Global Kids' Online Leadership Program

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!