Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

This Thursday, August 20, at 10am PST / 1pm EST, Global Kids will be hosting a Second Life simulcast of an FCC Workshop on the intersections of broadband access and education. The goal of this workshop is to identify potential impact of increased broadband access on education outcomes and how broadband policies can help improve those outcomes. The FCC hopes to learn about ways in which broadband can impact education at the early childhood, elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels in a cost-effective manner. The workshop will look at current programs, such as e-rate and evaluate how such programs can be improved, for example, to take advantage of new technologies that have arisen since it was established. The workshop will also look at what applications and devices might be used to improve educational performance.

Hosted on MacArthur Island in Second Life (click here to teleport ), this video simulcast of the workshop is open to the general public to attend. Virtual event hosting, moderation and technical support provided by Global Kids.

In addition to the Second Life simulcast, the public can participate in the dialogue via Twitter or Ideascale. Twitter users can post a question on Twitter to @USBroadband4Ed as a public reply or a direct message, which may get addressed by the panelists . After the event, you can continue to provide input and questions to the FCC on the Ideascale website at http://usbroadband4ed.ideascale.com/.

For more information about the upcoming workshop see http://broadband.gov/ws_education.html . For information about the in-world event, contact rik@globalkids.org.

Continue reading "[conf] FCC Workshop on Education and Broadband Access Simulcast into Second Life This Thursday, August 20" »

Posted by Rik at 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

RezEd was named by librarians to be one of the best websites for teaching and learning, alongside Facebook, Ning and Skype

RezEd is delighted to be recognized by the American Library Association as one of the top 25 "Best Websites for Teaching and Learning" and honored to be on a list which includes Facebook, Ning, Skype, Twitter, Wikispaces, and Second Life.

According to their site:

The Best Websites for Teaching and Learning honors websites, tools, and resources of exceptional value to inquiry-based teaching and learning as embodied in the American Association of School Librarians' Standards for the 21st-Century Learner.

The Top 25 Websites foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover.

Specifically, they had the following to say about RezEd:

Learn about virtual worlds in a safe, supportive environment with other educators. RezED is the hub for learning about virtual worlds, providing practitioners with access to the highest quality resources and research in the field.

Tip: Check out RezEd’s monthly podcasts, online webinars, virtual chats, and discussion groups.

In addition, RezEd met their following Standards for the 21st-Century Learner

• 2.1.5 - Collaborate with others to exchange ideas, develop new understandings, make decisions, and solve problems.


• 3.1.2 - Participate and collaborate as members of a social and intellectual network of learners


• 4.3.1 - Participate in the social exchange of ideas, both electronically and in person.

You can read more here.

Posted by joyce at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Global Kids projects were the focus of two poster sessions at this weeks GLS, one about the D.I.D.I. initiative and Selen Turkay's awesome study about our Science Through Second Life class at our high school.

We think they were the best posters in the session, but perhaps we're biased. :-)

Images below - enjoy!

Continue reading "[RezEd] Two GK projects highlighted at poster session during GLS" »

Posted by joyce at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a neat little clip of Connie Yowell of the MacArthur Foundation welcoming the 2008 and 2009 winners of the HASTAC Digital Media and Learning competition, including myself and Amira from Global Kids. Connie always does such a great job synthesizing the broader historic trends, the cumulative impact of the various digital learning projects supported by MacArthur, and where we might be going in the coming years.  This is from the DML Showcase in Chicago on Friday, April 17 that I was honored to be at along with my colleague Amira. 

First off, congrats to all the winners of the 2009 Digital Media and Learning Competition, who are all gearing up to do really innovative and empowering digital learning projects around the world!  I'm blown away by the diversity of work -- from a project to empower civic engagement in Boston's Chinatown to an OLPC laptop-powered education project in rural Chiapas, Mexico, videoblogging in Mumbia, and 14 other amazing digital initiatives.

Continue reading "[staff] HASTAC Digital Media & Learning Showcase: a laptop orchestra, OLPCs in Chiapas, vloggers in Mumbai, and more..." »

Posted by Rik at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last Saturday I had the honor of presenting at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference about the work of Global Kids and some of the lessons we have been learning about how to best use virtual worlds for education and learning. The multi-day conference took place in Second Life, appropriately enough given the hundreds of educational projects going on in that platform, but was meant to more broadly cover "educational best practices" from virtual environments writ large.

The title of my presentation was "'Aha!' Moments from Global Kids and RezEd.org." In brief, I talked about how Global Kids and our social network for virtual educators RezEd.org have approached the idea of "best practices" in education and then presented five recent lessons that we've learned about virtual education. You can watch video of my presentation from the new Treet.TV website.

Thanks so much to the VWBPE organizers for inviting me to speak and SLCN.tv for broadcasting my talk to the web. Head to Treet.tv to see more great presentations from VWBPE 2009.

Posted by Rik at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Barry Joseph, along with David Klevan of the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum, were guests on the January 26th episode of the show Metanomics. They both spoke on education in virtual worlds including Teen Second Life. Video highlights from Barry's comments, including further thoughts on the importance of a Teen only virtual space within Second Life, are below along with links to the full video and transcripts.

View or download the full event video here. (MP4)Read the transcript.

Posted by joyce at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the mood for a good read and one that is an example of something people can use to introduce people to the value and legitimacy of virtual worlds for education, Peggy Sheehy recently authored an article in the publication Tech and Ed entitled "Give your Professional Development Second Life". In it she details how virtual worlds, such as Second Life make great resources and spaces for educator professional development.

She spotlights organizations like ISTE, NMC within Second Life and gives a shout out to RezEd.org and Global Kids' Second Life Curriculum as a key component to anyone looking to use Second Life as a space for professional development.

Download a pdf and read Peggy's article here.

Posted by joyce at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Continue reading "OLP's 2008 Year End Review" »

Posted by Rik at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I recently had the opportunity to post on MacArthur Foundation's Spotlight on Digital Media Learning blog. The Spotlight discussion, entitled RezEd.org Releases First Seasonal Report on Ethics and Virtual Worlds discusses the first seasonal report for http://www.RezEd.org, the hub for learning and virtual worlds launched last spring.

Global Kids Inc. has released the first seasonal report from RezEd, Global Kids’ new hub for learning and virtual worlds, with a membership surpassing twelve hundred people. The seasonal report summarizes the range of activities and discussions taking place among those on the cutting edge of education, whether through commercial platforms like Dizzywood and Second Life or educational ones such as Quest Atlantis. The report highlights material produced for and by the RezEd community, including James Paul Gee, Sasha Barab, and Linda Burch. In addition, this first ever report offers a special feature, on Ethics and Virtual Worlds, introduced by a team from Harvard University’s GoodPlay Project.

Read the full post here.

Posted by Amira at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We had a very successful Second Life conference on education in virtual worlds yesterday.  This was the first virtual conference sponsored by RezEd.org, the social network for virtual world educators. The RezEd conference featured a panel discussion with educators working in Second Life, Google Lively and Dizzywood; a "birds of a feather" breakout session; and a fun social mixer to close out the evening. With 60+ avatars from a range of institutions and backgrounds, this was a perfect example of how virtual worlds can enable networking, collaboration, and learning in an immersive and ludic environment.

Update November 24: One of our speakers Ryan Clemmens tells us that he was informed 30 minutes prior to speaking at the RezEd conference on November 17 that Google was closing the Lively virtual world at the end of the year. Thus, this was probably the last public address on Google Lively before it was publicly announced on November 19 that it was shutting its virtual doors.

Continue reading "[rezed] RezEd's first virtual world education conference a success!" »

Posted by Rik at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you have been to RezEd recently you might have noticed a new group focused on the upcoming Lego Universe and the subsequent insightful post by Barry on the possibilities of this new virtual world space. It seems to have drawn the attention of others as well. The post below is from Anne Collier of Net Family News.

Real competition for Teen Second Life?

There are some great virtual worlds out there for kids' entertainment, but nothing quite holds a candle to Teen Second Life for its collective-creativity tools. Until Lego Universe arrives on the scene, says Barry Joseph, director of Global Kids' Online Leadership Program, in his blog. In the organization's blog he refers to it as "a bright light in the distance," he wrote in the organization's blog, point to Lego Universe, expected to debut sometime next year. Apparently it'll be virtual world and massively multiplayer game combined. The reason why it could offer TSL serious competition is Lego's track record for collective creativity online and the fact that it has a tangible, well-known Real Life connection: those little plastic bricks (you may be interested in my interview way back in 1998 with Robbie Berg, whose work at the MIT Media Lab contributed to the development of Lego MindStorms). Joseph's post includes a video preview of what Lego Universe will look like, including one that depicts "one avatar building a car followed by a second avatar collaborating on its construction." With this game/world, parents probably will quickly find the same kind of comfort level they found with Lego Star Wars. In that case, little Lego people running around with light sabers just can't seem very violent; in the case of a virtual world, this environment's more like ClubPenguin than Teen Second Life. Building and leveraging RL Lego fans will have to make up the difference for teens.

Read the post here.

Join the new RezEd Logo Universe group.

Posted by joyce at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Monday November 17, Global Kids invites you to "Real World Impact From the Virtual World" in Second Life. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the USC Network Culture Project and Global Kids invite you to a sneak preview of a new Second Life sim that features MacArthur programs and grantees. The event will be held on November 17, 2008 from 1-5pm PST.

Join us to learn about how groups use virtual spaces like Second Life to build real opportunities -- preserving native peoples' cultures, creating accessible spaces for people with disabilities, helping obese people make healthy life choices and teaching underprivileged youth about paleontology and science.

This interactive series of events will take place on Foundations Sim (click here to teleport) and the neighboring archipelago that includes the Network Culture Project, Justice Commons (click here to teleport ) and Aloft Nonprofit Commons (click here to teleport).

The full schedule follows...

Continue reading "Sneak Preview of MacArthur Foundation's new Second Life island on November 17" »

Posted by Rik at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks to the Sandbox Summit for announcing the release of the first seasonal report from RezEd.org.

Posted by joyce at 3:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently on the HASTAC, The Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory blog, Sheryl Grant writes on RezEd.org, virtual worlds and Global Kids programs like I Dig Tanzania.

In the I Dig Tanzania summer camp, students were part of a guided experience, using avatars to bridge gaps of distance and understanding with the help of educators and mentors. Given how easy it is to be invisible and anonymous online, virtual worlds can sometimes raise ethical questions -- for youth and adults alike. Like anything that we do with kids, positive mentoring and best practices play an important role, themes that run through RezEd's community.

It has some great quotes from James Paul Gee, and our own Amira Fouad and Barry Joseph.

"Virtual worlds are not escapist fantasies but a new way to extend our lives and our sense of self. How can virtual worlds expand our lives in new ways," asks Joseph, "What social affects arise as a result, and are these results desirable?" It will be communities of practice like RezEd and pioneering groups like Global Kids that will help determine the answers.

Click here, to read the full article.

Posted by joyce at 2:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently we released our Second Life Curriculum which focuses on a series of 9 levels of lessons plans geared either to use within a classroom or independently to learn Second Life skills.

You can download them directly from RezEd.org. And another great thing about the curriculum is that we are offering it under a creative commons licensing (BY, NC, SA), so feel free to edit them to your needs.

We have gotten lots of great feedback and members of the educational community that have jumped in to help continue to evolve and contribute to the curriculum. Jeremy Kemp has created a great wiki space if you are interested in this - visit it here. He is also working on integrating it with Sloodle and a within SL version as well.

We will also be offering printed copies for sale on LuLu - stay tuned!

The summary of all nine levels are below, along with a link back to the post on RezEd where you can download them. You can also download a version of all levels compiled together here.

Continue reading "[SL] If you haven't already...download our SL curriculum" »

Posted by joyce at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stan Travena has some great things to say lately on the Pacific Rim Exchange blog, about the launch of our Second Life curriculum, the release of our RezEd seasonal report and his praise for the RezEd.com community site.

The RezEd website is the first place a new educator should go when getting involved in this area of instruction. They have just released their first report that is filled to the brim with great information and resources for educators.

Thanks Stan!

Posted by joyce at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Global Kids Releases First Seasonal Report From Online Educational Tool RezEd

NEW YORK, Oct 10, 2008 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- Global Kids Inc. has released the first seasonal report from the 1,200 member strong RezEd ( www.RezEd.org), Global Kids' new hub for learning and virtual worlds. The seasonal report summarizes the range of activities and discussions taking place among those on the cutting edge of education, on commercial platforms like Dizzywood and Second Life and on educational ones such as Quest Atlantis. The report highlights material produced for and by the RezEd community, including a range of MacArthur Foundation grantees such as James Paul Gee, Sasha Barab, and Linda Burch. In addition, this inaugural report offers a special feature on Ethics and Virtual Worlds shown to the public for the first time by a team from Harvard University's GoodPlay Project.

To download a free copy of the report visit www.RezEd.org

Continue reading "[Press] Release of First Seasonal Report from RezEd" »

Posted by joyce at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click To Play

You can check out the video by heading to Mediasnackers.com.

Posted by Rik at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The RezEd seasonal report summarizes the cutting edge activities and discussions of educators in the RezEd community. RezEd's inaugural report offers a special feature on Ethics and Virtual Worlds by a team from Harvard University's GoodPlay Project. The report also highlights podcasts and best practices on the educational uses of Second Life, Dizzywood, and Quest Atlantis.

Get your own - Open publication

Download Report Here

Listen and Discuss the Special Ethics and Virtual Worlds Podcast

Posted by joyce at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Amira and I were pleased to welcome our RezEd podcast partner DK to the Global Kids offices today, taking advantage of DK's east coast trip from his home in Wales. DK is a fantastic podcast producer, head of the new media company MediaSnackers.

DK was a font of knowledge about various Web2.0 tools to do our jobs more efficiently, from mindmaps to project management to slideshows. Along the way, we recorded a video podcast for MediaSnackers, talking about Global Kids and RezEd.

It's always fun connecting in person with one of our partners. Working via Skype and email has its advantages, but you don't get to sit in the park and eat burgers and fries together, like we did today!

Posted by Rik at 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We got a great mention recently on the Second Life Education blog about not only the release of our GK Second Life Curriculum, but on our latest RezEd podcast episode. Thanks Scott!

Um, two things, pilgrims:

The Global Kids Second Life Curriculum (three handy freely downloadable .pdf files) may be picked up at RezEd now and I’m tickled to be about to open up my copies right after I hit the “Publish” button on this post. Go get yours.

Secondly, you can be downloading those documents at the same time you’re listening to Sarah (Intellagirl Tulley) Robbins’ marvelous interview at the RezEd podcast number 14. I’m roflmao at her clearing up some general misconceptions about Second Life’s demographic. “About time,” says your resident oldie. Ditto about her chiding corporations who plowed money into SL without critical thought about their investment or the most effective use of the platform for best return on implementation. “That’s not Second Life’s fault: It’s your fault! ‘Cause you didn’t do it right!” Heheheheeee.

Kudos to Intellagirl and to the GK folks for all their hard work!

Cheerio!
Written by Scott Merrick

You can also read the full post here.

Posted by joyce at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Since Barry Joseph's keynotes at the two recent conferences, Virtual Worlds LA and SLCC, and the announcement of the release of GK's Second Life curriculum, we have been getting a lot of buzz lately in the blogosphere.

Some of the sites talking:

• A post on Caleb Booker's site focusing on business and virtual worlds site here.
• Kelly (from Eye4You Alliance) blogged about us and gave a shout out to Barry's SLCC talk too here.
• The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch posted an article here.
• HASTAC blogged about the release of our SL Curriculum here.
• The blog Second Life Update featured a post on the curriculum here.

Posted by joyce at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Young Adult Library Services Association featured Barry in a recent episode of their podcast series.

In this podcast Linda Braun talks with Barry Joseph and Amira Fouad (of Global Kids and RezEd) about topics related to teens, gaming, education, and virtual worlds.

Download the YALSA Podcast #54 - Global Kids & RezEd podcast mp3

Posted by joyce at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today, Global Kids’ Online Leadership Director Barry Joseph will speak to leaders in digital media and education at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo held at the Los Angeles Convention Center to be followed on the following Saturday, September 5th, with Joseph providing the educational keynote at the annual Second Life Community Convention in Tampa, Florida. At both, Joseph will showcase the launch of Global Kids Second Life Curriculum — the most significant resource in 2008 for those educators interested in incorporating virtual worlds into their classrooms.

Global Kids Second Life Curriculum, available the first week of September at RezEd.org, contains over 160 lesson plans for teaching the basics of Second Life, whether in a classroom, a library, or at home. The curriculum is available at no cost and is designed to be adaptable by practitioners for a variety of uses, from teaching science, to literature to global studies.

The full press release follows...

Continue reading "Global Kids’ Groundbreaking Second Life Curriculum Featured at Virtual Worlds Conferences in LA and Tampa" »

Posted by Rik at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scott Merrick showered the RezEd podcast series with some wonderful comments and specially highlighted episode 11. Thanks Scott!

All the RezEd podcasts are great, but this one, "...featuring an interview conducted by Barry Joseph of Global Kids at the recent GLS Conference with a mother and son about their experience and focus on virtual worlds," is absolutely jaw-dropping. Granted that this is a remarkable pair of humans, this mother and son: She's Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Director of the School for Social Computing at the Rochester Institute of Technology and he's her son, Lane, "an avid Second Life coder, very interested in virtual world programming and also a player of many different kinds of games and a math and programming wiz." After listening to this episode, tell me you don't want to pull your sons and daughters out of school and let them find their passion and pursue it with your guidance. Or better yet, use remarkable conversation records like this to convince your administration(s) to allow you to bring these remarkable opportunities to your students in our established but necessarily changing academic institutions.

To read his full post, click here.

Posted by joyce at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the August 25, 2008 RezEd Update to let you know what is new on RezEd: The Hub for Learning and Virtual Worlds.. Featured news:

• RezEd in Print Coming Out September 2008: Ethics & Virtual Worlds
  
• This Week's Podcast featuring Jonathon Richter
  
• This week's Best Practice: "Bringing Virtual Worlds into the Classroom through the Backdoor: After School"
  
• This week's featured discussion: Examples of Educators Living the Ludic Life
  
• Call for Best Practice
  
• Global Kids Second Life Curriculum

Continue reading "August 25th RezEd Update" »

Posted by Rik at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the July 30th article in eSchool News, comes a great post entitled, "RezEd is educators' real ticket to virtual worlds" not just on Rezed.org but Global Kids, virtual worlds and education.

Web site offers visitors resources on everything virtual
By Meris Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News

For those educators and tech-savvy explorers ready to take on the growing frontier of virtual worlds, a new hub--RezED--now exists to make the journey to alternative realities a little easier.

Launched in beta mid-March, RezEd is a comprehensive resource on everything virtual for educators, students, and those simply interested in what these increasingly popular 3D worlds are all about.

Continue reading "[rezed] eSchool news touts: RezEd.com is educators' real ticket to virtual worlds" »

Posted by joyce at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As part of the vBusiness podcast series, Amira Fouad of Global Kids presented at the vBusiness Expo the newly launched virtual worlds focused social network RezEd in April of 2008.

Download file here.

Posted by joyce at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The month of May continues the RezEd focus on educational virtual worlds, to be followed by June’s focus on education in or through commercial virtual worlds.

This week on RezEd:

-- Podcast: Peggy Sheehy, Middle School information specialist facilitating the Ramapo Islands Project and the first school-based educator to use Teen Second Life in the classroom. Listen to her interview “Reports from the Field: The first middle school to bring Teen Second Life to the classroom.”

-- Best Practice: This week’s best practice, titled, “Virtual Interdisciplinary Practices” is submitted by Dr. Pamela Mitchell of Kent State University.

-- Featured Discussion: In response to Peggy Sheeh’s interview, Kevin Jarret moderates this week’s discussion on “Clearing the hurdles for successful school-based virtual world projects”

***

Most Active Member-created Groups:

Over 320 members have participated in the BETA of RezEd since it launched last month, creating new discussions and groups for K-8 educators, language learning, gender in virtual worlds, and more.

Virtual Psychology

Community Colleges

Gaming and Learning in Virtual Worlds

MedEd in Virtual Worlds

Language Learning in Virtual Worlds

K-8 Educators in Virtual Worlds

Virtual World Librarians

Gender in Virtual Worlds

Create one for your own interest or community.

***

Call for Best Practices:

A major component of RezEd is to make accessible and practical the type of learning that is happening for many members of this growing community and connect it with practitioners in the field to inform their work.

Interested in sharing your own experiences on learning and virtual worlds through a Best Practice submission for RezEd? Click here for the RezEd Best Practice Form.

***

RezEd: The Hub for Learning and Virtual Worlds provides practitioners using virtual worlds access to the highest quality resources and research in the field to establish a strong network of those using virtual worlds for learning. It is produced by Global Kids, Inc. through the generous support of HASTAC and the John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

www.rezed.org

Posted by Amira at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The month of May continues the RezEd focus on educational virtual worlds, to be followed by a month exploring education in or through commercial virtual worlds. http://www.RezEd.org

This week on RezEd:

-- Podcast: Sasha Barab, Associate Professor at Indiana University and developer of Quest Atlantis, discusses “Narratizing Academic Content through Videogames”

Continue reading "RezEd Update: May 7, 2008" »

Posted by Amira at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)