[HMDS] Teen Report: Camp GK, The Sequel!
Today's activities started with another attempt at the audio stream, with all group participants excited and ready for the second day of Camp. After talking to Lori and Rafi a few hours before we started, I heard that it was going to be a great session with some excellent activities. As is suspected, they where right.
Rafi started by saying how great yesterday's camp was, inside the same hut that we had visited the day before. He said he's never been more proud of a camp of online teens. Thanks Rafi! He goes on to say what GK is all about, explaining that most of there work is done in real life, and it's great that he can bring GK work from New York to teens all around the world. After taking a few questions, Rafi used a vocal command to move us onto the roof of the hut. After a quick shout out to Camp GK participants that were joining us for the first time, and a quick re-cap on the guidelines for those who missed them, it was time for the first activity of the day!
Mercury started the activity off by asking a question, "`What's one experience that made you realize the world was a lot bigger than you? ". People talked about what they had seen and heard on the most part about countries other than there own. I talked about satellite images on programs like Google Earth showing me how large the world is, and also how developed. Mercury listened to what everyone had to say, and replied with a few lines showing he understood what we where talking about.
Mercury then handed over to Rafi who directed us to the same spot we were yesterday where we brainstormed some global issues. Once again we were brainstorming, but this time we were talking about the word "Community". Mercury owns a cool whiteboard from the MG that he used to post our ideas for all of the Campers to see, below is a snapshot of the white board in action!
After a few views on community we went on to talk about Global communities. Another audio talk began with Rafi talking about differences there may be between a Community and a Global Community, some technical difficulties meant this activity had to be summed up in text on chat, but Rafi put it so well that it didn't matter that were not listening to his voice. "Many people believe that it's possible to have global community with the same values." We were then treated to a 5 minute break, and told that we weren't allowed any hippos this time.
Just before we returned from the break, Lori took the mic and said hello to everyone, the reaction was amazing! "I feel very loved" she said as every camper takes the time to say hello to her. Lori then took charge to host the third activity of the day. She reminded us of her SL wand that allowed her to say keywords that would rez certain objects to appear. Lori then asked what we would except to appear if she said "hunger". Spunky said, "nothing would fall from the sky as hunger is empty". Moving on, Lori informed us that each of us had been assigned a group to be in that would be given a word. Our groups word was wealth, we were team five which included Itokuzu Shimada, Tecno Tiger and Mercury Metropolitan. Our first mission was to take a snapshot of our word. What we didn't know is that our second mission was to use inventory objects to be in the snapshot, but it was to late, we submitted our first with inventory objects. Life goes on however, and we were quick to think round this problem. See our first then second submitted entries bellow!
Every camper returned back to the white boards. Lori told us to take off any scripted objects, and the fact that we where about to play a game. The game was to guess what each other groups words were. I wasn't able to participate too well as SL wasn't texturing the snapshots very well for me, but I still had fun watching others trying to guess what words the snapshots represented. Right clicking the picture meant I was able to load the last one just before the end of the camp as Lori asked for 'One mic' so she could 'wrap up' the activity. She asked us to use our light-bulbs to explain what it's like having to depict a word using an image. One teen said that it was hard to do at first, but was easier if they tried to be a bit more vague. One member from my group explained how our word was wealth and we used objects like convertible cars and dollar bills to show this, and ironically using money to take the snapshot for the 'mission'.
Ryan Dayton said "I've always liked to create scenes in SL. I've even found ways to do art in SL that i include in my homework for school. I like being able to describe things this way using SL tools."
Lori asked if it was easier to create the scenes for these snapshots using objects, more or less everyone agreed. We where then directed over to the camp fire, where we where told about our Week One Build Project. Lori explained how we all had a chance to get in on a project that would concluded on friday. Our task was to make a floating sculpture garden in teams. Mercury gave out a note-card to everyone who was there explaining what needed to be done.
The second day of Camp GK was great fun for me and everyone who participated! Alot of progress on the audio feed, more active use of the whiteboard and getting to know other camp members made today's camp a great one. It left me anticipating tomorrow's activities, making me think of what the GK staff can come up with next. Keep up the good work Rafi, Lori, Merc and anyone else behind the camp that has made it such a great place to be!
