Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

I am a nube. In Second Life, I spend a good deal of time standing in one place awkwardly moving my mouse and clicking, desperately spinning my scroll wheel trying to get my view back centered on myself. Somehow, I’m looking down from the clouds, and then in the next instant I’m zoomed in to the side of a bank examining the wood grain of digital shiplap from an inch away. When I’m inside buildings and I try to look around at the audience, somehow I end up outside, stuck staring at the party through tinted windows. Everything’s dim as I watch the other figures gyrate and flex with their programmatic perfect, looping dance moves (someone’s got the Chicken Noodle Soup dance activated in their inventory!) I am the watcher on the outside, frustrated and ashamed as my avatar stands as still as Chief Bromden.

I am, I admit, not even totally comfortable using the term avatar. The word’s entomology represents a gross change, a complete reversal in meaning. In Hindu, an avatar is the earthly embodiment of Lord Vishnu. Think about that, it’s like we’re calling Lara Croft Buddha. Second Life, the virtual world where thousands of people run around as rainbow colored, porn star-proportioned Jesuses. “Hey, I just got a new Smurf Jesus!” “Awesome, I bought leather pants and a bikini-top for my Jesus.” I’m not Christian; this doesn’t bother me, but I can imagine there are people who it would be insulted.

We have a nasty habit in this country of confusing the sacred and the profane. Every time I see shoppers lined up for Black Friday Midnight Sales, I think of pilgrims at a shrine. The people in sleeping bags, camping on the street to buy the first iPhones were like temporary ascetics, forsaking worldly comfort to be transfigured by the state of the art. Celebrity worship is at such a level of grotesquery I don’t even need to use anecdotes. We’ve all seen fans crying at the sight of musicians, hands outstretched across the metal barricade as if touching the flesh of a star would cure leprosy. We seek their advice as if fame makes one a sage, as if singing songs for money teaches one the secrets to end world poverty, and making action movies entitles a man to govern. I stand on the subway and look around me; a Hasid reads the Torah next to a hipster reading a tabloid next to a stockbroker reading the Wall Street Journal.

I am, of late, obsessed with economics. It is a passion similar, I think, to the study of gravity. All around us, an invisible force that virtually no one understands affects every person every moment of every day. There is nothing that can be done that cannot be bought or sold. Every human action and emotion has been harnessed to the economy, and when our backs ache few even realize why. We are in the ancient days, and the holy books have not been translated for the masses; the priests mediate the divine.

How many people have any idea where money comes from? Why does inflation rise and fall? What does the Federal Reserve do? Statistics are like stained glass windows showing us the Stations of the Cross, revealing symbols of ecstasy and misery in two-dimensional false clarity. This is starting to sound like a rant, but it is serious. What fool would gamble without knowing what the cards signify? Who would play chess with Death without understanding how the pieces move? Virtually everyone, apparently. Games. We play games because play is, in fact, one of our most basic human functions. We love games because they simplify and captivate, because the magic circle is as intoxicating as fine spirits. And, because games are a safe place to transgress and explore. I love how in Second Life I can walk into a plaza dressed as a washing machine and yell, “Hello! Can anybody hear me?” and instead of annoyed glances or terror-stricken flight, I get casual replies. People walk up and ask if I need help. They give me shoes, directions, designer suits, the ability to hula dance. We like play because it feels harmless. It feels inconsequential. In the virtual worlds we can do things we would never normally do. Like learn about economics.

Eve Online is a MMOG that launched in 2003 and, at a time when most games of that age would be waning, it is starting to attract a lot more attention. It’s a galactic sandbox game with a unique twist. Instead of dividing its 200,000 resident amongst hundreds of servers and distinct copies of the game world, all players exist in the same universe. Everyone is sharing the same environment, and the game is driven solely by player actions. While there are game company-created missions, assets and money, most of the drama comes from interactions between players.

Players enter a universe where humanity is divided into four factions: the theocratic Amarr, the militaristic Caldari, the liberal Gallente and the rebel Minmatar. Players pick a side and create their lives. They start careers managing recycling companies and mining operations, becoming wealthy industrialists manufacturing star ships, and compete as warring corporations. Different regions of space have varying levels of security from heavily policed to complete lawless. The game’s complexity and steep learning curve intimidate many gamers, but those willing to invest their time discover a fascinating world of anarco-capitalism. Without government subsidies, tariffs, taxes and tax loopholes, and international bankers, Eve Online is a close approximation of the classical free market imagined by Adam Smith. Players can trade in currency or barter, making deals they deem fair. The developers, CCP, implemented a change to break up monopolies, but other than that they’re generally laissez faire. Some players claim it is a vindication of Jeffersonian ideals—left to their own devices, people cooperate.

Others think the situation is more of a virtual Somalia, for the world is not without crime. Economic confidence scams abound, duping players out of their hard earned loot. Corporations have been infiltrated, their CEOs assassinated, and their coffers raided. When victimized, there is no government to petition. Wrongs are righted by oneself, with hired thugs, or not at all. On message boards, debates rage over which is superior: the liberty of tribal life, or the security of membership in an empire.

To help players understand the universe and make better-informed decisions, CCP hired the former Dean of the Faculty of Business and Science at the University of Akureyri, Iceland to oversee the economy. This month, Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, released the first 15 page quarterly newsletter analyzing the population and economy of the game world. Players are now able to use econometrics to weigh decisions. "Though the overall conclusion is that there has been more than 40 per cent deflation in Eve Online from September 2006 through 2007, it appears that there are underlying inflationary pressures due to increased purchasing power," November’s report states. The report presents complex data in a digestible format.

With so much complexity, rapid change and detailed data, the game actually works as training for real life business skills. “Once you have managed a virtual corporation that spans the universe, you can easily manage a real corporation that spans the earth,” says Trey Ratcliff—a former in game, and current real world CEO. As Eve’s lead economist, one of Gudmundsson’s roles is to work with universities interested in using the game to study economics and sociology.

Eve online is a totally unique game where individuals can play with ideas few people understand and even fewer debate. I am enthralled with it because reading the message boards is exploring intellectual territory rarely trod upon in everyday life. A debate on the merits of anarchy? A discussion on various types of monetary policy? Eve Online is a community of intrepid souls venturing into the temple to find the man behind the curtain. They are living and debating alternate realities, questioning the economic and social ideals that underpin modern America.

What’s interesting is that it took a simulation to revitalize a situation that was the norm in the late 1800s. When William Jennings Bryant and the People’s Party railed against the gold bugs and collusion between the bankers and government, it was the poor farmers who shook their fists in angry agreement. Though lacking formal education, these people understood inflation and deflation and how the large creditors controlled the money supply. Progressives in the 20th century, however, steadily spread an ethos of rule by experts and the technocratic elite. Everyday economic experiences were derided as unimportant. The logic of macroeconomic decisions was obfuscated behind an econometric screen and obtuse academic language. It is fitting, now, to see people reasserting the validity of their intelligence and common sense within the magic circle.

Games. We play games because they are safe spaces where we can test ourselves and our world. Eve Online is not a true free market because money is injected be NPCs paying players to complete missions. The invisible hand of the market is guided slightly by the digital hand of CCP. It is also not true anarcho-capitalism because in the virtual world high school boys and soccer moms are fearless pirates. With consequences ameliorated, players are liberated to manifest transgressive fantasies. They are also liberated, however, to be entrepreneurial and daring.

My hope is that players, emboldened by their experiences in Eve, will become more engaged citizens in the physical world. The lack of civic engagement in the United States is shameful. The public is kept in subjugation by its ignorance of the economic, legal, and political forces that shape our world. This has to change.

Players of Eve Online, I commend your understanding of a complex virtual environment. Your spirited socio-economic debates are laudable. Now please, for the sake of the world, please take those conversations from the message board to the bodega and the water cooler and the town hall. Bring back the public discourse that is the lifeblood of a healthy democracy. Don’t pester the web master; petition the senator. You are bold enough to be an interstellar pirate online, stand up and be a community leader in our world.

Posted by Jay at 9:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since joining GK in September of this year, I have had the wonderful opportunity to dedicate a majority of my time to a truly unique program. The D.I.D.I. Initiative, is one of the first opportunities that the work of Global Kids is able to reach so many of the world's young people, so that youth are not only building teams across state lines and borders, but committing to each other and working towards a common endeavor over a prolonged period of time.

What makes this Initiative so unique, is its breadth. Its ability to reach youth that would otherwise not have such an opportunity possible. The youth who cannot wait for the last bell to ring, but won’t leave after a two hour workshop on our island. This is what Global Kids is about. An opportunity for youth from around the world to learn about themselves and develop their skills, through their exposure to diverse prospectives and issues.

These young people learn within a global community of learners. This is how they make sense of themselves, of the world around them, and learn the skills necessary to approach any phenomenon that lies ahead.

Within this medium, youth are thinking about the "universality" of their own issue: That one person's issue is also the issue of another young person across the country, across the world. And they not only utilize the tools of this immersive environment to find common ground, but to harness their commonality towards change.

This is the power of virtual learning.
It is experiential learning in an embodied space.
It is a unique place where youth from around the world can log in at a specific time and experience their growth together, again and again.

But this education, like any education, is only as powerful as its reach, its impact.
And its reach is still sadly limited to the populations of the world that have access: access to education, access to technology, access to opportunity.

And so this month's staff reflection, is as much a resolution as it is a call to action: to work together to bring GK's work, as well as the work of others, to young people who don't yet have access.

We have the technology, now lets run with it.

Posted by Amira at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A conversation I had with a number of Second Life teens a while back got me thinking... Thinking about school. Thinking about education. Thinking about how it does and doesn't happen in different contexts. And, of course, thinking about our own work here at Global Kids, and where it fits into this undertaking of educating others. Before I go into those thoughts, the context of that conversation might be helpful to share with you. The involved teens have, of course, given consent to be quoted.

Me: how does your school do in terms of teaching global issues?
Teen1: My school's pretty adequate with global issues from hundreds of years ago >_> Yay AP Euro. :P
Teen1: My school's actually pretty good though with current events: It seems every class connects in some way to something that's happening now; especially Chinese, as there's a lot going on in CHina :O
Teen1: Math not so much.
Teen2: mine isn't that way at all. the closest I'll get to current events would be Mass Media
Teen2: and we don't get onto that subject for months -_-
Teen1: My school is less by-the-book and more teacher-preference.
Me: That's generally a better model.
Me: When you have good teachers, that is.
Teen2: ugh
Teen2: ours is all book.
Teen3: It totally sucks when you have a bad teacher
Teen3: It's in those cases that you wish the book were the law. <.<
Teen2: my math teacher this year.
Teen2: -shudder-
Teen1: Especially one that goes on.. and on.. and on.. >_> <_< and on... even after everybody has left =O (AP Euro :P)
Me: eeps.
Teen1: No handouts; No powerpoints; Nothing but words >_> <_<
Teen2: for bio.
Teen2: the teacher doesn't speak, at all.
Teen2: it's all notes and packets
Teen1: >_> <_< Does he get paid?

Clearly, a couple of things are evident from this exchange. The biggest one, for me, is that young people know the difference between good and bad education. This, in itself, is a somewhat revolutionary concept. Many in the educational community take a "We know best" approach, one that discounts the criticism (constructive or not) of young people as uninformed, as not being bolstered by years of experience and education (though never of course acknowledging that young people are the primary experiencers of education and thus experts in their own right...).

Thankfully for both GK and the teens we work with, we don't have that luxury. As nobody mandates that teens be involved in our afterschool programs or online education programs, we need to use a market based approach. If something doesn't work, isn't interesting and engaging, nobody will come and participate. Imagine if our public schools worked like that. If you don't like a given class or teacher, just don't go! It would be an interesting study to see where kids ended up. (Unfortunately, many high school students take this approach anyway. Truancy, anyone?)

On the extreme end of this market based approach you have someone like Will Wright, creator of SimCity, The Sims, and a general guru of games that are engaging and inherently educational. In an chapter I recently read about Will in the book Smart Bomb, I found his distinct opinion on young people and education:

Will warns... that if you try to give kids something they think is educational they won't touch it. He says the only way to reach kids, to make them engage with something, is through the commercial markets. "You know it only gets so far when a teacher holds something up and says, 'Here kids, we're going to do this,'" Will says. "Or the parents bring it to the kid and say, 'Here, I want you to play Math Blaster, Johnny,' as opposed to the kid saying, 'I want that, I want that, so-and-so is playing it and it's really cool.'

It can be said that Will, while generally agreed upon as a genius, has somewhat of a personal bias here given that he's a commercial game designer and has interest in promoting this view. But even beyond that, while most parents and teens will agree that it's easier to get a young person to play The Sims than it is to do their homework, I still believe that something is amiss here. Kids behavior in regards to learning is far more nuanced than this. I take myself as a case in point. When I had a good class in high school or college, I was taken with it. Smitten with ideas, concepts, theories, facts, I would devour books or push out pages on top of pages for assignments, simply out of passion for a given subject. And I know that I'm not alone in this.

But beyond the 'passion' factor, many young people are active learners in school and out because they understand the ramifications of being otherwise. We all do this to varying degrees. We realize that yes, even though we don't love math we need to balance our checkbooks, even though we don't like legalese we still need to learn a bit of it before we unwittingly sign away our power of attorney, people read newspapers or keep up with current events because they know that their lives are being effected by what's happening in the world, even when they may not do so out of passion. I would call this the 'bitter pill' aspect of education and learning, and something that is unfortunately at the heart of many educational approaches. "We know you don't love it now, but it'll be good for you down the line..." or "You'll thank us when you're older." are the maxims that exemplify this.

For me, the question is this: Neither of these extremes seems to make sense as the sole basis upon which we create an effective educational approach. I don't believe that all education and all the learning that we need to do in life will be "fun", and I don't believe that a quasi-neoliberal market based approach to all learning would result in a world that I'd want to live in, let alone one that would effectively teach all things that young people need to know. At the same time, I know that there's great power in learning that's incredibly engaging and that a learner wants to engage in rather than resents engaging in. So what's the right balance? And again, to hark back to my original question at the beginning of this post, where does Global Kids and our work fit into that balance, and what are we doing to figure that out? Perhaps, another post. :D

Posted by Rafi at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the engagement of youth in a digital world. Well, duh. Of course I have, it’s what I do for a living. This is different, though. Of course youth are engaged in a digital world. It’s natural for them; they are digital natives. This new generation interacts with the world through digital media. Their outlook on life is filtered through their experiences, which are completely different from the experiences of my generation. I’ll give you an example.

I consider myself a digital immigrant. I did not use a computer till late in High School; my high-tech gadget as a teen was an old-fashioned ‘beeper’ that I wore on my hip; I played Pitfall! on Activision. I may be a fairly early adapter, but my brain was wired before I learned these things. I’ll never be as quick, as natural as my 15-year-old sister at thinking in a digital world.

I’ve recently begun sharing the responsibility of running a household that includes a 16-year-old high school student. Now, I have a background in education. I’ve studied how people learn, think, and use technology. None of this is the same as experiencing it first-hand. Danny, my new housemate, is a smart, creative, well-adjusted teenager. An outsider may think, “Man! That kid’s a recluse! He never leaves his bedroom, he doesn’t go hangout with kids on the corner, he doesn’t go to parties.” I know better. Danny is well connected, well spoken, and quite social. I know this because I see him in a constant stream of text messages and IM’s. We discuss over dinner his latest conquests in WoW, which he plays on multiple servers in order to enjoy the camaraderie of his old friends from Florida, as well as his new friends in New York. He tells us about the mature and collected way he convinced his school principal that the chains hanging form his pants were in no way a threat, and need not be banned from his wardrobe. I realized the other day that I know Danny is home safe from school when I see his AIM away message change around 2:30 every afternoon (of course the first thing he does is sit down at his computer and reestablish his connection to the digital world!)

So, this is my most recent perspective as I consider my work at Global Kids, and, specifically, in the D.I.D.I. Initiative. We knew from previous experience with Global Kids in TSL that teens like interacting with us. Our workshops work. We engage them; we keep their interest. This is the case for 1-2 hour workshops. It’s even the case for 8-week long summer camp programs. The D.I.D.I. Initiative is a little different though. We are asking kids to come to workshops in TSL, and they do. They come, and they respond to IM’s and they excitedly show us the things they want to build for their venture. What they don’t do, it is starting to seem, is continue the same level of engagement when they log out of TSL and turn their computers off.

The D.I.D.I. Initiative requires these teens to take some initiative. We support them, we prod them, and we poke them. We can’t, however, bring them into a classroom and put a paper in front of them and say, “Today we are going to fill out your action plans. Take out your pens.” We’ve had no problem getting teens committed to working with us in TSL. Our struggle is this crossover into their lives away from the computer (I don’t dare call it their ‘real life’ as that insinuates that what they experience with us in TSL is not real.) They are excited to participate… in TSL. Not so excited to fill out the paperwork, needed to continue this participation, however. I consider that it’s just a natural struggle to get teens to fill out tedious paperwork. Of course that’s not fun, or engaging, it’s just a necessary part of processing their projects. We can’t avoid having an action plan. We need to be sure they’ve thought the project through, considered different aspects and needs, and really committed themselves to taking part in something sustainable. Does it mean that they are not serious about these ventures? I hope not. I don’t think so.

The action plans are rolling in, with some serious attention from the DIDI Staff. Going forward, I wonder how this can best be addressed. Can we make the application process more interactive? What needs to change? Perhaps we should ask them.

Posted by Meghan at 2:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today we did something really fun in VVP. we made our own little comics. We got to take pictures to create the comics. My group did a project on Multi-tasking. It was a lot of fun making these comics.

Posted by VVP Tarana at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We finished another good week at Playing 4 Keeps this week. Despite the Thanksgiving break, everyone came back ready to work and think, and I was happy to se how little cajoling it took to get everyone focused and on task. Partly as a way to reflect on the luxury many of us had experienced over the weekend, we discussed world hunger on Monday. As usual, we used a mix of role-playing and video game playing to examine the issue. We also had a principal and teacher from a high school in Connecticut as guests. They’re considering bringing P4K to their school, and I think they were impressed with how we blend the digital with the physical to examine serious issues.

We began with an activity where students pretended to be a country’s food suppliers, and it was always distribution, not production that kept their population hungry. When we started our discussion after the role-playing, many students were surprised to learn that hunger is caused by political and economic issues, not by an inability to grow enough food. After discussing the exercise and establishing a foundation on knowledge, we moved to the computers to play 3rd World Farmer.

The game, while using simple drag and drop mechanics, is very effective at communicating the hardships faced by farmers in impoverished nations. Some people find the game to be too slow to sit with for a long time, but our students were very engaged. They were constantly frustrated by the random hardships that would sweep in and destroy the fruits of their labor. During our discussion, it was satisfying to see their understanding of the game develop to grasp how frustrating games can teach lessons about frustrating realities. We were also able to compare the game to our own Ayiti, and see how different approaches expressed similar ideas. We also looked at how our role playing exercise compared with 3rd World Farmer, discussing the strengths of both types of learning.

Today, we spent almost the whole period playing games in order to look at how different core mechanics influence the play experience and values of games. From the manic Subway Scramble to the elegant Flow, we surveyed a variety of play types. Each game appealed to different players for different reasons. In our analysis, I especially stressed the strengths of Flow, because it is such a simple and unique game. I don’t need to spend much time praising it here (there’s enough of that online) but it just represents how diverse games can be when designers liberate themselves from the traditional trappings of the game industry’s “bigger is better” mentality. Our game, I emphasized, can succeed by embracing a similar philosophy, trying to be cohesive, clean, and engaging, without being loud and ostentatious. It is that approach, I think, that holds the most promise for independent game makers trying to expand the traditional audience. Many of our students loved the game, and I think the game made a real impression on them.

Posted by Jay at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During Thanksgiving I picked up a book I had always heard about but never read, Alvin Toffler's Future Shock.

“Future shock [is] the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time.”

Future shocks was published just a few months after I was born, in 1970. It's hard not to belittle their sense that their rate of change was fast compared with our own.

A phrase that really caught my eye, right on the first page was the following: "Change is the process by which the future invades our lives."

This is a curious sentence as it inverts time. When he writes "our lives" he is really saying "the present." In other words, change is the process by which the future invades the present (not that the present is invaded by the future). That is to say, the norms of the future first take hold through contrast with previous norms, which we humans experience as change.

Not all change will last into the future, yet anything new that does continue over time must first start as experienced change. And this change, like an invasion, is not something we can stop or avoid. It is a force of nature. This is very McLuhan, the media critic who was most active in the years leading up to FutureShock.

According to McLuhan, you don't start or stop major social forces created through new technology (or media). Rather, you try and predict its flow and influence its overall course. It's not a fatalistic approach, in which humans have no agency, but its more sociology than psychology, looking at overall systems and their dynamics.

This led me to think a lot about Global Kids work exploring formal methods for utilizing the informal learning within digital media.

FutureShock is described as a disease. Nowadays, especially for today's youth, change is the norm. How would people respond if there were no advances in cellphones over the next ten years? Or if MP3 players were the same capacity as back in 2005?

Creating learning in such an environment means predicting the future. It means identifying which new media - and the forms of social relationships they will support or discourage - will become ubiquitous, and beginning the process now to prepare.

If the established digital media of the future is continually invading our present in the form of change, and change is now the norm, how do we pick out which threads to follow?

From the start of the Online Leadership Program we have tried to ride these waves, these FutureShock waves, in reverse. We started with online dialogues, then online games, followed by blogs, virtual worlds and social networks. Along the way we tried a few waves that crashed or plateaued, like podcasts, and got swept by others unaware, such as video sharing through YouTube and photo sharing through Flickr. Other waves we got swept under, unprepared, such as cellphones.

I like this quote from FutureShock as it helps to frame why the OLP is continually looking at the "new". It also helps to identify why riding the front of a wave can be stressful and take such resources.

What it does not do, however, is help us decide which wave to follow? How do we analyze the present from the perspective of the invading future?

Posted by Barry at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This month swept by like a breeze. I have to say that it feels like things are moving really fast in the OLP department in general. Just yesterday I was setting up my second life account and today I am having a meeting about streaming live video into second life. Time flies when you're having fun. I'm feeling grateful that I am working with such a dynamic group of people.

As for the VVP program, I am looking forward to watching our participants grow and expand their minds. I am also looking forward to becoming more knowledgeable about digital media issues and our youth.

Posted by Kathy at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today in my group we had to act out multi-tasking. The play was really fun and I think we did a good job.

Posted by VVP Tarana at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last workshop in the VVP program, we started off with a human barometer, which is a activity to see who agrees, disagrees, or feels unsure about a certain statement. The human barometer gives you a sense of who has conflicting or different ideas, or who thinks alike. It's sometimes good to see everyone scattered because opposing views give people a different perspective on things.

After that, we went on to getting to know our Macs. I think this is a new addition to the program because I do not remember doing this last year; however, it is good that we got to do this workshop since it's important for us to get to know the laptops we will be using for the remainder of the year. After getting the laptops, we took a picture of ourselves using the Photo Booth application in the Mac computers. It was great to see everyone add effects to their images using a mac for the first time. We used the pictures as the background to our desktops. So, from now on, when we turn on our laptops we can always look back at that day.

Then we got little slips of paper, and it gave instructions on something interesting you can do on a mac. The slip that Yessenia and I got instructed us to take a screen-shot. I think this is probably one of the best unique features of the mac because, unlike in a PC, you can just highlight the part of your screen that the shot is of. It's almost like focusing a camera or zooming in onto something. After we got to know how to do it, we had to go up and show it to everyone else. It was great to teach everyone something about the mac, and it was also wonderful to learn something from the other VVP participants.

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Participants deliberate over the issues, and one shows his support for Ron Paul

This past week we held the first in a series of Fireside workshops titled What's Your Stance?, which focuses in on a selection of presidential candidates to figure out their stances on the issues that teens that participate feel are the most important. We focused on Rudy Giuliani for the first in this series of workshops, and plan to alternate between Democratic and Republican candidates, exploring each.

The approach of the workshop was a unique one, one where I hoped to not only have participants become informed about where a participant stood, but also learn skills relating to finding credible sources online. They were tasked with first voting on what they felt were the most important issues (the options included topics like Campaign Finance Reform, Immigration, Social Issues like abortion, Global Security and others), and then broke into teams go scour the web to find out Rudy's stances on the issues, and include where they got their information from and why they believed it to be credible.

The participants did a great job of finding information on a host of issues, stating Rudy's stances on a number of them (no timetable for Iraq, claims to keep taxes low, little to no sound policy on the environment), but I think that the lesson learned is that it takes a bit more time than we expected to find and source all that info within one workshop (we'd planned for 25 minutes of research and it took more like 50 minutes), so we may need to tweak the structure to cut some of the time involved. We'll be sure to update on what works for future workshops like this one.

At the end of the workshop, we all (well, almost all, there were some protests...) put on Giuliani heads and took a pic together. What a hoot!

Posted by Rafi at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The warriors prepare for the upcoming battle of wits

The event started like any other, “Welcome everybody, and thank you for joining us for this event: ‘The Teen Grid – Evolving, or Devolving? What we can do to help’.” Alex Harbinger began, “The event will now officially begin, starting with a human barometer moderated by myself. If you have never participated in a human barometer before, this is a quick rundown of how it works: There are three options you may pick: Agree, Not Sure, or Disagree. Upon choosing an opinion on a statement I will say, you move to any of the three areas, and may share your opinions.”

The Event, ‘The Teen Grid – Evolving, or Devolving? What we can do to help’, which took place last Saturday (November 10th, 2007) was filled with heavy opinions. Kicking off the event was a Human Barometer (see above) where some basic statements were made, and the participants would state their opinions:

Not everybody agreed with everything, just as not everybody disagreed with everything

Statement 1) The Teen Grid is exactly where it should be.
The mainstream opinion is no: The Teen Grid is not where it should be. It lacks many aspects, for example the grid's economy was brought up by a few of the participants – the Teen Grid’s economy is frail, and almost non-existent, where people will go to only the best known names making it hard for new designers to start off. The Teen Grid is too small – one’s problems are the next’s as well.

Statement 2) Fixing sign-ups and premium should be Linden Lab’s top priority over anything else.
The mainstream and almost unanimous belief is that Linden Lab should make it their top priority to fix the now virtually defunct sign-up system. This has also given Second Life a bad name among teens when they are unable to join.

Statement 3) The Teen Grid has become isolated from the Main Grid; with less and less Linden help and supervision.
The mainstream belief is that the Teen Grid is slowly becoming more and more isolated from both the Main Land, and from direct Linden contact. The only Lindens seeming to help are Blue and Teeple. The Teen Second Life website hasn’t been updated in nearly two years, and the farther along the timeline of TSL gets, the less enthusiasm Lindens visiting seem to display: From Lindens coming over just to hang out with Teens to now coming over only when absolutely needed (chore-like).

Statement 4) Overall, The Teen Grid’s performance has INCREASED recently.
The mainstream belief is that the Teen Grid’s performance has increased recently, and since the dawn of the Teen Grid, but not due to Linden help. It was the opinion of the participants that the Teen Grid’s performance increase is due primarily due to Teens acting on their own to better the Grid.

In a nutshell, the mainstream thoughts seemed to have been that the Teen Grid could be better, but has had a recently uptrend. However, this is not due to Lindens, but rather to the hard work of Teen residents. Linden Lab is slacking, and should fix Teen Grid problems, as well as provide better support.

After the Human Barometer, an informal discussion went underway, where participants could build upon the opinions of others, rather than being grounded to one topic.

“The Circle of Deep Thought”

A basic rundown of the discussion is that the Teen Grid is becoming increasingly stale, and any adult activity has decreased, as well as non-existent promotional sims as there are on the Main Grid. Grid Unification was brought up multiple times as well. The tie between the Teen Grid economy and the Main Grid economy caused some dismay – If the economy on the Main Grid is poor, it affects the Teen Grid (An example being the removal of stipends: The Teen Grid’s main source of revenue).

The event was successful, and a magnitude of topics were discussed. It is quite obvious that the Teen Grid is not in a stable state, but there are those dedicated to making this second world into a better tomorrow.

A special thank you to all of the Teens that participated in the event, as well as moo Money who dropped in with her approved Teen Grid avatar (Machinima Guru) to voice her opinions as well. ^.^

Posted by Alex - SL Intern at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Moo Money posted an excellent overview of the event held on Global Kids Island by one of our interns Alex Harbinger and the issues that were raised by the teens. You can view the full post below or here, where you can also read the great comments left by others.

Teen Grid: A sad state of affairs
by Moo Money Nov 13th 2007 @ 5:33PM

I logged into the Teen Grid this Saturday to attend a Machinima tools presentation by HVX Silverstar. Before I could teleport to Eye4You, I ran into a group of teens gathered on Global Kids island. Alex Harbinger was holding his monthly intern meeting, with this one being about the state of the Teen Grid.

Since this topic concerned me, I decided to stick around and weigh in. What I learned was downright depressing. Most of the teens were very unhappy with their current experience on TG. I gathered some of their experiences, including pictures, to share with the Massively readers. I hope this helps you get an accurate description of what they're facing over there.

The first part of the event involved a human barometer, with three choices. For each statement, you would choose from Agree, Not Sure, or Disagree. Some of the results were surprising. The second part involved an informal discussion where they could sound off about anything.

Continue after the jump to see the questions and highlights from the event ...

Statement 1: The Teen Grid is exactly where it should be.

* The economy could be better.
* Population is so small that everyone is up in your drama.
* Teens shouldn't be exposed so much to adults because they're too quick to trust.
* Can't buy mainland.
* Educational islands coming in and treating teens like test subjects.
* Adults are coming in easier than teens, many of whom can't sign up because they don't have cell phones from carrier list.
* Grid is so small that people shop in same areas, not allowing new designers to make money.
* People are scared to invest, which hurts their economy.
* Adults coming into TG should pay higher prices for land to subsidize it for teens.

Statement 2: Fixing sign-ups and premium should be Linden Lab's top priority over anything else.

* They should fix the lag first.
* Because signups are nerfed, TG can't grow their population and economy.
* There should be a 100% TG team at LL. Teens are the future MG customers, and they have trust issues with the brand already.
* SL TG has a bad reputation among foreign teens in schools because they are unable to join.
* LL should work to improve the image of SL so that more people will join.

Statement 3: The Teen Grid has become isolated from the Main Grid; with less and less Linden help and supervision.

* One person messaged three Lindens and none replied back.
* Blue and Teeple are the only two Lindens that seem to care.
* We don't make as much money for them as MG does, so we're not as important.
* The only two Lindens that seem to log in are Blue and Spike, and they do it sparsely at best.
* The TSL website hasn't been updated in two years.
* When the entire grid was smaller, the Lindens used to like coming over to hang out with the teens, but now they act like it's a chore and get defensive about it.
* You used to just be able to randomly bump into Lindens while flying around, but now they only come in to fix things.
* What happened to the community manager for TG that they were looking to hire for?
* If they spent more time on TG, they'd lose profit. Then there would be no grids.
* There should be two Lindens dedicated to TG affairs.

Statement 4: Overall, The Teen Grid's performance has INCREASED recently.

* Performance is worse than before.
* Since teens haven't been relying on LL, they've been improving the quality of TG themselves.
* They've become better at building and just about everything on their own.
* Too many islands are closed off to the teens.
* There is less newbie behavior.

The overall consensus was "The mainstream thoughts seemed to have been that the Teen Grid could be better, but has had a recent uptrend. However, this is not due to Lindens, but rather to the hard work of Teen residents. Linden Lab is slacking, and should fix Teen Grid problems, as well as provide better support."

Points of their informal discussion:

* TG hasn't gone anywhere lately. While it has evolved and grown, it's become stale. Some sims are little more than prim wastelands.
* Furries cause a lot of problems on TG.
* Some of TG's more prominent members are leaving. LL should take note, especially to those paying large amounts of tier.
* Why aren't there islands on TG for promotions like CSI?
* The two grids should merge.
* Mozilla wouldn't be responsible for the porn that they might look at in Firefox, so why should Linden Lab be responsible for them on the Main Grid?
* Linden Lab is supposedly working on an "all ages area".
* There is no difference between the rules for PG sims on either grid. There should be shared PG areas.
* They go through sex education in school, so they should be mature enough to avoid adult areas.
* It's easier to create an MG account than a TG account.
* If the economy collapses on MG, it affects the finances of TG.
* Economy on TG should be separate from MG.
* Stipend removal cripped the TG economy. It was only put in place to reduce inflation on MG.

In my opinion, the Teen Grid is in sad shape. Teens shouldn't have these feelings of abandon, but they're left with no choice. They can barely get the help that they need, aren't visited by the Lindens that they adore, and they're used as cheap labor by many educational institutes.

If Linden Lab isn't going to completely overhaul TG, they should just merge it. As broken as the Main Grid is, it's not even one quarter as bad as TG. I'm totally heartbroken whenever I visit.

I'd like to give thanks to many of the teens that participated in this discussion. Lucky Figtree, Storm Basiat, Alex Harbinger, and Anna Normandy were particularly helpful!

Posted by joyce at 3:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Motorola announced this past week the recipients of their new Foundation Grants program. Global Kids was picked as one of the recipients with our proposal of creating further virtual world focused curriculum, this time spotlighting teaching science through virtual worlds.

Read the press release below or here.

Motorola Foundation Grants $3.5 Million to Inspire Next Generation of Inventors

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Educational Programs Will Reach Children Across the Country

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. – 14 Nov. 2007 – The Motorola Foundation announced today the recipients of its Innovation Generation Grants, a $3.5 million initiative to inspire young people to embrace science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

The 2007 Innovation Generation Grants support 106 breakthrough programs that use innovative approaches to develop interest in technology-related fields while strengthening leadership and problem-solving skills. The grants target programs that encourage girls and ethnic groups currently underrepresented in technology fields. Of the recipient programs:
▪ 41 percent serve African American students
▪ 19 percent reach Hispanic youth
▪ 31 percent specifically target girls

“Motorola wants to show the next generation of inventors that science is fun, challenging and possible,” said Eileen Sweeney, director of the Motorola Foundation. “Through the Innovation Generation Grants, organizations across the country are helping students develop a passion for science and math by making the connection between the cool technology they enjoy every day and the educational foundation they will need for greater success in the classroom and beyond.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs requiring science, engineering or technical training will increase 24 percent between 2004 and 2014 to 6.3 million, making critical thinkers and practical problem solvers fluent in today’s technology even more crucial.

The programs supported by the Innovation Generation Grants range from after-school and summer science enrichment programs to activities that promote innovative technology use and teacher-training initiatives, including:

* Global Kids, Inc. in New York will develop and test a high school curriculum that will enable educators to utilize the virtual world of Second Life to engage students in exploring global science, technology and programming.

* Half Moon Bay High School in Half Moon Bay, Calif., will implement a new way of teaching algebra in Spanish that engages students in learning math concepts using new technology and hands-on learning, inspiring interest and pursuit of math, science and technology careers.

* The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York will work with four public schools from the Young Women’s Leadership Foundation to develop curriculum, train teachers and host student workshops in school classrooms and aboard the former aircraft carrier turned museum to cultivate a deep interest in science among young women.

* The Marine Science Institute in Redwood City, Calif., will engage students in conducting scientific exploration of the San Francisco Bay on its 90-foot research vessel, at its pier lab, in the classroom and through the Internet.

* The National Society of Black Engineers in Alexandria, Va., will meld the engineering design process with math and science knowledge in a fun and interactive environment at its Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) Camp.

* Working In The Schools’ (WITS) new Chicago workplace mentoring program will provide a literacy program with a math and science focus, matching elementary school students one-to-one with business volunteers.

“With our Innovation Generation Grant, we are involving girls at an early age in hands-on design and engineering experiences," said Kathy Cloninger, CEO for Girl Scouts of the USA, which will launch new FIRST LEGO League teams across the country and expand its Design and Discovery Camps with its grant. "Thanks to Motorola, we can challenge traditional perceptions of girls' abilities and close the well-documented gender gap – so they can continue to strengthen their role as members of the STEM workforce.”

Beyond funding, Motorola is linking recipients of the Innovation Generation Grants with each other through a new company-hosted portal site that helps expand and enhance the global network of advocates for innovation in science, technology, engineering and math education.

Many of the grants also will engage Motorola engineers and scientists as volunteers to guide, mentor, tutor and provide valuable insight into the opportunities and excitement of their line of work.

Since 2000, Motorola Foundation has contributed more than $35 million in grants to a variety of programs that expand student access to science and technology fields.

For a complete list of Innovation Generation Grant recipients, visit www.motorola.com/giving.

About Motorola Foundation
The Motorola Foundation is the independent charitable and philanthropic arm of Motorola. With employees located around the globe, Motorola seeks to benefit the communities where it operates. The company achieves this by making strategic grants, forging strong community partnerships, fostering innovation and engaging stakeholders. Motorola Foundation focuses its funding on education, especially science, technology, engineering and math programming. For more information, on Motorola Corporate and Foundation giving, visit www.motorola.com/giving.

About Motorola
Motorola is known around the world for innovation and leadership in wireless and broadband communications. Inspired by our vision of seamless mobility, the people of Motorola are committed to helping you connect simply and seamlessly to the people, information and entertainment that you want and need. We do this by designing and delivering "must have" products, "must do" experiences and powerful networks -- along with a full complement of support services. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and impact, Motorola had sales of US $42.8 billion in 2006. For more information about our company, our people and our innovations, please visit www.motorola.com.

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © Motorola, Inc. 2007. All rights reserved.

Posted by joyce at 2:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by joyce at 3:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In some parts of the world many of the teenagers our age do not have the same chances as we do here in the United States to attend college. Including here, some of the students cannot have the same education due to their legal status. In some of the countries worldwide teenagers do not have an opportunity to attend college because their parents don't make enough money to pay it off. It is sad to see that teenagers our age are unable to attend college just because of their economical status. In other places, people are only able to receive an education up to the third grade. This is what we talked about today in our VVP workshop.

Posted by VVP Julio at 5:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi ,
is me again, for the first time I am early to Global Kids and it feels good. Today, we are suppose to make are own avatars. I think that it is going to be a good experience.

Posted by VVP Michael at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We only have one day of P4K this week, so we kind of made it a mash up of issues that would be discussed in separate sessions. The topic was war games, and we watched some videos that examine the intersection between virtual combat and real world conflict. We planned to watch more videos than we ended up seeing, but that was mainly because discussion (thankfully) lasted longer than expected.

First, we viewed The Shock Doctrine, a short film by Alfonso Cuaron and Naomi Klein based on her recent book of the same name. The film summarizes how CIA interrogation techniques developed in the 1950s have been applied on a global scale. Populations are “shocked” through war or political upheaval in order to pacify them as radical neo-liberal economic reforms are implemented. Next, we briefly discussed America’s Army, the free, online first person shooter released by the US Army as a recruitment tool. We then watched documentation of media artist Joseph DeLappe’s project Dead In Iraq. DeLappe logs in to an active America’s Army game, drops his weapon, and begins typing the name, age, branch of service and date of death for each American casualty in Iraq. Other players inevitably kick him off, and he simply signs back in to another game and repeats the process. Finally, we watched a CNN report on the Predator drone—America’s unmanned aerial vehicle. The Predator is a large remote controlled plane that is flown by pilots using joysticks and video screens based in either Iraq or Nevada. They perform reconnaissance and can also fire Hellfire missiles.

Reactions to the short videos varied from shock and outrage to tentative approval. The Shock Doctrine was shocking. Students, inured to violent movies and violent events in their neighborhoods, were nonetheless reduced to silence by scenes from 1950s mental hospitals and modern interrogation rooms. The clinical language of the CIA’s Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation manual is somehow more disturbing than buckets of on-screen gore. A monotone description of how suffering should be inflicted on prisoners is more frightening than fictitious fangs gleaming in the darkness. There was deep contemplation as we discussed how the reality of interrogation techniques and economic upheaval relate to the rhetoric of making the world safe for democracy and consumer freedom. I fear seeping myself in economic theory, realpolitik, and current events has made me cynical. It was comforting to see young people getting emotional as they wrestled with issues of freedom and security, and what price the world should pay to ensure our comfort.

The video of DeLappe’s protest triggered a discussion of personal responsibility and video games. The students (like the larger world) are divided as to what effect violent video games have on players. Some felt people need to control themselves better, and not make excuses for their actions. Even those who don’t believe violent games have any effect on themselves, however, think younger, less reflective players could be susceptible. We ran out of time, unfortunately, and weren’t able to discuss DeLappe’s protest directly, and what good, if any, they felt it could do. We also weren’t able to show a video of a group of Iraq Veterans Against the War protesting America’s Army.

“I knew those things existed in video games and movies, but I never thought they were real,” said one wide-eyed student about the Predator drone. Some students were glad that new weapons technology keeps US soldiers farther from the front lines and out of harm’s way, but were distressed that such weapons could ultimately lead to escalating violence. One student drew parallels to the atomic bomb, another weapon initially justified as a way to save soldiers’ lives.

Teaching is part preparation and part improv; the ratio of one to the other varies every week. Yesterday, I planned to do more than could actually be accomplished. We had technical glitches and some organizational confusion. It happens. Despite those bumps, however, we also had what matters most: thoughtful minds eager to examine difficult issues. Our students impress me every week. They are growing up in difficult times and struggling to make sense of it the best they can. They want to do right in the world; we need to buy them time so they have a chance.

Posted by Jay at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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)

Yesterday afternoon was the beginning of a new exciting collaboration! Students from Peggy Sheehy’s tech club at Suffern Middle School are joining TSL to take part in the D.I.D.I. Initiative! Three students logged in during yesterday’s after school technology club and ventured over to D.I.D.I. Initiative Island! GK Staff, Ramapo teens, and some of our TSL regulars spend the next hour talking, touring DIDI Island, helping to learn Second Life, discussing our DIDI venture ideas, and getting to know each other! The TSL ‘oldbies’ were so impressed that the Ramapo kids got to go onto TSL during school! The Ramapo kids were excited to be new members of a global community as they got to know other teens from across the US and even the UK!

Here we are hanging out at DIDI's Coffee House!

We can’t wait for the rest of the Ramapo tech club to get their accounts! Soon we will be running customized D.I.D.I. Workshops and getting them started towards launching their very own Social Ventures!

Posted by Meghan at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thing that I like about coming ground is that I get to know how much I know on other things and what I don't know. I get to learn new things too.

Posted by VVP Jamila at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Computers are one of the most important machines that are used today. Using computers allows people to go online and do much more than what they may expect. Computers make life easier for students and many adults. The computer allows me to do many projects at a much faster pace because you can do everything on computers.

Posted by VVP Julio at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thing that I like about computer is that you get find information on anything. Another thing that I like about computer is that you get to chat.

Posted by VVP Jamila at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What I like about common ground is how it helped us get to know about each other and what we do online.

Posted by VVP Christopher at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Please join me on common ground if you care about things like racism and child violence.

Posted by VVP Michael at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think it was good because you get to see what you have in common with other people.

Posted by VVP Rashad at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At first I didn't understand the game common ground. Now I have a better understanding of what it means. I think common ground is good way to know what other people have or understand what they believe in. I was surprised how some people did not know two African countries but I also know that almost every one has an electronic device.

Posted by VVP Juan at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I liked the fact that we got to learn more about each other that we didn't know before.

Posted by VVP Tarana at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I liked when they let us use computers, it's fun.

Posted by VVP Myles at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like common ground and the fact that I get to know that other young people have alot in common and that we all do similar things, such as myspace.

Posted by VVP Doldech at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What I like about common ground is that I was able to observe how many teens have access to the internet and how many teens use digital media.

Posted by VVP Justin at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)