Global Kids Past Programs

  • Games For Change
    Global Kids played a founding role in the non-profit special interest group, called Games For Change, of the Serious Games Initiative. Games For Change brings together non-profits and their partners to explore the use of digital games to advanceorganizational mission and societal change. Global Kids continues to play a key role on the steering committee, on the annual conference and on the bi-monthly salon series. As a result of this and related work on games, Global Kids has been asked to present at the annual Serious Games Summit, the Games For Change Conference, the Educational Arcadeconference, and the Virtual World Summit.

  • The GK Public Policy Slam
    The Public Policy Slam was designed to create a network of after-school Policy Slam youth clubs within New York City's ten regional school districts and an online game component that will stand alone to be played by an audience of tens of thousands of youth around the globe. Within the clubs, students would use an online multi-player player simulation to learn about social policy issues and the collective roles they can take to address them. The Public Policy Slam would also provide professional development training for educators in City schools on methods for promoting critical thinking and civic engagement, and establish partnerships with community-based organizations seeking to integrate substantive online programming and social action into their ongoing youth activities. Global Kids collaborated with a range of professionals to develop the conceptual framework and design for the Public Policy Slam. During the summer of 2003, GK convened four separate advisory groups with over two dozen experts from the fields of education, activism, game design and policy analysis to discuss program design issues, addressing such issues as how to create a game that can bridge a computersimulation with the real world; how to integrate a new technology program into the public school system; and what public policies are the best fit for such a project. GK staff also consulted, by phone, with several experts on program development, researched and produced a comprehensive Youth Oriented Public Policy report, which makes detailed recommendations regarding the policy focus of the Public Policy Slam, and prepared a comprehensive summary of lessons learned from the summer advisories, with recommendations for next steps. GK eventually produced a comprehensive presentational packet detailing the Public Policy Slam. During the course of the development, the range of online worlds exploded and affordable tools emerged for the first time. One world in particular, Teen Second Life, became an ideal environment for developing the Slam and applying the lessons learned during its development. Learn more about Global Kids work in Teen Second Life.

  • Your Voice, Your Schools
    For two weeks in February, 2005, Global Kids ran an online dialogue, based on the Youth Circle model, for all citizens of New York City to comment on how education should be improved in NYC. The dialogues were consider an online public hearing by the Committee on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity and will be evaluated, along with eight in-person hearings, for a final report. There were 197 group members, 201 dialogue posts, plus an additional 165 "Lend Your Voice" stand-alone messages. The site receives 4,200 visitors from 1,400 unique IP addresses. A165-page final report was delivered from GK to CCFE. The public report from CCFE is expected in the summer of 2005.

  • Beyond the Fire
    Global Kids' staff and youth served as consultants to the web site Beyond the Fire, a web documentary that features the stories of war-affected youth. Beyond the Fire won "Best Educational Resource" at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin and was also one of 5 projects selected for the New Frontiers category in the Sundance Online Film Festival.

  • Digital Divide Activist Project
    The Digital Divide Activist Project examines the impact of the Digital Divide on communities of color and youth in New York City public schools. At Canarsie High School, a team of fifteen students are being educated in leadership, analytical skills, digital literacy, and understanding the digital divide as a global human rights issue. The youth in this program will create a social action project to educate their peers and community about the digital divide while advocating for technology access and skill training. This project expands upon the findings from a survey, implemented in 2001 by a dozen Global Kids students, that assessed the digital literacy of more than 500 peers. The final report, [ Surfing Alone: Lessons From the Global Kids' Digital Divide Survey ], was released in November, 2002. [ read more ]

  • Everything After 9.11
    During the sixth-month anniversary of the September 11th attacks, GK youth kicked-off an innovative project that invited teens nationwide to engage in a unique online dialogue about its impact on their lives. This exciting month-long project, Everything After: A 9-11 Youth Circle (E.A.9.11), was supported by an unprecedented collaboration amongst youth-oriented Web sites, including PBS Online and YouthNOISE, mobilizing youth across the Web to come together and interact within the E.A.9.11 Youth Circles. Learn more about E.A.9.11 or just go straight to the site.

  • Global Kids in South Africa at the World Conference Against Racism
    The summer of 2001 took two Global Kids leaders to South Africa for the U.N. World Conference Against Racism. Each day they produced video and text diaries, in collaboration with the Youth Channel of Manhattan Neighborhood Networks, which were hosted on PBS Online. View the videos and read their diaries.

  • Croatia2000
    This self-contained site was developed with the youth who visited Croatia for three weeks in the Fall of 2000. It was built with the youth and is composed of material developed for or during the trip.