[staff] Through the looking glass (screen)
This past week has been a whirlwind of events here at Global Kids. Monday we were part of the second MacArthur sponsored Philanthropy in Virtual Worlds, which spotlighted civil liberties in online virtual spaces and how they compare or need to be akin to real world laws and liberties. The event went great, we had crowds in both the main grid and teen grid who took part in active conversation over the topic.
This was followed by Wednesday's press junket event we scheduled in Teen Second Life. It was truly a momentous moment because up until that point, access and information about the teen grid itself and some of the great programs Global Kids and others have been running within the space has been very limited. With the blessing and help of Linden Lab and Blue & Claudia Linden, we were able to invite press into the teen grid space to hear and see what Global Kids has been doing in TSL. There were amazing talks from some of the various Online Leadership Program leaders and teens that were part of the programs and then we all convened to dance in our newly launched sim for our pilot program focusing on Global Kids developing science focused curriculum and teaching Science in Second Life.
Wednesday also saw the start of the actual Science in Second Life classes that are being held at the High School for Global Citizenship in New York. Aside from being an amazingly innovative happening, actually using virtual worlds as a tool to teach high school teens science, it is also double cool cause I get to take part in it first hand. Well, maybe not right there in person, sort of first hand…
…I have an interesting work environment with Global Kids in that I work almost entirely remotely. So all of these great projects I get to interact with and talk about here on the blog, I interface with via working from home. Of course that is one of the great parts about online and virtual world spaces; they allow for things like geography to not be a boundary to being able to effectively work ‘alongside’ and connect with your co-workers.
By now, of course, I am quite used to it and we have worked out a lot of the technical and ogistical bugs and for the most part, there isn’t much difference in what I am doing whether I am in the office or not. So when the first day of the Science in Second Life class began I was already connected via Skype into the classroom in a video chat. After some minutes of going over details with Barry and the teacher Ms. Rebe, the students themselves started to wander into class.
I had a good view of the overall classroom and found it interesting to observe the reactions the students had to my presence ‘in the classroom.’ From their perspective, once they walked into class there was a laptop set up on the desk with my smiling face full-screened onto it. It caught off guard some of the teens and touched off questions wondering if I was there ‘live’ or if I could hear them and then commenting on it seeming a bit creepy interacting with the ‘talking head’ that was amongst them. As the time went on I think they adjusted to the concept more and even caught some smiles and waves to me when I was referred to.
This will prove to be an engaging class for all of the teens involved and a chance to learn new concepts and ways of learning through online social media spaces and virtual worlds. A truly new journey in educational science based learning via a plethora of new media tools and a trip that will be sometimes guided by someone on the other side of the screen. During my involvement in this class, I plan on creating daily short screen-captured video blog posts of the process and hope to offer up my experiences…from my side of the looking glass at least. Stay tuned :)
video from day 1
video from day 2
