Playing 4 Keeps

End of Year Reflections from Youth in P4K 

Submitted by daria on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 18:36

Playing 4 Keeps may have come to an end after a full school year, but as you can see, our youth have still been quite busy with presentations and trips.

 

At our last session together in June, youth picked the final winner of the "Media and You Challenge" they designed, which is also the sixth AMD Social Impact Challenge.  "Media and Youth" asked youth around the country to make a game about the effects and uses of media in their lives, and to think critically about both the positive and negative influences of media.  We'll be announcing the winner of the challenge very soon!

 

Youth also spent some time blogging and reflecting on their highlights, lessons learned, and experiences from the program.  Below are links to each youth's reflection and some of their quotes.

 

Alex

Christian

Ednica: "My year at Global Kids was the best thing that ever happened, and I'm looking forward to more years at Global Kids."

P4K Youth Leaders talk game design with 28 girls from the Middle East & OMGPOP 

Submitted by bjoseph on Thu, 06/28/2012 - 17:17

Yesterday was quite a day at Global Kids! Youth from the Playing For Keeps program got to first meet with tech-oriented girls from the Middle East and then travel to the game design studio OMGPOP.

 

The first visit was with TechGirls, funded by the US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.  Twenty-five TechGirls participants were selected from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian territories, Tunisia, and Yemen. All were proficient in English and ranged in age from 15-17.  The program exposes them to advanced tools in technology and supports them in potential careers in the tech field.  And of course, through their trip, they were also developing leadership skills and a better understanding of US society and culture, by meeting with organizations like Global Kids!

 

 

The girls were facinated to hear about the work the GK youth had done over the year. And as we went around saying our favorite games, if you closed your eyes, you could never have guessed who was from which country. Games were clearly a universal language and source of connection. And it was the first time for most to hear how games could be used to address civic and global issues.

 

To view more photos from the visit, go here.

 

Reactions to GK-led Youth Panel on Game Competitions at Games For Change 

Submitted by bjoseph on Wed, 06/20/2012 - 14:23

Yesterday, three Global Kids youth leaders and 3 other youth from around the country presented at Games For Change, talking about what they learned as winners or creators of national game design competitions.

 

The youth had taken part in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, The National STEM Video Game Challenge, and the AMD Social Impact Game Design Challenges. Below is the slide we used describing and contrasting the three:

 

We were originally placed in a room seating 20. This was a problem, no less so than the youth panelists and their chaprerones took up nearly all of the seats. After some coordinating we were moved across the hall and filled the room with over 50 people. Photos can be viewed here and below are some of the twitter posts:

 

 

GK Youth at Games For Change: Youth Game Design Competitions for Social & Educational Impact Panel 

Submitted by bjoseph on Mon, 06/18/2012 - 14:35

Global Kids Youth Leaders will be out at force at this year's Games For Change festival, co-founded by GK nine years ago.

 

On Tuesday, three GK Youth Leaders from Playing For Keeps will both co-moderate and present on the panel: "Youth Game Design Competitions for Social & Educational Impact."

 

My Highlights 

Submitted by p4k_giuseppe on Tue, 06/12/2012 - 22:06

My time at global kids has been enjoyable one but I do have my favorite moments. 

 

The first highlight of the year was my first trip at P4K. P4K traveled to E-line offices to see how games are developed and created by professionals. The highlight of the trip is meeting the developers of gamestar mechanic because I never met the developers of a website I ENJOYED and played. I could also contact them anytime I needed assistance, and they weren't bothered by it. 

 

My second highlight is at global kids conference. At the Global Kids conference I had the opportunity of facilitating a workshop. It feels good to give direction and lead people. 

 

 

Overall it has been a great year!

 

 

My Experience 

Submitted by p4k_thorn on Tue, 06/12/2012 - 21:45

My experience in p4k has been very enlightening. I learned alot of information about game designing. I now  know what to expect should I desire to continue a career in game designing. If I do I know they time spent here wil only help me with my resume.

 

THe trips have been great E-line gave me a chance to see how to meet professional game designers and what what are the aspects of what they have to do. Thanks to this I got a chance to get involved with Emoti-con, which was really fun. That has been my favorite time in P4K

What I learned 

Submitted by p4k_christian on Tue, 06/12/2012 - 21:42

Well I had a great time at P4k knowing different characteristics that each players have towards a game and combining them together to make a great game. Also it was a great experience for me getting to know what other people had to show us with their game designs.

An amazing year with P4K 

Submitted by p4k_ednica on Tue, 06/05/2012 - 21:56

Through out this year, I learned many things. While at p4k, my aspect on gaming and how games are made changed. I learned that it don't only takes one person, but a whole team to make a great game. I learned that a team of game makers take diferent responsibilities for doing things such as drawing or makeing a story lines. I believe that learning about games and how its made is very important because it gives you an aspect about why a game maker did what they did on there game. In the future when I play a game that I believe is good, I will be able to add on to my opinion. For example, I could talk about background use, and how I think the person went about making that game.

 

What I learned 

Submitted by p4k_giuseppe on Tue, 06/05/2012 - 21:55

Over the course of 6 weeks I learned many things. I learned that you can used video games as a tool for global awareness creating challenges. When these challenges are completed people from all over U.S can play, and it instantly becomes easy to spread my ideas across the internet. Also learned a lot about the proccess of game making itself such as how to develop an idea, how to build on that idea, collaberating with other people, and presenting that idea to groups of people. These are valuable skills that can apply to a range of jobs, and can help me in all aspects of life. Aside from learning these valuable skills I learned other things on global issues such as the effects of global warming, war, and media literacy. I can also use this knowledge to help me in everyday sitautions, they may even influence my social and political descions. 

Simplistic Dominance 

Submitted by p4k_alex on Tue, 06/05/2012 - 21:54

As a teengager experienced in technology and gaming I was oblivious to all the subtopics in the world of media. Playing4Keeps was a internship I participated in this year that brought me knowledge and insight through an obscure lens. It taught me many things that I can emulate into my everyday life. Such as group work, computer programming, and job environment behavior. The global kids was the first of my many internships and it helped me advance in my educational and techonligical path.