[sl/p4k/mac] They Found Each Other!
It amazes me that I can still be amazed by Second Life. After eleven months in this space you would think we would have experienced it all by now. But no...
Yesterday we took the Playing 4 Keeps students into Second Life for the first time. You can read what Lithelson had to say about it, even though his TSL account was not available until this morning. Then this afternoon we took the machinima students in to Second Life for the first time.
Okay, that's it. End of day. Time to go home.
At home, I needed to go into TSL to work on the Darfur Photo exhibit. However, I was not in for ten seconds when I received one, two, then a third IM, from that number of GK Leaders. They were all teens from the Machinima program, that I had just left a few hours earlier. One by one they were logging in, I presume from home.
I found where most were gathering, where I last left them, at the entrance to the maze. And there was another GK Leader, Lithelson, the one from Playing 4 Keeps. There he was standing in front of me, surrounded by other "Gkids", none knowing who the others were.
I explained that all Gkids, who are not staff, are other Global Kids Leaders. Then they met each other.
Then a number of teen residents who have been involved with GK's programs, but are not Gkids, came by. More introductions.
I am not sure how to say this, but my mind was blown. For readers of this blog, we are used to people connecting online all the time. But please keep in mind - most of Global Kids is an in-person program.
Watching our GK Leaders meeting each other, on their own terms, outside our programs, for the first time, in a virtual space, amazed me.
Watching GK Leaders continue our programs on their own, watching them learn to build, or buy, or ride a motorcycle, amazed me.
Watching them look to each other for advice, such as when the residents took the Gkids on a tour of the main grid and taught them how to buy things, amazed me.
What will it mean that these three separate programs have found one another, on their own terms, after only being in the space for less than 24 hours? How will this impact how we structure the programs? What possibilities will emerge for peer education and collective intelligence across and between the programs? Will some teens in one program get to know youth in another program better than they know the youth in their own and, if so, what does this mean? Will teens with greater home access diverge in knowledge and practice from their peers who lack such access and how with that divide play out within the program?
These questions amaze me. I look forward to experiencing it unfold over the next few months.
Until then, here are some photos:
P4K, Machinima, and teen residents find each other:
