Global Kids' Online Leadership Program

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.

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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.

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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:

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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

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