Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

The Chronicle of Philanthropy's podcast series latest episode spotlights Philanthropy in Virtual Worlds and features a discussion between host Allison Fine and MacArthur Foundation's Connie Yowell and our own Barry Joseph.

Episode 7: Philanthropy in Virtual Worlds

Connie Yowell, director of education at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and Barry Joseph, director of the online leadership program for Global Kids, discuss how nonprofit groups are working in virtual spaces like Second Life. Allison Fine, the host, also offers ideas on how virtual worlds can help organizations raise money and promote their causes. (Running time: 12:36)

Check out the episode on their site, listen to it below or download it.

Posted by joyce at 5:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over the course of April and going through to the beginning of May, Global Kids, in partnership with Common Sense Media and Harvard's GoodPlay Project, held the first ever cross-generational online dialogues about the promise and perils of the digital age. I'm happy to share that the dialogues were a success, generating over 2,500 posts in over 200 distinct topics from over 250 registrants. Also, to our knowledge none of the teen participants run away from the dialogues, slamming their bedroom doors behind them and yelling "You just don't understand me!". :D That's to say that we were impressed both by the depth and nuance of the discourse as well as the civility and mutual respect shown by both sides. Yes, it is possible to actually talk about these issues!

We're now going to start the process of analyzing the content of the dialogues with the aim of sharing a set of takeaways with the public about what it means to be engaging in cross-generational conversation on these issues. In the meantime though, we figured we could direct people to full content of the dialogues so that they could see for themselves. The participants were broken into three smaller groups, following these links will bring you to the content of each group.

I'm pleased to announce the opening of registration for Focus on Digital Media! Focus is a set of online dialogues which we ran first in 2007 to bring youth voices to the societal changes that digital media is bringing. One of the biggest pieces of feedback we got from the teens involved was that they were navigating the online world almost entirely without adults. We figured that the two groups probably need to be talking a bit more. So, our second, cross-generational version of Focus will have parents, teens and teachers exploring the promise and perils of life online for three weeks, from April 13th to May 4th.

We're partnering with Common Sense Media and the GoodPlay Project at Harvard's Project Zero to bring you an experience where you'll be able to explore core issues about the online world, like privacy, identity and credibility, and also bring up the any other issues that are real for you in your digital life.

Think you want to participate? Sign up now to get your spot!

Want to spread the word to teens? Forward this blog post along, or post our flyer in community centers!

Are you an educator that wants to bring your class into the discussion? Check out our teacher's lounge, with classroom curriculum and outreach materials.

Continue reading "[focus] Sign up now for FOCUS - Cross-Generational Voices on Digital Media and Society!" »

Posted by Rafi Santo at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The National Educators Association published recently an article entitled Online Social Networking for Educators highlighting how educators build community and collaboration online in educationally focused social networks beyond Facebook and MySpace.

As a jumping point from there, Akili Lee posting on MacArthur's Spotlight blog, mentions additional social network spaces online like RezEd.org that are big resources for educators. He also goes further and delves into the importance of these spaces for youth themselves.

We have to go beyond exploring social networking tools as just a way to connect with like minded teachers, but come to understand that we have a unique opportunity to create better connections with and facilitate unique and natural learning moments with our students. While these tools may be new and unfamiliar to many of us, we must recognize that for many of today’s kids, setting up a profile page, making friends online, blogging and sharing media is as natural as phone calls and trips to the movies were for previous generations. As we collectively gain better understanding of how students operate online, are we also looking for new opportunities to leverage these spaces to support their personal and academic development?

Both are a good read on the subject, so check them out below.

Read the NEA's post here.

Read Akili's full post here.

Posted by joyce at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was recently forwarded an article by Marc Prensky, a writer in the EdTech field famous (or to some, infamous) for coining the term "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants". Regardless of the helpfulness of this dichotomy, Prensky has views that often challenge educators to question their assumptions and was writing about things like games-based learning back in 2001, when there were far fewer voices on a subject that has now caught on.

In the article, titled "Young Minds, Fast Times", Prensky talks about the importance of bringing youth into the room when discussions about educational reform are happening. He makes very good points about both youth empowerment and how to create relevant educational design, but at the same time, I think his piece misses a lot about how youth voice really works when it comes to education.

Continue reading "[staff] Prensky on bringing youth into the educational design process" »

Posted by Rafi Santo at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The most recent broadcasts of Radio Rookies aired in December 2008 during Morning Edition on WNYC and was held in partnership with Global Kids' High School for Global Citizenship (HSGC) in Crown Heights. These HSGC youth written and produced stories explore why parents work so much, child abuse, literacy, not reaching one's potential, and being different.

Listen to the broadcasts below.

Continue reading "WNYC features GK teens producing radio shows for Radio Rookies" »

Posted by joyce at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Connie Yowell, MacArthur’s Education Director, recently introduced a new series of posts highlighting the work of youth in digital media production, including two teens in Global Kids' Online Leadership Programs, Mariel Garcia and Nafiza Akter.

We wanted to take some time over this holiday season to spotlight voices of those rarely heard from on this blog - but who also inspire and challenge us to think in new directions. Over the next several weeks we'll hear directly from youth who are engaged in their own creative media production - they are remixing, building, designing, and creating their own original videos, podcasts, machinima, games, and networking sites. Their work challenges us to use media in new and creative ways and provides models of innovation and vision for the future. These youth come to us through two incredible programs - The Digital Youth Network in Chicago and Global Kids' Online Leadership Program in New York City - both of which foster media literacy and civic participation through creative production.

Mariel García: My Digital Life

It is hard for me to sit down and realize that I have actually created media in the strict sense of the word. Although I got a computer at home at a young age, I grew up looking up at people who created content that reached many corners of the world. Now that I see comments or the statistics in the cyberspace I have occupied that say people maybe not from all countries, but certainly from all regions of the world have looked at content I have made, I can’t help but go, ‘Oh, wow. Yay Internet’.

Nafiza Akter: Virtual Video Projects

The last couple of years with Global Kids are hard to describe in a few words, especially the work I’ve done around digital media. November 2006, the first Virtual Video Project program began. The mission of the program was to produce a short machinima, which is a term used to describe a film produced in a virtual platform, about a global issue. Most of us, if not all, went into the program without any prior knowledge of Second Life, which was the Virtual World we filmed on.

Posted by joyce at 2:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In my media master club, we received a holiday project where by we had to make a movie cover for a movie. We created our own movie cover about something that we are interested in. The name of my movie is the "Biography of Bill Clinton", and it shows a man and a strive to succeed. It explains how he made it to be the 42nd president of the United States Of America, his tale of being the 15th democratic president elected. It tells the tale of the struggle between the press and his family, the constant struggle to keep them out of his personal life between him and his family.

My movie also tells the tale of him Clinton creating the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote and address international causes such as treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming. It is a heart felt story that will touch the lives of many people and it will make his memories will forever for what he has done will forever be remembered.

Posted by Shonell - Media Masters at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello everybody.

The holiday break has been the perfect time to work on this amazing project: Making a Movie Poster. As you know there are so many political figures in history, international and local figures. They have left a foot step in the society. Some examples of local political figures are, George W. Bush, Nixon, and Abraham Lincoln. In the other hand we had international political figures, such as: Mahatma Gandhi, and Che Guevara. For my project I chose Malcolm X, he was one of the most important political figures in the United States between 1950 and 1965 who fought for African American Rights. He was a great leader and public speaker. I have been reading his biography for a short time, and I think his life was great. I think it is important for everybody to know who he really was, his ideals and goals for the community.

My movie would be about “The Life of Malcolm X”, it will be focused in his past and most importantly his actions for the community. It will be great if there is already a movie about this important person.

Check it out!

Posted by Sebastian - GKm2 at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello Again
Today I'm blogging to tell you about my movie, hence the title "My Movie."
The actual title of my movie is "The 1763" Rebellion based of the actual tale of a former slave leading a rebellion in Guyana.

Cuffy, or Kofi (died in 1763), was an Akan person who was captured in his native West Africa and sold into slavery to work in the plantations of the Dutch colony of Berbice in present-day Guyana. He became famous because in 1763 he led a revolt of more than 2,500 slaves against the colony regime. When he lost Cuffy killed himself.

The anniversary of the Cuffy slave rebellion, February 23, has been Republic Day in Guyana since 1970. Cuffy is commemorated in the 1763 Monument in the Square of the Revolution in the capital Georgetown.

The monument, coincidentally, is the picture I used a my movie background.

Posted by Shonette - GKm2 at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stay tuned to the Media Masters section on the blog these coming weeks to see some small projects that the students have been working on. As part of our series of lessons on appropriation, the teens in the program have been asked to select a political figure, past or present, to base a concept for a movie on. Once they figure out their figure and concept, each of them creates a movie poster for the movie using the BigHugeLabs poster creator, and posts the poster and movie description here on the blog. Looking forward to sharing some of their work with you!

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Continue reading "OLP's 2008 Year End Review" »

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For the past couple of weeks in Media Masters, we've been spending time on the idea of appropriation, defined in NML's white paper as the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content. Before we delved into what appropriation means in a global issue context and having the students utilize this skill through their own media creation, we decided that it would be relevant to learn and talk about the concepts and practices around Intellectual Property, Fair Use, and Creative Commons. As the program is all about having teens become producers of media, it's important that they understand not only what the concept of IP is and when it's ok to use other people's work in their own media creations, but also to understand how to be empowered to make decisions about how other people use their creative works.

We look forward to sharing on this blog some of their thoughts on the subject and their own media appropriation projects, but I thought in the meantime I might post some skits they did about various concepts regarding Creative Commons. Enjoy!

Continue reading "[mm] Tackling Intellectual Property in an afterschool setting" »

Posted by Rafi Santo at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We were excited when the findings from the MacArthur Foundation's three-year ethnographic study of young people’s digital media use was released by Mizuko Ito and her colleagues last month in the publication Living and Learning with New Media.

The MacArthur Foundation Spotlight blog in a recent article, summarized some of the coverage around the blogosphere, and elsewhere, in their media roundup on the reports. This included our own Rafi Santo's write up on this blog and Global Kids simulcast coverage of the forum that MacArthur sponsored last spring. You can view both parts one and two of this on YouTube.

Posted by joyce at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today Mimi Ito and the Digital Youth Research group released their long awaited ethnographic report on kids informal learning through digital media, and it's a must read for any parent, educator, policy maker, journalist or administrator who's ever heard the word MySpace. More than anything else, it dispels the myth that youth involvement with the connected, digital world is at best a waste of time and at worst an impediment to their social development. The report outlines the variegated and granular nature of youth habits online, differentiating between those that use technology to "hang out" with friends they already have face to face, those that "mess around" with tech through tinkering and creating, and those that "geek out" through deep engagement with global online communities that are oriented around a common interest.

I think that the most important thing I'd highlight in terms of its relevance to educators is the fact that youth are engaging in self directed learning online, developing habits around the exploration of knowledge areas and skill sets that will be critical later on. One of the key things that we're attempted to do in both our online and offline programs here at Global Kids is create spaces where youth that have these passions personally can have a space to explore and develop them in a way that is safe and supported. I definitely hope that anyone reading this blog post takes the time to read the paper, and integrates at least some of what it has to say into their interactions with young people.

Read the executive overview. [pdf]
Read the full white paper. [pdf]
Read the book.

You can also see videos from the event titled "From MySpace to Hip Hop: New Media In the Everyday Lives of Youth" which we covered last Spring where many of the authors presented at length about the research. Part 1 is here, Part 2, here.

Posted by Rafi Santo at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Global Kids in collaboration with TakingITGlobal were recently featured on the MacArthur Foundation's Spotlight Blog to discuss Youth Media Exchange. TakingITGlobal's Natalie Rodic and Jennifer Corriero discussed the launch and development of Youth Media Exchange, the online social network for youth interested in using digital media tools to share information on major global issues.

The demonstration phase of Youth Media Exchange sought to examine the question: how is youth-produced media best conceived, organized, and disseminated to engage and educate a broad audience of global citizens? This social networking website went about answering this question by aggregating and amplifying youth voices through digital media with the aim of increasing media literacy skills in the process. Throughout the course of the last year a number of new questions arose for this collaborative group of professionals informed by the process of experimentation and academic advisors on the project.

Continue reading "Engaging & Educating Global Citizens on Youth Media Exchange" »

Posted by Shawna at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello everybody.

My name is Sebastian Solis and this is my first blog. For the first class we had I created a project called Digital Life Map. It represents what are some of the things I experience with almost everyday. I think that there are many social networking sites were you can share ideas with other. Why don't we use them to make a difference? Some of the social networking sites I use are, my space, hi 5, facebook, hotmail, yahoo, itunes, etc. It means we are connected; I like to stay connected with my family and friends. It doesn’t really look like a map, but what I wanted to show is that they are all connected to my life, connected to the center, they are all necessary for me. It looks like the solar system and my life is like the sun. Check it out!!

Posted by Sebastian - GKm2 at 2:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently on the HASTAC, The Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory blog, Sheryl Grant writes on RezEd.org, virtual worlds and Global Kids programs like I Dig Tanzania.

In the I Dig Tanzania summer camp, students were part of a guided experience, using avatars to bridge gaps of distance and understanding with the help of educators and mentors. Given how easy it is to be invisible and anonymous online, virtual worlds can sometimes raise ethical questions -- for youth and adults alike. Like anything that we do with kids, positive mentoring and best practices play an important role, themes that run through RezEd's community.

It has some great quotes from James Paul Gee, and our own Amira Fouad and Barry Joseph.

"Virtual worlds are not escapist fantasies but a new way to extend our lives and our sense of self. How can virtual worlds expand our lives in new ways," asks Joseph, "What social affects arise as a result, and are these results desirable?" It will be communities of practice like RezEd and pioneering groups like Global Kids that will help determine the answers.

Click here, to read the full article.

Posted by joyce at 2:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Encore.org featured a wonderful article that focused on GK's own Executive Director and Founder Carole Artigliani. In the post ENCORE JOURNEY: From women's history to Global Kids, Jenny Griffin the author, Interviews Carole and tells the story of the path that she took that led to the creation of Global Kids.

To mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the nonprofit Global Kids, has launched Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City to showcase the disaster’s heroes and reinforce emergency preparedness.

Just a few years ago, the virtual reality technology used in the game and Web site would have been alien to Carole Artigiani, 67, executive director of Global Kids and a Purpose Prize fellow.

A career path that once seemed incongruous now makes sense to her. “It wasn’t always as obvious to me as it is now, looking back on my life. Three dimensions were coming together: my background as an educator, my experience in social and political movements, and my passion for the issues in our country and the world,” Artigiani said.

Continue reading "[In the Media] ENCORE JOURNEY: From women's history to Global Kids" »

Posted by joyce at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

About a year ago, I wrote about GK teens assisting the Pew Internet and American Life Project in developing a survey about the effects of game play in young peoples' lives. On Monday, I got an email from Amanda Lenhart of Pew letting me know that the results of the survey, the first comprehensive study on teen gaming habits and their relationship to civic life, has just been released.

From the report, which can be downloaded here [pdf]:

The first national survey of its kind finds that virtually all American teens play computer, console, or cell phone games and that the gaming experience is rich and varied, with a significant amount of social interaction and potential for civic engagement.

There are many juicy tidbits in it; my favorites talk about how there is positive correlation between kids who play games with others in person and civic outcomes, as well as results that show that teen gamers that get involved in commenting on gaming websites and discussions boards are more engaged civically and politically than their peers that don't.

This is an incredibly powerful and important report, and has already helped shift the conversation in the media about what role video games play in the lives of youth. On CBS Evening News this week, Connie Yowell of the MacArthur Foundation and Amanda Lenhart from Pew spoke about the report's findings. Check out the clips below:

Connie Yowell on CBS Evening News
Amanda Lenhart on CBS Evening News

Posted by Rafi Santo at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NEWS RELEASE

Global Kids
137 East 25th Street New York, NY 10010
www.globalkids.org
212-226-0130

Contacts:

Jonah Kokodyniak, Global Kids, 212-226-2116, Jonah@globalkids.org
There.com: Aimee Yoon, Dotted Line Communications, aimee@dottedlinecomm.com, 646.678.4980
Second Life: Peter Gray, Lewis PR, secondlife@lewispr.com, 415.992.4434

For Immediate Release:

Virtual Worlds Collaborate to Spread Kofi Annan’s Message About International Justice: Global Kids Plays Lead Role in Bringing Event to Online Communities

On March 20, 2008, spearheaded by Global Kids, Inc., a unique collaboration amongst virtual worlds, which combined report audiences of over 10 million users, streamed live from the Waldorf Astoria where Kofi Annan received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s first award for international justice. While Annan spoke before a live audience of 1,200 people in New York City, hundreds more watched and discussed the live speech across four virtual world communities, creating the largest massively multiworld simulcast to date.

At events coordinated by Global Kids, Inc. within There.com, Whyville, Second Life and Teen Second Life, virtual world residents, both teens and adults, viewed the MacArthur Foundation awards ceremony in which Mr. Kofi Annan received the first MacArthur International Justice Award of $500,000 to be distributed to a non-profit of his choice. During the live presentation, the virtual audiences, led by Global Kids staff with support from the virtual worlds companies Makena (There.com), Numedeon (Whyville), and Linden Lab (Second Life), engaged in vigorous discussion and debate.

A demonstration video can be viewed at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=tEtDEdyf3bM and samples of the teen responses can be read at: http://tinyurl.com/6bn62x.

Continue reading "[media] Virtual Worlds Collaborate to Spread Kofi Annan’s Message About International Justice: Global Kids Plays Lead Role in Bringing Event to Online Communities" »

Posted by joyce at 8:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently in a blog post entitled Dumbledore for a Day: The Things You Can Do in Second Life, Henry Jenkins shared his experiences during our recent wizard rock inpsired event Hogwarts Dance Party of Good and Evil focused around Harry Potter fandom. Henry also lends praise to Global Kids.

A while back, I shared with my blog readers my experiences in Teen Second Life, thanks to an organization called Global Kids. I've gotten a chance to work more closely with Barry Joseph, Rafi Santos, and others from the Global Kids organization over the past year or so and each encounter has left me even more impressed with their respect for their young participants and their imaginative use of virtual worlds to focus young people on issues impacting the real world.

Thanks Henry! To read more of the post, click here.

Continue reading "[blog] Henry "Dumbledore" Jenkins lends us praises!" »

Posted by joyce at 5:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Below is a reposting of an article from MacArthur's Digital Media and Learning, in which Connie Yowell asks: What can we learn from young people about why they find virtual worlds so appealing?

An affordance is a quality of an object, or an environment, that allows an individual to perform an action. This term came to mind as I read through Barry Joseph’s post—Comparing apples and oranges in virtual worlds. The recent simulcasting of an extraordinary speech by Kofi Annan into four different virtual worlds certainly provided an opportunity to think about virtual worlds and how young people use them. I came away from the event most struck, perhaps, by the size and quality of the discussion held in Whyville. Over 180 young people attended the event in Whyville, creating streams and streams of thoughtful chat discussion. Quite extraordinary really. What is it about the norms, practices, adult roles and other such affordances of this space that is so appealing and engaging for young people? More importantly perhaps, is if we cast aside our adult expectations and standards, what it is we can learn from young people about why they find this virtual world such an engaging learning space?

These are the kind of questions that form the basis of MacArthur’s grantmaking in Digital Media and Learning. What can we learn from young people about how to use digital media to support learning? What do young people have to tell us about the shape and future of learning environments in the 21st century? As research begins to emerge and as we observe the extraordinary engagement of young people in virtual worlds such as Whyville, Quest Atlantis and others, we have begun to form a tentative list of the kinds of affordances we see in environments that support learning. So far, we see the greatest engagement in those environments that allow young people to pursue a need to know, to share, to produce, to make their thoughts and productions public, and to develop a specialized language.

These are just a few tentative ideas that are emerging and are offered here simply to stimulate discussion. We think they are useful because they focus on the experience of young people in these environments rather than on the technology. In the posts that follow, I have invited a few of our colleagues to share their thoughts on the affordances of virtual worlds.

Posted by joyce at 12:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On April 23, 2008, 39 youth in Teen Second Life participated in the 2.5 hour public forum, "From Myspace to Hip Hop: New Media In the Everyday Lives of Youth." It addressed how digital technologies and new media are changing the way that young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life, presented by Common Sense Media, the MacArthur Foundation and the Stanford University School of Education.

As is common in Teen Second Life, Global Kids facilitated processing questions during the live video stream, encouraging youth to respond to the content of the video and relate it back to their own lives. The following are some of the highlights, addressing such topics as:

• On MySpace, Facebook and Parental Restrictions
• On Socializing in Teen Second Life
• On Second Life and Homophobia
• On “Kiddy” Virtual Worlds
• On Showing Their Second Life Avatars To Friends and Family
• “Hip Hop is the Web 2.0 of the Streets”

Continue reading "[conf] Teen Residents on the From Myspace to Hip Hop Symposium" »

Posted by Barry at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Below is a post from the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning blog in which Barry Joseph writes about Comparing Apples and Oranges in Virtual Worlds.

Global Kids reflects on lessons learned from a massively multiworld simulcast of Kofi Annan’s receipt of the MacArthur Award for International Justice.

Not all virtual worlds are created equally, even those with the greatest potential to host educational content. On March 20th, Global Kids hosted the first massively multiworld simulcast across four virtual worlds, bringing a live speech by Kofi Annan after receiving the first ever MacArthur Foundation ‘s International Justice Award to Second Life, Teen Second Life, Whyville, and There.com, not to mention the web.

To see what I am talking about, please watch the brief video below:

Continue reading "[In the Media] Comparing Apples and Oranges in Virtual Worlds" »

Posted by joyce at 1:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This was the location of the live stream from the event. In a few days, the footage will be posted online and available from this location. Thank you for your patience.

Posted by joyce at 9:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On April 1st, the 110th Congress Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing entitled Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium.

Listening to the testimony, it was hard not to imagine what I might have shared were I asked to testify. It might have gone something somewhat like this:

Chairman Markey, Ranking Member Stearns, and Members of the Subcommittee, we at Global Kids are honored to have this opportunity to share our experiences as experts working with youth and virtual worlds.

To provide background, in 2006, following extensive research into the educational potential of virtual worlds, Global Kids became the first nonprofit to develop a dedicated space for conducting educational programming in Teen Second Life (TSL). Specifically, Global Kids is conducting intensive leadership programming for youth, bringing students from its New York-based programs into the space, and streaming the audio and video of major events into the world. This work has received significant funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, among others, and been conducted in partnership with many other organizations, including UNICEF, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the International Criminal Court.

I would like to begin my testimony with a quote from an earlier Congressional Subcommittee hearing that took place just over a half-century ago.

“Formerly, the child wanted to be like daddy or mommy. Now they skip you, they bypass you. They want to be like Superman.”

This testimony from Dr. Fredric Wertham on the connections between comic books and juvenile delinquency, and his earlier publications on the matter, helped to stoke a national hysteria around the lurid dangers of this once new medium. While barely a decade old, more than 90% of children between the ages of six and eleven read comic books, as did over 80% of teenagers. Parents in the Cold War era, unsure how to handle a variety of new social forces, found a convenient scapegoat in the colorful and ubiquitous magazines. Wertham’s testimony helped the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency hold comic publishers’ feet to the fire and led not to new regulatory policies but a new industry-administered code of conduct that shaped comic books for over thirty years.

Generation after generation seems to go through its own “cycles of outrage,” whether with the waltz, pulp novels, comic books, rap music, or most recently with video games and online social networks. New mass media come and go, gaining relative acceptance or falling by the wayside, but concerns about the safety of children and regulations surrounding their freedoms never go away.

Virtual Worlds, practically non-existent just a few years ago, are just the latest commercial media to be seen as “colonizing” the lives of youth, once again raising a variety of concerns about their impact. The growth of youth involvement with virtual worlds is predicted to surpass 50% over the next few years, so one can expect a number of concerns to be raised about virtual worlds that are similar to the mediums of the past--a threat to law and order, a threat to traditional learning, and a threat to traditional values.

Continue reading "[staff] My Testimony For Congress (had I been asked)..." »

Posted by Barry at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The following is our recording of one of the many AERA panels held this week in NYC, this one specifically on:

Learning, Meaning, and Civic Engagement in the Digital Age:

The MacArthur Digital Media Initiative

• Participant: Henry Jenkins (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)


• Participant: Howard E. Gardner (Harvard University)


• Participant: James Paul Gee (University of Wisconsin - Madison)


• Participant: Nichole D. Pinkard (The University of Chicago)


• Chair: Constance Yowell (J.D. & C.T. MacArthur Foundation)

powered by ODEO
Download audio here.

And, a great excerpt from the larger file in which Jenkins discusses virtual worlds as places of role play and experimentation and situates Global Kids programs as models of using virtual worlds for civic engagement.

Download audio here.

I see virtual worlds as spaces of thought experiences where people can imagine other possibilities than the literal institutions and identities that we are stuck with in this world.

My own experience in High School was that my identity was fixed even within two weeks of entering, that I was going to be the social pariah, and the only question was whether I got out with any amount of dignity left or if I was going to be completely emotionally crippled in the experience.

If I had a place where I could be powerful and assert myself and show my leadership, and my intelligence and my creativity and get recognition from other people through it -- that would have been a hell of a difference for me going through it. And it makes a difference for a lot of kids in this country, now who are caught in that same situation.

So I look upon “identity play” in this world like carnival, in the medieval sense.
Medieval worlds where thick social relations were suspended and where people stepped outside and tried on other identities, and new relationships; moreover in some degree that was emotional release (and social control mechanism), and some degree it was the beginning of social uprising. In my hometown Boston, the people dressed up like Native Americans and dunked tea in the harbor -- that was carnival practice turned into real world politics. Historically, carnival was something that people used to imagine the possibilities and act on them in the real world.

We can judge yet whether the young people are going to be using virtual worlds to imagine institutions that will be more humane or more open to creative and intelligent invention and in route to the real world or if they stay there.

The different is that carnival in medieval terms was a ritual of a few and getting ready for it was a weeklong practice. Now we have carnival existing in parallel reality to us all the time. The temptation to live in carnival most of the time must be very great, especially for kids whose High School experience was anything like my own.

But the challenges is how to generate that out. That’s why organizations like Global Kids really excites me, because they are working in Second Life and developing educational projects which bring young people together to talk about real world issues and the real world penetrates into Second Life and Second Life spills back over in changes they are making in their communities. The model of citizenships that Global Kids represents seems to me a powerful way of thinking about that parallel reality; in a way that makes differences here, in the world that we are going to live in eventually.

Posted by joyce at 3:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This month in the DMYA, we had a visit from videographers and producers that are putting together a documentary on the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Initiative. It was a great opportunity for the youth in the advisory to both have their voices heard about what they're actually doing online, as well as to display their skill in speaking and thinking critically about their relationship to digital media.

After this, we asked everyone to create their own maps of their digital lives, which was a really fascinating process, and one in which we all got to learn a lot about the different ways the group relates to digital media. I've included some of the maps below. Enjoy!

Continue reading "[dmya] Youth Advisory maps their digital lives" »

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Online Leadership Program – Online Community Developer/Content Editor

Global Kids Inc., a New York City based non-profit organization dedicated to transforming urban youth into successful students and global and community leaders, is seeking to fill a short-term freelance position as Online Community Developer/Content Editor, to be filled within our New York City offices or remotely. The position will run from mid-March until end of June.

The Online Community Developer/Content Editor will work with staff at Global Kids to create the structure and content for a new social networking site called “RezEd: A Hub for Virtual World Educators.” This project is designed to provide educators using virtual worlds with access to the highest quality resources and research in the field, and to use the most effective technology to establish a strong network of those using virtual worlds for education. RezEd features will include podcasts, newsletters, best practice documents, contributor blogs, an event calendar, job postings, resource library, listserv, and other social networking functions.

Responsibilities of the Online Community Developer/Content Editor will include developing the content and technical strategy for the site and managing the production of both up to and soon after the site launch. The Online Community Developer/Content Editor will also work in collaboration with other GK staff on educator outreach and the production of podcasts.

The Community Developer/Content Editor will collaborate with Global Kid’s rapidly expanding Online Leadership Program (OLP) in New York City, where the position will be based. Global Kids is on the cutting-edge in developing best practices in the use of virtual worlds for supporting global youth leadership and its Online Leadership Program has grown in one year from three full time to a dozen employees.

This is an excellent position for someone interested in online community development, journalism, education, and social computing tools.

The ideal candidate is tech-savvy, resourceful, creative, and a team-player who possesses the following capabilities and experiences:

• Website development experience.
• Strong writing and editing skills, preferably as a journalist.
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• Ability to quickly learn new knowledge and concepts.
• Experience with Web 2.0 and social networking tools.
• Skills in developing and managing collaborative relationships, networking with institutions and other collaborative partners.
• Confident encouraging busy professionals to submit content.

In addition, we prefer a candidate with:

• Knowledge of virtual worlds
• Knowledge of the education field, particularly technology-enhanced education
• The ability to take initiative.
• Strong communication, writing, organizational, and computer skills.
• A short learning curve around new digital and Internet tools and applications.
• The ability to work remotely with others.
• The ability to manage multiple streams of net-based interactivity and communication at the same time.
• Ability to work within a fast-paced, distracting environment.
• An efficient multitasker.
• Strong interpersonal skills.

More information about Global Kids work in Second Life can be found at: olp.globalkids.org and searching “holymeatballs” on YouTube.com.

Application Deadline:
March 7th, but the hire might be offered as resumes arrive.

To Apply
Interested candidates should apply via email and email alone. Email resume, cover letter, work sample, a writing sample to olpjobopenings@globalkids.org (either as a zipped or stuffed file) with “RezEd position” in the subject line. We encourage applicants to pay particular attention to the cover letter, addressing why the candidate is interested in the position, poses the required skills, and what role it plays in the narrative of the candidate’s career path. In addition, please let us know where you learned of the position.

Global Kids, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to a policy of equal treatment and opportunity and do not discriminate against employees or applicants for employment on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, citizenship, mental or physical handicap or disability, marital status, sexual orientation, pregnancy, military or veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law. We continue to support and promote equal employment opportunity, human dignity, and racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity.

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