In the Media

GK Wins $200,000 in Chase Community Giving Contest! 

Submitted by bjoseph on Fri, 06/24/2011 - 20:15

Global Kids is the Spring 2011 Chase Community Giving Advisory Board winner and will receive $200,000 to advance its "Big Idea" - creating more Global Kids ambassadors through intensive study of international affairs, international service learning, and youth-led advocacy projects on human rights and climate justice. Global Kids gives a BIG thanks to everyone who voted on Facebook during the Chase Community Giving Contest in May, helping us win an initial $25,000 and positioning us for selection by the Advisory Board. "It's wonderful that the Advisory Board has recognized our pioneering work and how important it is to develop global citizens and youth leaders in underserved communities. This will help take our organization to the next level and we are so grateful!," said Executive Director Evie Hantzopoulos. Check out the official press release!

Global Kids at Games For Change Pre-Festival Summit 

Submitted by bjoseph on Tue, 06/21/2011 - 14:48

This past Monday, Global Kids was all over Games For Change's Inspiring Digital Kids With Game Design Workshop.

Barry facilitated the panel OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM: YOUTH DESIGNING GAMES, which featured four case studies of afterschool games-design programs (GirlStart, Boys and Girls Clubs, MOUSE... and Global Kids!). Juan Rubio, of Global Kids, spoke about our collaboration with the NYPL on NYC Haunts.

Betterverse Coverage: "Global Kids Launching Youth-produced Virtual Talk Show on the Environment" 

Submitted by bjoseph on Fri, 06/10/2011 - 14:56

We were delighted to have news of our upcoming youth-led science-related talk show , Let's Talk Sustainability, covered by Betterverse, as well as our upcoming talk about it in Second Life promoted:

This Friday, June 10, I'm excited to announce that my old colleagues Barry Joseph and Daria Ng of Global Kids will be speaking about their latest virtual education project at the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life: Let's Talk Sustainability.

Let’s Talk Sustainability is "an intensive youth development program that will support high school youth to develop expertise regarding sustainability, online broadcasting, and virtual world construction." Global Kids youth in New York City will combine this expertise to produce a talk show, featuring live interviews with scientists and other STEM-related professionals, pre-produced videos, and game show like activities. This will be a virtual talk show, filmed before a live studio audience within Second Life that will be later archived with downloadable materials that will be made available for a broader audience and classrooms around the world.

In short, Let’s Talk Sustainability is a science-themed online talk show, by youth, for youth, filmed before a live studio audience. Sounds very exciting!

"How high is your empathy score?" Ayiti featured in the National Post 

Submitted by sarah on Wed, 06/08/2011 - 02:09

In his column "Post" Adam McDowell looks at serious games, including Global Kids' Ayiti and talks to Global Kids executive director Evie Hantzopoulos in this article for the National Post.

View the original article on nationalpost.com

Or below

How high is your empathy score?

Adam McDowell Jun 3, 2011 – 7:29 AM ET

Oh, The Humanities!: Academics gather this week in Fredericton for the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, presenting papers on everything from subjectivity in ultrasounds to performing gastronomy to the crisis in public education. Throughout the week, we showcase some of the most interesting research.

It’s midway through the dry season. Little Yves hasn’t been to school all year; there’s little food because father Jean had to quit his job due to depression. Mother Marie has been suffering from bloody diarrhea. You sent her to hospital, but she was kicked out when the family ran out of money.

The Guinard family is faring terribly and it’s your fault.

GK's Latest DML Central Post On What's Interesting 

Submitted by bjoseph on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 20:40

Each month for the DML Central we at Global Kids annotate a list of our favorite finds from the past month in regards to digital media and learning. Below is our latest from June.

The National Writing Project has launched a fantastic new web site, Digital Is, to build a community amongst educators exploring how the digital age is changing how we write, share, collaborate, publish and participate in the digital age. More importantly, what does this mean for the teaching of writing? The site offers resources, news and discussions. It is fairly new, so check it out and consider being part of building this community. Global Kids has already contributed to Digital Is by adding multimedia curriculum for Supporting Youth to Develop a Mental Map of Where They Learn.

Other choice resources we've discovered recently and been inspired by:

OLP covered on Columbia University's "School Stories" Blog 

Submitted by sarah on Tue, 05/31/2011 - 19:19

An article by Daniel Johnson of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism on private funding of digital learning pilot programs, highlights Global Kids upcoming Let's Talk Sustainability summer program and our recent collaboration with the NY Public Library NYC Haunts. Read the full article on the Graduate School of Journalism's "School Stories" Blog or below

Digital Learning Pilot Programs Attract Private Funding

Posted by Daniel Johnson on 10. May, 2011

Daria Ng is busy hammering out the curriculum for Let’s Talk Sustainability, a pilot program that will teach 15 students about ways to maintain the environment in just a few months. Yet, while the word “sustainability” may bring to mind images of flowers shinning in morning dew and sparkling freshwater lakes, students in this program will see sustainability in a different way – through flat screen monitors.

Blog post about GK Youth at Cooney's Leadership Forum 

Submitted by sarah on Thu, 05/26/2011 - 15:44

Here's a great post on the Cooney Center's Leadership Forum blog about the two GK leaders, Latavia and Janet, who were among the few youth attendees at the recent forum and covered the event on twitter and includes a selection of Latavia's tweets.

One of our favorites:

“Suggestions for any new changes for next year? I have one: BRING STUDENTS!”

Check out the full article here or below.

Latavia and Janet from Global Kids at the Cooney Center's Leadership Forum

Janet is a high school student from New York City and a member of Global Kids, an after school program that supports urban youth to become global citizens, community leader and successful students. Last week she represented Global Kids as a youth journalist and traveled to L.A. to the Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s “Learning From Hollywood” forum. Along with fellow GK leader Latavia, Janet live-tweeted the event and used a Flip camera to interview the attendees and speakers. Below are her reflections on her time at the Forum, followed by her Tweet trail.

A report on "Soft-Modding" in GK's I-Dig Zambia program 

Submitted by sarah on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 16:04

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The International Journal of Learning and Media has just released a report on I-Dig Zambia, funded by a grant we received from the MacArthur Foundation to understand virtual worlds in education. Soft Modding in Two Out-of-School Virtual Worlds-Based Programs provides an in depth look at how learning in virtual worlds can support youth to develop the emotional intelligence and social skills (collaboration, civic engagement) they will need to succeed as 21st century learners and citizens.

View the article on IJLM here.

Civic Education in the Era of Digital Media: A Pilot Case Study 

Submitted by sarah on Thu, 05/05/2011 - 16:31

Ching-Fu Lan now a Ph.D. candidate in the Teaching of Social Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University wrote this research study of our final year of our Virtual Video Project, which produced DIscovered, and has given us permission to share it. Ching-Fu does an excellent job of evaluating the program using the frameworks of Lance Bennett.

You can download the full text here Download file

"We are Meant to Pulse": GK's latest post on the DML Central blog is up! 

Submitted by sarah on Fri, 04/15/2011 - 20:14

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Topping the new recommended resources list from Global Kids is "Gaming to Re-engage Boys in Learning," a provocative video looking at the discrepancies in performance and achievement between boys and girls aged 3 to 13 and discussion of why school culture itself may be alienating to male students. Central to instructional designer Ali Carr-Chellman’s arguments are the lack of male representation in teaching, zero tolerance policies that disproportionately affect boys and the anti-gaming rhetoric of some schools that is hostile to youth invested in game culture. Though Carr-Chellman sidesteps the broader issue of what social factors might precipitate differing behaviors in boys and girls and how schools might address this difference, the statistical evidence she presents is startling and an entry point for further discussion.

Jane McGonigal hits New York Public Library in new game (article)