Conferences

Global Kids Roundtable on Nonprofits & Virtual Worlds on April 12 in Second Life 

Submitted by Rik on Thu, 04/01/2010 - 19:13

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You are cordially invited to Global Kids' Winter 2010 Roundtable on Virtual Worlds and Nonprofits on Monday April 12, from 12-1pm PST on MacArthur Island in Second Life (teleport link). Representatives of six nonprofit organizations will give brief presentations on their initial explorations of Second Life and other virtual worlds, and how they are thinking of integrating these virtual tools into their organizations' respective missions. Afterwards, there will be an open discussion about the applications of virtual worlds for various public good purposes.

Representatives of the following organizations will be presenting:

  • Child Welfare League of America
  • Health Consumers Alliance of South Australia
  • United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland, Inc
  • Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health
  • Hip-Hop Education Center
  • V.O.I.C.E. Community Development Corp

Each of these organizations has just completed the Global Kids' Virtual World Capacity Building Program, a four-week intensive exposure to virtual worlds for public good institutions. The event will be moderated by Global Kids and take place at the MacArthur Island Amphitheater (click here to teleport.)

 

Headed to Charlotte, NC April 8 for a UNCF Forum on Digital Media & Learning 

Submitted by Rik on Thu, 04/01/2010 - 14:28

UNCFLogo I'm happy to announce that next Thursday, April 8, I will be speaking on a panel on digital media and learning at the Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sponsored by the UNCF (United Negro College Fund), the purpose of the forum is to "to look into what these new technologies mean for young people of color and the colleges they attend."

The UNCF Digital Media and Learning Public Forum series is to provide opportunities for students, educators, and experts in digital technology to discuss how youth, especially youth of color, use new digital media and social networking tools, and to spark interest among faculty and students at HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions in conducting digital media research. The forum at Johnson C. Smith, the third forum of the series at UNCF member-HBCUs, will focus on the opportunities and challenges faced by young people and educators living in increasingly free-flowing digital cultures.

Global Kids at the 2010 National Service Learning Conference: Simulcasting, Moderating Text Chats, Leading Workshops 

Submitted by Rik on Mon, 03/29/2010 - 04:24


From March 24-27, Global Kids teen leader Mayank and I got to travel to San Jose, California to participate in the National Service Learning Conference along with 2,000 other young people and educators from around the country.

Sponsored by the National Youth Leadership Council, the NSLC is a very impressively run annual gathering focused on supporting service learning in communities all over the United States. It was a great opportunity for us to talk about Global Kids to an interested audience of folks, and to learn from other groups doing similar work.

Mayank and my trip to San Jose did not start on the best foot. Our intended route was to fly to Denver from New York, and then change to another plane to fly to San Jose. Well unfortunately on the day of our departure, Denver got totally snowed in, so we got diverted to Minneapolis. We faced impossibly long lines, confusing information and rumors, and tired and cranky staff, in our attempt to get on some kind of flight that would eventually end in San Jose.

GK Teen Leader Mayank on the 2010 National Youth Leadership Conference 

Submitted by Rik on Mon, 03/29/2010 - 04:16

Mayank NSLC
This is a report by Mayank, Global Kids teen leader, who participated in the National Youth Leadership Conference from March 24-27, 2010 in San Jose, California. Rik Panganiban, Assistant Director of OLP, co-faciliated the workshops with Mayank. The Conference, with participants from all over the United States, numbering up to approximately 2,500 attendees, is the largest gathering of youth and practitioners involved in service-learning.

There was no end to my excitement. We left New York with a lot of energy. But all the energy went down when we heard that our flight is being diverted to Minneapolis because of the bad weather in Denver.

Virtual Talk by the Lost Boys of Sudan in SmallWorlds this Friday 9am PST 

Submitted by Rik on Tue, 03/23/2010 - 19:55

lost boys of sudanOn Friday, March 26 at 9am, you can watch a virtual simulcast of three of the Lost Boys of Sudan, telling their amazing story of survival and hope for the people of Sudan.  They will be speaking from the National Service Learning Conference in San Jose, California, addressing a group of young people and educators there.  Meanwhile, people of all ages can watch their talk from the virtual world of SmallWorlds and the "Salam Project" website.

After their presentation, we will facilitate a question and answer question with them, including questions submitted from SmallWorlds.

Click here for instructions on connecting to the event in SmallWorlds.

Where else but virtual worlds can you come together with people from all over the world to talk directly with remarkable youth leaders like these three young men?

Here's the full description of the session after the jump....

I'm speaking about Global Kids on Metanomics Talk Show this Wednesday! 

Submitted by Rik on Mon, 03/22/2010 - 16:05

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This Wednesday, March 24, at 12pm PST, I will be speaking on the very excellent virtual talk show Metanomics about some of our recent projects at Global Kids.  I'll be talking with Robert Bloomfield, or Beyers Sellers in Second Life, about our new "Edge Projects" that are helping other civic organizations experiment with digital media and virtual worlds in ways that challenge their practices and open up new possibilities for engagement and education.

To watch us live, head to the Metanomics site for details on viewing the show from the web or from within Second Life. The talk show archive video will also be available for viewing shortly afterwards on the site.

Glowing Evaluation of Global Kids' Presentations at Jewish Day School Conference 

Submitted by Rik on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 21:18

In January, Global Kids had the opportunity to give three presentations at the Jewish Day School Conference in Teaneck, New Jersey. We had a great time talking about our work with digital media, games and social networks. And apparently our participants got a lot out of it as well.

We just received the results of the post-conference evaluation, and got some nice feedback on our two sessions on "Games Based Learning 101" and "Social Media Production & Constructionist Learning." All of the participants said that they "learned something new" and all but one found our sessions to be "inspiring." Both presentations received a rating of 4.5 out of of a scale of 5!

Among the written comments about us:

  • "Loved it! great new ideas even for a participant who is already very knowledgeable about social media."
  • "Nice conversation around table shared good ideas."

For more information about Global Kids professional development offerings, see this link.

GK at DML 2010 

Submitted by bjoseph on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 18:36

This week, Barry, Amira and Rik were thrilled to present with a wide array of partners and colleagues across four different panels at the MacArthur Foundation's first Digital Media and Learning Conference - themed "Diversifying Participation" - held February 18-20 in San Diego, California. Below are videos, Prezi's and youth media referenced within the presentations. [note: This is a work is progress and material will be added as they get uploaded]

Update on Global Kids at DML Conference February 18-20 in San Diego 

Submitted by Rik on Thu, 02/11/2010 - 16:06

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Just a reminder that Barry, Amira and Rik of Global Kids will be presenting on four different panels at the amazing "Diversifying Participation" conference from February 18-20 in San Diego, California.  We are honored to be on the same program as some of the top thinkers and practitioners in the field, from Henry Jenkins to Sonia Livingston, danah boyd, James Paul Gee and many, many more. 

For those that will be there, you can find us nearly the entire day on Friday February 19 at these times and places:

Three All-day Gatherings in Four Days 

Submitted by bjoseph on Tue, 02/02/2010 - 20:37

Last week I was out of the office for four full days, all consulting in one capacity or another for Global Kids. It has been an amazing journey over these past ten years working to support NYC youth while developing a broad range of expertise in the process that a wide variety of organizations now know they can call upon.


Tuesday & Wednesday - Serious Gaming at the New York Public Libraries
For the first two days, my colleague Rafi Santo and I ran a two-day long training for youth or young adult librarians from three branches of the New York City Public Library system. Over the next few months they will incorporate our Playing For Keeps program into their branches, a 20-session program to support their youth to identify as global citizens, develop game design skills, and learn to combine the two into a prototype for a serious game design. The final designs will be presented in a competition format at our annual collaboration with area youth media and technology organizations - Emoti-Con - in June at the 42nd Street branch of the NYPL. These days brought together our expertise on serious gaming and game design while supporting civic and cultural institutions to implement curriculum that was once designed exclusively for Global Kids Youth Leaders.