[VVP] Educational uses of machinima
Global Kids was featured in a recent post on the site Media Rights focusing on the diverse uses of machinima. Below is the section discussing our work under education.
Machinima and EducationMeet Global Kids, a New York-based nationally recognized leader in utilizing digital media to promote global awareness and youth civic leadership. Global Kids draws participants from twelve high schools for its after school virtual video project where students produce machinima in Teen Second Life, a sister site to Second Life that restricts access to users 13-15-years-old.
Students meet at the start of the school year to discuss global issues and travel to virtual international locations that would otherwise be cost prohibitive.
Rik Panganiban, Online Leadership Program Associate, says, “For example when discussing possible scripts students can start in a bazaar in Cairo.
“They have to think about what assets (sets and props) they will need to do that. They have to do research to learn what would be the right outfit, what sounds would we hear, what language would be spoken.”
Panganiban says in this collaborative environment the traditional top-down education model of teacher-to-student dynamic is replaced with peer-to-peer learning.
“This (creating machinima) is different than turning in a paper about education and racism that will be consumed by a teacher and given a letter grade only.”
Global Kids machinima has been screened their work online and by various festivals including, two films screening in the 2008 We the Peoples Film Festival in London.
To read the full article, click here.
