have no interest in any corporation, no matter how benevolent its rhetoric, managing my resources. Monsanto seeds produce over 80% of the soybeans in the US. This is bad. Corporations are eyeing our food and water, offering to be good citizens, sagacious caretakers in an age of decreasing governmental authority. I don’t want technocratic wannabe philosopher kings telling me humanity is using too much water and eating too much food and they need to close the spigots for our own good. There is a better way. We can live in an abundance that embraces the earth. We can build and shape and create in ways that benefit all creatures. We can live free from regulation and liberated by a sound philosophy and intelligent design.

Posted by Jay at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Something powerful happens when we as educators approach a young person's space, like their afternoon dance club, or hip hop group, or virtual world, and acknowledge it as being worth something. When we consider their cultural competencies, and what is important to them. When we harness their unique competencies for something that uniquely counters all of the negativity, pressure, or influences that are concurrently constructing their world.

In the work of the Online Leadership Program, we are recognizing that the enormous creativity, energy and spirit of our young people means something. And that it means something in all of the different forms it takes. It means something for the young person that only is engaged when she has a camera in her hand. Or for the young person that is struggling in school but confident in an after school fireside workshop. It matters tor the young person that isn’t sure of herself or who she wants to be, but knows that others are just like her, across the world, and she gets to seem them in the virtual world she logs in to every night. For a person that hates English class, but feels whole in a hip hop project… That matters.

It is something powerful when you say that every young person matters. It is of more importance when you do something to make sure that the young person knows that they matter. That is what youth development is. They are engaged. And when they are engaged they are a force to be reckoned with. They know it and they prove it. We are in their space, and so their space means something, not just to them, but to the world. They mean something to the world.

When I was in high school I learned much less physics and much more about creative ways to skip school. I wasn’t engaged. I didn’t connect to what I was learning. Instead, I learned how to fake a clinic pass and dodge security on my way to the parking lot. I was on absence probation in high school. The principal would literally come to my classes everyday to make sure when I was there. When I got to college, I started to take interdisciplinary courses, thinking through my experiences. My graduate experience was the same, I was challenged. I was inspired by the world around me. I was an all A student. Not that my grades were what mattered. But I learned that I mattered.

Connecting a young person to their learning, so that they care, about themselves and the world around them, and being something in that world, that is what makes our work mean something. It means something to the world we are preparing our kids for and it certainly means something to the young people that begin to feel a part of it.

Posted by Amira at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For the last two months or so I’ve been working with 4 students from Ramapo Technology Club. These students are participating in an after school club at Suffern Middle School in NY, and have volunteered to be part of GK’s D.I.D.I. Initiative. We meet every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, virtually, in TSL. Over the past weeks I’ve gotten to know each teen, and the dynamic of the group. I’ve learned who the quiet thinker is, which one is the natural leader, and which one is the ‘class clown.’

It’s been interesting working so consistently with a group - in a virtual setting. There are some things I was beginning to question, though. Despite reiteration of our GK guideline of ‘safe space’, I noticed a continued banter among the group, different from what I would accept in a classroom. Sometimes I would step in and remind them. Other times, they’d remind each other. I also noticed occasional long lags in response time during conversations and tasks. “Are they there?” I’d wonder. “Are they bored?” Sometimes they tell us they are bored. That’s helpful.

Despite my concerns, the Ramapo group has been most impressive with their dedication to the DIDI Venture. Attendance is great, and once we get going, participation is never an issue. This group has begun to think deeply about their community, and how they can make a difference.

Unlike most of the students we will work with in DIDI, the Ramapo kids are only 30 miles out of NYC. I decided last week to take advantage of this, and planned a visit to the Middle School. That Thursday we logged into TSL as usual, but this time, I was on my laptop in the same room with them. The other DIDI facilitators were in their usual locations in their offices. I reminded the students that this workshop would take place within TSL as usual, and they should continue with the workshop like all the others.

As the workshop progressed, I began to better understand my earlier concerns. The lags in response time within TSL all made more sense now. I saw that they were talking to each other because perhaps one was having a technical difficulty, or maybe they were talking about the topic, or how they want to split the task, etc. They were a great deal less distracted than I had previously thought. There had just been no way for us to see this from our virtual interactions.

To my delight and surprise, I also now understood the banter within TSL. These kids DO like each other. The comments they make inside TSL are accompanied by giggles and playful comments in person.

I won’t say that this experience has turned me off to working with youth virtually. However, it was great to meet the kids in person. I was not only able to put a real face to an avatar, but I was able to HEAR the laughter and SEE the smiles as we worked. I appreciate that this is not an opportunity I will often have. I hope that, although each group is different, I can apply some of these realizations to future groups, and consider the dynamic of those groups in a new light.

Posted by Meghan at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Global science is probably going to be fun.I just want to see what where going to be do for this term.

Posted by Brandon at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Five science topics that we learned in the 1st semester is combustion,models(physical, conception, and mathematical models) diffusion, dissolving substance, and sustainability. My hopes for the 2nd life is for it to be more fun but still be educational so i can still learn and have fun. I also hope that 2nd life would help me pass the class with a higher average.

Posted by Latisha at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Global Science we have learned numbers of things like the Affect of Temperature on Cellular Respiration of Yeast Cells, osmosis and diffusion, and about animal and plant cells. My favorite was osmosis and diffusion, I never knew osmosis was the movement of water from a high concentration to a low concentration until a balance is reached and as for diffusion, it it is the process where solid substances move from an area of high concentration to a low. Many things I learned but those were my favorite because it's something new I learned and l enjoy learning new things.

Posted by KoraAnne at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the first semester of Global Science, we learned many different topics. Some topics were Osmosis, Cellular Respiration, Density, Population Growth, and the Food Web. I think this half of the course will be different than the first half because its more work on the computer than on paper. A concern I have is that I will not get use to doing all my work in second life. A hope that I have is that I will not lose focus on my work just because second life is more like a game than a science class.

Posted by Shabede at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich you have to be very specific and that you have to be very careful because you can rip a hole in the bread and then you would have to start over javascript:insert_smiley(5) and then if you want to you could eat the sandwich

step 1: take bread and put jelly on it
step 2: take second bread out and then put the peanut butter on the bread
step 3: take both of the breads and put them together and you got you pb&j sandwich

step 4: Eat the sandwich or throw it away

then you could be proud of yourself because you just made and ate a pb&j sandwich

Posted by Shaquile B at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

last year we we were doing actives that involed population. How it increase and decrease. We talked about how some things effects the human and animals population.

Posted by Asha at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In science last semester i learned a lot of things. One thing i learned was about cells. I learn about the animal cells and plant cells. Another i learned was about following directions. Another was the movement of water. Another was the movement of energy.
Another was food web. Who made second life? How long did it take that person to make this program? What made them make second life?

Posted by Eaon at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What i learned in the first half of the semester was density equal mass over volume. We were working on that for about a week are so, and that was the only thing i remember from last semester. Another thing we worked on was the making of peanut butter and jelly, we had to show he steps to make peanut butter it was boring looking at a teacher make peanut butter and jelly. the first semester was good even though i failed but this one will be better. and we worked on cellular respiration. we worked on watching the yoke turning colors even though it did not.

Posted by Daquan at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the beginning of the year there were 5 experiment that I will always remember. The first experiment that I will always remember was the Coke Floats experiment. During this experiment I learned that water has a specific volume which allows other liquids and even solids to float or sink depending on how high or low in volume they are. Secondly I will always remember the burning flame of combustion that we learned. I thought it was so interesting to see part of the true power of fire especially because she was using all different sorts of nuts to burn and kerosene to create energy. Third I will always remember when we did the experiment with kool-aid depending on basically the durability in certain objects and if temperature or stirring had a different effect on how long it will take something to dissolve. Fourth I will always remember the experiment where we learned about cells and their bodily structure and functions. And last but not lease I will always remember the experiment where we learned about cellular respiration and how "us" breathing could continuously create/give energy to humans. Also in that experiment I learned that the formula for cellular respiration and photosynthesis are almost exactly the same thing except their just the opposite in the sequence of energy and food.

Posted by Shaquille S at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The first half of the school year there was alot of topic we were taught.Such as the topic sustainability. Sustainability is the continued survival of the living organisms that inhabit the earth.I also learned about the dissolving solids in a liquid. May sound boring but the labs my class did to learn those topics was very made it fun. My hopes about the changes in the class is that we may have a good time learning through the second life. Cant wait to see what the result is.

Posted by Andrysse at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Bean project that I did at home was fun. I learn how bean grow and different places and the growth of different beans like when I water one plant the other one did not grow .

Posted by Egypt at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thing we learned in science class is cells. Cells are the basic unit of life and are composed of different things that run your body.
We learned that a egg is the largest cell that you can actually see with your eyes. Though some cells you will need a microscope to see them.
Before we did our experiments we learned the correct process to structure it. Like the research , materials , hypothesis , the steps and ect.

Posted by Zana at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In this we learned about the three main components that make up an experiment.
Manipulated variable is what changes in an experiment.
Responding variable is what happens in the experiment
controlled variable is what stays the same through out the experiment

Posted by Rakeem at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the beginning of the school year, we learned to follow directions before getting to do labs and projects.To make this lesson more fun, we did an example with following directions by trying to instruct our teacher to make a peanut butter jelly sandwich using only our directions.ITS PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!!!

.

It took a while before she could finally get it right. But overall it was an interesting experiment. We had fun and william enjoyed a little snack once we were finished making our sandwiches. Some other topics that we went over were Cellular Respiration, Photosynthesis, Carrying Capacity, and Thermodynamics. Honestly, out of all of these topics, i think that following directions were the yummiest...oops i mean the best lessons taught all year

Posted by Demetra at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The five things that i learned last semester is 1) pollution and how it affects the world,people,food,and etc. 2) carrying capacity how the world would run out of resources if the world population grew. 3) osmosis in which water moves from a hypotonic to a hypertonic. 4) inference and observation 5) graphs linear exponential and s-curve.

Posted by Naomi at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

5 topics that I was taught in the first half of the year was .... 1:The process of cellular respiration 2: When we followed directions taking the test that we had to only write my(our) names if we read all the directions carefully 3: The affect of the population growth and the amount of food that we have on the earth and to add to that was the amount of land we have to live on and the amount of land we have to grow food 4:We also did the food chain we ha to know what the arrows in the food chain represents which way the energy is flowing 5: we also learned the density of water and what floats and sinks density of water is 1.0g\cm3

Posted by Ernesto at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was an exciting day for Global Kids' Online Leadership Program. We identify as an after school program. But today we launched our first classroom-based program, a semester long, 100+ session Global Science course at the High School for Global Citizenship (funded by the Motorola Foundation). Why is the OLP involved? The course will use the virtual world of Second Life to teach the curriculum.

All considered, things went very well. Below are my random notes from the day.

The 20 new Macbooks are beautiful and well secured by four locks.

However, as prepared as we were, I forgot that new Macs arrive sans dongle for connecting them to the projector. Oops! Instead we used a PC to project on the screen.

When students entered we already had Joyce up on Skype, speaking from her home in Mass. It was fascinating to see the teens avoid her. A few mentioned, half joking, that they were scared of her, this disembodied talking head on a desk.

When asked, "What will be fun about using a game-like virtual world to learn science?" one student said "It's gunna feel like a game, not work," a second said "If you don't come to school you can do it from home," and regarding challenges one said "mastering movements. It will be like a workout."

These are Freshman, so of course they liked playfully pushing the new rules, such as:
- Can we IM to ask for a pen? (No, they can't, but they were excited to learn there will be a class on Iming)
- Can I hit X in second life?
- Can I put a new background on my computer? (upon being told "no" the student said "Why? Oh man! It's inspiration.")

Tracy, the teacher, stopped herself when explaining no drinks or food around the computers, as she realized she was holding a cup of coffee in her hand. Adjusting to the new conditions of the class will take awhile as its precise shape emerges.

A thought I had: How do you encourage multitasking in a traditional school setting where students' group attention is directed moment to moment by the teacher or class structure?

Today focused on introducing the program and teaching the basics of getting around a Macbook.

One teen, when asked to turn on her computer for the first time, said "I didn't press it yet. I'm scared."

Seeing the Second Life icon in the doc, one teen said, "The Second Life icon is weird: a hand with an eye. Its cool"

Luckily we did not need to get online today, as even though we tested it two weeks ago on each machine, only one still worked. Three hours later - with frantic pointless calls to the DOE help desk - Tracy figured a way around our inability to get the computers to remember the school's hidden wireless network.

Here's a video from Joyce's vantage point on her computer:

Click To Play

During the class the teacher for the following class came in for a minute. Afterwards she told me, "They looked really engaged when I came in." Off to a good start!

Posted by Barry at 12:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On January 9th, I hit my two year mark here at Global Kids. To some, I know this sounds like a short amount of time, but to me, it's an age. To begin with, working in GK's Online Leadership Program means that we're in a field that's moving at breakneck speed. The contours of the new media landscape are shifting beneath our feet. Every month feels like six. We've been both nimble and (definitely) fortunate enough to ride this proverbial wave, and so our team has grown and projects shifted an enormous amount as well in the short time that I've been with GK.

With so many great projects moving forward, it's rare to get a moment when you feel some real closure before moving on to the next thing. But in the past month or so, I've had another great milestone occur in my time here, aside from my two year mark. In late December, MacArthur announced the release of its Digital Media and Learning Series, six volumes which include writings by authors specializing in gaming pedagogy, online identity, youth civic engagement through digital media, and more.

On a grant that Global Kids received to bring youth perspectives and voices to the DML series, I was hired. From the get-go, I began working on a variety of projects including online dialogues in which youth addressed how they felt digital media impacted their lives, an incredible youth advisory that consulted, did research, and even vetted abstracts for the volumes, and others.

Among the very early projects that I worked on as a result of this grant was a digital media essay contest. The contest resides in my memory as one of the first mid-size projects I worked on, and I distinctly remember when it came to completion. The winners had been selected and given their awards in a mixed reality event (our first ever!), the independent report had been published, my head was spinning, and I remember the giddiness of asking myself, "Are we actually finished? Successfully? Yes!!!"

That was the first project that I ever closed out on, and now the larger project that the essay contest had been conducted to support has come to a close. I went and bought myself a hardcover set of the volumes, pictured above, and now feel that same sense of closure I had when we finished the essay contest. Well, perhaps it's a bit bigger this time around...

Over the course of the project, I've had the opportunity to work with talented and dedicated people at Global Kids but also within the incredible network of grantees that are part of the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Initiative, and I'd like to take moment to formally thank you all, regardless of whether or not you'll ever come across this stray blog post.

I've already enjoyed digging my fingers into new projects as the Digital Media and Learning Initiative steadily moves into its next phase, and look forward to all the work it will entail and impact it will (hopefully) have for the good of young people around the world. Rock on into '08!

Posted by Rafi Santo at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Two years ago, in January of 2006, Global Kids opened our first Island in Second Life, on the main grid. We had a party then sent it the next day to the teen grid. The party was a blast, as captured below in our first machinima (before we even learned the word!).

At the time, we could not have imagined that within two years Second Life’s accounts would grow from around 20,000 to over ten million, that Global Kids online staff would grow from three to twelve (not counting interns and independent contractors), nor that this new medium would explode in 2008 and be predicted to reach more than 50% of teens by 2011.

Reflecting back on the past two years, rather than reflect on the broad range of our past SL-based educational programs, the remarkable partners (from UNICEF to the MacArthur Foundation to the dozen amazing organizations I am leaving out), and the impact we have had on youth both in NYC and around the world, I’d rather look at the next few years.

Can we say virtual worlds have tipped? Sure, last October saw three Second Life-based prime time TV episodes (CSI, Law & Order, and the Office), and what parent hasn’t heard of Webkinz? But few parents I speak to have an understanding of “virtual worlds” as a framework to conceptualize these experiences. More often they are described as either games or web sites (as highlighted in my trip video from last Novemeber). Virtual worlds will tip when adults think of them as a distinct genre and can identity a number of examples (e.g. Yahoo and Google are search engines, MySpace and Facebook are social networks, etc.).

It seems clear with the scores of new worlds expected to emerge this year, many if not most serving as little more than sophisticated advertising or brand loyalty efforts targeting tweens, the “dangers” of virtual words will increasingly capture the imagination of journalists (or lack there of) and introduce them to a wider audience. We can expect to go through the same cycles of outrage that accompanied the waltz, pulp fiction novels, comic books, rap music, video games, etc.

First the outrage, than the more balanced debates, then broad acceptance into the culture as we move on to the next new medium corrupting our youth. In the meantime this cycle, of course, will largely obscure what is actually going on in regards to the positive and negative impacts of virtual worlds on youth and learning.

Luckily, cutting through all this, we have the Macarthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Initiative (full disclosure: our main supporters) and their funding of researchers who are working to inject data into the discourse while organizations like Global Kids and our partners offer concrete examples of the educational and philanthropic potential of this medium.

In this context, Global Kids has the opportunity, if not the obligation, to continue our work in Teen Second Life but also expand to other virtual worlds. Whyville. There.com. Habbo Hotel. Active Worlds. We have been speaking with There.com for months and have plans underway to enter Whyville within the season. What will it mean for Global Kids as we take our work from one to a multiple of teen virtual worlds? Will we learn that there are unique affordances that unify all virtual worlds or rather than each space has its own educational opportunities? And what will happen when we begin to explore the interoperability of using the web to connecting virtual worlds to cellphones, and to one another?

This month the Forward ran an article on virtual worlds, stating “All the research about gaming is driven either by the industry or by people who want to prove it’s bad." I hope a year from now a journalist couldn’t make such a statement, referring to virtual worlds as a game, nor ignore the strong research already available, without readers dismissing him or her as uninformed.

In the meantime, while virtual worlds tip, outrage blooms, and data is mined, the kids play on.

Posted by Barry at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As part of MacArthur's Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning, Barry Joseph pens an article that was the basis of the speech he gave at the recent online event Philanthropy and Virtual Worlds: Considering Civil Liberties.

In this article Barry forecasts upcoming work by Global Kids that explores the potential of virtual worlds within non-profit, learning, and philanthropic communities.

Read the full article here: Barry Joseph: Planned Activities for Virtual Worlds and the Public Good

Posted by joyce at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Below is the transcript from the Teen Grid during our latest event Philanthropy and Virtual Worlds: Considering Civil Liberties.

Rafi Gkid: We're going to get started in a couple of minutes folks, but before we start....
Rafi Gkid: Does anyone have any idea what civil rights in virtual worlds even means? : P
Anthony Pomeray: Yes
Rafi Gkid: Go for it Anthony.
Anthony Pomeray: Basically, we should respect all peoples like we do in the real world, in the virtual world. For example, we should not ostracize newbie because of their lack of knowledge of their surroundings.
Rafi Gkid: So there's a type of civil right there, the right to be free from discrimination.
Rafi Gkid: For sure.
AngelHeart Kubo: Yeeh! I hate when people cuss n00bs
Rafi Gkid: But it extends to other types of things as well.
Rafi Gkid: Anyone have any ideas?
AngelHeart Kubo: I fell sorry for them there so cute lol
AngelHeart Kubo: Hmm
Henrik Svendsen: something with war, not shooting at civilians
AngelHeart Kubo: Maybe we could make n00bs feel welcome
Daniel Voyager: Indeed
AngelHeart Kubo: By Hosting an event welcoming newcomers
Daniel Voyager: TSL Greeters help new folks and TSL Mentors
Rafi Gkid: What about the rights to change the rules of the world? Do you guys think that's a right that residents have?
AngelHeart Kubo: Maybe give them so freebies
Rafi Gkid: We thought we'd start with some discussion on what it means to have rights in a virtual worlds.
Rafi Gkid: Everyone turn on your audio, the panel is starting!
Storm Basiat: Is this live?
Anthony Pomeray: I think this broadcast is going through on Skype.
Dion Zabelin: Yes, it's live.
AngelHeart Kubo: I can say what i think a right could be in sl?
Rafi Gkid: Of course Angel
AngelHeart Kubo: Ok
AngelHeart Kubo: Well
AngelHeart Kubo: I think there should be an island, in which MG + TG can connect
Rafi Gkid: Yeah, Macarthur gives a lot of money to support social justice issues in many places in the world.
AngelHeart Kubo: But they have to be like sensible and stuff

Rafi Gkid: Anyone here even been in club penguin or whyville?
Saryn Eye4You: yeah
Henrik Svendsen: club penguin is that miniclip game?
Rafi Gkid: Any teens? : )
Saryn Eye4You: lol
AngelHeart Kubo: Nope
Dion Zabelin: No, haven't been on either.
AngelHeart Kubo: :/
Saryn Eye4You: There.com
Henrik Svendsen: Been on there and sl
Anthony Pomeray: TG
Henrik Svendsen: but no other vws

Rafi Gkid: Btw - If any of you have questions that you want answered by Robin, Jonathan Fanton, etc, just pass them along to me
Rafi Gkid: even while we're just listening.
Storm Basiat: Is this JAck Linden?
Lucky Figtree: Jack is British
Storm Basiat: No its not jack
Rafi Gkid: His name is Jack Balkin, he's a constituional lawyer
AngelHeart Kubo: Cool
Rafi Gkid: Do you guys think that there should be any laws that the government should impose on virtual worlds?
AngelHeart Kubo: Hmmm good question
Rafi Gkid: If you're just arriving, you can turn on your audio to hear the conversation.
Storm Basiat: Nexii - Robin Harper is speaking :o
Rafi Gkid: nobody speaking is seeing each other in RL.
Rafi Gkid: Robin is in San Fran
Rafi Gkid: Jonathan is in Chicago
Rafi Gkid: I'm not sure where Jack is from.
Rafi Gkid: If you have questions for any of the speakers about civil rights in virtual worlds, please IM them to me, and I'll do my best to have them answered.

Anthony Pomeray: Did she say PN, or PM?
Nexii Malthus: PN!?
Nexii Malthus: Griefer group
Nexii Malthus: Very horrible
Daniel Voyager: lol
Nexii Malthus: infamous on mg
Nexii Malthus: They are the cause of this debate i bet
Nexii Malthus: they cause a lot of grief to avatars and sims
Nexii Malthus: I heard that the PN group can cause a lot of damage to businesses within SL
Anthony Pomeray: Maybe the PN group could be labeled as terrorists.......
Nexii Malthus: they for example put up horrible grief and spam that make all ye customers run away
Rafi Gkid: Well, that's a big question.
Anthony Pomeray: Do you think the PN group could be labeled as terrorists?
Rafi Gkid: So a group like PN, do you think they could be *legally* considered criminals?
Ian Merrienboer: who is this talking?
Nexii Malthus: They WILL be rafi
Rafi Gkid: Right now is Jonathan Fanton, the president of the macarthur foundation
Rafi Gkid: and answering is Jack Balkin, he's a constitutional lawyer.
Nexii Malthus: They have done a lot of grief and caused harm to simulators which has caused them to crash
Alex Harbinger: In the future, I can see VR crimes being treated IRL. Although that'll take a while v.v
Anthony Pomeray: Yes, I believe that they can be considered legally criminal because they are denying right to businesses and people.
Nexii Malthus: they intrude on events, large or small
Nexii Malthus: Denial of service is a crime
Anthony Pomeray: If they prey on people weaker on them that can be considered criminal, and even terrorist activity.
Rafi Gkid: So you think that the government should step into the virtual space to label actors within it as criminals, if they are deserving of that label?
Nexii Malthus: Harassment is also quite bad
Nexii Malthus: Depends on the crime rafi
Alex Harbinger: That's if you assosiate VR crimes with RL rules, which you -can- do now, but it would be much harder to fight. Whereas if governments were more accepting of these crimes, new rules would be made (or current ones modified) to make prosecuting VR criminals easier.
Nexii Malthus: Denial of Service is quite a real legal concern in modern days and can get you in a lot of legal trouble
Anthony Pomeray: Everyone should be given a fair chance at something, even in virtual reality. These PN greifers are criminals and need to be dealt with as such.
Anthony Pomeray: If i'm not correct, innocence is the cost of justice.
Alex Harbinger: Accepting in the context that they accept them as crimes, not lessening the punishments :P
Anthony Pomeray: Why don't you forward my question toward the Q&A section Rafi?
Rafi Gkid: which question anthony?
Anthony Pomeray: Do you think it is possible that the group known as PN could be labeled as legal criminals or terrorists?
Rafi Gkid: will do!
Nexii Malthus: Not a group unfortunately I believe
Nexii Malthus: Only individuals
Rafi Gkid: Welcome Victoria. : )
Victoria Hanfoi: Hi.

Minicooper Hanriot: *_* wat are they talking about?
Rafi Gkid: They're talking about protecting your data.
Minicooper Hanriot: oh from hackerS?
Nexii Malthus: Eh, from anyone?
Nexii Malthus: Except government of course :D
Minicooper Hanriot: ahhhhh
Rafi Gkid: For instance, if you buy something from a company in-world, can they then sell that data to someone else? Like marketers?
Rafi Gkid: It's about protecting privacy.
Minicooper Hanriot: ya
Ian Merrienboer: ^_-
Nexii Malthus: HMh what about the data protection act? oh wait, this is america, i nearly forgot :P
Daniel Voyager: Hi Dusty
Rafi Gkid: If you have any questions for the panelists, Robin, Jack Ballinger, Jonathan Fanton (president of macarthur)
Rafi Gkid: please pass them along to me in IM!
Mike Denneny: Hi
Daniel Voyager: Hiya Mike
Nexii Malthus: Yes, What about the Data protection act, or do they REALLY don't have that there? o.o
Anthony Pomeray: Hopefully..
Rafi Gkid: can you clarify that question?
Minicooper Hanriot: are these the questions u guys asked?
Nexii Malthus: MG and TG questions
Ian Merrienboer: how do you place a question?
Nexii Malthus: just ask rafi
Nexii Malthus: :P
Rafi Gkid: please IM me to place a question
Rafi Gkid: Nexii, can you clarify your question before I pass it along?
Nexii Malthus: What about different countries and rules regarding data, such as the Data Protection Act in the United Kingdom?
Rafi Gkid: Are you saying how do we deal with that?
Nexii Malthus: Yes, I know that Linden Lab has to obey american laws, but Second Life is becoming international
Nexii Malthus: With their presence of offices in various countries
Nexii Malthus: such as in Brighton

Minicooper Hanriot: was this question one of ur guys?
Anthony Pomeray: WOO TG
Henrik Svendsen: yay
Henrik Svendsen: Teen Grid question is being answered!
Rafi Gkid: great question!
Nexii Malthus: Harassment, Denial Of Service
Nexii Malthus: @ PN
Rafi Gkid: For those that just arrived, you can hear the conversation that's going on by clicking play on your audio streaming tab.
Rafi Gkid: And if you have questions for the panelists, please IM me, and I'll pass them over.
Anthony Pomeray: Dang, they're spending a long time on my question.
Rafi Gkid: nice anthony!
Anthony Pomeray: And now they switched

Rafi Gkid: Does everyone know that GK has a privacy policy?
Rafi Gkid: Does everyone know what EULA's are?
Dion Zabelin: End Users License Agreement.
Anthony Pomeray: Yes
Natalia Obscure: Mhmm
Saryn Eye4You: unless they say it's from tg it seems like they are from mg
Nexii Malthus: Uhh, was my question there or did i miss it ? o.o
Anthony Pomeray: What was your question?
Nexii Malthus: "How is Linden Lab dealing, or planning on dealing, with different data protection laws that exist in the many countries that residents reside in?"
Ian Merrienboer: Rafi mine wasnt asked, right?
Anthony Pomeray: In't that the initial user agreement?
Anthony Pomeray: I think that was the first one, I dunno.
Rafi Gkid: I don't think yours was asked Ian, sorry.
Rafi Gkid: We'll be starting the machinima soon.
Anthony Pomeray: My question was answered :D
Jay Clostermann: Oh cool.
Rafi Gkid: In a minute Barry's going to be speaking!
Rafi Gkid: I'm going to pop in the movie url after barry and doug speak.
Minicooper Hanriot: is this live?
Ian Merrienboer: yes
Minicooper Hanriot: cool where is it taking place?
Rafi Gkid: In second life
Rafi Gkid: well, on skype, streamed into SL.
Anthony Pomeray: I think I heard them talking about this machinma right now Rafi :D
Lucky Figtree: BARRRYY
Anthony Pomeray: Well, they'll be watching the machinima GK made
Dion Zabelin: Yay Barry!
Lucky Figtree: woooo!
Dion Zabelin: He's on!
Jay Clostermann: HEY BERRY
Jay Clostermann: BARRY
Jay Clostermann: BERRYBARRY
Rafi Gkid: lol
Jay Clostermann: I don't think there's much philanthropy in TSL.

Posted by joyce at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today we had to make a comic book about things that we learned in second life and in general; such as multi-tasking, networking, etc. Our comic had to be 1 to 2 pages long. I like my comic book because I always put my best in everything I do.

Posted by VVP Tarana at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We did comic books today all by ourselves. We had to chose pictures and edit them so to create a story that people could understand. We had a lot of fun putting them together.

Posted by VVP Jamila at 6:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey guys! Check out my 10 second machinima video that I made. While you guys are watching hope you are enjoying other videos too.

Posted by VVP Jamila at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week brings the exciting release of two papers that were written based on findings during the 2007 Second Life Community Convention in both the education and non-profit focused panels. They were authored by two prominent SL community members in both fields and feature numerous references, quotes and work being done by various educators, virtual world professionals and non-profits within Second Life and other related spheres.

We are proud of the papers and welcome you to download them, share with your colleagues and leave comments.

Support for these reports was provided by the Digital Media and Learning Initiative of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. We thank them and all who helped contribute in some way to the publishing of these documents.

The first paper in the Global Kids Series on Virtual Worlds discusses common themes, methodology and best practices in education in virtual worlds and concludes with recommendations.

Perhaps reflecting the unique and collaborative characteristics of the virtual platform itself, the Second Life educational community has distinguished itself as being remarkably collegial and generous in sharing both knowledge and resources with colleagues across boundaries that have traditionally not been crossed. Rather than adopting a silo mentality of research and practice, many educators routinely construct knowledge and discover best practices with colleagues in different disciplines, schools, institutions and countries. A higher education instructor in California may advise a middle school teacher in Saudi Arabia. An independent e-learning professional may offer instructional space to a virtually landless university professor.

This collaborative spirit is reflected in the principles and best practices gleaned from the Education Track at the recent Second Life Community Conference held in Chicago, Illinois in August 2007. A representative cross-section of Teen, Higher Education, Corporate and Government presentations reflected both common instructional strategies in maximizing a virtual world environment, as well as examples of tailoring that environment to best help specific learning populations.

Download the paper here.

Best Practices for Non-profits in Second Life – Fall 2007
prepared by Rik Panganiban

The second paper in the series includes key recommendations for non-profits on education, outreach, collaboration, fundraising and advocacy.

Well-heeled patrons sip martinis while bidding on shimmering gowns to raise funds for cancer research. A humanitarian aid worker just back from Sudan talks about the plight of Sudanese refugees to an international audience. Regulars at a weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meeting sit in a loose circle, helping each other through another day of sobriety. Teenagers are creating sets, costumes and lighting to shoot an educational video about child soldiers in Uganda. Pretty normal non-profit activities – if not for the fact that all of these events took place in the virtual world of Second Life.

This report is a preliminary examination of some of the best practices of non-profits active in Second Life, inspired by a series of discussions that took place during the “nonprofit track” at the Second Life Community Convention in August 2007 in Chicago. This past year Second Life has become a testing ground for exploring the possibilities of using virtual worlds for the social good. Given the fairly recent entry of many non-profits into Second Life – many non-profit offices are under one year old – these findings and recommendations are very much subject to revision. Indeed, we consider this just the beginning of a much longer conversation about what is the role of civil society, philanthropy, and the public sector writ large in the virtual world.

Download the paper here.

About the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Initiative
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grant making institution dedicated to helping groups and individuals foster lasting improvement in the human condition. MacArthur’s $50 million digital media and learning initiative aims to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. More information is available at www.macfound.org or www.digitallearning.macfound.org.

About This Series
The Global Kids Series of Virtual Worlds is part of a grant from the MacArthur Foundation to explore the role of philanthropy within virtual worlds. The first two reports are Reports from the Field: Second Life Community Convention 2007 Education Track Summary (Fall, 2007) and Best Practices for Non-profits in Second Life (Fall, 2007).

Posted by joyce at 4:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last Thursday, before we all went off for Regents week, we watched an accumulated version of all our short 10 second videos. It was great to see how we all came together and finished our first project! Anyway, it basically had a personal screening of the entire set of movies and I think it is something we will remember once we begin to get the hang of editing and other filming techniques. When you look back at some of the first things you created, you begin to have a better comprehension of which skills you have thus improved. Speaking of skills, after watching that video, we went onto creating comics in Comic Life. Basically we had to create a comic depicting which new media skills we were able to learn or depict through making our 10 second videos. I used two snapshots from my video to depict "play" and "collective intelligence". I thought it was a great way access what we have learned!

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was in Paris when this side of the world embraced the new year. Thanks to good weather and the week break, I was able to visit Paris for the first time and met Mona Lisa in person, among other things. 2008 started as a great year for me, I'm doing exactly what I want to do and a lot of happy news around work and family. My youngest sister got accepted to a prestigious school, I've changed jobs within the organization in a good way, and VVP is running smoothly with strong support from the staff here. The teens in VVP this year are extra hard working, diligent, and we can tell that they truly enjoy their time here no matter what we end up finishing. They are starting to take real ownership over their movies and learning how to present their work in a clear and cohesive way with others.

What I am most proud of is the way the group have come together to enjoy each workshop, and as one of the trainer in the program, I am humbled to be a part of the progress and learn from not just their mistakes but also my own. I love the overall harmony of the group that keeps us going each week. Each week we re-enforce big words like "digital media literacy skills", and with time, the teens are adapting to these skills in ways we cannot measure in numbers. I have a formula for program success, so I'm just going to toss it out there and see if anyone else can relate.

Positive attitude + strong program design + willingness to learn from mistakes and maintaining an open mind = SUCCESS SUPERSTARS

It is often difficult for trainers, educators and professionals to realize that they are not experts, and the way we teach last year, or last month, might not be adequate for tomorrow. I think that's what I want to keep in the back of my head this year, and hope that others can do the same. Are we really embracing change, learning and growing from mistakes? Or are we making change slower than we claim to be? Are we honest with ourselves about the work we do with youth and the real impact on their lives - not for their future, but for right now?

A part of my new year's resolution is to get to know the teens better. Get to know them on a level that will last beyond our expectations. Like a teen said to me once, "keep it real miss", I obey.

Posted by tabitha at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The first part of the workshop I really did not have to change too much, I introduced myself and the workshop, and asked them if they had anything they were particular about when it came to their appearances and they said they didn’t have anything like that for the most part. However, when the activity part came, and I sent them a note card filled with instructions on what they need to do for the activity—they all seemed to be disappointed by the long-ness of the instructions (although it was barely half a page long). The note card basically told them that they needed to come to a consensus on the model/perfect person as a group; they were given three options to about this: 1. make an avatar of that person, 2. everyone goes out and finds a person than convinces the rest of the group that they are the perfect person, and 3. simply list the characteristics that make a person perfect. I gave them about 3-4 minutes to read through the entire note card and decided that I would give them a freedom over what they chose to do as a project.

I really want to thank all the wonderful TSL residents that came to the workshop or dropped by, Lucky and BB for helping me test things out, Meghan for letting me use her pods/the island she worked so hard to beautifully design, and Rafi for helping me prepare for the workshop and helped me through the entire process. The workshop may not have been what I expected it to be, but I think it will be a great memory to take with me as I end my term as a GK Online Intern!

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Contacts: Jonah Kokodyniak, Global Kids, 212-226-2116, Jonah[AT]globalkids.org
Tom Mariam, Mariam Communications, 914-939-4294, Tom[AT]mariam.biz

For Immediate Release:

Media Offered Unique Opportunity by Global Kids to Experience Teen-Only Space of Second Life

Journalists Can Observe Projects on Education, Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy

New York, NY, January 15, 2008 – Journalists from around the world will have a rare chance to get a first-hand look at the teen-only space of the popular virtual world, Second Life (TSL), through Global Kids Inc. (GK), a leader in the use of new media to empower youth.

Global Kids, now in its third year of conducting educational programming in TSL, is conducting the first invitation-only press tour of the teen-only space of Second Life on Wednesday, January 30 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. EST.

Journalists can participate either by coming to the Global Kids office in New York City or remotely. Interested reporters should contact Jonah Kokodyniak (212-226-2116 or jonah[AT]globalkids.org) to reserve a spot.

The special press tour will highlight three of Global Kids’ most exciting new projects:

• The launch of a Motorola Foundation-funded Science Through Second Life class at the High School for Global Citizenship in New York City.
• A $40,000 commitment from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to create health-related youth-run social ventures.
• A series of competitions linked to MacArthur Foundation international program areas.

Due to the unique conditions pertaining to adults in TSL, a select number of journalists will be brought into Teen Second Life and experience first-hand the announcement ceremony of the first round of health-related social venture teams, participate in the ribbon cutting for the new Science Education island, learn about the introduction of MacArthur Foundation program areas into TSL, and meet with teens involved in the projects from around the world.

Reporters in the New York area will be able to visit the Global Kids office directly to receive hands-on Second Life training, meet Global Kids youth leaders in person, and/or watch the event projected on a screen.

“We are seeing an explosion of teen-oriented virtual worlds driven largely by commercial and marketing interests. Parental concern about excessive time spent in these environments is on the rise,” said Barry Joseph, director of Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program, “However, virtual worlds can provide important opportunities for an assortment of unintended learning, from identity formation, to social networking and entrepreneurial skills, to financial literacy. Global Kids has responded by developing programs that formalize this informal learning to support youth leadership development around social and global issues.”

Reporters taking advantage of the Second Life tour through Global Kids will be able to experience:

1) Science Through Second Life - initiates the first New York City high school class to work completely in Second Life. Freshman experiencing this interdisciplinary life and physical science curriculum will go online, every day, to learn about science from a global perspective through the unique affordances of a virtual world.

2) Dream it. Do it. Initiative ( D.I.D.I.) - works with groups of teens in Second Life to mentor them to become young social entrepreneurs. The groups are provided with seed funding of up to $1,000 to implement sustainable projects that will bring positive changes to their communities’ health.

“One of the first ventures is called Beat Bullying,” says Adam Aberman, Director of Global Online Strategy of Youth Venture, GK’s project partner. Second Life is allowing these teens from the UK and the US to team up to combat bullying both in their separate home communities and their shared one online.

3) Philanthropy in Virtual Worlds - An extension of Global Kids participation in the MacArthur Foundation’s year exploring the role of philanthropy in virtual worlds teaches youth about the public good, philanthropy and issues such as conservation, sustainable development, human rights and international justice. GK will host thematically-focused educational competitions, festivals, live events and more that will engage youth in substantive learning and social actions.

A press packet is available upon request.

About Global Kids, Inc. (www.globalkids.org)
Launched in 1989 and independent since 1993, Global Kids' mission is to educate and inspire urban youth to become successful students and global and community leaders by engaging them in socially dynamic, content-rich learning experiences. Through its leadership development and academic enrichment programs, Global Kids educates youth about critical international and domestic issues and promotes their engagement in civic life and the democratic process. Through professional development initiatives, Global Kids provides educators with strategies for integrating experiential learning methods and international issues into urban classrooms. Over 85% of the high school seniors who participate in GK's leadership program graduate and attend college.

About the Global Kids Online Leadership Program (OLP)
Global Kids, Inc. is a nationally recognized leader in using digital media to promote global awareness and youth civic engagement. Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program (OLP) integrates a youth development approach and international and public policy issues into youth media programs that build digital literacy, foster substantive online dialogues, develop resources for educators, and promote civic participation. Currently, the OLP is accomplishing its goals through initiatives within four broader areas: the development of socially -conscious online games; youth-led online dialogues; Virtual Worlds; and the Digital Media Initiative.

# # #

Posted by joyce at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January is sweeping by like the wind. I was just celebrating the holidays and we are already moving into February. It was only yesterday when I was taking pictures of the wonderful wildlife of Costa Rica, watching the monkeys swing freely through the trees. I remember eating a fresh steamed lobster in a beautiful restaurant with a breath-taking ocean view. I can still feel the soft wind blowing in my face as I was sunbathing and the smell of coconuts grazing my nose softly. What has triggered these thoughts, you say; walking ten blocks in 25 degree weather. How do I snap out of this nostalgia? Now, I look forward to watching my VVP participants become amazing Second Life filmmakers and I anticipate the warmth of the spring.

Posted by Kathy at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The USC Institute for Network Culture and Global Kids present a discussion on Philanthropy and Virtual Worlds: Considering Civil Liberties.

This second event in the MacArthur Series on Philanthropy and Virtual Worlds will be held Monday, January 28, 2008, 12:00 p.m. PST.

This event will be streamed live into the virtual world of Second Life on the main grid at the University of Southern California's Annenberg sim and within the teen grid on the Global Kids estate.

You can listen live to the live event here.

Posted by joyce at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At Playing 4 Keeps, we’re still researching Hurricane Katrina and that research entails both finding the information we never knew, and unlearning the disinformation we thought was true. Katrina’s floodwaters brought a torrent of rumors as people grasped for information in the void left by the government. While there was some excellent journalism during the tragedy, the media also berated the public with deceptive, lurid tales of violence and depravity.

We were told New Orleans was a tearing itself apart and people were more interested in raping and murdering than working together. Those reports could not have been further from the truth. Our game will be focused on teaching people the reality of what happened in New Orleans, both the mistakes that happened at the top and the triumphs that came from the bottom.

Monday we further developed our game documents. The process of making a game allows the development of a variety of skills, and I’m always eager to get our students writing. We spent the first part of the workshop discussing the game designs that were developed last week and thinking about what facts needed to be added to make the game realistic. After discussing what more we needed to know, the class went to the computers.

There are some incredible sites on Hurricane Katrina including Teaching the Levees, and educational site developed around Spike Lee’s documentary “When the Levees Broke.” Just looking at Teaching the Levees’ timelines is a huge help to understanding what exactly happened during the disaster. The Times-Picayune’s website has an interactive flash program that shows when and where the different levees flooded and how the water spread. I think it’s typical in complicated situations that people begin throwing around terms (“levee breeches”) without really knowing what they’re talking about. Digital media is great for helping people explore and understand such complicated events.

On Thursday we spent most of the afternoon watching excerpts from “When the Levees Broke.” The documentary is an impressively comprehensive examination of the disaster and I wish I could show it to our students in its entirety but it’s over four hours long. What I most wanted them to understand, though, was how heroically regular citizens acted. The Coast Guard did an exceptional job during the storm and some police and National Guard were outstanding as well. But what I find most inspirational and what I think our game needs to stress, is the rescue operations orchestrated by everyday people.

The Cajun Navy, as it called, was neighbors helping neighbors and strangers pulling together against horrifying conditions. We were told the city was full of looters and rapists, but really it was full of heroes. Their stories must be told in a loud clear voice. I hope our game can do that. You can read the students’ blog posts to see what they took from the afternoon.

Posted by Jay at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Project NML and the DMYA

This past meeting the Digital Media Youth Advisory got to meet with our friends and co-grantees under MacArthur's Digital Media and Learning Initiative, Project New Media Literacy. Project NML is part of MIT's Comparative Media Studies program, which put out an incredible white paper (pdf) about participatory culture and media education.

We spent about two hours with them talking specifically about the skill of networking, which is defined as "the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information". As Project NML puts together its new website and works to integrate online activities that could be done to build specific skills, a lot of what they're considering is not only how to teach those skills, but also how to do so in a way that's accessible and interesting to teens.

Devante evaluates different data visualization sites

We looked at websites that related to the skill, specifically ones that dealt with data visualization. First we checked out Many Eyes, a website that allows user to upload data sets and have them visualized in different types of graphs, and then we visited a site that was really well received by the teens called We Feel Fine, which aggregated instances of statements about how people are feeling from throughout the blogosphere, and then visualizes them in a variety of engaging ways.

The meeting was apparently quite useful for Project NML, and they even sent over this nice note:

I just wanted to formally thank you for giving us the opportunity to work with the Digital Media Youth Advisory a few weeks back. Working with that impressive crew was just another reminder of what a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and insight resides in the minds and words of our young people.

Though we only had a few hours to work with this group, it only took a few minutes to see what a truly impressive crew it was. What I think was most remarkable was the respect they brought to the room, not only in how they treated each other but in how they approached the task we put to them—their responses to the material we showed them were both considered and considerate, and they expressed a clear and deep understanding of their role within a larger community. The specific suggestions they provided, and the confidence and poise with which they provided those suggestions, will help us immensely as we move forward with our project.

Again, thank you so much for giving us the chance to work with this terrific group of teens. The experience was unforgettable.

Go DMYA!

Posted by Rafi Santo at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hi guys! The things that I learned in Gloabal Kids is how to download movies that we make onto youtube. Another thing that we learned to make was comic books. It is really fun to make movies and comic books. We really enjoy making it!

Posted by VVP Jamila at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today in Global Kids I started to create my video in second life and also started to make my comic about the skills I gained while working on the video.I had a great time doing both.

Posted by VVP Juan at 8:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today at Global Kids I was really frustrated, because I could not create my new YouTube account because of something related to my email.

Posted by VVP Michael at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click below to watch my movie:

Posted by VVP Doldech at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The financial problems regarding the support for the Hurricane Katrina effort are of too little help. Most of the money is sucked up by the govt. to build new and more powerful weapons and such for the war in Iraq. So the military is receiving the effort of the government which is completely unfair towards the victims of New Orleans. One would question that if the majority of the folks in New Orleans are black, is that the reason why the government's effort was extra slow? That question means more to some while less to others. There are many that don't even care about the situation there because it is not them. Also, for Condoleezza Rice, the fact that she was having fun while her peeps were suffering. If that was happening to one's peeps when one is of such high authority in life, how could one not think of those in jeopardy?

Posted by p4kKameisha at 4:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today in Global Kids, I experienced the suffering of people of the city of New Orleans. Many were hungry and even too weak to move. The effects of the Hurricane were tremendous.

Posted by p4kPaskins at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click below to watch my movie:

Posted by VVP Thein at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Omg...I wish that my first video would have been better. But the story behind the movie is more funny than the video itself. Who know that there would be wild turkeys in Second Life. Lol.
Anyway, I hope nobody criticize too much on my video...it's not THAT bad.

Here's the video...

Posted by VVP Yessenia at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OMG ITS A UFO IN SECOND LIFE !
FIRST MACHINIMA BY CHRISTOPHER

Posted by VVP Christopher at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It surprised me that it took FEMA 5 days to respond, but I'm happy that the local assistance were there to help. A lot of people were highly disappointed.

Posted by p4kLeighton at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is my first second life video, a quick 10 seconds of it

Posted by VVP Jin at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well hello. This is my first time here. My name is Chris and well, I'm not really that experienced here. Well I'm very well studied in game development (Excluding Actually knowing how to work w/ the Tools.) Here at P4K (like you don't know already) we work on making games. Today we talked about the results of Hurricane Katrina and where most (if not all) government funding goes to, [Ahem] (*Weapons of War*). Message me here if you want to find out anything i know about game dev. like languages or software or even the licences (yeah, you need a licence to dev. games).

Posted by Nero infinity at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I say that the town should be filled with water and there should be sharks swimming through the water. There should be some people that lives and the rest would be eaten by sharks or they would have drown or sacrifice there lives. And the wind should be blowing hard so the water would start to form a wave.

I say that the background should include buildings floating on the water. The background should also include sharks inside the water and and some of the people should be in boats

Posted by p4kKamani at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What I think about this situation is that, the government spends too much money on war material and not enough on Hurricane Katrina. Victims of Hurricane Katrina need all of the help they can get. To me, New Orleans needs a lot of work we need to repair and we also need to work together in order to achieve our goals. The military is spending way to much money.

Posted by p4kJurell at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to the video I was watching about Hurricane Katrina, a lot of people were suffering without food, water and many other things. A lot of people were complaining about the weather. It was really hot those days. On the other hand, the weather could help us build the graphics and also help us create the characters. There are many things that could help us. We have also the people that build their own boats and go around the city to save people because the government did not really give them supplies. I think the game's characters should focus to the civilians that saved people and a few police.

Posted by p4kReginaldB at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today in p4k I learned all about the disaster of Hurricane Katrina and how it destroyed the lives of innocent people. Some of the people in New Orleans were killed. This taught us about how the government used the money to buy clothes for the military instead of using it for buying the emergency rations for the Hurricane Katrina victims and survivors. I also learned how selfish the government is to people. I saw that several unlucky people drowned.

Posted by p4kMoniqueF at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today we watched a video about Hurricane Katrina. I was really surprised to learn what the people were going through during the tragic couple of days after the hurricane. A lot of the people were highly disapointed when the government let them down. They were promised a legitimate amount of food to satisfy everyone. However at the local convention center, people were only given small sums of food that wasn't enough for everyone. This lasted for five days after the hurricane until the organization known as FEMA and the army came and brought an abundance of foods to help the people in need. This really showed me how situations can change, and a persons lifestyle can flip in a mater of hours.

Posted by p4kNick at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I learned today about Hurricane Katrina. People used items like refrigerators, buckets, beds and boats to get around. It took FEMA four or five days to send food and help to many black neighborhoods. It's sad because people got sick and died because FEMA took so long. I want to use our game to teach people we could have saved a lot more people fter Katrina.

from JEAN FATAL

Posted by p4kJean at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The game should have the type of weather shown in the documentaries eg. heavy wind, lighting and flooding. And over 1800 people drowed. FEMA gave out food to the people of New Orleans and the people and Coast Guard in New Orleans did a better job of helping than the DHS..

Posted by p4kMitch at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What I learned today is about New Orleans trying to survive the hurricane by using boats,planes,and airbeds to float on the water. There was no food or shelter. There more than two bodies floating in the water; it was horrible to see. The hurricane was hard for the New Orleans resident because they did not have many people helping them with their problems.

Posted by p4ksanji at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I have watched a devastating video which would be really useful for our game. Before I mention anything else, I would love to say that I have learned very much from watching this film. Seeing people suffer in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina was really hard and kind of peaved me off as well. But seeing that the U.S. Coast Guards were the first ones to start coping with the situation made me really happy. Then FEMA came along 4-5 days later to help the rest of the victims that were down as well. I can understand why people like Condaleezza Rice couldn't help with the situation, but Micheal Chertoff could have helped much better than he did. Thinking this through gives me an idea.

Posted by p4kCourtney at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The date is Thursday, January 17, 2008 from 3-5pm, and the location is Canarsie High School. Our hangout room is rm. 344 and today we watched a bit more of the HBO documentary: "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts". Personally, i didn't watch the 6-hour documentary directed by Spike Lee, but i did learn a few things despite the fact that once again I was a little drowsy as usual. One thing I was disturbed to learn about was the fact it took about 4-5 days to rescue over a thousand people in New Orleans. But fear not, for within my disturbance of this fact comes an idea for the upcoming video game that I and the rest of the gang from Playing 4 Keeps are making.

As for the incite or insight on game designs and/or game ideas for the game, well...I'll probably inform you on that in the next blog.

'Til Then, All
Otis

Posted by p4kOtis at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My first machinima for my VVP.

Posted by VVP Brian at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

my first machinima in second life

Posted by VVP Harpal at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In second life my film has my design of a UFO I made for fun, because the project was about showing a part of yourself in second life I thought that showing my creativity was a great idea.

Posted by VVP Christopher at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out my first movie in youtube

I hope you like it

Posted by VVP Juan at 9:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I was the second person to present my first machinima project. It went better than I thought. I didn't stutter, get pale or felt like fainting when I presented. When viewing my project I didn't think it was that bad, this time around. Seeing other people present was very helpful. I learned helpful tips that I will be taking into consideration from the others. I learned that you should probably wait until the end to name your project. Also you hould make copies of your clips because you never know.

Today I made a YouTube account for the first time, which I've always wanted to do. The link to my YouTube video is:

Posted by VVP Natalie at 7:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

my ten second video

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

This is my first Virtual Video Project. Check it out guys!

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

This is my first ten second movie in second life. It took me a long time to finish, so please check it out and comment on how I can make it better or if you really like it. Please and Thank You.

Posted by VVP Tarana at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well I was absent from VVP last Thursday so I missed out on most of the film editing. So I came in a little early today so I could edit my raw footage. It took me about 30 minutes to actually edit! It's because my cell phones bluetooth wouldn't detect my laptop. So I had to get help from the fabulous Tarana. I had a song I wanted to put in my video from my cellphone, so I had to transfer the song into Tarana's laptop and then emailed it to myself. After doing that, everything went well and editing my movie didn't take too long. Unfortunately I couldn't be too selective with my music because of limited time and resources. At the end, the movie ended very abruptly but it did not turn out too horribly. Although I have had more experience filming and editing, I still take a while to edit my movie because I am such a perfectionist with getting the timing right and synchronizing everything. It didn't come out too horribly though, and I am lucky that my cellphone had music that I could use for my movie. Most of all, I'm glad that I finished editing and got to present my movie with everyone else! So here is my video:

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday was a fun day. We all edited the videos we previously record in second life. The videos were each 10 seconds long. I myself recorded 18 seconds but during the editing process I eliminated the unnecessary 8 seconds. After deleting those scenes I began playing with adding voice. At first it was tricky keeping up with the video as it played, and I tried recording my voice so it can fit the scene. After I recorded it and played it a few times over and over to check for any mistakes, I played around with the pitch of my voice. To make things funnier, I made my voice sound like a chipmunk. It was really fun editing but at the same time very difficult. There are tons of things to add to a video but I’m just a beginner. After all, it took me almost an hour to edit a 10 second video. With much more practice I hope to become a good editor in future projects.

Posted by VVP Jonathan at 7:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I finally finished making my movie. It was really fun and it took longer than I thought. The concept of my movie was doing things in second life that I can't do in real life. I focused on flying. I made my movie very dreary and it was raining. I was flying in the rain. The part I did not enjoy was doing the voice over. I got to hear what my voice really sound like and it was not good. Also I am not going to enjoy presenting my project. I have a fear of public speaking. I really enjoyed learning how to work in iMovie HD. I had always seen those programs in school and wondered but now I truly know how to use it.

Posted by VVP Natalie at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Tuesday I created my movie but now it's Thursday, and I finished editing my movie. I love my short film. I added voice and other things to it. My movie was only ten seconds but it took a long time to make. I couldn’t imagine myself making an hour movie. I am very proud of my movie, I think I did a pretty good job. It took me about an hour and a half to do a ten seconds movie. I LOVE MY MOVIE!!!!

Posted by VVP Tarana at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We got down to business at this week at Playing 4 Keeps. Since October, we’ve been having fun learning about game design, but in this second half we’re starting to pull our new skills together. We’ve reached the production cycle, and it’s time for the swirling ideals to coalesce into a coherent game idea. Towards that goal, we spent Monday researching and Thursday designing.

First, we spent the afternoon discussing how to use a search engine effectively. The internet is an ocean of information, but without an understanding of how to titrate it, the volume is simply overwhelming. We need to learn more about the Hurricane Katrina disaster, but there is also very specific information we’re looking for. The only way to find it is to effectively use search engines skillfully. I’m not sure what’s being taught in library these days (do kids even have a library class anymore?) but I think more time needs to be spent on research skills. There is much less need to memorize data if you simply know how to find it quickly.

After discussing the techniques of using a search engine, the class broke up into four groups for an internet scavenger hunt. All the questions were about Hurricane Katrina. The groups investigated the: causes, rescue operations, aftermath, and how the US reacted to international disasters before and after Katrina. I tried to keep the scavenger hunt questions concisely worded and arranged in a way that would facilitate keyword searching. Some of the questions were answered very well, while others needed more explanation when we came together as a group. There’s good progress.

Thursday it was time to apply the new knowledge about Katrina. We started the afternoon by playing Gonzolo Frasca’s September 12. It is a brilliant serious game, but not one without controversy. The students’ analysis summarized many of the conflicting views of the game. First, while most students were still playing, Daniel Polanco beamed up at me and said, “I beat the game!” I asked how and he told me he’d just stopped shooting. “No one’s shooting at me. They don’t seem to be terrorists.” Christopher had the exact opposite approach. He said he’d almost beaten the game when he had only three civilians left. During analysis, I asked what the game was about and most of the class was adamant that the player was a terrorist bombing a market. When one student suggested the player was actually US military, the rest of the class was reluctant to change their minds.

With this new analysis, the dominant questions the game seemed to raise were “Who is a terrorist?” and “What is a terrorist act?” The next question, however, was “Are all Muslims potential terrorists?” I’m sure that wasn’t Gonzolo Frasca’s intented message, but when you watch every civilian in a blue robe tranform into an AK-toting terrorist, a variety of interpretations present themselves. Rafi stressed that no, all Muslims are not potential terrorists. After some more analysis and discussion, we moved on to introducing the concept of a design document. I downloaded some sample design docs from the Values At Play website and explained that every video game begins its life as a dictionary-thick report outlining every detail of the game. Today, groups would invent game ideas and develop their own (brief) design documents, complete with illustrations. The ideas took longer to develop than I’d planned, but they all have a lot of potential.

A number of the designs focused on the rescue missions and how civilians and police were left to fend for themselves because of the federal government’s absence. There are some inspiring, heroic stories from the disaster and any of them would work as a great game. A couple of the ideas were for alternate reality games where the player was put in the position of repairing and strengthening the levees before the storm hit. My favorite idea could best be summarized as Dance Dance Revolution Levee Repair. Players would have to match key commands coming rapidly onscreen in order to repair the levees. The game idea certainly wins the high-concept contest, but it also raises a difficult issue.

When making a serious game, as opposed to a purely entertaining game, there are unique design constraints. The game must be engaging, educational, and most importantly, respectful. We are making a game about a natural disaster, a terrible tragedy. The game must reflect the gravity of the topic. Games such as Third World Farmer and Darfur is Dying have similar challenges. Even our first year game Ayiti had to walk a fine line between being inviting without being campy. Our game design has to pass a number of difficult hurdles in order to be successful. I would be ashamed of our efforts if stakeholders—survivors of the storm—were insulted by our game’s treatment of such a tragic outrage. We have a difficult challenge. I’m excited to meet it.

Posted by Jay at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was the big day to edit our work and add voice effects. Love doing this kind of stuff. I think I find this amusing. I like the program that helps you out with the editing especially when you use the Mac computers.

Posted by VVP Juan at 7:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was on second life trying to record raw footage. I was getting the hang of it the timing and stuff and I thought it was alot of fun.LOL

Posted by VVP Juan at 7:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am in Global Kids now. I am so tired and sleepy. Today we are going to edit our movies.
I am soooooooo excited about it!

Posted by VVP Sabina at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi! The things that I learned in Global Kids is how to edit movies and make a movie, add sound, etc. The one thing that I learned how to do is add sound in the movie. It was really fun making movies and adding funny sounds at the same time.

Posted by VVP Jamila at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This Tuesday was very productive. I got a lot of work done. We were broken up into two groups which we should do more often. One group went with Kathy to learn how to edit their movie using iMovie. I can't wait to edit because we can add music, delete footage and all sorts of things. Tabitha's group had to record their 10 second movie on something that represents Second Life for us. for me this was very difficult. How could I capture everything in 10 seconds. On the third try I finally got it to be only 10 seconds. Then I panicked because it had trouble saving but it finally went through. When I went to shoot my movie I had difficulties remembering to turn off the client server thing. The buttons are difficult to remember and tricky to type in.

Posted by VVP Natalie at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last Thursday at Global Kids we learned how to capture a movie in second life, and we also learned how to take off the bubble above our heads with our names shown. I made two short movies last week and that was really interesting. I made sure that I took it in a good place when filming my movies.

Posted by VVP Tarana at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday at Global kids was fun. We all created our ten seconds movie so that we could add voice and sound. It was a lot of fun learning how to do that. For our warm up we played an interesting game. The game basically dealt with your concentration and listening skills. Kathy taught us how to edit, add sound/music and even voice. With Tabitha we film a ten second movie in second life. On Thursday we may finish on what we were doing and I am very excited to make my own movie all by myself.

Posted by VVP Tarana at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday was a very interesting day. We divided into two big groups in which each did a different thing for a period of time and then we rotated. I myself began recording a 10 second clip of my avatar in secondlife. It was easier then before because I experienced no lagging while connected. It was a bit challenging to complete the task but I made it through along with the others. After we rotated I learned how to use a particular program in which any video in the quicktime format can be edited. We took about ten minutes and learned all the cool stuff that you can do while editing like deleting scenes, adding scenes, adding voices and many other cool things. I look forward to the next meeting in which I shall edit my 10 second clip.

Posted by VVP Jonathan at 6:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After two and a half years, Global Kids is delighted to release the results of the independent evaluation by the Center for Children and Technology of both Playing 4 Keeps, our after school gaming program, and Ayiti, the game produced with Gamelab during the first year of the program.

For the evaluation CCT observed the program and interviewed the students. To evaluate the game they looked at the results of nearly 16,000 game plays.

Download the full report here.

In short, when we made Ayiti we wanted to learn if players would learn if the factors affecting access to education within an impoverished condition are both interdependent and exist within a dynamic system. CCT's research found that "the central idea embedded in the game play, that no single factor accounts for success, appears to have been successfully communicated to the majority of players." Bingo!

In addition, they describe how youth report that through their participation in the after school program their experiences involved:

• Engaging in activities that require useful life skills related to communication and collaboration;
• Learning about social issues;
• Realizing what goes into designing and creating a good game; and
• Gaining general computers skills.

A gaming program that improves the lives of its participants and creates a game that has a measurable affect on the critical thinking of its players AND is an award-winning, engaging experience - nice!

Posted by joyce at 1:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today, we met again in Global Kids and learned some cool new things. Kathy showed us how to edit movies. That includes how to add effects, sounds and some other things. After that, we made 10 seconds video, but we didn’t get time to edit our videos. I hope to do that on Thursday.

Posted by VVP Sabina at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I think it is a great idea that this year we are doing a simple project instead of doing Public Service Announcements. Although I do think PSAs are beneficial to the community and interesting to try to learn, it is good to start with something basic before expanding.

I think for this project we are in pairs of two people and we are capturing a short clip of our avatars that really portray the character we are in Second Life and we will be doing a voice over. It's simple, it does not take a lot of time to do, it does not require all the storyboarding or research, and we don't have to narrow it down to one topic. Those are the factors that will save us a lot of time, because that is one of the things we had an issue with last year when we made the PSA's. We spent so much of the time coming to a consensus on a team, and a topic as a team. Then we spent time doing research, then coming up with a story, and then we storyboarded before even starting to film. And during filming we spent a lot of the time just getting a lot of raw footage to work with. This time, we just have to get one short clip and do a voice over. It is much less time consuming than the PSAs were, however people will finish their projects at various times.

I'm sure that many people will be able to finish very quickly, while others will take a little longer to understand the concept. It's usually how things work out, but everything always turns out fine and everyone finishes wonderfully. I honestly can't want to see what everyone has come up with to produce, and I am sure no matter what...it will be great!

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been convincing Barry that the O.L.P. office should move to the Caribbean during the colder months, but I guess we no longer have to move since it's this entire holiday was less than a winter. I heard birds chirping in my front yard this morning. Birds! in the middle of winter time.

New Years Resolutions:
1. Join the Gym, but never attend.
2. Give random hugs to strangers.
3. Create personal "Zoolander look" for myself.
4. Donate money to Bill Gates since he's no longer the riches man in the world.
5. Audition for the "Real World" to be type casted as angry black female.
6. Engage more in celebrity culture; get subscription to US Magazine and look at E Network.
7. Get butt, lip, eye, breast, and love handles implants. Fuller is the new thing.
8. Remove butt, lip, eye, breast and love handles implants because fuller was so 2 seconds ago.
9. Build a border between Manhattan and Brooklyn, so illegal Manhattanites will not enter Brooklyn to steal jobs, apartments and bring down quality of life.

Posted by Leslie Ann at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Howdy readers! We at the O.L.P. hope everyone had a great holiday season and an excellent New Year. The On-line Leadership Program “staff reflections” blog entries is digital therapy for the virtual soul, and every month the intelligent bunch of O.L.P. staffers will collectively process their thoughts, perspectives and ambitions about their various O.L.P. 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 each staff member.

Enjoy reading our blog.

Amira writes about the challenges and opportunities education in virtual worlds offers.
Reflections on the Challenges & Opportunities of Virtual Education

Barry explores Global Kids short-term successes and long-term struggles with the DOE to change their mindset on how students use school computers.
Gaming the DOE

Jay reflected on the why the world is full of bad design and why studying catastrophes is the only way to stop them.
Designed Failure/Successful Design

Joyce observes on what the coming year brings for internet spaces like virtual worlds.
Virtual worlds – a new year

Kathy reflected on the groundbreaking digital medial work she's doing.
Totally Wired Thoughts

Leslie-Ann continues on her very unfunny approach to life.
Ain't no holiday like a hipster holiday

Meghan gabs about her increased productivity with the new Mac OS X Leopard.
My Top 10 Apps. that I just can’t get through a day without!

Rafi writes about how the show "Heroes" uses gaming principles and the power of narrative to create fans, and looks at how this can transfer to the work of social justice education.
What Heroes and transmedia fan engagement have to teach us about social justice education

Tabitha talks about how technology works for us and not the other way around.
Technology works for us, not the other way around. Right?

Posted by Leslie Ann at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

To all VVP participants who are interested in using free music for their projects today, here is the link:
http://www.archive.org/downloadspopup.php?identifier=Torley_Wong_-_The_Final_Selection

Posted by Kathy at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

“Miss! Second Life is not working!”
“Miss! My avatar is flying, and it won’t stop, how can I make it stop…”
“I don’t know why it’s doing this! I have no idea why?”
“This is a waste of time. Can I do something else like go on MySpace? Please?”

Each week I am faced with these questions, and every week, I’ve had to provide less than satisfactory answers to the puzzled and frustrated faces, with poor efforts hiding my own anxiety and nervousness.

“Just wait, give it some time, this is called lag and it’s normal”.

When technology fails, I am defeated. As much as the students in the program look forward to the workshops, I have higher hopes, and higher expectations each time we meet. I can’t help but wonder about the “wonders” of technology, all that it has to offer, all the lessons available for my students out there, and on the contrary side, all that it fails to provide when the expectations are not met. When we are let down because of something that we cannot fix or change, what is the lesson there? If it is patience that our kids needs to have in each workshop, what else is it that they are learning about technology?

Indeed, we struggle with technology everyday. Sometimes I win, those days are great, and sometimes I lose. For the most part, technology works for me, though when my program depends heavily on stable Internet and reliable software, it is self-destructive to think that technology will not work, and the program will not move ahead.

So I have come to the conclusion that as an educator in the digital age, as a strong believer in knowing that equipping youth with digital media literacy skills is a good thing, and what we teach them contributes positively to each of their own success, all of us have to be brave endeavors, savvy trouble-shooters, and fast thinkers if we want technology to work for us, not the other way around. All of us need to share that blind faith in technology which in turn helps to empower us to do our work with youth online, and allow us embrace whatever challenges ahead and learn the unexpected lessons.

I share this with you because I have thought hard about the challenges of running programs online, with youth in-person, and what are the non-contributing factors to a program's success. I learned that having an open mind and being flexible is much easier said than done. I know that technology is secondary to pedagogy, but sometimes, when we are teaching film making or a certain skillset online, is technology the actual learning objectives or the learning tools? Or both? Where does "technology" end and begin? Where does our role as trainers begin and end in the process of student learning and peer education? I ask the teens, what did you learn today, or what did you find challenging, and every time the answers from the group always re-affirms my own feelings. Despite the lags and setbacks, I know that at the end of the day, the students, as well as myself, take pride in what we did learn, and were able to achieve, and consider everything else as a lesson learned in a positive way. When technology is working, we are moving forward. When technology fails, we use our common sense, we instinctively as a group tries a different approach, and we collectively "win", share a joke, and maintain optimism.

I encourage everyone out there who are struggling in "getting things done" to take a different approach when facing issues with technology, and I will remind myself to do the same. I will still be asked the same questions, no doubt, but next time I can say to them...

"Yes, I know, it happens, treasure this moment and blog about it later."

Until next time,
Tabitha

Posted by tabitha at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey today I did a workshop teaming up with 3 other people to work on finding Katrina facts. We each worked on one question and wrote the answer on on the paper.

Posted by p4kJean at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Games help us understand life. Swaddled in the limited-risk environment of the game, we can use meaningful choices to pursue challenging goals. We can explore and transgress in order to better understand our world. We leap and capture in order to more deeply engage with humanity. Games teach us confidence, help us steady our aims. Games are safety nets and training wheels. My avatar can kill zombie armies and kung-fu grip helicopter landing gear while flying through Manhattan. In my physical body, I limit my bodily risk to appropriate situations. Games help us reach flow states, and in flow there is no fear. With our fear controlled, games can also help us critically examine difficult issues.

P4K spent the past month examining the dirty mechanics of global inequality. For weeks we researched, presented our findings, played games, and debated. Students searched the Web to learn about challenging world issues that even many “scholars” have never heard of. How many TV pundits defending or criticizing the current administrations know about the FBI’s COINTELPRO program? How many school principals could describe the observations of John Taylor Gatto? Where in New York can we sit around and debate the dangers of Predator drones? We spent a month in the muck at Playing 4 Keeps. December was for sifting through the waste Civilization produces as it churns along. We live in times when the powerful privileged can access every object their hands could desire, while the world’s other 90% fights for scraps. The elite preserve this relationship with bread, swords, and circuses.

We spent a month in the muck in Canarsie. One afternoon, orders wafted through the halls like the flu, telling us our workshop was cancelled because of a “rapid dismissal.” Teachers hustled to the auditorium while kids hustled for the door and police in the jammed hallways relaxed. The fire alarm was turned on to make the environment unpleasant and motivate stragglers to leave. In the audition, men in suits told the assembled staff that Canarsie was receiving a brain transplant. Shock therapy. The current freshman, the class of 2011, will be the last students to graduate Canarsie High School. Every year until then, more space, money, and energy will devoted to small charter schools operating in pockets of the school building.

In the ensuing weeks, our students adjusted to the news that their school was being phased out, and learned about the ideas of John Taylor Gatto--who, I’m pretty sure--would not be surprised by the Department of Ed’s strategy. Gatto was a New York City Teacher of the Year for three consecutive years before quitting to investigate the public education system. His books, including the Underground History of American Educational and Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. In his latest article for Harper’s Magazine, Gatto wrote:

“What if there is no "problem" with our schools? What if they are the way they are, so expensively flying in the face of common sense and long experience in how children learn things, not because they are doing something wrong but because they are doing something right? Is it possible that George W. Bush accidentally spoke the truth when he said we would "leave no child behind"? Could it be that our schools are designed to make sure not one of them ever really grows up?”

I’ve been thinking about these questions all month. What if the System isn’t broken? What if it works really well, but at cross-purposes to the majority’s interests? I watched an amazing documentary online this month. I encourage everyone to find a free video site and watch The Century of the Self. It’s an Adam Curtis film from 2002 that examines how Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis techniques have been exploited by the power elite and implemented on a mass scale to transform America and the world. As one Wallstreet investor quoted in the film plotted, “"We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man's desires must overshadow his needs."

Consumerism breeds limp passivity. It is a toxic addiction that enslaves the mind and destroys the environment. Ad men, using the models and tools of psychotherapy, have perhaps permanently disfigured the American character. While America has always been fraught with iniquity and abuse, it was also a nation of dreamers and adventurers. Unassuming grandmothers, young girls, and new fathers steeled themselves against the cold and made brave decisions to seek a better life here. Those who succeeded were survivors. Americans were hard workers and resourceful innovators. Intrepid, dignified men and women can be threatening though. They make demands on their employers and politicians. They assert their independence. They rebel if abused.

The tragedy of the Twentieth Century is that we were tricked into trading dreams of a better life for dreams of a better car. Politicians promised a progressive paradise micromanaged by a spit-shined technocrat class. Corporations dazzled us with visions of plastic convenience and better living through chemistry. In time, however, much of the public’s awe turned to lamentations. We learned cigarettes are dangerous and children shouldn’t play in DDT spray. Eisenhower’s Interstate System fostered suburban sprawl, and the New Deal was the seed for the bloated corporate cleptocracy our government has become. The tragedy of the Twentieth Century is that everything works pretty well, just not for the purposes we were led to believe. Loopholes weren’t found, they were planned. The government is less incompetent than many liberals like to think.

Games are safe spaces where we can explore meaningful choices with mitigated risk. Our current danger is that video games are rapidly becoming one of the few places where one can make meaningful choices. Modern global economic structures and strategies are designed to coerce people into stupidity by stimulating unconscious emotional urges in the human mind. Consumerist messages in the media and in the ambient environment of everyday life deceive people into believing that disposable consumer goods offer emotional, social, personal, and sexual fulfillment. As consumers, we are told we lack the ability to express ourselves emotionally or creatively without the guiding hands of the corporations. Everyday, people in the US are bombarded with sophistry proclaiming that objects are the keys to well being. There is Prozac in our drinking water because so many people have been prescribed the drug our sewer treatment plants can’t filter enough out.
We have been systematically robbed of meaningful choices because a sedated, distracted populace is docile and non-threatening to the powers that be.

Last month, I worked with teenagers researching how Coca Cola is stealing the ground water and poisoning the wells in India. We debated Abu Ghraib and torture, and stared wide eyed at footage from the short film Disaster Capitalism. The great majority of the world is penned in by a soft cage. This news is depressing. But there is hope.

This month we also learned about the great work of the Black Panthers. We learned about how these proud men and women banded together to uplift their communities, feed school children, and stand up to police violence. I’m reading a lot about Hurricane Katrina these days, and while that catastrophe is a story of the government failing the public, it is also a story of the public helping itself. In the thick of disaster regular people became heroes. Mothers and sons labored in terrible danger to protect their families, to rescue strangers, and to save stray pets. While the media banged a racist alarm and bellowed lurid tales of gang rape and random death, the truth was communities banding together for survival. People reclaimed their autonomy and asserted their humanity.

In the design world, William McDonough and other advocates of the Cradle to Cradle movement are asking challenging questions and offering inspiring solutions. They are demanding to know why we make toys poisoned with lead and carcinogens. Why do we walk on carpets made from toxic chemicals? The book Cradle to Cradle argues that "the conflict between industry and the environment is not an indictment of commerce but an outgrowth of purely opportunistic design."

At the 2000 Bioneers conference McDonough posed the design challenge, “How do we love all of the children of all of the species for all time?” “When do we all become indigenous people?” he asked. It is time to start acting as if we belong to the earth. Our current way of life binds our grandchildren to our mistakes. We have designed systems so that the world is owned by the dead. This has to stop. Economist Kenneth Boulding once said, “Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world, is either a madman or an economist.” Our culture is infected by wastefulness and selfishness, but we are also capable of doing much better. We have done so, we are doing so, and we simply need to do more.

The world is full of bad news. It is also full of good people. Humans are meant to be free, not bound by the shackles of manufactured desire. Every day in countless small ways, and in the occasional grand gestures, people push back against the chocking fog of consumerism. They make meaningful choices to be strong and compassionate. It is unpleasant to study the carnage the ship of state leaves in its wake. I do not enjoy immersing myself in the daily crimes against humanity. It is necessary, however, to know what’s gone wrong in the world so that we can make it right. We must study the chains that bind us in order to find the weak link. We must liberate ourselves before it's too late.

Posted by Jay at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apparently I am cursed (blessed?) with "games and learning" anecdotes based on Grand Theft Auto (GTA).

Last month saw the publication of my chapter in M.I.T. Press' The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning entitled Why Johnny Can't Fly: Treating Games as a Form of Youth Media Within a Youth Development Framework. The following is the anecdote about GTA I used in that publication. I will follow it with my latest anecdote, about a teen playing GTA at a NYC high school, the results of our recently battles with the DOE to unlock gaming sites, and what it all means for the future of gaming education in public schools.

But first, an interlude.

How Not to Hail a Cab in Liberty City (An Interlude)

A few years ago I walked into my local hotdog joint and watched a twelve-year-old play Grand Theft Auto. No one who followed the news could miss the controversy fueled by this game. Debates about its level of violence were frequently discussed and debated. I was intrigued finally to watch someone play it.

Imagine my surprise when I observed that the only thing the teen did in the game was to drive a taxi. It turned out there were multiple ways to play the game, and this young man's preference happened to be driving around the streets of Liberty City.

He had, however, developed an unusual method for being a cabbie. Rather than slowing
down before picking up a fare, he would often run a person over, wait for him or her to
get back up (as if nothing had happened) and climb into his cab, then drive away. I could just imagine how this might appear in a newspaper: "Teen Learns Violent Acts Have No Repercussions."

"Would you ever get in a taxi that ran you over?" I asked. Without breaking contact
with the game the boy responded, "The A.I. is dumb," referring to the code controlling the behavior of his passengers.

This was my first of many "aha" moments as I delved into the world of games and learning. The teen was not learning to be violent. Rather, he was learning how to analyze the rules of a system and leverage its flaws.

As Ian Bogost has written elsewhere in this volume, when we play video games, "We
explore the possibility space its rules afford by manipulating the symbolic systems the game provides."7 By exploring Grand Theft Auto, this boy had discovered possibilities its designers most likely had never intended, and he was manipulating the system to his own advantage. More to the point, he very well knew it.

How to Visit Liberty City in a Public School

This past summer I ran into a Global Kids youth leader right before the start of the school year while checking out the computers at a Brooklyn High School for a possible program. I ran into him in the library at the handful of computer available, when they are working, in 20-minute intervals during their lunchtimes.

The previous year, in our online dialogue program, Newz Crew, he often began the program bringing up a graphics program and sketching away. He was rather shy, having recently immigrated from a war-torn African nation and still unsure of his voice. This time, however, I found him to be outgoing and, at the same time, nervous, as he tried to prevent me from seeing what was on his screen.

It turned out I had caught him Playing the PC version of GTA, in his school library. GK trainers are not the same as teachers so he was unsure how I might react. But he knew how frustrated I was with computer access throughout the school system - the only way to access a computer at his school was to miss lunch and for what? A measly 20-minutes with no way to store your work?!! I recently visited a different Brooklyn school to find that the right-click had been disabled on student accounts. The right-click! Why not disconnect the entire keyboard, if students are such a threat?

So this student knew I didn't view students as threats to the school's technology, didn't mind when students shared with others ways to access blocked sites like YouTube when needed in our programs, knew that I was fascinated by the information networks on the DL that emerge amongst students to make the best of a system more often designed keep them out.

Still, I was stunned. How did he ever manage to get this, the most reviled of all computer games, to run on the school system? In exchange for not turning him in, he detailed it for me:

First, to download the PC version of the game, he had to get through the fire wall preventing access to gaming sites. All who access blocked sites know how to use site anonymizers that block or mask the originating computer's identity. The sites are inevitably blocked by the DOE once they are identified, but by then a new one has emerged and been passed around like the latest joke.

Second, he had to register the game to play it, as he didn't want to pay for it. Searching the web for "crack codes" he found one to fool the game into thinking it was properly registered.

Third, he had to configure the computer to allow him, as a student, to install new software. That privilege is reserved for teachers and admin. Teacher usernames and passwords are unique, so I presume he used the admin password, which is the same for nearly every school I have worked in, making it as vulnerable and easy to access as the day's weather, if one knows where to look.

Fourth, he had to learn the schedules of the librarians to track those who will bust him if he turns the screen away from their desk. I happened to run into him when the librarian who wants to see his screen was out to launch.

I loved that he was forced to learn so much as a result of the very restrictions I despise - the school's closed system motivate him to figure out how to participate in a specialized knowledge network amongst his peers, how to search the web for valuable and hard to find information, and how to identify and exploit weaknesses in a system, both mechanical and social. Yet, as frustrated as I am by the lack of Internet available to the students, I am hesitant to romanticize him as some Neo to the DOE's Matrix, to say that the DOE should continue to have such restrictions, to encourage learning through the motivation to rebel.

Global Kids' work is built on the beliefs that a) youth like this should have the option to see themselves as central, and not on the margins, in their efforts to affect change, b) the sort of catch-as-catch-can informal learning that was going on would better serve this youth if it occurred within a formalized setting in which the learning could be guided by a thoughtful adult, along a civic engagement scaffolding, that can develop an awareness of what is being learned, and how, and c) all youth require digital media literacy to survive in the globalized workplace, especially low-income youth of color, not just those with the gumption to break the rules.

How GK Games the System

Flash to six months later. Global Kids continues to work within the public schools to offer what I just described - a formal way to engage youth around the informal learning connected with both playing and creating games. After our experience with last year's school, we only agreed to start the program at Canarsie High School last September if the principal agreed to submit the necessary paperwork to ask the DOE to unblock gaming sites required for our program. She agreed.

In October we began to run into a problem with blocked gaming sites. Nothing new there. We began to make a list of sites, fifteen in all, and began the formal request process. I could go into great detail about the Sisyphean process that nearly guarantees that the person making the request will eventually give up, but I fear the details would be as torturous to read as they were for us to experience.

I will share, however, my favorite moment: we eventually convinced the DOE to go beyond the limitations of their form and accept a letter from the school's principal. The letter was submitted and two weeks later we saw no change. Upon contacting the DOE we learned that the person who received the request had determined that only "educational games" would be unblocked and since none appeared to be educational none were unblocked. There was no request to learn more about the purpose of unblocking the game nor what "educational" might mean in the context of a game design program (even a "bad" game is educational if presented as such).

Here's the good news. While there was tremendous resistance to instituting this request, the principal of the school never wavered. As she received emails of increasing hysterics, she calmly reiterated time and again her initial request. Equally important, there are seeds of change within the DOE, specifically within the office of the Chief Information Officer for the NYC Department of Education. From the very beginning they helped us navigate the system, connected us with the right people and advised us on how to get what we needed for our after school program. Without them, there is no doubt we would have been helplessly lost within the system.

The office of the CIO is clearly taking on the entrenched mentalities of the more archaic aspects of their system. And we were happy to give them an opportunity to strike a blow for a more rational student-centered policy. A week before the holidays we received word that the gaming sites were all unblocked. That very week, incidentally, the students selected the topic of the game they want to build this year: the war on Iraq's impact on the U.S. response to Hurricane Katrina.

Working together, the DOE, the school administration, and Global Kids were able to work through the system and move forward a 21st Century Skills-based curriculum to empower youth through game design. My hope is that these recent efforts help ease the travel and pave the way for those who wish to follow, creating more opportunities for youth than ones they have to create themselves by learning to game the system.

Posted by Barry at 1:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

2008 is now a week old and the past week has seen the blogosphere bustling with entries of top 10 lists, year-end summaries, New Year resolutions and predictions from everything on the future state of the union to the future of the Internet.

This also includes a fair amount of thought on the future of Second Life and virtual worlds. Linden Lab had a great, fairly-regular podcast that would highlight various event’s like Town Hall’s and other speakers, and although it had been mostly silent for months, a December episode was issued featuring Philip Rosedale himself and his thoughts on past, present and future SL. He responds to some of the usual statistical questions of growth rates over the year, concurrency and how well or not the grid is scaling to handle growth. Also addressed is some of the marketing rush to Second Life in which even Philip cautions marketers to be aware of what they want from a virtual space before jumping.

Some of the best parts of the interview are the parts towards his optimism of what virtual environments like Second Life can hold for a future…where activities such as collaborative meetings, interactive engaged learning and expression grow in usage.

One of the future things Philip said he would like to see is more utilization of SL for science focused projects and learning. This charge is not only being taken up by Global Kids itself, with the development of it’s new virtual world focused science curriculum, but also by projects like The Tech Museum in San Jose’s use of SL to collaboratively create exhibits for their museum, and by the growing number of institutions that are part of the Science Archipelago of sims.

All of this charges my resolve in choosing to work on virtual world focused projects. I would love to see a 2008 that takes the existing strength’s of Second Life and breaks beyond that to allow for more interaction with other social media applications and cell phone technologies. I also think to the OLPC laptop I purchased and wonder how this could be used to help broaden virtual worlds to make them more accessible to developing countries. To offer up the idea of a truly connected global population that would be able to interact and collaborate irregardless of geography. Now, wouldn’t that truly be a great year! Of course, this all takes time, but like Philip, I share the optimism that the high adoption of virtual worlds in 2007 and more to come this year will work toward that goal.

I also recorded some related thoughts on this Friday in a audio Utterz post which became the spark for this post.

Take care and Happy New Year all!

Posted by joyce at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The January issue of the New Jersey magazine The Parent Paper, has an article entitled "Student's Try a Virtual World", which spotlight's both the programs Global Kids and Ramapo are running within Second Life.

They quoted Barry several times regarding TSL.

“Once we went into Teen Second Life, we found things we didn’t find anywhere else. In Teen Second Life you have a spatial relationship with others around you and it feels like you are with people. We could do the same workshops for kids virtually that we were doing in reality.

We could do these workshops in ways that we never thought were possible. In Teen Second Life you don’t have to just imagine you are in a factory – you are in a factory. And teens are building the factory. A lot of our top down approach for spreading information was met equally with ideas from the bottom up. The space is about putting young people in charge and giving them tools. What we are able to do as educators in that space is tap into nascent leadership skills.”

The article goes on to mention CONSENT! And our Playing 4 Keeps program, our TSL interns, along with our upcoming science curriculum and the DIDI Youth Venture program. The only thing the article got weird, is a misquote on the number of sims owned by educators…he would have never said 3,000. ;)

“When you are using Second Life you are going into the youth media space. It’s our youth’s playspace and is our workspace. We can’t force ourselves into their world, or them into ours, we have to work together.”

Download the full article here.

Posted by joyce at 1:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We had a short week at Playing 4 Keeps, with only one workshop as we came back from the winter break. On Thursday, the whole afternoon was devoted to a more complex version of the role playing exercise we did before the break. Instead of just pretending to be members of a game lab with an imaginary project to develop, the kids were tasked with modifying a game in Scratch.

This was really a perfect use for the software; it’s so easy to use that everyone was able to actually act out his or her role, and in the end we had a unique game. The Scratch team develops and releases games and programs for users to remix, and the one we chose was “Fish Chomp,” a simple game where players control a fish trying to eat smaller fish.

We split the kids into development teams and each one was assigned different responsibilities. The art director, illustrators, and graphic designer worked together to customize the fish graphics, instruction screen, and health and point meters. The audio team found background music and sound effects for the game. Our game and level designers worked on new ways to make the game more challenging, and imagined what further levels would be like. Finally, the programmer implemented the changes. Coding is simple enough in Scratch that within minutes he was able to figure out how the game worked and what could be easily changed.

The exercise went really well and I think for the first time, the class got a glimpse of the challenges and rewards of digital game creation. Working with software and a real game helped everyone understand the subtleties that make a great video game, how the different elements must blend together. The music team must make sure its music matches the artistic styles of the illustrators and the graphics must fit the mood of the gameplay. Great games are made by great teams. Hopefully, our students were encouraged by the experience, because it gets a whole lot harder, and more interesting, from here.

Posted by Jay at 1:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been a fan of Heroes since the show began last year, following every episode, appreciating the homage given to superhero comics (one of my favorite mediums/genres), engaging in watercooler conversations about it and espousing to friends about how it provides solid television with complex characters and plots that appeals to the superhero nerd in all of us. And as I don't have a television, I'd been watching it online, mostly at NBC.com. As I watched, I began to notice in the website sidebars extra material and activities that the producers put on the web vis a vis the show, but never really paid attention to it.

That is, until last week. I started to click around the Heroes site, looking at the extra content that was up on the web. I was quickly impressed by the breadth and effort that went into creating a real space for fan engagement: according to the show's producers, there are over 10,000 pages related to Heroes on NBC's website, and the traffic rate for its web presence is the highest for any fiction TV show.

A lot of the more traditional ways of engaging an audience and giving extra content are present on the site: the past season is available for viewing, there are 'behind the scenes' segments, cast commentary, etc. But the writing team moved far beyond this. Aside from just having the producers provide the content of the show and then unpack it and reflect on it (the traditional 'director's cut' model'), they created whole new storylines and flushed out show backstories in a full parallel comic book series, set up multiple wikis where fans could pool plot facts from the show (something hugely useful for writers, as apparently these guys don't use some system to track every fact about each character), created viral spoof videos of the show, and, in my opinion most impressively, set up a series of faux web sites that exist within the fictional universe of the show.

It was these sites, along with the comic books, that really caught my eye. Many of the fake sites offer easily accessible content relating to the show's storyline, others exist and interrelate as puzzles that require the fan to do a little digging, really explore, click around the various websites, even engage in SMS-based interaction with pre-programmed entities in order to uncover and solve mysteries and get ever more in depth information about character's pasts or about where the show is heading in the future.

As I spent the requisite hours over the past couple of weeks teasing out these sites and exploring the wide variety of transmedia content that the show provides online, I was having two simultaneous experiences. One was that of being impressed with the show's writers and producers in their incredible creativity and ingenuity; after all, I was spending actual time figuring out puzzles, getting further into the story, and, ultimately, solidifying myself as a fan. The second was more of recurring question that arose in my mind: how is this model of engagement relevant to creating global issue and advocacy related experiences that are compelling for people? How do we make them 'fans' of being engaged not only primarily in issues of fantasy but rather in those issues that will determine the policies their world is governed by or the fate of those least empowered in the world?

After all, this is essentially what we're aiming to do in our work here at Global Kids: turns teens into active citizens (aka fans) that are globally aware (aka follow the plot) and take action to make a change in their world (missing the Heroes parallel here, but perhaps this is where it breaks down). The Heroes writers, just like those educating about global issues, are dealing with a complex plot involving many characters, myriad side-stories, moral ambiguity, known and unknown unknowns. The central question for both is how to engage in these, and I think that there are a couple of things that can be learned from what we see at play in Heroes.

The first thing that the show does is start with an easy hook. “Save the cheerleader, save the world” was the guiding statement behind the entire first season. It was a simple, compelling idea that belied an enormously complex web of problems and relationships. In the social sphere, various activist campaigns have utilized this idea of having a simple compelling statement to represent a larger and more complex problem. “Not on my watch”, one of President Bush’s better quotes, is still being used as a rallying cry to organize advocacy efforts to end killing in Darfur, just as a number of years back “Make Poverty History” became a term popularized in the UK that brought a simple challenge to both governments and common citizens alike.

The problem in the social sphere has often been what to do once somebody is interested, once they’ve already been hooked by the statement. Often the next steps in terms of learning more about the issue, unpacking the complex web and history, are unclear. Or, the information available about the issue is overwhelming, discouraging those who might be interested in getting a better handle on the facts. This is even before we get to the matter of what one can do to make change on a given issue.

In the Heroes model, we can see that the writers took a narrative that people were already interested in, and offered easy entry into next steps. Most of the faux web sites associated with the show have a limited number of actual pages, and might give only a couple of pertinent facts that were unknown about the plot. For those more interested, willing to put a little more effort in, there were SMS based puzzles and other alternate reality games. And once people were really committed, there existed a wiki where they could be active participants in compiling and organizing information about the plot, becoming, in effect, fan researchers.

This model of engagement has a lot to teach us, about design, about usability, about the power of stories and about how to really think of the people we’re trying to reach as having different levels of interest, and planning our activities with that in mind. It's my hope to integrate some of these ideas more explicitly into our work here at Global Kids, and would be really interested in hearing about other educators, nonprofits or political campaigns that are effectively thinking about engaging constituencies using these tactics.

Posted by Rafi Santo at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The inundation of 2007 Top 10 lists has inspired me....

I find that my productivity and organization has greatly improved since the release of Mac OS X Leopard. Perhaps Leopard just fits my natural compulsion to categorize and compartmentalize my life. One word: Spaces. I live for it.

Here is a snapshot of what happens when I hit F8. I am set up for 8 spaces. I could probably use more, but I’ll stick to 8.

You’ll see from my dock (shown below) that not only do I use 8 spaces, but my dock matches my spaces from left to right, space 1 - 8.

So, the programs I pretty much open, and leave open, the moment I sit down at my desk in the morning...in order (mostly) from left to right on my dock...

1. iCal


2. Mail


3. Firefox (let’s not even mention the 4 or 5 tabs I automatically open within Firefox)


4. iChat & Skype


5. Twitterific


6. Second Life (and Second Life Windlight)


7. A 3-way tie between Pages, Numbers and Keynote (iWork)


8. iTunes


9. Snapz Pro


10. Photoshop

Posted by Meghan at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today in the program we learned of yet another thing we can do in Second Life. We learned how to make our names above the avatar disappear. To do that you have to hold down alt, command, function and F1. Also today we had a mini project which we had to do with a partner. I didn't get to do it because second life kept freezing or logging me out. Maybe I'll complete it next time. Also I had fun buying the snacks for everyone.

Posted by VVP Natalie at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In harnessing the capabilities of virtual educational programs, I'm confronted with many of the questions that any educator would also face in the physical classroom. Although these questions are similar, they also become very new and exciting, since their answers depend on the changing technology in which we operate within.
I started by asking, how can we facilitate effective team building online? A part of it must entail building and supporting effective communication skills among our youth. Effective communication is critical to collaborating, this is no different, if not so more apparent when group interaction takes place virtually. But how can we leverage the communication tools that technology provide to strengthen this competency? What is available to students learning communication skills far before college Comm101 courses? And, what makes communication harder in this space?

In team building online, there also seems to be an added dimension of ensuring commitment to other group members. Our students aren't necessarily in the same room, time zone, let alone continent. What makes them each so sure that they will not blow off team meetings? How is teambuilding harder to facilitate when our educational workplace is the playspace of our young people? Are social contracts necessary to virtual group interaction? What other tools are also available when working within this space. I find these questions to be significant, since, if supported well, our youth (and world) would benefit so much from the knowledge and ability to commit to one another across boundaries and difference towards common and collective endeavors. In many ways, this is everything that promoting global awareness and civic engagement depends on.

So then the next question presents itself: How can we teach our youth to be advocates for their own educational possibilities. Their full capacity? When resources are not made available to them, how can we support them to demand for those resources themselves? What becomes clear then, is that our work in virtual worlds is really our work. It is the work of the students as much as it is the work of the educators. We are all working collaboratively to define this learning community. In this community, there is a greater awareness of the production of knowledge as well as its consumption. Our students are responsible for what they are consuming because they are helping to create and understand the stakes of their own education. They are at the center of their experiences and not simply temporary users.

Posted by Amira at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In harnessing the capabilities of virtual educational programs, we are confronted with many of the questions that any educator would also face in the physical classroom. Although these questions are similar, they also become very new and exciting, since their answers depend on the changing technology in which we operate within.
First, I find myself asking, how can we better facilitate effective team building online? A part of it must entail building and supporting effective communication skills among our youth. Effective communication is critical to collaborating, this is no different, if not so more apparent when group interaction takes place virtually. But how can we leverage the communication tools that technology provide to strengthen this competency? What is available to students learning communication skills far before college Comm101 courses? And, what makes communication harder in this space?

So then the next question presents itself: How can we teach our youth to be advocates for their own educational possibilities. Their full capacity? When resources are not made available to them, how can we support them to demand for those resources themselves? What becomes clear then, is that our work in virtual worlds is really our work. It is the work of the students as much as it is the work of the educators. We are all working collaboratively to define this learning community. In this community, there is a greater awareness of the production of knowledge as well as its consumption. Our students are responsible for what they are consuming because they are helping to create and understand the stakes of their own education. They are at the center of their learning experiences and not simply temporary users.

In team building online, there also seems to be an added dimension of ensuring commitment to other group members. Our students aren't necessarily in the same room, time zone, let alone continent. What makes them each so sure that they will not blow off team meetings? How is teambuilding harder to facilitate when our educational workplace is the playspace of our young people? Are social contracts necessary to virtual group interaction? What other tools are also available when working within this space. I find these questions to be significant, since, if supported well, our youth (and world) would benefit so much from the knowledge and ability to commit to one another across boundaries and difference towards common and collective endeavors. In many ways, this is everything that promoting global awareness and civic engagement depends on.

Posted by Amira at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today we again meet in second life. I made a 10 seconds movie with my partner. It was pretty fun. I came back home at 7 and now I am kind of tired and sleepy.

Posted by VVP Sabina at 9:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)