Global Kids' Online Leadership Program

We used the fireside chat area of of Global Kids island, which is a great informal space to have these kinds of discussions. It's hard to be too stressed and uptight sitting around a campfire!  One of our interns Mat helped decorate the space by putting up a bunch of American flags and buttons for each of the six sets of candidates on the ticket. 

We wanted to make sure that the teens had access to as much useful information as possible during the event.  One of our biggest coups was getting the Capitol Hill folks to let us bring over to the Teen Grid their awesome Tweet Theater that displays the ten most recent tweets about a particular candidate.  Joyce did a nice job re-building the theater in the Teen Grid, even adding a bit more flair to it.  Thanks to Kiwini Oe and Kei Moana from SL Capitol Hill for helping us out!

Here's how the kids reacted to the Tweet Theater:

[18:11] Rhiannon Ferlinghetti: so the object behind me is pulling all of thoe posts of people who are talking about the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates
[18:12] Rik GKid: It was created on the Main Grid by the Second Life Capitol Hill group. They generously allowed us to bring it over to the Teen Grid for you guys
[18:12] Rafi GKid: yay generous main gridders!
[18:13] Alexander9 Carver: nice of them
[18:13] Arwyn Quandry: Yay MG
[18:13] Alexander9 Carver: tell them ty
[18:13] Arwyn Quandry: ^^
[18:13] Rik GKid: will do!
[19:15] Arwyn Quandry: Is everyone else watching the Twitter feeds?
[19:15] Arwyn Quandry: It's awesome!

We also set up an audio stream of the debates from an NPR affiliate that provided an MP3 stream that we could link to.  Sadly, we were not able to bring in a video feed.  But we did provide several links to other websites that provided webstreams.  I watched the debates over Hulu.com, which had excellent resolution and no hiccups at all. 

We also provided links to the respective websites of John McCain and Barack Obama, as well as links to sites with more information comparing their positions on the various issues, including CNN, MySpace, and American Public Media's excellent candidate comparison quiz. 

Most of the teens in attendance were Obama supporters, as this exchange makes clear:

[18:07] Rik GKid: Since we are just beginning, can I ask you if you support either of the candidates at this point? You can be undecided too.
[18:07] Arwyn Quandry: I support Obama.
[18:08] Allar Kamloops: I support Obama because I don't support McCain....
[18:08] Animaster Dragonash: I support Obama also
[18:08] Ryman Bravin: i support obama
[18:08] Rik GKid: No McCain supporters? or undecided?

Here's a short video of some teens chatting about the Iraq war while McCain outlines his foreign policy stands.

The teens seemed fairly bored during the economy and health care portion of the debate.  But they perked right up once the candidates starting talking foreign policy.  I asked them what issues and questions they were interested in the candidates addressing:

[18:13] Allar Kamloops: I don't want any 'stabilization' to increase my loan payments 0.o. I'm struggling on my tuition loans enough as it is... if I can't get a loan in the future however... !
[18:22] Ryman Bravin: i hope the crisis in darfur will come up
[18:23] Lee Soothsayer: Foreign Policy, Stock Market Economy stuff.. Abortion is another big one.

Obama and McCain were asked to address the question of how they were going to inspire the nation. I asked our teens who they thought answered most effectively.

[18:34] Lee Soothsayer: I find that Obama did.
[18:34] Clarisse Neuman: Yeah
[18:34] Ryman Bravin: obama for sure
[18:34] Lee Soothsayer: McCain "We're not gunna tell ya now but we'll get it done. Cuz we're americans and we rollz like dat"
[18:34] Lee Soothsayer: Nah but they are both good, yeah?

At one point I started teasing kids who let their avatars fall asleep. For those who don't know, if you let your avatar idle too long without doing anything, it slumps forward as if it has passed out on its feet.

[18:41] Rik GKid: hey no sleeping avatars!
[18:41] Lee Soothsayer wwakes up "Uh-wha..?"
[18:41] Rik GKid: someone nudge Winston
[18:41] Lee Soothsayer: lol.
[18:42] Mat Brocco: he's a canadian, it's ok
[18:42] Rik GKid: lol
[18:42] Lee Soothsayer: lol
[18:42] Lee Soothsayer: Well of course, Canadians are cool.
[18:42] Clarisse Neuman: my mom just zipped me up in a sleeping bag
[18:42] Clarisse Neuman: she demanded it
[18:42] Rafi GKid: lol
[18:42] Lee Soothsayer: I appreciate those out of country for looking into this election, it's a very important one.

Later on we had a fun exchange related to one of the teens wanting to ask the candidates about the cost of college:

[18:46] Lee Soothsayer: I would like to ask a question.
[18:46] Rik GKid: go Lee. I'll pass it along to Tom Brokaw
[18:46] Rafi GKid: :)
[18:47] Rafi GKid: I think he's being snarky
[18:47] Lee Soothsayer: Okay. Can you ask about college prices? Like..how they plan to cut that down?
[18:47] Rik GKid: seriously, I have his cell number
[18:47] Rafi GKid: the questions were closed a couple of days ago
[18:47] Lee Soothsayer: Word that in a way that asks that.
[18:47] Rhiannon Ferlinghetti: how do you have Brokaw's cell.. hmm
[18:47] Rik GKid: oh yeah. What Rafi said.
[18:47] Rafi GKid: lol
[18:47] Lee Soothsayer: I'd like to see how they would like to cut down those darn prices. I think thats how most people decide how to go to a college.
[18:48] Rik GKid: we'll see if the candidates answer any questions related to college costs, tuition, education, etc
[18:48] Lee Soothsayer: Right.
[18:48] Lee Soothsayer: So...you said you had a number?
[18:48] Rafi GKid: I want to know how they will deal with the critical issue of presidential nominees that go over time on their answers during debates
[18:48] Lee Soothsayer: Yeah.
[18:48] Rafi GKid: every american family is hurting because of this issue!
[18:48] Ryan Dayton: that one~
[18:48] Lee Soothsayer: lol
[18:48] Ryan Dayton: haha
[18:48] Rik GKid: I'm just kidding . I wish I could pass along a question!
[18:48] Lee Soothsayer: Me too.
[18:49] Lee Soothsayer: I will have to wait for the next debate.
[18:49] Lee Soothsayer: Rik, if there is another where I still have time to ask questions, please let me know.
[18:49] Rik GKid: This is the first presidential debate where pepole were able to submit questions from the internet.
[18:49] Clarisse Neuman: that's cool
[18:49] Rik GKid: But the questions were closed last week
[18:49] Lee Soothsayer: Thats very interesting.
[18:50] Lee Soothsayer: They should do more like these.

Later one of our participants explained why she was having a hard time watching the debates at her house:

[18:57] Clarisse Neuman: my brother switched from the debate to batman begins.
[18:58] Rik GKid: lol clarisse
[18:58] Winston Tweak: Good movie.
[18:58] Rik GKid: I do like that movie. But this is a bit more important
[18:58] Lee Soothsayer: Yes. It will change our future.
[18:58] Winston Tweak: You think so?
[18:58] Winston Tweak: Good point.
[18:58] Lee Soothsayer: Well of course, this is one of the most important elections ever.

I really liked this exchange with Arwyn on the last question posed to the candidates

[19:30] Rhiannon Ferlinghetti: "what don't you know.. and how would you learn it?"
[19:30] Rik GKid: this question is a trap
[19:31] Georgette Ashbourne: how so Rik?
[19:31] Rafi GKid: it's definitely a hard one to answer
[19:31] Rik GKid: how does someone who wants to be president say that he doesn't know something?
[19:31] Arwyn Quandry: He should be able to say it easily, Rik
[19:31] Arwyn Quandry: The sign of a storng person is knowing that they don't know something
[19:32] Rik GKid: I agree arwyn, but its hard to answer and not seem weak
[19:32] Arwyn Quandry: It shouldn't.
[19:32] Georgette Ashbourne: For reals
[19:32] Arwyn Quandry: A real president, and indeed, a real Man, would be able to.
[19:33] Arwyn Quandry: Those who can not answer it are only boys.

I asked our participants who they thought won the debate:

[19:26] Rik GKid: we're in the final minutes of this debate. Do any of you think there is a clear winner or loser?
[19:26] Shadowski Pintens: Yeah
[19:26] Winston Tweak: OBAMMAAA
[19:26] Georgette Ashbourne: Obama FTW
[19:26] Arwyn Quandry: Obama Wins!
[19:26] Winston Tweak: OBAMA
[19:26] Shadowski Pintens: MCCAIN!
[19:27] Rafi GKid: why?
[19:27] Georgette Ashbourne: Mccains tooo slow
[19:27] Shadowski Pintens: ha
[19:27] Shadowski Pintens: I win
[19:27] Rafi GKid: why obama?
[19:27] Winston Tweak: He should just like throw a grenade at McCain.
[19:27] Georgette Ashbourne: Cause
[19:27] Arwyn Quandry: Obama was much clearer
[19:27] Shadowski Pintens: Because im obamas mama
[19:27] Ryman Bravin: I think it was really close
[19:27] Rik GKid: Not just who won, but why?
[19:27] Georgette Ashbourne: I think he gots his stuff more together than meccain does
[19:27] Arwyn Quandry: Obama was much more put together, and better spoken
[19:27] Georgette Ashbourne: yeah!
[19:27] Winston Tweak: Obama made some more pleasing points.
[19:27] Ryman Bravin: obama wins tho
[19:27] Ryan Dayton: They both lost.
[19:27] Arwyn Quandry: And he really made his point
[19:27] Georgette Ashbourne: Mccain sounds like hes talking shizzle
[19:27] Shadowski Pintens: I think Obama won because not just cause he is cool because he makes alot more sense in his debates McCain stutters to much.
[19:27] Winston Tweak: I bet he won the majority by promising to end the war in IRAQ.
[19:28] Georgette Ashbourne: Mccains all about war

All in all, I thought this was an effective way of getting teenagers to be more engaged with the political process. I think they felt more comfortable being in a setting with a bunch of their peers rather than in a roomful of adults.  Several of them seemed genuinely concerned about certain issues and got to express that to each other over the text chat.  And they got to have fun, often at the expense of one of the candidates, but that's to be expected.

I'd love to compare this to a real world gathering of a bunch of teenagers to see if we would get similar outcomes. One advantage of Second Life is that the teens can be both listening / watching the debates while also engaging in text chat with each other about what the candidates are saying. That would be really hard to do in a real life setting.  And they can dip in and dip out of the event for as long as they have available, instead of travelling to some real world venue and potentially having to commit to a 90 minute event.  Plus there is less risk in expressing our views in this semi-anonymous space, versus in real life where the performance anxiety associated with speaking out your views is much greater.

At the end of the evening, the teens seemed quite keen on doing this again for the final debate coming up on October 15:

[19:35] Rik GKid: for the last debate, if we did this again, would you come back?
[19:35] Shadowski Pintens: Yes
[19:35] Arwyn Quandry: Yes!
[19:35] Shadowski Pintens: I would
[19:35] Ryman Bravin: yes
[19:35] Victoria Hanfoi: most def
[19:35] Aero Joubert: Indeed.

We'll see if we can organize something for what may be the decisive event of the entire election.