Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

Innovative educator Brandt Schneider takes his students online and supports them to blog about. Recently, they played our game Ayiti.

Here is one of their numerous blogs about the experience, this one from Rachel:

"I wasn't playing the Ayiti Unicef Game for that long, but what i did and saw and was really awesome. I think this types of game can really be a great educational tool. I think that it's a great way to get information across and educate people on important issues, like poverty. It's really a good idea; it attracts students/kids because its a game and it's not as boring as listening to a teacher talk about it. You feel like your getting involved, and you really are contributing to the process and trying to keep these people alive and healthy. It allows a sort of hands-on approach where students will actually be engaged and involved and active participants. It allows everyone to be in control and work at their own pace. Basically, it is pretty much appealing and interesting to everybody as opposed to a traditional classroom setting. Another cool thing about this game in particular, was that it also really made you think, as in brainstorm and try to be creative and come up with ideas that would be most beneficial to their survival, health, happiness. Even in just the beginning where it asks whether you want your strategy or plan to be based on happiness, health, money, etc. it's allowing you to choose your own course and makes you really ponder what you think would really help. Everything from school, to supplies, to homes, to food was up to you. It seemed even more useful than a regular game without a purpose."

"Also, this is a great way to get issues out there that aren't really talked about, or are hard to talk about/sensitive. It's a great way to get people to become more knowledgable about issues facing our world. I think that a lot of different organizations should come up with this type of thing and schools should really embrace it. This way, we could all gain awareness, thereby increasing volunteer work, support, and contributions to organizations and causes. It would be awesome to raise a generation as a knowledgable, active participant in the worlds ever-going strive for peace and happiness."

Read the full post here.

Posted by joyce at 4:09 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.

If you haven’t heard, Second Life is an online virtual world which saw its two millionth member sign-up just this month. Within Second Life, there is a teen-only environment, as opposed to the main grid, composed of roughly forty thousand residents. Other than the adults who run Second Life, this is a teen-only environment. However, there is one exception. Outside organizations, like Global Kids, can purchase a private “island” which teens can visit; however, adults, who must go through a background check, can not leave these islands.

In this context, we now present four comments that are specifically about the role of adults from Global Kids with TSL. However, other youth have been invited to join the conversation and broaden it from one specifically about TSL to all online youth spaces.

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? Please read the four comments from following TSL residents and post your own thoughts below (please identify whether you are a teen or an adult - an adult is writing this introduction).

Mariel Voyunicef

The reason why I think Global Kids’ adults should stay on the teen grid is very simple: in times like these in which the youth have little contact with adults outside of an academic contexs, we have to take advantage of every single chance to establish a connection with them. As youth, we need to be the bridge between adults and upcoming generations by learning from them - especially on a place that is openly related to activism. There are plenty of places where teens can be alone.

Cheesepuff Barnard

I believe that the role of adults in online youth spaces, if not necessary, should be eliminated completely. Adults have plenty of ways to connect with kids, so why take away the last bit of dignity TSL has managed to keep after being treated so unfairly. I wouldn’t normally complain, but this really is the last straw. If adults are going to be allowed in even two TSL islands, why not let kids be allowed in two main grid [adult] islands? I realize there are legal problems, but I also realize there are legal solutions. Pre-scanning all adult entry. Supervising it with guards, chat and IM supervisors, and robotic chat and IM recorders for when no one is there to manually monitor. There are SO many things to learn on the main grid. This is a bit like the Revolutionary War. A mainland, a colony, and somebody up there trying to take advantage of the colony.

Lucky Figtree

I was very surprised to be asked to write an essay about whether or not Global Kids should continue everything they are doing within Teen Second Life. A good portion of my Second Life experience has been spent working, and learning with them. I can’t imagine not having the GK leaders in-world anymore. Global Kids has reached some amazing firsts for the Teen Grid, and I know that they can continue to do so. There are many teens that think of the Global Kids Islands as a second home (me included). The GK leaders are always throwing out new and interesting ways to become involved. In my eyes, teens are drawn to the island to have a fun time. The GK Leaders almost always have a contest going, and I believe the teens enjoy being challenged in such ways. I believe that Global Kids is truly connecting with the teens that want to learn. They have done so much to educate, and teach; but at the same time allow the teens to have a fun time. Its a great way to learn, and its obviously working. I could not imagine the teen grid without the famous Global Kid dance parties. It just wouldn’t be the same.

Relk Akula

I view Global Kids as a despicable attack on TSL’s existence as a place for teen’s to take a break from real life and be able to have a world entirely grown by them. I also view GK as an attempt to impose their well-meaning, but still imposing beliefs on others, and to mold personalities. Also GK seems likely to be spawned by the same people who create ESRBs (the rating board that attacks games with little detailed descriptions), MPAAs (the movie rating organization prone to giving ratings for speaking up about issues) and probably RIAAs (the music industry association known for blocking free speech and creativity) too.

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

In the summer of 2006, Global Kids led the first virtual summer camp in Teen Second Life. A 12-page comic was produced, using photos from the program along with excerpts from the public chat logs. You can access the comic in a variety of formats below:

You can view:

• Download the pdf file
  
• Click through the pages on the web
  
• Or buy your own hardcopy.

Posted by Barry at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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)

For the past week, I guess I have been busy with being involved in this contest. I did not literally participate in the contest, but I was a judge. I have to admit though, when Barry told me that I was going to be a judge—I was slightly surprised and at the same time, I was worried about how objective I could remain in judging the contest. It was not that I was not happy about it, I was honored to have been chosen as a judge ^^--but it is a hard job, no? So, after I found out I was going to be a judge, I went around Second Life asking the people I knew if they had heard of the contest and if they were participating in it. I did this mainly because I thought I would have a harder time doing the judging if I knew the people personally. So, the weekend before the contest began, I found out that I really did not know that many people who were going to be a part of the contest—and I was very happy about that. But then…as the contest progressed, and I looked around as people were building, I began to become friends with the contestants. Most of them were even kind enough to give me tours of their builds and explain what they were trying to depict. It was then that I realized that it may be an advantage to me as a judge if I knew the people because then I may be able to understand the builds better and thus, that would help me more on the judging.

On Tuesday, during Machinima, I spend about half the time doing an interview for the judging. It was not a long interview actually, ^^ but technical difficulties kind of delayed us. And plus, now I would like to apologize to Tabitha, Sam, and Barry for not blogging before about what we did on Tuesday, because I did want to talk about the interview… and I did not want to do that while the contest was still going on. Anyway, I was nervous about the interview—because I really did not want to say anything wrong. And by being nervous, and not wanting to say anything wrong, I pronounced a zillion words wrong! And, I also forgot one of the issues that they were supposed to base their builds on (it was child abuse and exploitation). Oh yes, and I froze up a lot, so I repeated myself. I’m sorry~ ^^. I think Tabitha was the one that helped me feel so not bad about messing up though, because she told me that only a small portion of the interview would show up—I just wish someone told me that before…but oh well~ whatever happens, happens for a greater good. I am just glad that it’s over, not that the interview was not fun, ^^ the person who interviewed me was very nice, and professional.

The question that I did have a little trouble answering was (I can’t seem to remember the exact question)… about how this contest differed from others, and why it was significant. For me personally, (and the other judges may have a different view on this) I thought that this contest put forth a challenge for all the great TSL builders. I think that when they organized this contest, everyone knew they would have some very talented builders come and complete in this contest, but the challenging part was taking your knowledge about building and your passion for a world issue and combine those two things to make a beautiful piece of art that is also educational. I think that is a really hard challenge, because it is not hard to create something beautiful and meaningful to you, but the challenge is to do that AND make it meaningful the world, make it so people may learn about the issue that you want to depict.

That truly was a hard challenge, and I know that if I had participated in the contest I would not come anywhere near winning. Which raises the question, when it comes to building Machinima for the VVP Internship…will I be capable of meeting the challenge? I will not deny that I had concerns before, because I did, but seeing all these great builds just makes me wonder more. Although, there have been a lot of TSL-ers that have offered to help me when it came down to it, which I really appreciate. This makes me truly grateful to all the kind people I have met on TSL—teen and adult. I really should thank everyone for all their help and guidance—especially Rafi, Mariel, Sanuk, UFO, Boyer, Valenteen, and there are so many others. Of course, I also have Barry, Tabitha, Sam, Ting, Jack, Joe, and all the other GKids to thank because they have also been there to help me through all of this. And honestly, I think some of, referring to the people at Machinima, have more confidence in my capability than I do. But back to the contest…

On Tuesday…well we learned more about the World Fit For Children, and camera angles. Actually, I was only there for the part when they talked about Camera Angles. It was interesting seeing how different camera angles were used in actual Machinima. I knew that angles were a big part of the making of Machinima and maybe video in general, but it was very interesting seeing the different angles in an actual Machinima. On Tuesday, Sam took a Machinima that we watched a couple of times before—made by Eric Linden (correct me if I am wrong with the name)—and he paused it at different times to show us the different angles used. I guess when you look at it, it seems pretty simple and normal…but it really is not that simple.

I tried to incorporate that into Thursday’s Machinima Program…when we were trying to pick a build and video it using different angles. Each group, which composes of two people who share a laptop, had to choose one build that they wanted to film and would use the angles to help make the film more effective—the thing was that the film could only be (at the most) 20 seconds long. Ting and I were doing our video on Team Zen’s Build. Trying to get all the different angles was a little hard to do all at once and in 20 seconds. So we separated it, into parts; we first took an above shot of the build, and filmed that. Then we tried different ways to film the actual build itself. Since the house had two different sections, I guess it was only obvious that we could not film both parts at once….and since we did have a limited amount of time, we decided to film only one part. First, we filmed the house from the outside and then went in, and tried to get a perfect shot of that and then we did the opposite, we filmed from the inside out. I thought that filming from the inside out was pretty interesting because you get to see what is inside before you find out which build it is. Anyway, we ran out of time, so we really did not get to finish up everything and perfect the shots—but we did gain a lot of experience. But one thing I feel bad for is Sam’s MP3 Player…he threw it, and no one caught it—actually, to be honest, I wasn’t paying attention so I didn’t know he was throwing it. Oh well, it didn’t break though ^^, which we should all be happy for. Anyway, that is how Thursday at Machinima went.

Thursday night though…that was one hectic night. Of course, the day I would be judging I would also have a pile of homework that’s due on the next day. But oh well, that should have been expected. When I went online into Second Life, it was 8 PM Eastern Time and I finished my judging around 11:30 PM. So, no one has the right to tell me that I did not think everything though when I did the judging. First, I went through all the builds, and gave them general scores from 1-10 on the five grading sections, and then I wrote my comments and reconsidered my ratings and whether they really deserved those scores. Then I compared my scores with Mariel’s and then thought about her scores and why she gave each team that score, and after that, I did higher about 4 of the teams’ scores by a point or two. I have to admit, I was the most gracious and brutal when it came down to scoring note-cards. If I saw that a team had a note-card and it explained what they were trying to depict, I probably gave them a score from 8-10. But if there was no note-card then I did not hesitate to give them a 0 in that section of the scoring, and also low scores on the other parts of the scoring. I think the note-card was an essential part of the entire build because it was supposed to show the viewer and judges what you were trying to depict—and without it, it was hard to someone just passing by to figure out what you were trying to show. So, I was very harsh in scoring those that did not have note cards.

Over all, I think the people who won something did deserve to win. The contest was great, but I think some people put more effort into it than others. I don’t think that was due to lazy-ness but maybe it was time. Maybe, it would have been better if they were given more time to build, and I think with more time—the people who had already build extraordinary builds would be able to expand what they built and add more information. Also, I did wish that the ceremony was held a little later, because I rushed home from school and still got online late for the ceremony. Also, I wish I had pre-prepared something to say to all the contestants—because I did not know what to say. Plus, I was lagging so much—it was getting on my nerves. All I can remember is that I spelled technical difficulties wrong, and when I was trying to get to the stage I might have accidentally pushed someone—SL was really laggy. But yes, if I did push someone, I am sorry ^^ I didn’t mean to…really. Anyway, I also did not know when to sit down~ and I was getting IM’s—it was so insane. But I did survive ^^--and it was a great ceremony and I think everyone who deserved to win something did win! Although, I had a hard time doing the judging, I was kind of sad that it was all over. It really was a wonderful contest, and I wish that they hold another contest.

Also, this brings up the concern that a lot of people do not like adults in Teen Second Life. I really do not understand why that is. Well, actually I can understand their reasons, but they are not very good reasons. The adults that come on to TSL are really objective as in the actions they take. I do not think that they are interfering with anyone on TSL’s private business. Sure, if someone came on Global Kids Island, and they acted horribly, and said things they probably should not, then they will take action—but that should be expected. Teens are not allowed to do just ANYTHING they want on TSL—especially not anything that may be offensive to others. Like any other website, forum and etc, things like bad behavior and flaming is not allowed. But otherwise, I think, as far as not getting involved in what teens do, all the TSL Approved Adults are doing their job right. Plus, I know that TSL is…basically built off of teens…but I don’t think that teens could have gathered together and organized a competition like the WFFC Contest. And if they could organize such a thing, and get so many people involved, and put together prizes, then for all those who believe that adults should be allowed in TSL, consider trying this as a challenge. I would really like to see Teens gather together and make a contest this big with that many participants. I do not think that teens can do everything on their own; I think sometimes we do need guidance for someone older. I guess that’s why we have Lindens, because if we need help then we go to them anyway, and are they not adults? I don’t know, but I believe that the adults should be allowed to stay in TSL…but then again, this is only my opinion and I can understand that not everyone will see this in the same way. But, for those people who do not see it in my way, I do think that they should come to Global Kids Island once and see all the wonderful things that are on it, and meet one of the adults and talk to them…and perhaps, then they will change their minds, because they are great people ^^ and they deserve a chance. I don’t think that anyone deserves to be judged based on bias facts, the person who is doing the judging should get to know them before they judge them. That’s only fair.

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 3:41 PM | 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.

At one time, we even jokingly discussed making my beard available for distribution on Second Life, though so far this hasn't happened. Part of the issue is to figure out which beard length might be most popular -- the tightly trimmed Henry beard at the start of the term or the long and shaggy one by the end when my schedule has kept me from getting to a barbershop for a trim.

Last Wedsday night, I made my live public appearance on the Global Kids island in Teen Second Life to talk about games, learning, and popular culture. I wasn't surprised when one of the first questions I got asked was when and if I would have my beard put up in cornrows. It is an interesting question -- and one I am pondering deeply as I enter into the Holiday season. So, here's the heart of my response: I welcome any and all attempts to digitally doctor photographs of my beard. I especially throw this out as a challenge to teens in Second Life. If you want to use Photoshop to cornrow a picture of my beard or if you want to fix the beard on my avatar to have a funkier do, then it's fair game. And I promise to share the results here on the blog early next year. Think of it as a technical challenge: how to cornrow Henry's Beard.

My students have long tested their skills against the iconic quality of my persona --dressing up in Henry's costumes (complete with "suspenders of disbelief"), using Barbie Fashion Designer to put me in drag, doing graffiti on photographs of my bald head. So I welcome anyone from Teen Second Life to do their stuff!

How's this for the perfect narcissistic scenario: Last Saturday, I tried out my new avatar for the first time by beaming myself onto a desert corner of the Global Kids Island. I was going to stay for just a minute, try to work through some of the control mechanisms, make sure the connection works. There was no one else in the entire world that I saw on the screen. And then, out of nowhere, someone walks up and says "Are you really Henry Jenkins?" It turns out to be Mariel, a teenaged girl from Mexico City, who has been using some of her work for a school assignment. So, here we are: only two people in the whole world on a Saturday afternoon and one of them turns out to be a fan! It's probably the only time in my life that I hit 100% market recognition! It turns out that Mariel, who introduced me at the event on Wedsday, and asked really probing and intellectually sophisticated questions, is one of the closest readers of my work I've met in some time.

People have asked me why I wanted an avatar for my appearance on Second Life. This goes back to the meaning of the word, Avatar, which is a metaphor which has gotten lost as the word has taken on such common usage. Here's what Wikipedia tells us:

In Hindu philosophy, an avatar, avatara or avataram (Sanskrit: अवतार, IAST: avatāra), most commonly refers to the incarnation (bodily manifestation) of a higher being (deva), or the Supreme Being (God) onto planet Earth. The Sanskrit word avatāra- literally means "descent" (avatarati) and usually implies a deliberate descent into lower realms of existence for special purposes. The term is used primarily in Hinduism, for incarnations of Vishnu whom many Hindus worship as God.

I remind us of this meaning half-ironically. I don't mean to imply that I am somehow a divine being taking earthly form. Rather, I mean to critique what happens when adult speak to youth much of the time. I felt vaguely uncomfortable at the MacArthur event because we -- the panelists -- were speaking from another order of representation (cinematically) in a world occupied by virtual beings. I wanted to get down to the same level (socially, representationally) with the community I was talking with. I think this is a real issue. Too often, adults talk about kids, maybe even speak to youth, but they don't talk with them. And becoming an avatar seemed like the best way to signal my desire to speak on the same level with my audience. Anyway, it made sense to me.

The whole experience was amazing. I will let you listen to the actual exchange which has been recorded and put on line if you wish. There's also a really wonderful video of highlights of the event which is now in circulation on YouTube. Frankly, I come off sounding much more coherent in the video than I did at the time. There was something truly overwhelming about the whole experience.

For one thing, I really am a newbie and so moving around in that body -- and indeed, remembering to keep moving -- was a challenge for me. At one point, I accidentally flew up, planted myself on the top of a sign suspended over the event, and couldn't figure out how to get down. I've had embarrassing experiences speaking before but none like that. At another point, I just slumped over in my chair because I didn't remember to keep poking at my avatar. There's a high learning curve here and doing your learning in public eye can be awkward. My students are talking about creating an animation sequence which has my characteristic hand gestures. Nobody has ever seen me speak for long without gesticulating wildly. I've got a ways to go before I blend fully and comfortably into my avatar but I was really taken with the sense of presence I felt interacting with all of the people attending the event from remote locations.

I kept getting distracted by the sheer array of avatars in attendance -- characters from anime, dancing Pandas in Ninja costumes, a monster from Will Wright's Spore... At one point I made a reference to the struggles City of Heroes had with Marvel over the fact that players might use their character design tools to create a knockoff of the Incredible Hulk and then looked out a moment later to find someone in the audience had turned themselves into the Hulk. And I was blown away by the fact that my avatar has much better moves on the dance floor than I've ever managed to master. He's one cool dude and I am, well, not. So, all in all, it was an amazing experience but I was not at my most articulate as one thing or another distracted me mid-sentence.

Thanks to everyone who made it possible and to everyone who turned out to enjoy the show. I hope to have more chances to interact in Second Life in the coming year.

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?

opening

Richard Dwi: thank god I'm not late!!!!
Mariel Voyunicef: Hey Kremski, all :)
Tabitha GKid: please sit so we can start
Tabitha GKid: great mariel is here!!!
Aesop Thatch: Made it Rafi
Kremski Switchblade: Mariel is popular
Rafi GKid: I'd love for everyone to have a seat as we get started.
Gabriel Moller: Oh Aseop U want my seat?
Aesop Thatch: This is a LOT of people for a sim
Rafi GKid: Plenty of room for all, we promise.
Tabitha GKid welcomes everyone and asks everyone to take a seat as we are getting started.....
Vewy Cuddihy: yeagh, if you run out of chairs, theres even this bar here!
Tabitha GKid: is there a rep from each team?
Atte Aderdeen: Porot is here, 2 on scene, and i'm keeping Jontte updated with
Tabitha GKid: as long as 1 person is here from each team
Tabitha GKid: this is our first time hosting the event
Richard Dwi: soup for everyone!
Rafi GKid: calm your bones folks, calm your bones. : )
UFO Tuppakaka shouts: yeah thats right calm your bones!
Vewy Cuddihy: rafi always comes up with the best things to quote
Tabitha GKid: so please let me have the mic for now
Richard Dwi offers award soup to everyone

introductions and overview

Tabitha GKid: THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING TO TODAY'S AWARD CEREMONY
Tabitha GKid: thakn you for dropping in everyone
Tabitha GKid: today
Tabitha GKid: i am very thrilled, and proud
Tabitha GKid: to announce the end of the UNICEF World Fit for Children Festival
Aquamarine Nori cheers.
Tabitha GKid: let me tell you who we are
Tabitha GKid: before we get started
Tabitha GKid: for those that are not familar iwth Global Kids
Tabitha GKid: and also
Tabitha GKid: as you are here
Tabitha GKid: feel free to take snapshots
Tabitha GKid: and send to Barry Gkid
Barry Gkid: me! Me!
Tabitha GKid: he will reimburse you for your snapshots as you attend the ceremony
Aquamarine Nori cheers some more because her dad is a professional photagrapher & also a member of the Adult Second life Grid.
Tabitha GKid: so all of you are here for the contest
Tabitha GKid: and to find out who the winners are
Tabitha GKid: Global Kids is a non for profit organization
Tabitha GKid: we are based in new york city
Barry Gkid: http:///www.HolyMEatballs.org
Tabitha GKid: and we have been running leadership programs for the last 18 years
Tabitha GKid: we started in TSL about a year ago
Tabitha GKid: and we are happy to be here to meet all of you and help you think globally
Tabitha GKid: we engage teens in global issues in efforts to raise global awareness on things that matter
UFO Tuppakaka: do you know the winner?
Tabitha GKid: over the past few weeks, Rafi gkid and i have been hosting workshops
Tabitha GKid: we thank you all for attending
Barry Gkid: We will announce the winners over the course of the ceremony
Tabitha GKid: and without all of you here, this festival would not be as successful as it is

UNICEF

Tabitha GKid: This is the first time Global Kids has hosted an event with UNICEF
Aquamarine Nori claps but is careful not to interuppt Tabby.
Tabitha GKid: do u know who UNICEF is?
Rafi GKid steals the mic from Tabitha. : )
Trextron Sukra: yes
Ian Merrienboer thinks
Aquamarine Nori: No tabby
DRafi GKid: Some of you might have heard of UNICEF, which is the United Nations Children's Fund.
DH Burks shouts: thats wat im talkin about
Rafi GKid: For those that are wondering about the acronym, it used to be known as the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund.
Rafi GKid: They changed the name but the acronym stuck.
Rafi GKid: Unicef is the largest multilateral organization in the world that works to improve the lives of children everywhere.
Rafi GKid: That means you guys! (and gals!)
Kremski Switchblade: O_o

Rafi GKid: And I do believe that we have someone here that's been highly involved with Unicef for a number of years.....
UFO Tuppakaka: psssst nafiza sit down
Kremski Switchblade: Mariel?
Rafi GKid: Mariel?
Kremski Switchblade: MARIEL VOYUNICEF!
Kremski Switchblade: everyone clap your hands for Mariel
Vewy Cuddihy: /clap
UFO Tuppakaka claps
Gabriel Moller: *claps*
Ian Merrienboer claps
Vivian Vacirca: Yay!
Vewy Cuddihy claps
Barry Gkid: clap clap clap
Alyson Arliss: yay!
Aesop Thatch claps
Trextron Sukra claps
Mariel Voyunicef loves all :D
Tabitha GKid: Mariel, please coem on down
Tabitha GKid: Mariel, please tell us a bit about VOY
Mariel Voyunicef: Well, Voices of Youth is an online community on unicef.org for youth from all over the World
Mariel Voyunicef: I don't think I've learned as much about the viewpoints of people from other countries elsewhere as I have in VOY
Rafi GKid: Thanks Mariel!
Mariel Voyunicef: :D

Thanking Lindens and volunteers

Tabitha GKid: so without furthere adue
Tabitha GKid: let me thank everyone that made this event possible
Barry Gkid: patience, patience
Tabitha GKid: first, the lindens!!!
Richard Dwi: WOOOO LINDENS
Vewy Cuddihy: woo
Aquamarine Nori: woooooooo!!!!!
Tabitha GKid: they have made the grid wide announcements on our behalf
Richard Dwi: HUZZAH
Tabitha GKid: and really helped us spread the word out
Richard Dwi: LINDENS ROCK
Trextron Sukra: woo!
Tabitha GKid: so thank you lindens
Vewy Cuddihy: LINDENS ROLL
Tabitha GKid: second, the volunteers!!
Richard Dwi: msg: LINDENS ARE HARDCORE
Aquamarine Nori cheers loudly but is still careful not to interrupt Tabby.
Tabitha GKid: a lot of what you see now are built by our UNICEF building group teens
Rafi GKid: woohoo volunteers!
Richard Dwi: YAY VOLENTEERS
Aquamarine Nori: volunteers ROCK!
Tabitha GKid: Alpha Zaius, Katharine Barry, MerchantVendor Vega, Mercury Metropolitan, and Aesop Thatch
Tabitha GKid: thank you all for the wonderful builds
Vivian Vacirca: WOOO AESOP!
Rafi GKid: Thanks so much to all of you, this would not have been possible without your help!
Tabitha GKid: particularly - alpha made the stonehenges, aesop made the workshop room, katharine made the scavenger hunt, mercury with all the banners, and vega with trophy and the stand u see to my left
Tabitha GKid: so lets give them a big round of apple sauce!
Dolus Naumova apple sauces Thatch.
Vewy Cuddihy passes around some apple sauce
Aquamarine Nori: wooo!
Richard Dwi: msg: EVERYONE GIVE THEM SOME APPLESAUCE

Introducing teen judges

Tabitha GKid: please return to ur seats now
Tabitha GKid: and allow me to introduce the judges!
Aquamarine Nori: yay1
Tabitha GKid: so as u know
Richard Dwi: JUDGES ROCK
Tabitha GKid: the builds were judged on thursday
Tabitha GKid: unfortunately not all the judges can attend today's ceremony
Aquamarine Nori: boo hoo
Tabitha GKid: Mariel is here
Tabitha GKid: Nafiza Gkid is here
Tabitha GKid: please come on down Nafiza
Sanuk Click: yay! naf!
Vewy Cuddihy: woo!
Mariel Voyunicef: Yay Nafi
Tabitha GKid: also alpha
Tabitha GKid: helped us judge
Nafiza GKid: sorry~ I am haveing some technical difficulkties
Nafiza GKid: grr..lag
Tabitha GKid: also the other judges who are not here
Tabitha GKid: nafiza, do u want to say a few words?
Tabitha GKid: and introduce urself
Nafiza GKid: about the judging? ^^;; okies
Nafiza GKid: Hello everyone, I am Nafiza~ ^^ and I was honored to be a judge here...and it was a difficult job judging everyone since they were all so great...and I myself dont have much experience~ you guys all did a wonderful job~
Nafiza GKid: and I cant wait until the next contest~ ^^
Aquamarine Nori: sit by me lol
Richard Dwi: awesome
Tabitha GKid: we are moving on

Tabitha GKid: we want to thank the judges for their time
Tabitha GKid: and hard work
Tabitha GKid: as well as all of the teams here
Tabitha GKid: you all did a fantastic job
Tabitha GKid: so once again, i want to really congratulate all of you on ur hard work
Vewy Cuddihy: ooh, the suspence is killing me
sam Doigts: wants to know who won
Trextron Sukra cant see as there is a light infron of him
Tabitha GKid: now, will 1 member from each team please come to stage
Tabitha GKid: just 1 member please
Tabitha GKid: please stand in front of me
IM: Nafiza GKid: do I take a seat? lol
Tabitha GKid: so we can take a photo
Quert Donaldo: NOOO.. NOT THE LAMP.. NOT THE LAMP!
Vernon Davison: but but... this is my look.. O_O
Vernon Davison: i am... da lamp O_O
Richard Dwi: lamp is awesome
Aquamarine Nori smiles a very CHEESEY smile.

GK's teen intern

Richard Dwi: MERCURY
Tabitha GKid: please come on down
Richard Dwi: YAYAYYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAAYYAYA
Tabitha GKid: and introduce ureslf to theaudience
Tabitha GKid: u are the one of the pl we thanked
Sadie Meadowbrook: i didnt get a photo
Tabitha GKid: please say something
Tabitha GKid: as a judge and ur experience
Tabitha GKid: and anything u would like to say to the biulders
Mercury Metropolitan: Hello everyone!
Mercury Metropolitan: Please bear with me, as I'm lagging currently.
^^
Mercury Metropolitan: I am a remote TEEN intern currently working for Global Kids, as well as a judge for this building contest.
Mercury Metropolitan: I just want to say, everyone who took part did a WONDERFUL job.
Richard Dwi: WOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Richard Dwi: YAY MERCURY
Mercury Metropolitan: Most likely, if you were involved, you might have seen me flying around over your builds and subdividing, land, renaming it, etc.
Aquamarine Nori: go mercury!
Vewy Cuddihy: w00t
Tabitha GKid: great thanks mercury!!
Sadie Meadowbrook: woot woot
Mariel Voyunicef: Yay Merc
Trextron Sukra shouts: woooo!
Richard Dwi: GO MERCURY
Mercury Metropolitan: :)

group's explain the issues behind their entries

Tabitha GKid: so can i have 1 member from each team
Tabitha GKid: just 1 member
Vewy Cuddihy: my turn
Tabitha GKid: to come down and just stand in front of me
Tabitha GKid: but not for pictures
Tabitha GKid: ladies first, so vivian, please tell us briefly what ur project was about, and what was ur experience doing it =)
Richard Dwi: I am team leader vewy
Vivian Vacirca: Okay. Please hold on aa second, all, I don't get to pre-type, so this will take a bit.
Aesop Thatch shouts: Go Vivian!
Sadie Meadowbrook: yummmmmmm soup
Gabriel Moller shouts: VIVIAN ROCKS@@@!@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aquamarine Nori would give some soup to Sadie, but it's no copy-soup.
Vivian Vacirca: \Our build was a combinaation of a School and an orphanage. We chose such a build to represent the UNICEF priomise of a "Safe, Secure and Healthy environment for children."
Sadie Meadowbrook awwww
Aquamarine Nori's soup is very yummy soup.
Vivian Vacirca: Please, one mic.
Tabitha GKid: thank u vivian, u may sit down
Tabitha GKid: okay next rep!
Tabitha GKid: atte please go next
Atte Aderdeen: We made a school and told about education in poor countries. We also had some facts about other issues too, like the lack of clean water. We aimed for interactivity, so there are lots of interactive parts. It was great fun building it too! :D
Tabitha GKid: great atte!! thank u
Tabitha GKid: next, richard
Richard Dwi: WOO
Richard Dwi: Our build was promoting the idea of healthy lives by having a clinic for shots, and promoting the knowledge of such suffering
Tabitha GKid: thank u very much richard!!
Tabitha GKid: next, Ben clancy
Richard Dwi: because alot of people die of simple diseses that can be cured
Ben Clancy: typing...
Ben Clancy: well
Sadie Meadowbrook shouts: yay ben
Ben Clancy: ours was to increase the awareness about the kids and lives that are less fortunate and cannot recieve a proper education
Ben Clancy: and our build is what we can achieve
Tabitha GKid: thank u so much ben!!!
Tabitha GKid: is that all the team reps we have here?
Trextron Sukra: Hey everyone, our building thingy was about interactive learning we used poseballs and notecards so u can "interact" with the things we made
Tabitha GKid: thank u so much trextno

Special award

Tabitha GKid: oaky so now that we have heard from most groups
Tabitha GKid: unfortunately not everyone can be here
Tabitha GKid: due to TIME ZONE diffs
Tabitha GKid: but most of u made it
Tabitha GKid: and i am thrilled that we can be here to announce the winners
Rafi GKid: and we shout out all the other great builds as well!
Tabitha GKid: so who's ready for the grand announcement!!!
Kremski Switchblade: ME!
Kremski Switchblade: FINALLY!
Vivian Vacirca: YESSSS!
Vewy Cuddihy: meeeee!
Gabriel Moller: me!
Richard Dwi: ME
Vewy Cuddihy shouts: woo!
Aesop Thatch shouts: WOOOHOOOOO
Richard Dwi: MEMEMEME
Aesop Thatch shouts: GO Vivian
Calade Lamington: start from 3rd place
Richard Dwi: msg: ME
Aquamarine Nori: mee!!!!
Dolus Naumova shouts: I'M NOT WAIT WAIT WAIT
Barry Gkid: Me!
Nafiza GKid: lol ^^;;
Mariel Voyunicef: Yay
Tabitha GKid feels that even tho the other teams are not here but they're here in spirit. and probably in their dreams =)
Alyson Arliss: YAY
Trextron Sukra shouts: ME!!!!
Barry Gkid: (oh wait, I know already...)
Dolus Naumova shouts: DELAY IT FURTHER
Trextron Sukra shouts: lol
Sadie Meadowbrook: You're so fun-ny
Tabitha GKid: GREAT!!!
Tabitha GKid: so..;
Aquamarine Nori: yay
Gabriel Moller: VIVAN
Tabitha GKid: let me walk to the podium
Kremski Switchblade: Start from 3rd place
Sadie Meadowbrook: yay
Sadie Meadowbrook shouts: yay
Tabitha GKid: okay this is good enough
Tabitha GKid: can the last row hear me?
Tabitha GKid: or read me?
Tabitha GKid shouts: can u guys hear me in the last row??
Gabriel Moller: yes!
Trextron Sukra shouts: YEAH!!!!!!!!!
Aesop Thatch shouts: Sure thing
Aquamarine Nori comments to Sadie that the podium looks like 3 tupperware containers half full of soup.
Tabitha GKid: so we have 2 extra special prizes
Tabitha GKid: on top of the 3 top prizes
Barry Gkid: yummy, what sort of soup?
Tabitha GKid: first, the MOST REALISTIC BUILD OF ALL
Aquamarine Nori: chicken
Tabitha GKid: THE AWARD GOES TO.......
Tabitha GKid: THE AWU TEAM!!!!!!!
Tabitha GKid: PLEASE COME ON DOWN!!!!!
Tabitha GKid: the winner of this category will receive $1KL per member
Jay Clostermann: am I too late?
Richard Dwi: the award ceramony was 2 days ago
Mariel Voyunicef: Shh.
Kremski Switchblade: Lmao
Ben Clancy poops himself
Jay Clostermann claps
Aesop Thatch claps.
Barry Gkid: congratulations!
Aesop Thatch: Good job.
Richard Dwi shouts: YAY
Alyson Arliss: claps
Sanuk Click: lol
Vernon Davison: gratz
Sadie Meadowbrook: yay
Kremski Switchblade: Congrats!
Aquamarine Nori: WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gabriel Moller: good job
Tabitha GKid: BEN CLANCY, INSANITY AN, MOOGLE HANSEN
Sanuk Click: YIFFY! ^.^ ben!
Tabitha GKid: PLEASE COME ON DOWN!!!
Mariel Voyunicef: Wooo
Trextron Sukra shouts: WOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rafi GKid: come on down!
Alyson Arliss: YAY
Tabitha GKid: each of you will receive $1000L
Aquamarine Nori: wooo go Ben!
Sadie Meadowbrook shouts: congrats
Richard Dwi: oh snap
Sadie Meadowbrook: goooo ben
Richard Dwi: that's alot
Ian Merrienboer shouts: wow!
Jay Clostermann: Great Job!
Tabitha GKid says yay and congratulaions is okay
Aquamarine Nori: that is a lot!
Dolus Naumova: L$1000? Hardly. >_>
Richard Dwi: it's alot to poor avatars!
Ian Merrienboer shouts: YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most popular build award

Tabitha GKid: I WILL ANNOUNCE
Tabitha GKid: THE MOST POPULAR BUILD OF THE WEEK
Tabitha GKid: THE AWARD GOES TO...
Kremski Switchblade: O_o
Rafi GKid: Voted by you guys!
Barry Gkid: Voted by all of you
Tabitha GKid: TEAM POROT!!!!!!!!!!!
Tabitha GKid: COME ON DOWN!!!!!!
Atte Aderdeen: Yay!
Mariel Voyunicef: Woo Porot
Barry Gkid: Congratulations
Dolus Naumova: I THINK YOU MISPELLED PARROT.
Jay Clostermann claps like craazy
Tabitha GKid: winner of this category will win $2000L per member
Trextron Sukra claps!!!!
Vivian Vacirca: yay!
Kremski Switchblade: O_o
Tabitha GKid: CONGRATULATIONS TEAM POROT!!
sam Doigts: woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo0o0o0o0ooo00000000t
Tabitha GKid: u have won the highest votes all week
Atte Aderdeen: Yay!
Ian Merrienboer: W00T
Aquamarine Nori: OMG THATS A LOT!

Third prize winner

Tabitha GKid: NEXT WINNER
Tabitha GKid: FOR THE UNICEF WORLD FIT FOR CHILDREN CONTEST
Rafi GKid: Okay.... onto the 3,rd, 2nd, and 1st place winners!
Dolus Naumova: WINNER THAT IS NEXT
Tabitha GKid: THIS IS THE THIRD PRIZE
Kremski Switchblade: W00T
Sadie Meadowbrook shouts: woot
Dolus Naumova: PRIZE OF THRID
Richard Dwi shouts: w00t
Dolus Naumova: THIRD
Gabriel Moller: winner
Dolus Naumova: Thrid? XD
Tabitha GKid: drum rolls please
Barry Gkid: Third place
Rafi GKid: This was a super tough decision on the part of the judges... and we do have a tie for third!
Dolus Naumova: ROLL THE DRUMS.
Barry Gkid: A tie!
Tabitha GKid: yes it was a difficult decision
Dolus Naumova: THE WINNER GETS A TIE
Richard Dwi: TIE IS TIED
Tabitha GKid: 3rd prize goes to ZEN!!!!!!!!!
Rafi GKid: The two teams that won third place are, Team Zen and Teh Sexy Sploders!
Tabitha GKid: TEAM ZEN!!!!! PLEASE COME ON DOWN!!!
Dolus Naumova: THE WINNER OF THIRD PLACES GETS A TIE
Mariel Voyunicef: WOOO ZEN!
MerchantVendor Vega: lol."I would like to thanks God and all his wisdom for voting me for this place of honor"
Dolus Naumova: YAY YOU GUYS GOT TIES
Ian Merrienboer shouts: yyaaaahhhhh!
Barry Gkid: Congratulations
Tabitha GKid: will both teams come on down
Mariel Voyunicef: WOOO SEXIES! xD
Tabitha GKid: please stand on the 3rd prize podium
Tabitha GKid: and as u get on the podium, rafi wil give you the crown
Sadie Meadowbrook shouts: congrates to all the teams
Tabitha GKid: the winner of the 3rd prize
Tabitha GKid: receives $50 US

Second prize winner

Tabitha GKid: THE SECOND PRIZE WINNER
Richard Dwi is extremely nervous
Tabitha GKid: TEAM F&V!!!!!!! U ARE SECOND PRIZE!!!!!!
Kremski Switchblade: YES!!!!!!
Tabitha GKid: YOUR TEAM HAS WON $100 US DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mariel Voyunicef: WOOOOOO F&V!!!!!!!!
Tabitha GKid: congratulations!!!!!!!
Kremski Switchblade: YEAH BABY!!!
Ian Merrienboer: OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Vernon Davison: w00t! XD
Ian Merrienboer: HOLLY CRAP!!!!!
Tabitha GKid: vernon davison, kremski switchblade, lucas whittlesea, and UFO tuppakaka
Tabitha GKid: please stand on the 2nd place

Grand prize winner

Tabitha GKid: now before we reach teh grand prize winner
Tabitha GKid: $200US dollars
Tabitha GKid: to be split even among the team
Tabitha GKid: i would like to take this moment
MerchantVendor Vega: to thank god
Tabitha GKid: to tell everyone that this was a decion made by majority
Tabitha GKid: so the winner of the grand prize team
Tabitha GKid: DRUM ROLLS...
Dolus Naumova rolls his drum.
Vewy Cuddihy rolls a drum
Alpha Zaius: lets take a break
Vewy Cuddihy: ;-;
Tabitha GKid: TEAM POROT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Spunky Pinkdot is Offline
Alpha Zaius: /clap
Atte Aderdeen: YAY!!
Dolus Naumova: Alpha I'm going to kill you.
Tabitha GKid: please come on down Atte and Calade
Tabitha GKid: and stand on first prize podium
Richard Dwi shouts: porot won twice!
Ian Merrienboer: YYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dolus Naumova: "Let's take a break!"
Tabitha GKid: congratulations to all of the teams
Mariel Voyunicef: Yay Porot
Mariel Voyunicef: Congratulations everyone

Tabitha GKid: 3rd team won $50 US
Tabitha GKid: 2nd team won $100 US
Tabitha GKid: and 1st team won $200 US
Ian Merrienboer: WO!!!!!
Ian Merrienboer: WOW!!!
Tabitha GKid: to be split among the team evenly
Tabitha GKid: we have seen ur hard work, your peers have voted
UFO Tuppakaka: WEE WIN ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!?!?!?
Tabitha GKid: lets give urselves a big round of apple sauce =)
Tabitha GKid: applause!!!!!!!
Ian Merrienboer: lol
Vewy Cuddihy passes around the sauce
Alpha Zaius shouts: congrats everyone!!!
MerchantVendor Vega: apple sauce for everyone!~
Kremski Switchblade: I'd like to thank all the GKids for making this possible, and for all the competition
Kremski Switchblade: Thanks so much!
Vernon Davison: party XD
Mariel Voyunicef: Yay GKIDS!!!!!!

Discussion of what was learned

Rafi GKid: Winners, you have anything yo want to share?
Kremski Switchblade: Yes, all the GKids absolutely rock
Rafi GKid: any winners have anything they want to say?
Tabitha GKid: plese stop all animation
Kremski Switchblade: GKids absolutely rock
Atte Aderdeen does: THANKS YOU EVERYONE
Tabitha GKid: please share a bit of what ur feeling was
Tabitha GKid: what did u learn and what was this whole experience for u like? (and fee freel to pre-type)
Davy Maltz: We learned alot of statistics abotu world hunger, and i learned how to script, make realistic water, and write good descriptions.
Davy Maltz: Plus it helped that i was learning the same thing at the time in global studies class o:
Davy Maltz: It was fun, though.
Tabitha GKid: okay tahnk u davy
Tabitha GKid: u guys did a great job
Davy Maltz: Welcome.
Vivian Vacirca: This was a challenge. I'm glad that Sanuk's and my hard work paid off, and we have a prize to show for it. Thanks, GK for this wonderful experience.
Sanuk Click: planing an idea is hard, building it takes time
Vivian Vacirca: I learned some scripting, and that It takes more work than I'm used to to do this sort of thing. ^^
INSANITY An: ive been building for like 6 months now and ive never built a school so it was pretty new
Ben Clancy: because some countries dont have that many
Ben Clancy: and yeah
Ben Clancy: it was fun building
Ben Clancy: slow and frustrating but it was worth it
INSANITY An: and so many kids without books and learning materials
Ben Clancy: yeah
INSANITY An: its... INSANITY :OOOO
Tabitha GKid is very glad to see that everyone has learned something
Vernon Davison: We had alot of fun with our build =) We Learned so many amazing facts that we shared with everyone and really would like to thank everyone =)
Kremski Switchblade: Within this all, we have learned about more off the issues in the world. For example, I didn't know much about competing in this competetion, but when I joined, and saw all the pictures our group put up, it was a bit of a shock, and now I won't forget any of it. I want to thank all the GKids, especially Barry, Rafi, and Tabitha for being such good sports, and allowing this competition to be such a big success!
Atte Aderdeen: This whole thing was extremely fun! And I also learned a lot about the issues during the build. I just want to thank everyone who voted for us and to the people organizing the event! :)
Calade Lamington: This was very... rewarding ^^ And I learned those statistics and stuff too. I think. And of course, I enjoyed it. Learned a few new building tricks too.
UFO Tuppakaka: my crown wont go on :( my bodys messed up...
Mariel Voyunicef: http://www.unicef.org/voy/discussions/showthread.php?t=6774 - this is our thread in Voices of Youth
Rafi GKid: So did all the team members catch that URL?
Kremski Switchblade wants to hug Tabitha, Rafi, and Barry, but feels it will be a little too much
Barry Gkid: HUG back-- virtually
Vernon Davison: vIRTUAL HUGS! YAY! XD
Barry Gkid: Now, that we have come to the end of this amazing festival, that YOU all turned into somethign so inspiring
Barry Gkid: you might be wondering...
Barry Gkid: what can I do now?
Barry Gkid: Well...
Barry Gkid: We JUST launched today
Barry Gkid: on a web site
Barry Gkid: those flat things with text and pictures
Barry Gkid: online
Barry Gkid: a question
Barry Gkid: that might interest you
Barry Gkid: Should Global Kids leave Teen Second Life?
Kremski Switchblade: UFO
Vernon Davison: NOO!
UFO Tuppakaka: yes
Barry Gkid: Or, more specifically: What role should adults play, or not play, within online teen spaces?
Barry Gkid: Global Kids has taken the question to four TSL residents - Mariel Voyunicef, Cheesepuff Barnard, Lucky Figtree, Relk Akula - and begun an online discussion, to last one week, at http://tinyurl.com/yhwp3m
Barry Gkid: We have reason to believe that Lindens will be watching (and perhaps posting). Please go NOW to read their comments and post your own.
Barry Gkid: What can adults offer to teen spaces? What does their presence take away? Make your voice heard!
Barry Gkid: It will run starting today for one week, and we would LOVE to know your opinions
Kremski Switchblade: No one better take away the GKid adults
Barry Gkid: you can be honest - we're tough
Barry Gkid: and PLEASE tell your other friends online, outside SL, who are in other youth communities, so that it is not all about SL
Barry Gkid: Please shout out some other online youth spaces where you spend your time
Barry Gkid: We look forward to seeing your provocative thoughts there
Barry Gkid: Thank you all so much for everything
Barry Gkid: Have happy holidays
Barry Gkid: And for those returning in 2007, we look forward to seeing you there
Vernon Davison: i got till July tho XD!
Barry Gkid: and for those graduating to the teen grid: look for Globalkids Bixby!
Vewy Cuddihy shouts: maybe vernon can be an approved adult here next year!!!
Barry Gkid: and big shout out to Tabitha for running such an amazing festival and Rafi as well
Barry Gkid: Over and out!
Jamesy Lopez: over
Kremski Switchblade: I'm wearing this crown with pride

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.

So, well... Yup. I decided to try not to post the same on Blogger and MySpace, so this one stays only here. It's more of a... secret blog, I know, plus we don't want that freaky sir insulting me again, no matter how fun you found it o.O And it's, oh, so quiet!

Our workshop area (photo by Global Kids)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/holymeatballs/309991499/

Hello, everyone!

This is Mariel again. So far, this week has been amazing. Now I’m here to tell you all a bit about the contest and the events that have taken place so far.

Let us begin by some very basic information: What is a World fit for children?

In 1990, World leaders gathered in a summit dedicated to children. In it, they made international agreements on things governments would have to do to ensure children a fair environment. Eleven years later, they gathered again to see all the things that had been done and their effects. They realised that, despite the advance in many aspects, some were still far from being what they had planned eleven years earlier. Taking this into account, they established a series of points and paths governments would have to take from then on. All of them are concerning four main issues:

Education – How can we achieve a universal, quality basic education? In other words, how can children from all over the World have access to quality basic education?
Health – How can all children have access to the health access they deserve whenever they fall sick?
HIV/AIDS – How can the pandemic that is putting children’s lives in danger -as it breaks their families, prevents them from studying and makes them a focus of discrimination- be controlled?
Abuse/exploitation – How can children live in an environment in which they aren’t attacked or exploited?

This leads us to the contest - A World Fit for Children Building Contest, the biggest one in Teen Second Life so far, and organized by Global Kids and UNICEF ^^

http://www.flickr.com/photos/holymeatballs/309991506/in/set-72157594397737153/
Photo by Global Kids

What is the contest about? Well, in a few words, teens are required to make buildings on Teen Second Life that pretty much represent the ways these four main issues have to be addressed. They were taught about these issues in an interactive, 2-hour workshop (that was very fun, too!) They can build anything they want – from an exhibit to interactive games. The three best buildings will receive awards, of course :)

Before I go on to the events, I’d like to share a few images of the contest area!
December 16 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/holymeatballs/328633042/
December 18 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/holymeatballs/328691616/
December 20 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/holymeatballs/328716554/

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

Workshop
http://www.flickr.com/photos/holymeatballs/321380247/in/set-72157594397737153/ (photo by Global Kids)

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
http://www.flickr.com/photos/holymeatballs/321380247/in/set-72157594397737153/ (photo by GlobalKids)

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
http://www.flickr.com/photos/holymeatballs/326556434/ (photo by Global Kids)

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
http://www.flickr.com/photos/holymeatballs/328619496/ (photo by Global Kids)

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.

Greetings from Mexico!

To visit her site, click here.

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)

Hello everyone!

It's Judging Day t