Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

The following appreciation came at the conclusion of our successful effort to scale Global Kids' serious game design program from our schools to the New York Public Library:

This past spring, Global Kids educators worked with select librarians at The New York Public Library to develop an intensive 10-week course on "serious games" for teens. The project focused on the fundamental concepts of "gaming", introduced teens to a range of social justice issues, and empowered them to craft conceptual prototypes of "serious games".

In addition to the rich content of their projects, ranging from issues such as media consolidation to drug trafficking, students gained invaluable experience from the challenge of team learning. They developed critical thinking and exercised public speaking skills when they presented their final projects.

The thoughtful design of the program and the dynamic teaching and training methods of Global Kids staff has set a high bar for future teen courses.

Elaine Charnov
Director, Education, Programs, Exhibitions
The New York Public Library

Thanks Elaine!

Posted by joyce at 3:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Below is a brief video from the final Global Kids' final training for the New York Public Library for the Playing For Keeps Capacity Building Program.

More info about this program at http://www.playing4keeps.org.

Posted by joyce at 3:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday we held our second Playing 4 Keeps training for the New York City Public Libraries. After completing the first half of the curriculum, they are now prepared to facilitate the second.

The librarians are SO fun to work with. They came up with a great idea during the Game Company Roleplay - you have to guide President Obama past the ghosts of dead presidents out to get him - and spent the afternoon creating their own serious game design paper prototype - Project Princess, a brilliant, hilarious game about media consolidation and the lack of an African-American Disney princess.

We covered ways to teach youth to search for information online and we received really valuable feedback about how they are adapting the programs to meet the specific needs of their sites (e.g. ask all the processing questions at once) and details about how the programs can be improve.

I can't wait to see in June what their students create to present at the first New York City Digital Youth Summit.

The following video is from the Game Company Roleplay. In this activity, everyone pretended to be part of a game company, making a game. The video is the final part, in which the "game producer" makes a pitch about the game development to the "client".

And enjoy, in reverse chronological order, the tweets from the participants, after the jump...

Continue reading "[p4k] Second P4K Training For New York Public Library" »

Posted by Barry at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apologies to those who had anticipated our typical, Global Kids, constant reporting on our work for our new P4K Capacity Building Program. It's been awhile since we said anything, mostly because it has been moving forward fast and furious.

Since our last postings, the three NYC libraries have launched their programs, reporting about their work on the official program site, most with text, but some with video as well.

The Boston sites supported by MassIMPACT have now all been trained, 13 in all, and most should begin their programs by the end of the month.

Gamestar Mechanic is a fantastic learning and playing tool we have incorporated into the program. One site lead reported: "The students take to this like they were born to it.  We have had girls and boys doing this.  Some have 4 or 5 levels for a single game." Unfortunately, until a current bug is fixed, we were reluctantly forced to stop supporting its use in the program. We trust, however, this will be resolved before the end of this round of programs and Gamestar can be brought back into the fold.

Finally, NYC's culminating event, to be held at the New School/Parson at the end of June, is moving forward in partnership with MouseSquad, Petlab and others. It should be an exciting program for youth around the city, not just those in our game design programs, to show off their digital media projects from the year. Unfortunately, due to funding and size constraints, it will be closed to the 150 individuals involved in planning the event, but we'll do our best to keep everyone else up to speed!

Photo from the Boston training:

Posted by Barry at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Find more videos like this on Global Kids' Playing for Keeps



This is a video of the youth participating in the Playing for Keeps program at the NY Public Library Teen Central. The youth attended the second workshop of the program, which focuses on games and values.

To find out more about this program, please visit our playing4keeps.org website.

Posted by Krista at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today ended a fantastic training in our new Playing For Keeps Capacity Building Program. It was led for librarians from three branches in NYC and one in North Carolina. This is the first of what we hope will be many trainings for a variety of informal learning institutions.

Below is a quick video we threw together, while photos can be viewed here.

Posted by Barry at 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The first day of training went really well. The participants were fantastic. It was great to see how well the curriculum worked as well as to identify its shortcomings.

Most exciting was getting a better sense of how they might adapt the program for their individual libraries.

I will be posting photos and some videos from the training shortly.

Posted by Barry at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It just a few minutes ten librarians from New York City, and one from North Carolina, will enter the Global Kids offices to begin our first training in GK's new Playing For Keeps Capacity Building Program, supporting them to take a new scalable version of our gaming literacy program to libraries. This program builds on our work these past six years treating games as a form of youth media.

Can I say I am just a little excited? More to follow...

Posted by Barry at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Starting next month, Global Kids will be scaling up it's Playing for Keeps (P4K) program into local libraries and community centers in New York and Massachusetts. The first of these workshops is already listed up on the New York Plublic Libary's web site.

Playing For Keeps

Date: Wednesday & Thursday, March 18 & 19 Time: 3:00 PM
Audience: young adults

Description: Play games and check out awesome resources like "Gamestar Mechanic" and the Grow A Game card deck. Learn the process of game design: from mastering core mechanics to creating a design document. Work with Global Kids-trained staff and your peers to develop plans for your own games to address a social issue and then compete to present it to a panel of experts.

All materials will be provided. For ages 12 to 18. This program is being offered through a partnership with Global Kids, Inc., with support from the Microsoft Corporations US Partners in Learning.

Check it out here.

Posted by joyce at 7:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)