[staff] Coming full circle at Global Kids
On January 9th, I hit my two year mark here at Global Kids. To some, I know this sounds like a short amount of time, but to me, it's an age. To begin with, working in GK's Online Leadership Program means that we're in a field that's moving at breakneck speed. The contours of the new media landscape are shifting beneath our feet. Every month feels like six. We've been both nimble and (definitely) fortunate enough to ride this proverbial wave, and so our team has grown and projects shifted an enormous amount as well in the short time that I've been with GK.
With so many great projects moving forward, it's rare to get a moment when you feel some real closure before moving on to the next thing. But in the past month or so, I've had another great milestone occur in my time here, aside from my two year mark. In late December, MacArthur announced the release of its Digital Media and Learning Series, six volumes which include writings by authors specializing in gaming pedagogy, online identity, youth civic engagement through digital media, and more.
On a grant that Global Kids received to bring youth perspectives and voices to the DML series, I was hired. From the get-go, I began working on a variety of projects including online dialogues in which youth addressed how they felt digital media impacted their lives, an incredible youth advisory that consulted, did research, and even vetted abstracts for the volumes, and others.
Among the very early projects that I worked on as a result of this grant was a digital media essay contest. The contest resides in my memory as one of the first mid-size projects I worked on, and I distinctly remember when it came to completion. The winners had been selected and given their awards in a mixed reality event (our first ever!), the independent report had been published, my head was spinning, and I remember the giddiness of asking myself, "Are we actually finished? Successfully? Yes!!!"
That was the first project that I ever closed out on, and now the larger project that the essay contest had been conducted to support has come to a close. I went and bought myself a hardcover set of the volumes, pictured above, and now feel that same sense of closure I had when we finished the essay contest. Well, perhaps it's a bit bigger this time around...
Over the course of the project, I've had the opportunity to work with talented and dedicated people at Global Kids but also within the incredible network of grantees that are part of the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Initiative, and I'd like to take moment to formally thank you all, regardless of whether or not you'll ever come across this stray blog post.
I've already enjoyed digging my fingers into new projects as the Digital Media and Learning Initiative steadily moves into its next phase, and look forward to all the work it will entail and impact it will (hopefully) have for the good of young people around the world. Rock on into '08!
Comments
Congrats on the 2 year anniversary Rafi - great stuff.
Here's the future with you kicking ass on further projects :-)
Peace
DK
MediaSnackers Founder
Posted by: DK | January 31, 2008 4:48 AM
It's not the years, Rafi, it's the mileage! And sounds like you have come really far, my friend.
Posted by: rikomatic | February 1, 2008 10:09 PM