Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

Connie Yowell, MacArthur’s Education Director, recently introduced a new series of posts highlighting the work of youth in digital media production, including two teens in Global Kids' Online Leadership Programs, Mariel Garcia and Nafiza Akter.

We wanted to take some time over this holiday season to spotlight voices of those rarely heard from on this blog - but who also inspire and challenge us to think in new directions. Over the next several weeks we'll hear directly from youth who are engaged in their own creative media production - they are remixing, building, designing, and creating their own original videos, podcasts, machinima, games, and networking sites. Their work challenges us to use media in new and creative ways and provides models of innovation and vision for the future. These youth come to us through two incredible programs - The Digital Youth Network in Chicago and Global Kids' Online Leadership Program in New York City - both of which foster media literacy and civic participation through creative production.

Mariel García: My Digital Life

It is hard for me to sit down and realize that I have actually created media in the strict sense of the word. Although I got a computer at home at a young age, I grew up looking up at people who created content that reached many corners of the world. Now that I see comments or the statistics in the cyberspace I have occupied that say people maybe not from all countries, but certainly from all regions of the world have looked at content I have made, I can’t help but go, ‘Oh, wow. Yay Internet’.

Nafiza Akter: Virtual Video Projects

The last couple of years with Global Kids are hard to describe in a few words, especially the work I’ve done around digital media. November 2006, the first Virtual Video Project program began. The mission of the program was to produce a short machinima, which is a term used to describe a film produced in a virtual platform, about a global issue. Most of us, if not all, went into the program without any prior knowledge of Second Life, which was the Virtual World we filmed on.

Posted by joyce at 2:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On April 1st, the 110th Congress Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing entitled Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium.

Listening to the testimony, it was hard not to imagine what I might have shared were I asked to testify. It might have gone something somewhat like this:

Chairman Markey, Ranking Member Stearns, and Members of the Subcommittee, we at Global Kids are honored to have this opportunity to share our experiences as experts working with youth and virtual worlds.

To provide background, in 2006, following extensive research into the educational potential of virtual worlds, Global Kids became the first nonprofit to develop a dedicated space for conducting educational programming in Teen Second Life (TSL). Specifically, Global Kids is conducting intensive leadership programming for youth, bringing students from its New York-based programs into the space, and streaming the audio and video of major events into the world. This work has received significant funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, among others, and been conducted in partnership with many other organizations, including UNICEF, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the International Criminal Court.

I would like to begin my testimony with a quote from an earlier Congressional Subcommittee hearing that took place just over a half-century ago.

“Formerly, the child wanted to be like daddy or mommy. Now they skip you, they bypass you. They want to be like Superman.”

This testimony from Dr. Fredric Wertham on the connections between comic books and juvenile delinquency, and his earlier publications on the matter, helped to stoke a national hysteria around the lurid dangers of this once new medium. While barely a decade old, more than 90% of children between the ages of six and eleven read comic books, as did over 80% of teenagers. Parents in the Cold War era, unsure how to handle a variety of new social forces, found a convenient scapegoat in the colorful and ubiquitous magazines. Wertham’s testimony helped the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency hold comic publishers’ feet to the fire and led not to new regulatory policies but a new industry-administered code of conduct that shaped comic books for over thirty years.

Generation after generation seems to go through its own “cycles of outrage,” whether with the waltz, pulp novels, comic books, rap music, or most recently with video games and online social networks. New mass media come and go, gaining relative acceptance or falling by the wayside, but concerns about the safety of children and regulations surrounding their freedoms never go away.

Virtual Worlds, practically non-existent just a few years ago, are just the latest commercial media to be seen as “colonizing” the lives of youth, once again raising a variety of concerns about their impact. The growth of youth involvement with virtual worlds is predicted to surpass 50% over the next few years, so one can expect a number of concerns to be raised about virtual worlds that are similar to the mediums of the past--a threat to law and order, a threat to traditional learning, and a threat to traditional values.

Continue reading "[staff] My Testimony For Congress (had I been asked)..." »

Posted by Barry at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

UNICEF just posted a new video report, and transcript, about our Convention on the Rights of the Child Summer Camp, which we ran last summer in Second Life.

Please check it out here.

Posted by joyce at 3:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello everybody! I am Nicholas Kit ingame! This is my first year as an intern and I was really excited to know that I got accepted. This wednesday, I held my first intern event, called CRC@18. What it basically was, was the celebration of the CRC's 18th birthday. The CRC is the Convention on the Rights of the Child. What it basically does is gives all minors a stress-free and healthy life to grow up with. It was written by the United Nations and has been accepted by every country except Somolia and the United States. Even though every country has it, it doesn't mean that it is enforced. That is what the goal of this event was.

The main goal of this event was to teach teens about there rights, as given to them by the CRC. Most teens do not know what all their rights are, so this event was really helpful. We started the event off by showing 10 one-minute machinimas which were created by the CRC Machinima Camp this summer.

It seemed like everyone really enjoyed these films. After the showing, I had some of the people who made the films speak for our audience. They told what the best part about the camp was and how they felt after learning about the CRC. They also talked about how important the CRC really is. They told how that without it, many rights would be ignored.

Lucky Figtree Speaking

And then, for our final act, we went outside and took some pictures with our "Children's Rights Rocks" and had a party. That party lasted forever.

This event was very fun and interesting. I cannot wait to do another one in the coming months. Well, I see everyone then!

-Nick
-Nicholas Kit

Posted by Nick - TSL Intern at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the summer of 2007, Unicef and Global Kids launched the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Machinima Camp in the virtual world of Teen Second Life (TSL). Teens from around the world gathered together for five weeks to learn about children's rights, and produced ten 1-minute Machinima films on the issues they identified in the CRC. Each film is unique in its own way. We hope you enjoy them!

click below to view the videos:

Posted by Kathy at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A diverse group of New York City public high school students have produced an important animated new film that focuses on the increasingly serious issue of child soldiers.

The film, A Child’s War, will be presented this Friday, September 7, at 6:00 pm at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. Entry for the screening is free. The press is invited. The young animators will be available to discuss their work. The Museum is located at 35th Avenue and 36th Street in Astoria, Queens. It can be accessed by subway (R or V trains to Steinway Street; N or W trains to 36th Ave). RSVP: afterschool@movingimage.us.

A Child’s War is the culmination of the year-long Virtual Video Project, an after-school program conducted by Global Kids, Inc. in collaboration with the Museum of the Moving Image. During the past year, the students gathered regularly to learn about film production, global issues, and virtual worlds, producing A Child’s War, a year-end project on the plight of child soldiers in Uganda.

Global Kids is the foremost nonprofit organization in New York City specifically dedicated to educating students in underserved communities about international and public policy issues.

Throughout the 2006-2007 Virtual Video Project, the students used machinima (digital movies made in online virtual worlds) to create short films and public service announcements that relate to important global issues.

A Child’s War is a short video that displays the students’ spectacular understanding of both digital media and important international issues. Through A Child’s War, the 20 young creators vividly illustrate a poignant story that documents the fictional life experiences of a former child soldier who has come to the International Criminal Court to testify against the warlord who forced him to murder hundreds of people, including his own family members.

A Child’s War was created in the virtual world of Second Life, one of several “virtual worlds” that offers a three-dimensional environment where online participants from around the world are represented by avatars in social and workplace interactions that mimic and reinvent the physical world. Second Life has millions of users and a growing non-profit community.

By streaming the video in Second Life, disseminating it online, and presenting it at screenings such as Friday’s at the Museum of the Moving Image, the students hope to raise awareness about a critical global issue.

The Virtual Video Project is part of Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program (OLP) and made possible with funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The OLP helps underserved youth learn about important international affairs issues and exercise their leadership skills through innovative media forms. Students in the OLP’s Virtual Video Project meet twice a week throughout the school year. The after-school program educates them about film production, digital media literacy, youth media, civic engagement, and global education. Throughout the Virtual Video Project, students learn about Second Life, construct a storyboard based on a global issue of their choosing, create a series of public service announcements, and create one short film such as A Child’s War.

You may watch A Child’s War at: www.holymeatballs.org/2007/06/vvp_a_childs_war_released_year.html

You can watch their earlier piece about digital media and youth at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7TlSGH9-IVM

Read the youth leaders blogs: www.holymeatballs.org/machinima/

To learn what you can do about this issue, go to: www.holymeatballs.org/2007/06/acw.html

About Global Kids, Inc.

Founded in 1989, Global Kids' mission is to transform urban youth into successful students and global and community leaders by engaging them in socially dynamic, content-rich learning experiences. Through its leadership development and academic enrichment programs, Global Kids educates youth about critical international and domestic issues and promotes their engagement in civic life and the democratic process. Through professional development initiatives, Global Kids provides educators with strategies for integrating experiential learning methods and international issues into urban classrooms. Global Kids’ programs reach over 11,000 youth annually. For more information, visit http://www.globalkids.org.

Contacts

Global Kids
Jonah Kokodyniak, 212-226-2116
Jonah@globalkids.org
or
Mariam Communications
Tom Mariam, 914-939-4294
Tom@mariam.biz

Posted by joyce at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

These are the campers building one thing all together. They each added one small part to create a final product! They all stood in a line and were very cooperative.

All of the campers lined up to add in their part~ to the build!

This is a close up of a camper working on his part of the build!

This is a bird's-eye-view shot of the props that JOEY made for his machinima.

On the left is the theater on Global Kids Machinima Island, and to the right is where all the Campers meet!

This is when Machinima Guru or Moo Money came and talked to the campers about storyboarding and showed them how to do it. Also, she made a storyboard to showed it to them as an example!

These are the campers sitting in a circle for the CRC Machinima Camp meetings, Moo Money/Machinima Guru is seen instructing them here!

This is when the Campers played human barometer in Teen Second Life! They seemed to be very split when they were asked if they agreed, disagreed, or were unsure about the statement, "Online relationships are not as important as real life ones".

They seemed to have reached a consensus when the statement, "Media plays a big role on how we view the world," was read because they all agreed! {Note: the only figure on 'unsure' is Tabitha and she was reading the statements}

This is a picture of the camper's at a dance party! They all seem to be enjoying themselves as they dance!

These are just a few of the pictures, more can be found on Global Kid's Flickr Account! Also, please go there to see a much fuller and bigger version of these pictures!
All of their pictures can be found: Here
Pictures of CRC Machinima Camp can be found: Here

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It seems like just yesterday I was sitting around the campfire of Camp GK 2006, and going over what we had done that day. It's been over a year, and I'm happy to say that I'm reporting for the CRC Machinima camp this year ! The first day of camp went really well, and Tabitha, Meghan, and Mercury all did amazing jobs.

The day started out great! Tabitha, Meghan, and Mercury all introduced themselves to the campers, and began to explain the rules and guidelines for camp this year, (Safe Space, One Mic, Participation, PBC [people before computers]). After we all understood and discussed the rules, we all got to introduce ourselves, and show an item that represented us. We saw many different things; a car, a necklace, some posters, and some pretty intresting shoes. We all then moved to the amazing movie theater that Brooke Barmy put together for the camp, and watched some movies on Child Rights. After a discussion on them; it was time to close up for the day! It went by rather fast, and I'm looking forward to many more sessions of the camp. :)

Posted by Lucky - SL Intern at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today on Global Kids Island, we held an event to premier “A Child’s War” – a machinima video created by Global Kids youth leaders in Queens, New York, followed by a GK leader youth panel discussing the creation of the film, and finally, we unveiled the details about the Global Kids CRC Machinima Summer Camp in Second Life!

Teens from all over the grid came over to Global Kids Island to partake in this event, most of which were eager to learn about the Machinima Camp details. We are very excited to start receiving and processing applications immediately for this program, so make sure to send yours in asap if you are interested.

Information about the Machinima Camp can be found here.

Application for Machinima Camp can be found here.

Also, please make sure to stop by Global Kids Island and grab a copy of this month’s newsletter to learn more about the Machinima Camp!

Posted by Mercury at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Latest issue of the Global Kids comic features UNICEF's A World Fit for Children program in Teen Second Life.

You can access the comic in a variety of formats below:

You can view:

• Download the pdf file here.


• Click through the pages on the web

Posted by joyce at 1:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A recent document entitled 'Play: Second and First Life'. Which outlines research about the meaning of playing, Second Life and donations.

Project target | Play: Second and First Life

Based on the game/environment “Second Life“ the participants had developed enhancements, additions, applications, services or products. Those were developed for Second Life itself, for the real world or for references and connections between those worlds.

For a better understandingf of the aspects of communities and the Social Web, an elaborated analysis phase took place at the beginning of this project with a closer look on the meaning and importance of playing.

Some UNICEF ambassadors already created some buildings and a surrounding on Second Live. The community organizes workshops, inform other Avatars about their work and the organisation itself. There is also a Global Kids institution which cares also about the kids, their needs and they also try to help to get people interested into children problems all over the world — give them another platform to discuss some things and in the best to do also something in real.


Competition by Global Kids and UNICEF on Second Life Global Kids and UNICEF teamed up to host the „World Fit for Children“ contest on the island. Groups of teens met up on the online island to attend a workshop covering a diverse array of global issues that UNICEF addresses, such as hunger, education, child sex trafficking, and genocide in Darfur. Then Global Kids teams each built an exhibit in Second Life that addresses one or more of the issues. Entries were judged by a group of teens selected to represent UNICEF.

This contest was just one way that Global Kids is engaging with teens in Second Life, and they are getting rave reviews from the participants. Teens who take part in programs on Global Kids Island are encouraged to blog about their experiences and provide feedback through online surveys. Many participants express real excitement about exploring social issues, a sense of empowerment, and a realization that they can affect social change. One teen wrote, „I am going to make a difference in the world, and I will have all of you to thank for giving me that big push!“

Download the pdf of the full paper here.

Posted by joyce at 3:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey everyone! Recently, I've been helping the winning teams from The World Fit for Children building contest move their builds from GK Island 2 to GK Island 1. We're trying to clear off GK Island 2 for the machinima projects that will be taking place in the near future. Here is a pic of their new location:

We are also in the process of planning various events for Global Kids' 1st year Anniversary in SL! Wow, I can't believe it has been that long already. It feels like just the other day that Global Kids came to the teen grid. I've been working to create some content for these events, and am really looking forward to them! The events will coincide with the Global Kids annual conference, which will be video-streamed into SL for all to view. So many exciting things will be happening this month. I can't wait! ~ MM

Posted by Mercury at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guel Salomon, in a blog about Second Life created through the Department of Communication and Art of the University of Aveiro, Portugal.

According to Wikipedia, "Aveiro is known in Portugal for its traditional sweets, the ovos-moles and the trouxas de ovos, both made from eggs. It is sometimes called "The Portuguese Venice", because of its canals and boats that remind one of the Italian city of Venice, as the city faced similar problems when it tried to conquer the water."

Covering the recent release of the UNICEF video about our recent partnership, they had the following to say:

A utilização do SL em ambientes de aprendizagem com os mais novos parece estar já bem avançada, existindo mesmo uma "grid" para esse efeito. A UNICEF lançou um vídeo na sua homepage sobre as actividades da instituição "Global Kids" nesse contexto. Parece-me interessante colocar aqui o vídeo.

According to automated translations, this reads:

The use of the SL in environments of learning with new seems to be already well advanced, existing exactly one "grid" for this effect. The UNICEF launched a video in its homepage on the activities of the institution "Global Kids" in this context. It seems me interesting to place the video here.

Posted by joyce at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today, UNICEF launched, on their homepage, a fantastic 2.5 minute video reporting on last December's Global Kids UNICEF A World Fit For Children Festival. Click the image below to see what it looked like on the homepage.

The machinima for the video was created by both Global Kids staff and the youth leaders in our after school machinima program. (clearly, we could NOT be more proud, nor appreciative of UNICEF giving the student the opportunity to produce material that could be seen from the UNICEF homepage!).

Below is the video on YouTube:

Finally, the extended text of the video can be read in its entirety below or you can read it right on the UNICEF website.

Continue reading "[sl] UNICEF Launches News Video on GK Festival in Teen Second Life" »

Posted by Barry at 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey everyone, It's Mercury the intern here. A lot has been happening since that last time I posted a blog entry. In the past weeks, my focus has been on the UNICEF World Fit for Children building contest specifically, in which I played various roles. I helped residents who were interested to sign up for the mandatory workshops, directed them to the website on which to sign up, etc. Also, I made sure to follow up with all the applicants on a regular basis to make sure that they did attend the mandatory workshops. This put me in an especially interesting position, because I had the opportunity to answer questions that residents had about the Global Kids organization itself.

While these workshops took place and as we received more team applications, I started to subdivide land for all the different teams and allocated parcels to them. I also helped to answer questions the teams had during the building, and dealt with all land-related issues. Oh, and not to mention all the back end/internal stuff like putting together worksheets and other fun documents. In the end, the contest turned out great, and we were all satisfied with the result! Here are some of the pictures related to the World Fit For Children building contest:

I created this banner for the UNICEF Voices of Youth, whom took part in the judging of the contest.

This is an overhead view of the parcels I subdivided for each of the teams.

Another exciting event that took place in the past few weeks was when Professor Henry Jenkins of MIT visited the island to discuss the pedagogical potential of computer and video games.

This is a banner I made to welcome Henry to the island.

So, these are just some of the things I've been up to in past weeks. I'm looking forward to what is in store for the coming month, as it will be GK's 1 year anniversary. I'll keep you guys updated! ~ MM

Posted by Mercury at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Global Kids was asked by the MacArthur Foundation to curate their new fantastic blog, Spotlight: Blogging the Field of Digital Media and Learning, during this last week of the year.

We asked the following provocative questions, recruited four teens to start the discussion, then opened it for public discussion: "What can adults offer to teen spaces? What does their presence take away? When is it not safe to have adults and teens interact? When are teens ONLY safe when adults are present?"

The conversation has been very illuminating and can be followed here. You can also read it below.

• Debated at TSL resident Katharine's blog, amongst teens.

• Discussed at Second Life Insider.
• The Official Second Life Educator Listserv discussed it here and here.
• Discussed at Totally Wired here.
• Discussed at Mistaken Goals: Where Student Affairs and Technology Meet.
• Mentioned at Stephen's Web here.
• Mentioned at Young Adult Libraries Services Association here.

Continue reading "[blog] What role should adults play within online teen spaces?" »

Posted by joyce at 12:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the Fifth and last post of Mariel's blog from the UNICEF A World Fit for Children Festival. Enjoy!

Educating and Raising Awareness Through Virtual Reality III -and last-

These are the results of the contest. What about the ones of the festival in general? These are my conclusions.

1. At the end, thirteen teams presented their projects; however, more people attended the workshop and actually learned about the A World Fit for Children commitments.

2. In less than two weeks, participants built entire projects; to give you a quick reference, I must have spent about an hour making one single table. I am a newbie there, but building can take a lot of work, and scripting the animations can take a lot of effort, too.

3. Some people from the teen grid were quite disappointed as they could not enter the contest because they did not sign up on time.

4. It does require a lot of work, and also a lot of resources. You’d be afraid if I told you the amount of time I spent on TSL throughout the contest, even when I did nothing compared to the other contributors.

5. People from other ‘islands’ were visiting the projects already when the contest was over.

6. Though many were unfamiliar with the A World Fit for Children documents, others knew a lot about the issues already, so they didn’t learn anything new; others complimented what they learned in social studies lessons at school with information they learned during the contest.

7. Some are now interested in taking action against the issue they chose ‘offline’.

Winners! (photo by Global Kids)

Now that I’ve told you about the results, this is pretty much where my part ends. Should VOY do something like this again? If you want to know my opinion, then definitely. Why? First of all, because it would help VOY expand its barriers. The cyberspace it wants to offer to youth would not be only on the website, but also in popular ‘games’ like TSL, making, after all, its mission stronger. Also, this was the first time it happened; with more experience, I am sure VOY would be able to impact way more people in more effective ways next time. After all, e-education and activism are growing stronger each day in these media; today we can choose not to do it, but it will be a need in a few years, so we would just be postponing it. I hope the decision that is made benefits VOY and young people all over the World.

To finish, I want to thank all the people who made the festival possible. Thanks especially to Alpha Zaius (coordinator that did a bit of everything and great DJ ;D), Katharine Barry (scripter, supersmart girl that can pretty much do it all on TSL), Aesop Thatch (who made great buildings for the festival), MerchantVendor Vega (who pretty much made the awards, hehe) and Mercury Metropolitan (Global Kids’ intern that was always there to make sure everything worked). Also, thanks to VOY and Global Kids for giving me this amazing opportunity to meet so many amazing people and work a little bit on a project that really made an impact in my life. I hope I didn’t let anybody down.

Well, so the superlong post is over now. Sorry! It’s just that it’s the last one Congratulations to everyone. I hope everyone enjoyed this experience as much as I did, and that we all use what we learned to take action against the issues. The road of activism is never over… Meanwhile, I leave you with an image of the TSL residents visiting the projects after the conclusion of the festival.

Greetings and best wishes always from Mariel

mages: http://www.flickr.com/photos/holymea...7594397737153/
Information: http://www.holymeatballs.org/
...and www.unicef.org/voy , of course

Posted by tabitha at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Educating and Raising Awareness Through Virtual Reality III

Hello, everyone!

This is Mariel –Voyunicef- again. This time I am posting the last blog =( on the A World Fit for Children Festival as it’s reached an end.

I will begin by telling you about the last events.

After the superamazing events on Wednesday, it was time to come to reality on Thursday. And I do mean ‘reality’. Thursday was the deadline for the building projects, which meant it was time for judging! I was one of the teen judges, and I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that I actually grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled endless notes and scores to attempt to give the fairest scores to each team. It was really hard as projects really went over my expectations.

So, how we judged… Well, I can speak about my case and Nafiza GKid’s. First, we ‘toured’ around all the projects, played, read their notes, etcetera. We became even more familiar with them. At this stage, I had mum come to the computer and see where I had been spending so many hours. She was impressed! I wonder if she will ever consider using virtual reality in her philosophy lessons, hehe, as she is a teacher. We played the games in the projects for a while before I actually began giving grades.

Where to begin?

There were five main fields we had to grade: whether projects were creative, aesthetic, educational, interactive and had the information they were required to. We tried to judge each project individually (independently from others) but also in relation to the other projects, which made the process take a few hours. There were thirteen projects, and all of them deserved a lot of attention.

On Friday, we finally had the awards ceremony. Most team members were present, though some could not make it due to time zone differences. Tabitha, Barry and Rafi from Global Kids hosted it. In it, people were reminded a bit of the mission of Voices of Youth and of this contest.

So, the awards…

Most Realistic Build - Team AWU

Most Popular Build - Team Porot

Third Prize - Tie between Team Zen
and Teh Sexy Sploders

Second Prize - Team F&V

Grand Prize - Team Porot (see above)

About the winning projects...

Team AWU built the representation of a school built in Afghanistan sponsored by UNICEF. It received the award to the most realistic build as it looked like a real school! The blackboards, benches and even the balls in the little gymnasium represented the real ones quite well.

Team Zen built a school/orphanage to represent the need children have to live in a safe environment not only to develop physically, but to be able to pursue their studies.

The Sexy Sploders built a sort of exhibition/memorial to raise awareness on hunger. They mentioned a few ways to take action against it!

Team F&V built a sort of building in which they had an exhibit on lifestyles and poverty. In the last stage, they made sure to include links and suggestions to take action against the issue.

Team Porot built a school that could be built in a low-resource village (theirs was specifically for Africa) where children, without needing a big investment, would have access to a safe environment where they could study. They won the award to the most popular build as they are the ones who received most votes throughout the showcase week, and also the grand prize as they built the best project.

Posted by tabitha at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Each team in the World Fit For Children competition is required to post at least one blog entry about their project. The following is the entry from the team that calls itself: "Zen"

Hello everybody! This is Vivian Vacirca, representing team Zen.

Our build is a combination of a school and orphange. A boarding school, if you will. Throughout the build are signs of a safe place for children: Clean housing and plumbing, Educational facilities, Food, attention and affection, and appropriate entertainment. The build is modern and pleasing to the eye, creating a pleasant enviornment. Flowers and pictures decorate the entry hall, also contributing to a happy space.

We wanted to illustrate the concept of "safe, secure, and healthy enviornments for children in families, communities, and nations"(pg 9, line 19) in all of its many aspects. We built a home and a school to represent that kind of environment. In each part of the build that covers one of the aspects of a healthy and safe environment, there is a notecard giver. The creation of the build as a whole took several days of construction, and then more of tweaking and adding details.

Posted by tabitha at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Each team in the World Fit For Children competition is required to post at least one blog entry about their project. The following is the entry from the team that calls itself: "Team F&V"

Hello This is Vernon Davison, I Am The Reporter for Our Group

Our Group Consists of Kremski Switchblade, UFO Tuppakaka, Lucas Whittlesea, and Vernon Davison (Me XD)

Please Note- If You Visit Our Build- Be Sure to Take Your Time and Read everything (And Click Everything as Mostly Everything is Interactive)

Our Build is About the Concept of Kids Going Hungry Around the World.

The Build in The Begining Shows The High Class Standard of Living. The Link to A Pic is Here:

The Next Level Shows the Middle Class:



The Next Level Shows the Working Class:



The Next Level Shows the Homeless Class:



**Sure Hope Those Links Work XD**

Our Build is To Inform Kids Around the TG of The Lifestyles of Kids All Around the World. We Have A Final Floor that Wraps Up our Entire Presentation:



Please Take Your Time to Check Us Out =)

We're Still Under Construction But Your Welcome to Take The Tour
(We are Currently Just Adding Details to The Project =D )

Posted by tabitha at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Each team in the World Fit For Children competition is required to post at least one blog entry about their project. The following is the entry from the team that calls itself: "World Endeavour"

Our team has finally begun, since we were away for the first few days of the competition, so weve started by deciding on what we weregoing to build. So, thats where we are now... were going to start finishing up today, then we'll take some pics

By Philip Proctor

Posted by tabitha at 12:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We had posted a week ago Mariel's second blog post about the UNICEF Voices of Youth program. Now she has posted a third one to summarize the various activities that took place leading up to the Award Ceremony on Friday, December 22, 2006.

In the World Fit for Children Festival on TSL, we’ve had a few events going on…

Workshop

First of all, the workshops. At least one participant in each team (though the workshop was open to anyone who wanted to join it) had to be present in one of them. I attended one as well, and I had a lot of fun. For two hours, we had interactive activities related to the objective to the contest. In one we had to make our own pictures to represent one of the four issues, and the others would have to guess it when we saw it. Also, there was a scavenger hunt with prizes.

Daily events

Everyday, we all gather on Global Kids’ Island on TSL for the daily event. In it, people who won the scavenger hunt (the ones who found most eggs and answered the questions correctly) were given their awards. Also, the most popular building of the day is announced. TSL residents can vote for each building in the vote boxes.

Monday panel on Voices of Youth

After the daily event on Monday, I had the honour to be in a sort of panel to tell TSL residents a bit about our beloved Voices of Youth ^^ I just answered a couple of questions and told them about what we do on here and how it’s changed our lives, hehe.

Party with Henry Jenkins from MIT o.O

Well – to me, this one is unbelievable still. For an assignment/project at school, I quoted a couple of his works, which gave me an idea on how to put it all together. His works are my main source there. I found that out until I was shown one of his works, and then told he’d be on TSL to talk to us. I’m still amazed, hehe. The party rocked, Alpha Zaius was great as a DJ, and Henry Jenkins answered some of our questions ^^ (I still feel ashamed, though – poor Barry, who was hosting the event, must have been secretly wishing for me to stop asking so many questions. How obnoxious can I get? Sorry!)

Well – even if it doesn’t sound like so much, this week’s been very hectic and exciting. We are less than 24 hours away from the deadline, and I can’t wait to see the results…

In my next post, I will tell you a bit about other people’s opinions, the projects themselves and the final events and results. Thanks to all the teams who have posted - I'm looking forward to reading more about your projects!

Greetings from Mexico!

Mariel –Voyunicef-

Posted by tabitha at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry Jenkins himself blogs about his experiences in SL.

Now About the Beard.
From the start, my beard seemed to be the object of fascination and speculation among the teens at Second Life. Barry Joseph told me about this interest following my participation in the MacArthur Foundation's announcement event earlier this term. And it was one of the reasons why I wanted my own avatar so I could enter Second Life and interact with these youth. One of them wanted to know how long it took me to grow my beard. In truth, that's not an easy question to answer. I have had a beard since I left the University of Iowa to start my PhD work at the University of Wisconsin. This means I have not shaved it off completely in almost 20 years. We have watched it grow from black to salt and pepper to grey over that time. Yet, since hair continually replaces itself, it is hard to know how long I have been growing the particular beard follicles which are currently attached to my face.

Continue reading "[blog] Henry Jenkins on His Visit to Global Kids Island" »

Posted by joyce at 1:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We just logged out from Second Life, where we ran a successful closing and award ceremony for the Global Kids UNICEF A World For Children Festival.

The winner were:

Most Realistic Build - Team AWU ($1k Linden per team member)
Most Popular Build - Team Porot ($2k Linden per team member)

Third Prize - Tie between Team Zen and Teh Sexy Sploders ($50 US per team)
Second Prize - Team F&V ($100 US per team)
Grand Prize - Team Porot ($200 US per team)

Below is the edited version of the transcript. As I edit these I have to say that I am always amazed at how humorous these logs are to read - there is a wonderful witty collective improvisational banter that always develops. Soup and apple sauce anyone?

Continue reading "[sl] Winners Announced in the World Fit For Children Festival" »

Posted by Barry at 7:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On December 20, 2006, Henry Jenkins spoke and danced while attending Global Kids' UNICEF A World Fit For Children Festival, in Teen Second Life. Below is a brief overview of highlights of our hour with Henry. He had much to offer, but my personal favorite was:

"We have to think of ways to use games not just to escape reality but to re-engage with reality. And I think that is the exciting things about the kind of work you are doing at Global Kids. It is both grounded in the virtual space and the real space. You are talking about real things, that touch real people. And you are asking people to bring what they learn here back into their own communities to make a difference. That is one of the reasons why I really believe in what Global Kids is trying to accomplish."

Mariel, a TSL resident from Mexico brought to the Festival coordinating committee through UNICEF's Voices of Youth site, introduced Henry with the following:

Hi, everyone! My name is Mariel –Voyunicef-, I’m sixteen years old, and I live in Mexico City. I’ve been a member of UNICEF’s online community for young people all over the World, Voices of Youth (www.unicef.org/voy) for the last two years, and my life’s pretty much changed since the first moment I logged on.

Well, I have the honour to present a person thanks to whom I didn't only pass a few subjects this semestre, hehe, but also thanks to whom I sort of am getting an idea of what I want to do with my life.

His name is Henry Jenkins, and, in my opinion, the only thing missing in his collection is the Nobel for Chemistry. He is the head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technologies' Comparative Media Studies Program, and also teaches literature (and related subjects). He likes to talk about the relation between media and people, youth and culture in general.

If you visit his section on MIT webpage (http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/) you will find a bit about his works (that are on like, everything - from entertainment to gender studies).

I've quoted a few articles he's written on the relation of media and education (as an essay/speech/project I am working on for school has got to do with that), so speaking to him is to me like speaking to a Hollywood superstar (with +435 IQ, of course :]).

Today, Henry has come to present "We're Not Playing Around Here!: The Pedagogical Potential of Computer and Video Games". In other words, what we can learn through playing games. So please join me in welcoming Professor Henry Jenkins....

Posted by Barry at 2:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We had posted a few days ago Mariel's first blog post about the UNICEF Voices of Youth program. Now she has posted a second one entitled "Educating and Raising Awareness Through Virtual Reality" and also posted more photos.

Continue reading "[sl] Second of Mariel's Voices of Youth, Global Kids Related Post" »

Posted by joyce at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Folks are talking about Henry's appearance in Teen Second Life. This post will grow as we discover more and add them here.

The first blog post came from Alan Levine at the NMC campus, who organized both the conference call feed into Second Life and the simulcast event in the main grid. His post outlines in great detail the technical components required to pull off this event. Hopefully, we will find the time to write a companion piece, about what it took on our end. To be honest, it took a lifetime of multitasking to pull this one off!

Mariel, a teen from Mexico who is part of the World Fit For Children Festival, representing UNICEF's VoY site, posted on her blog about her experience.

One of the most extensive descriptions comes from Amy Jussel, at shapingyouth.org, who gives a thorough analysis of the very idea of the event, quotes in full VoY youth Mariel's blog post about her involvement with the World Fit For Children Festival, and asks the question, "What happens when teen thought leaders around the globe are given tools to literally shape the world around them?"

Here's one from N-Ten Connect:

Global Kids and UNICEF teamed up to host the "World Fit for Children" contest on the island. Groups of teens met up on the online island to attend a workshop covering a diverse array of global issues that UNICEF addresses, such as hunger, education, child sex trafficking, and genocide in Darfur. Then Global Kids teams each built an exhibit in Second Life that addresses one or more of the issues. Entries were judged by a group of teens selected to represent UNICEF.

This contest was just one way that Global Kids is engaging with teens in Second Life, and they are getting rave reviews from the participants. Teens who take part in programs on Global Kids Island are encouraged to blog about their experiences and provide feedback through online surveys. Many participants express real excitement about exploring social issues, a sense of empowerment, and a realization that they can affect social change. One teen wrote, "I am going to make a difference in the world, and I will have all of you to thank for giving me that big push!"

Beth Kanter blogged about the event as well here and offers some good quotes from the talk.

Eliane Alhadeff, once again, has written an excellent blog giving an overview. Read her post here.

The Young Adult Library Services Association wrote a good overview of highlights of what Henry had to say.

A german blog called Computer Game Studies often covers our work. According to Google translation, they wrote:

On 20 December took place in Teen Second Life “A World fit For Children festival”. Under participant inside was also Henry Jenkins, which put a kesse sole in a Avatar particularly made for him on the virtual parquet. A video worth seeing in addition is digital on the side global Kids' to that Media initiative. Teen Second Life is a version of Second Life with a restriction of age from 13 to 17, particularly developed for young people. Adults are permitted only in exceptional cases.

However, I especially appreciated the sentence that followed:

According to the data of the developer company lime trees labs the system is supervised by woman employees of the company (recognizable from the surname "lime trees").

Apparently the teen grid is run by a woman named "Lime trees"!

Posted by joyce at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Click below to listen to a podcast of Henry Jenkin's dance party at Global Kids Island in Teen Second Life. His talk as titled, "We're not playing around here!-The pedagogical potential of computer and video games." But largely it was a giant Q & A session, with teens asking questions (and an occasional adult from the main grid getting one in as well, via AIM). Every ten minutes or so the talking stopped and everyone danced, including Henry. The audio files removes most of the dancing.

powered by ODEO

Download the audio here.

Posted by joyce at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There are two relevant chat logs from the Henry Jenkins event, one from Global Kids Island in the teen grid as well as on the main grid, at the NMC campus. The link below will take you to the one on the main grid and after that you will find (coming soon) the one from the teen grid:

http://www.nmc.org/campus/Henry_Jenkins_From_Teen_Grid

Posted by joyce at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Below are photos from henry's visit, both on Global Kids Island as well as on the main grid, at the NMC campus. More will be added in the coming days.

http://flickr.com/photos/nmc-campus/tags/henryjenkins/

http://flickr.com/photos/holymeatballs/sets/72157594430382387/

Posted by joyce at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)