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The Global Kids Media Masters program, or GKm(2), works with young people to foster the acquisition of digital media production and analytic skills through youth engagement in participatory media or "Web 2.0" tools. Participants use web tools to map, remix, blog, create multimedia presentations and slideshows, do graphic design, create data visualizations and more in order to gain critical social skills and cultural competencies that will be critical to their participation in civic life. GKm(2) is a partnership with MIT's Project New Media Literacies in which Global Kids will bring its global issue oriented and interactive educational approach to MIT's new media literacy Learning Library.
In our pilot year of Media Masters, students worked on various media projects dealing with global issues and new media literacies, and at the end of the year compiled and contextualized this work into Digital Portfolios, to be used for college applications, job searching and school credit. I'm thrilled to share the portfolios from the program below, and to see all of them, just click the links at the bottom of the post.
Amana's Digital Portfolio:
On Saturday, June 27, 2009, over 100 New York City-area youth gathered at The New School to showcase their use of digital media and technology at (o.o), the first NYC Digital Youth Media and Technology Festival. While the youth enjoyed a game design competition, a project fair, a college and career readiness fair, and more, there was a constant backdrop of participatory voice through the use of Text The Mob, an application to capture the moment-by-moment thoughts, feelings, and energy of the crowd. To help you gain a better sense of what happened at this festival, here are the texts:
Arrive, mingle, get lunch!
Hi, everybody!
Welcome to (o.o)!!! 11:38:23
Let’s get this thing started! Barry Rocks!
where's access?
very excited to be here. Thx Barry
Hi, everybody!
Opening remarks
CONGRATS TO PARSONS/MOUSE for this Great Event!!!!
Hi, my name is Viveca and I am blogging about my Human Rights Map. This project is about events around the world that violated the rights of humans. I did mine on the Genocide in Rwanda, a tragic event that took place in 1994 during April.
I used three types of media: a photo, a video, and an article. I used the photo to show my audience the pain and aftermath of the genocide. I used the video in order to show people what the Rwandans went through during that blood-soaked month and I also used the article to give readers some text on the events that occurred that month. I chose this topic because I knew a lot about the genocide and I felt as though I should do a map about it.
While doing this project, I was able to get some more info about the genocide and why it happened in the first place. This project sort of made me sad at first because of all the tragedy and agony that surrounded this horrific event.
Hi guys! I am doing a blog about the Prospect Heights Campus Wikipedia Page. Basically, the whole Media Masters club took pieces of the school's information such as its racial make-up, its historic background, the schools inside of Prospect Heights, and other bits of information in order to make a page about the school on Wikipedia. We were split up into partners so that we could work on gathering the information in the different categories. Me and my partner Krystal were working on getting info about the racial breakdown of each of the schools inside PH. I really liked doing this project because it allowed me to learn more about the school I'm currently attending. This project also allowed me the chance of helping contribute to the creation of our personal website and I was very happy to be a part of it. 
Cable in the Classroom has released the latest issue of Threshold Magazine. It goes out to 40,000 schools. This issue was coordinated by our partners at the M.I.T.s Project New Media Literacy. Global Kids was involved in three of the articles, each available for free as a pdf download here.
The first one, Henry Jenkin's "'Geeking Out' on Democracy," states the following:
Global Kids, a New York after-school organization, has been using Second Life to bring together youth leaders from around the world in a virtual playground where they can imagine and stage solutions to real-world problems. Global Kids used machinima-a technique to create realtime digital animation-to document the story of a child soldier in Uganda and circulate it via YouTube and other platforms to call attention to the plight of youth in the developing world.Much like the HP [Harry Potter] Alliance, Global Kids is modeling ways we can bridge the gap between participatory culture and participatory democracy.
The second is an article co-written by GK's own Rafi Santo, descibing a day in the life of our innovative Media Master's program: "Mastering New Media."
Finally, the third, "The Future of Participatory Culture: A Threshold Forum," is an edited transcript of GK's Online Leadership Director, Barry Joseph, in dialogue with Henry Jenkins, Daniel T. Hickey, and John Palfrey discussing the rise of digital media and what it means for our students, our schools, and education in general.
Please check it out and help spread the word about this fantastic resource.
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52 to 48 was the best project that I had to do. The best thing is that my picture had to be online so other people could see it... people from around the world. I like the fact that other people had to come sharing their work online, sharing their feelings about what they think about the election. Everybody came up with a way to show their feelings, some people had babies, people kissing, fathers and sons. The amazing thing thing is that everybody should a strong feeling about the election, everybody states that 52+ 48=100.
Hey!! So last year I produced a radio documentary on what I love the most..chicken!! But its more than just me talking about my love for chicken. I drove into the investigative journalism world and tried to uncover the origins of the stereotype surrounding African-Americans and chicken. I dont want to tell you too much about what's said and what I found out because I want you to listen to it yourself but its worth the listen. Let me know what you think!! Thanks!!
http://www.wnyc.org/radiorookies/shortwave/kaskazi.html
This weekend I went with Shawna and two of the incredible GK Teen Leaders from the Media Masters program to the conference "Learning in a Participatory Culture", put on by our partners up at MIT, Project New Media Literacies.
For me, the event was characterized by a number of things that are marks of a great conference:
Continue reading "[staff/conf/mm] Learning in a Participatory Culture" »
The Conference at Massachusetts was amazing! They had people from different places sitting together learning about Global Kids Media Masters and other types of media workshops. The best part of the trip is that we went to a Afghanistan restaurant couple blocks to the hotel, the food was delicious, the hotel was splendid but I was a little unhappy because we could only stay for one night but I totally enjoy that night. My favorite part of the Conference is that I had to tell people about Media Masters, it felt really great and I enjoyed learning about some other part of the workshops like Wikipedia.
The fun part was that I was asking people questions about the conference. One of them was What are you expecting to gain from this conference? It was really fun coming from Brooklyn, New York to Cambridge, Massachusetts. I'm very happy and thankful that Rafi and Shawna and Global Kids make their decision to take me on that trip it was wonderful. Thank You
Hello again.
Today my blog will be about the conference at MIT I attended today.
As you may already know, MIT's Project New Media Literacies is actually a partner for the program of Global Kids I attend called Media Masters.
Two of the students who attend that after school activity were chosen to attend it.
We left New York at about four and made it to Boston at around ten that night where, after checking into our hotel were taken out for some Afghani food, which I actually found quite good.
We arrived at the conference at around eight the next morning and were assigned cameras which we used to video the conference and do brief interviews with people attending which we conducted in between workshops.
The conference revolved mostly around a project called New Media Literacy.
Collective Intelligence is the ability to pool knowledge with others toward a common goal while judgement refers to the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information.
You are probably wondering how Wikipedia comes in to this. We had a group project in which we had to create a Wikipedia page on Prospect Heights Campus. All of the students involved in his had to 'collect' information on all the schools in Prospect Heights Campus and while doing so use their 'Judgment' to ensure that the information was credible, get where I'm going?
Once everyone had information on their assigned topics we then began to put the information on the site and below is the result.
My memory on this is a little fuzzy but when we decided to create a wiki page on Prospect Heights High School Campus for our collective intelligence topic I was excited. Prospect Height Campus did not have a wiki page and we wanted people to know who we are!! So we broke it down in to sub-topics, like the different schools and themes, what the school was like in the past and some of the great things we're doing here. I was co-in-charge of the History section and the High School for Global Citizenship (my high school) and I was shocked by what I learned.
The first thing I learned and was completely shocked by the the fact that Prospect Heights was an all girls school when it first opened and went by the name of The Girls' Commercial High School (which I think now is not a bad idea!!). I also later learned that HSGC's prinicpal, Mr. Rau's grandmother attended The Girls' Commercial High School. Another shocker for me was the fact that Prospect heights high school ranked twelfth most violent among New York City's 125 high schools in 1990 by the Board of Education!! and it became one of the first schools to have scanning and full time police. I learned a lot about the other schools but it felt good to rep my school and make sure people know what great things are coming from HSGC!!!!
The process of putting it together was fun!! everyone had something they were in charge of that way the work load wasn't too heavy on any one person. We also get to check each other and correct things. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that wikipedia needs almost like proof of what your saying is true so we had to do a lot of research on things we already know. But it makes sense, you don't wan people give false or bad information. Over all this was fun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_Heights_Campus
Today I played another game. This one deals with life in Haiti and what one must do to survive in such an environment. Because of the country's current economic status and the fact that it is often a victim of many natural disasters it is difficult to make opportunities for yourself.
As the game begins you must choose out of four, what type of strategy you will have during the game. Whether it is to obtain money, to remain healthy, to obtain education or to keep happy, that will be your main focus in the game.
Unfortunately as the game continues you will find that the strategies will begin to overlap until, as per my experience, you will begin to focus more on obtaining money because that is what you will need to keep your family happy, healthy and able to get an education.
The concept of this game is to enable you to experiment with the characters so that you will figure out how to achieve your main objective.
Despite the fact that I cannot remember the exact site should one decide to type in ayiti games on google search you will find it.
I have been working on a wikipedia page that myself and other classmates did. We all gathered information and made a page for Prospect Heights Campus , which is a high school located in Brooklyn New York. The school was formerly one whole high school but after certain problems the school was converted in four (4) small schools. The building houses Brooklyn School for Music and Theater , Brooklyn School for Science and the Environment, International High School at Prospect Heights and the High School for Global Citizenship.
This task was quite interesting because we all had to gather information and we had no idea what kind of information the other person had gotten so there might have been several versions of the same information . Also we learned information about our schools that we didn't know and also information about the previous school in the building and what had happened that made the school close down in the first place.
This was fun to do anyway, and by gathering our information we used other sources to get information also, to put on our pages. In the end our information was useful to make the page successful for everyone to visit . If you are interested you can visit wikipedia and type in prospect heights campus to learn more.
Today we looked at situations related to human rights around the world and my specific situation is the Bhopal Gas Tragedy in India. I hadn't heard about this before today (most likely because it happened long before I was born) and learned a lot. It truly is a tragedy. To put it simply, a pesticide plant in the city of Bhopal, India released extremely dangerous chemicals and caused the death of an estimated 8,000, with many still suffering from the effect of such a disaster. I looked at print and video media that was record then and ones that looked back on it but no matter how you look at it, its very sad. This tragedy led to the creation of The International Medical Commission on Bhopal which aimed at responding to the long term health effect and aiding those who have been hurt. That plant exposed nearly 500,000 people to the dangerous gas and even though this took place December 3, 1984, people are still suffering from brain skin, lung and other serious health issues.
You can click on the placemarkers in India in the map below to learn more.
View Mapping Human Rights Globally Through Transmedia in a larger map
This past Friday we had a really interesting workshop looking at serious games that dealt with real world issues. Through the lens of a number of serious games we explored the concepts of play and problem solving through experimentation, simulation and how representation of systems can happen in a game context, and credibility and bias involved in games, just as with any other media form.
You can check out the student blog posts about the different games they played below this post, and some of the fantastic pictures that were caught from the workshop.
Today I played the McDonald's video game at mcvideogame.com but this wasn't the first time i saw or played it. I can across this came I think about a yea ago with my sister. At the time I wasn't thinking about the point of view or message behind it, I only wanted to win, and to win you had to bribe important people, lie and steal. I don't want to think that this is what McDonald's had to do to get to where they are now. Basically the game made it seem like McDonald's was bad for the people and in more ways than one. They steal land, they produce and sell unhealthy products, knowing the food is unhealthy but still selling it, treating worker unfairly, all while CEO's tried to figure out how the keep groups who were against the quiet. It really is a shame if McDonald's is really like this. But its hard because even as I tried to play fair the only way to keep things going to to not play by the rules.
This game definitely had a point of view. It was clearly created by a group who is against what McDonald's has been doing. But how could they have known all the aspect? I don't complete trust it. The entire McDonald system can't be so corrupt at every level and not have been caught and stopped. The game, like all others, allowed me to take control and see things from a different point of view. However how much of a choice you get to make is up to the makers of the game. Games are different from other forms of media because they allow you to take control and make the choices where as other forms to media, like documentaries or new articles just allow you to see what going on. With games their are choices but the understanding that each of those choices have consequences.
The game that I played was Hurricane Katrina Tempest In Crescent City. The different ways that the game represented information about the issue was by showing a family that moved from New Orleans to New York and by showing images of houses, streets, water, people screaming for help. Things that make my game different from documentary, news article, photograph, radio story, or other form of media are that I'm the one who being effected from the hurricane, I'm the one who take action in the game to save people and my mother.
I just played this game called Profit Seed. This game represents the controversy between farmers, GM and Monsanto for their genetically modified seeds that are infecting the farmers crops. The game represented information about the issue by discussing it on the different boards as well as using the game itself as an infomercial.
I used "play" in the game by learning the controls and figuring out the goal of the game in order to succeed. Once I figured out the goal, it was pretty easy to beat the game.
The game's point of view is that genetically modified seeds are wrong. In other words, what GM and Monsanto are doing is going against the balance of nature and that it shouldn't be continued.
Games are different from a news article because instead of just reading a piece of paper, you get to put yourself into the position of the person that situation is directed towards. You get to experience what they're going through rather than thinking about it.
The game I is just played was McDonald's video game it represented big business and what types of things fast food companies would do to keep their company running. The game showed how land was taken for native people and how workers weren't happy with the working conditions. what is often showed on tv is Mcdonald's is a company that helps the community and values their workers (which sometimes can be true but only when someone says something about). there was a lot of experimentation in this game in order to succeed, you have to keep your customers, worker and animal rights people happy all at the same time to make money. To succeed i had to fail here ad there to figure out how the game worked. what makes games different form documentary news articles photographs and other form of media is that its all in one it provides photographs , historical contacts, and a character view point.
Serious games, what a way to look at games differently! Who would have thought that games could be so interesting and could be that related to issues today.
I played a game called DARFUR IS DYING on one of the web sites ad wow that was something that I have never expected before. The game represented some people of African descent that had to carry water form one area to another to get water and carry it back so that they can help the village. The strange part was that there were police that would capture them and carry them to a camp where they could be raped and put to work non stop which is inhumane. The game represented this issue in different ways because it showed how a family would try to make a living of some sort and then every time to got close someone would come and try to take that away from them.
The game was different from a documentary , news article and others because it gave me a personal experience about the issues that was happening . It personally had a toll on the way I feel , the fact that I was the person that had the chance to save someone or the whole village life and I either help them succeed or I failed and that was the horrible part of the game, knowing that these things actually happen in real life.
The game did have a point of view that it was trying to get across and that is that people might actually be suffering more than we think . The issues might be show something that the article might not show, that the people are actually trying to do some thing with their life but it not happening.
The idea or thought that makes the game different from a documentary is the fact that it made it more real. We had a chance to experience what was happening first had and it made a difference on how we felt . Either it be that we helped that family or we failed the family. It showed us that the issues are real and there are different ways to experience it, and take into consideration that the game might have a more effect on you than the article would have. It would show you a different point of view of the actual issues and something that the article does not do is giving a more fictional view of what is actually happening in the country.
Well hello again. Today I'm logging about play, representation and credablity as said in the heading.
Another project from Media Master, we were to choose one of five games to play and then blog about how this affected our thoughts on the main topic of the game.
I chose Darfur is Dying, which is a very depressing game about the issues people in Darfur go through daily. Four of my 'children' were taken by militia while forraging for water before I decided to call it quits.
In Darfur there is a lack of food and water and that affects the survival rate of the people there, not to mention that te government and the military seem to be currupt and ed upraping the girls before beating them as well as the boys to death.
To be honest I was caught when ever I tried to get water so I did not win at any aspect of this game but my experimetation with the characters led to me getting closer and closer to winning every time. This is because I decided to 'run' and 'hide' in the direction that the game said wa sclosest to the water.
I believe that the game was trying to give more of an impression of political uprest and a need for help not only politicall but economically and agriculturally as well.
A game gives a more realistic piont of view to a situation that a documentary of news aritcle would paint in some ways and the fact is that more people would rather play a game than watch a documentary or read an article or even listen to a radio story about it.
And even though a picture is worth a thousand words those word are only on one point of view inseat of many like a game.
The link to this game is DarfurIsDying.com
This is about text messaging, text messaging is used all the time in the world people have received message, sent message a lot of time. Its an example of someone either successfully traveling across a diverse communities or respecting multiple perspectives by giving information to people that didn't know and sharing with others.
Click for full comic..
Negotiation is an important skill because it help you get great deals. Negotiation involves in creative thinking, it helps you achieve different goal. If you don't how to negotiate people might use you.
Okay today we created comic strips on the norms{unwritten and written rules}that we do or know of. Mine was about the way we act at work and at home. Im not quite finish but its a good start. My character is professional at work where she is hassled all day. Then when she goes home she's able to do want she wants.
Hope you guys like it...I'll put the finish one later.
Muahz...Yoshi
Click for full comic..
Hey!
I'm back and today I'm blogging about the project we did for negotiation.
We had to make our own comic about norms in today's society at Bitstrips,com. The link to mine is below! feel free to leave a comment..
Click for full size.
You see in England as well as most European countries its the norm to leave your shoes on when you go into a house.
It gives the impression that you are uncivilized. if you don't.
Negotiation is an important skill to have because it helps you become more aware of how to act without offending people and breaking norms in society.
To act without being aware of what norms you are breaking is bad as you never know what kind of trouble you can get in for ignoring the norms of the people around you.
Click for full size.
This is a comic that I made about cultural mis-steps. I made it about the etiquette in Japan. In this comic strip, I have a foreign person that is late to a business meeting and his boss is angry with him. In Japan, being late to work, school, and any other type of activity is considered very rude. So coming early is a daily norm for the Japanese people. In my opinion, negotiation is a very important skill because when it comes to negotiating, you can work out compromises or bargains with others.
People should spend time getting better at negotiation because a lot of the situations that turn violent in today's society could be solved with that skill alone. It benefits both sides of the problem. If we don't get better at negotiation, then there will be a lot more problems that will end badly for society. Learning to get better at negotiation will help improve our adaptation to different cultures and norms.
Click for full size.
It was a little hard at first to think of a common faux pas but I decided to go with a faux pas the happens on dates. In my comic a couple (we'll call them Kenny and Nicole) on their first date is having a nice meal and getting to know each other, the date is going well and their really hitting it off until Nicole licks her plate!! A big "no no" when dining out...I'm guilty of subconsciously enjoying a meal to the point where I may lick the plate, but that only happens in the privacy of my room, that doesn't make it better or less disgusting but it's completely different to do something like that in public!! Licking the plate while on a date at a restaurant is a complete turn off!!
Negotiation is a very important skill..unless you want to look like a complete fool. When ever you step outside your comfort zone or away from your culture ( which is everyday living in NYC) you have to know the norms of your surroundings. Not only are you learning new things about different cultures, you also dont have to worry about feeling embarrassed or awkward around new or different people. The way I see it is its better to learn and understand norms and faux pas because you can better navigate in life, and if you choose not to ( which is fine..we do live in America) thats cool too...just don't be shocked if you don't have friends or a job. Jut take the time to understand your surroundings and observe how things work before you jump in.
Click for full image.
My comic is about a employee who does not know how to greet his boss which often happens in life. Sometime we bring our personal life into places where it shouldn't be. Normally you would negotiation by greeting people so that you can think highly of you and you can treat them the same way.
Negotiation is an important skill because it helps us to get the things we want out of life. Negotiation applies to the real world because in life there gonna be times when you have to give up little things to do things that you might not wanna do and you don't want to come off as rude .We should be better at this because we cant always do what we want to do and the earlier we learn this the better off we will be. If we don't learn this then we will be unhappy and always wanting things to go our way even tho we cant. The only way you can be better at it is to learn as much as you can.
Below is the story that was in NML's latest e-newsletter, from researcher Flourish Klink observing Global Kids' Media Masters program and the student's of Prospect Heights Campus working to create their school's Wikipedia entry.
In Brooklyn, New York, in the first school in the United States to need metal detectors to keep its students safe, some students in an after-school classroom are preparing to make an impact on their world. Most of them use Wikipedia already, but now they've written their own Wikipedia entry - one that's about their high school. They've thought about its troubled history, they've used their New Media Literacy skills to their fullest, and they've pooled their thoughts in chat rooms and co-edited online documents. All that's left to do is put it up online and let other Wikipedians help make it even better. Some of the students say that now they're more likely to edit other Wikipedia pages themselves, correcting them when they see errors. But they're all just a little nervous, excited to see their work go live.It takes some time before anyone's brave enough, but finally one student comes up and clicks "save page." Now Wikipedia has an entry about "Prospect Heights Campus." None of the students alone could have gathered the information necessary; none of the students alone could have brought the project to fruition. Together, they made it happen - and now they are all a little more empowered, a little more prepared to extend those collaboration skills into the world outside the classroom.
To read the Prospect Heights Campus wikipedia entry, click here.
Hi once again it has been a while since i last put up a blog but this time it is really interesting. It is about people who take over and deny people of there human rights. I have been researching about the Lack Of Trials For Prisoners At Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and i have been shocked by what i have found. So many rights have been taken away from the prisoners there. Although they might have commit a crime they should be given a bit of freedom and what they have been doing is not right .
The human rights that i think is being taken away are :
-Everyone has the right to live in freedom and safety
-Everyone has the right not to be hurt or treated cruelly.
-Everyone has the right to a fair trial
-Everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until prove guilty
Along with some others but some one really needs to do something about what the prisoners are going through its not fair to be treated to fairly.
below is some pictures of what the prisoners are treated like
http://www.cubaheadlines.com/files/cubaheadlines.com/imagenes/guantanamo%20prison_flight.%20jpg.jpg
http://chawedrosin.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/guantanamo.jpg
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/09Qp8yM3OBaAS/610x.jpg
Hope you find my story of interesting .
