[HMDS] What does it mean to "act locally"?
Since Global Kids uses a youth development educational model, this means our workshops try to be experiential. What does that mean exactly? It means that rather than announce we are doing a workshop on discrimination, the fun, interactive activity has no explicit content at first but then creates an experience that, through processing, can be connected to the larger issue of discrimination.
The processing takes a fairly standard path. First, ask what the experience of the workshop was like (the personal and the immediate). Then, ask where they see this happening in their community (the experiened social). Finally, ask where they see this going on around the world (the global, and throughout history). As a model, when designed and processed correctly, it works fairly well to establish a strong connection between the personal and the global.
But Second Life poses a challenge. What is the true nature of that middle level, of the community? Is it the residents' seperate communities offline or their shared one within Second Life? Were Second Life a giant fantasy world, with players running around as dwarfs and giants slaying dragons, Second Life would be the community they agree to pretend is of paramount importance. Were Second Life a simple communication tool, to allow corporate employees around the world to discuss business strategies, then the opposite would be true and the offline would be paramount.
Second Life, however, is neither. Or both. Or a shifting combination of the two depending on the setting in Second Life or each individual resident. So what does this mean for a Global Kids workshop?
When we move from the personal to the communal, or from the communal to the global, which communal do we refer to: the community in which the resident is accessing Second Life or the community they find once they arrive? In more practical terms, when discussing discrimination, do we direct them to talk about racial discrimination in their hometown or do we ask them questions about TSL discrimination of animal avatars (furries)?
I hope this summer program helps shed light on this challenge, as we learn which "local" holds more relevance for the teens in Camp GK. These insights I predict will play a key role in shaping how a youth development model can be applied in a virtual world.
