Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

We recently received a very interesting email:

I am the Games in Learning project officer for Education Queensland which is part of the Department of Education, Training and the Arts (Queensland, Australia). We currently have a Machinima pilot project operating in three schools.

Our local newspaper, The Courier Mail, is creating a double page spread about Machinima and has asked me to assist with developing content for the page.

They'd like to feature information about work students are doing with Machinima internationally. Could we have permission to use a screenshot from the video A Child's War for the double-page spread?

Well, of course! Below is the part of our student's film and click here if you'd like to download the entire page about teen machinima.

Posted by joyce at 1:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is an amazing article entitled "The Mud-Wrestling Media Maven From MIT" featuring Henry Jenkins that recently was published by the online journal The Academic Life, the Chronicle of Higher Education. In it Jeffrey Young interviews Jenkins on media culture, Jenkin's history, role and attitudes towards media and how he himself has become quite the personal media mashup.

McLuhan and Jenkins probably wouldn't agree on much, since Jenkins argues that the medium is not the message. "Convergence does not depend on any specific delivery mechanism," he writes in Convergence Culture. Media convergence does not mean that consumers will one day buy a single "black box" to watch all forms of programming, he says. Cellphones, laptops, televisions, and other devices can be involved. The convergence will happen in the minds of consumers who pull together elements from all those formats, and then remix the images to create their own fan-made creations.

It goes on to even mention GK's contribution to his mashup by bringing up the event held on the Teen Second Life grid where the teens created the avatar for Henry to use during his first TSL appearance.

Jenkins often mentions the various ways in which his own image has been remixed, and it seems clear that he's delighted by the attention. The artist Christian Jankowski took a cast of Jenkins's head for a project called "The Violence of Theory," in which the busts of several academic theorists were placed in glass cases at a New York gallery. Young designers created a 3-D character made to look like the Henry Jenkins that appeared in a panel discussion held in Teen Second Life, the online virtual world. Someone even wrote a fan-fiction short story in which Jenkins is a main character.

Jenkins is, in effect, putting theory into practice. He is encouraging people to spread and remix his ideas. In the process, he is building what amounts to an academic brand.

In true Web 2.0 mashup fashion there are also links in the article to video footage of Jenkins mud-wrestling, interactive graphs representing his research funding and even supplementary audio to accompany the article itself. As a whole this is a great piece and worth the check out.

Read the full article here.

Posted by joyce at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Spring 2008 policy brief entitled Using the Media to Promote Adolescent Well-Being from the Princeton Brookings Institute series on The Future of Children spotlights the wave of youth focused media in today's society.

Adolescent media use has exploded. Parents are worried that teens are drowning in messages about sex, smoking, drinking, consumer goods, and a host of other behaviors and products that threaten their health and well-being. This brief advocates fighting fire with fire by creative use of media to provide youth with positive messages that counteract the negative and potentially damaging messages to which they are so frequently exposed.

The brief goes on to mention our work and our ways of engaging youth.

Global Kids, a youth development organization, takes a preventive approach, using new media to engage urban youth and inspire them to become global citizens, community leaders, and successful citizens. To do this, the Global Kids Online Leadership Program, www.globalkids.org, infiltrates online youth spaces with substantive, issue-oriented experiences, from online dialogues about current events, to a game about poverty and education in rural Haiti, to supporting virtual-world-based training to promote youth social entrepreneurial activity around such issues as preventing bullying and raising self-esteem.

Download the full policy brief here.

Posted by joyce at 12:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There has been quite a buzz since the launch of our RezEd social network. Below are some of the things people have been saying in recent blog posts. We are overjoyed it has been so well received and encourage others to check our RezEd!

RezEd: A Resource for all things Virtual and Educational! The incredible folks over at Global Kids have just launched a new network dedicated to education in virtual worlds. RezEd should be useful to K-12 practitioners as well as higher ed folks. The site promises lively discussions, monthly themes, interviews and podcasts with experts as well as an innovative community of like minded people all sharing the goal of improving education for all. For the site’s launch, RezEd features an insightful interview with Larry Johnson of the New Media Consortium regarding his congressional testimony. Go check it out!!

Dispatch from vBusiness Expo
On Day 2 of the Expo, Barry Joseph (SL: GlobalKids Bixby) of Global Kids discussed “Doing Well by Doing Good: Supporting Non-Profits and Philanthropies in Virtual Worlds” and how Global Kids has been able to successfully create experiences that engage Global Kids teens in discussing and learning about real world social justice issues, while also bringing in such groups as the International Criminal Court into Second Life. They recently launched the International Justice Center in Second Life and will continue to foster collaboration between students and non-profits. He also announced the new RezEd Hub for Learning & Virtual Worlds and encouraged educators to get connected.

Connecting with educators in RezEd
Already I belong to a few ning groups, like Classroom 2.0, but I’m really excited about the latest group I’ve joined: RezEd, the MacArthur funded network for educators interested in using virtual worlds in education.

I blogged about RezEd a few months ago and have been waiting for their launch ever since. They went into a live beta earlier this week and the place is beginning to fill up nicely now (I think they’re close to 200 members at the moment.)

Posted by joyce at 12:42 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)

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)

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

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, conducted the first ever Congressional hearing simulcast in an Internet-based virtual world today. The hearing addressed the evolution, culture and future of virtual worlds such as Second Life, Zwinky and There which are part of a new form of communication that has exploded over the last few years.

Congratulations to all those who presented:

Philip Rosedale
Founder and CEO Linden Lab

Susan Tenby
Senior Manager, Community Development of TechSoup

Larry Johnson, Ph.D.
CEO of The New Media Consortium (NMC)

Colin J. Parris, Ph.D.
Vice President, Digital Convergence of IBM Research

During Susan's testimony she gave a brief shout-out to GK and explained some of the unique educational experiences virtual world spaces offer.

"It provides a rich educational experience that would not be possible in real life. For example, in Second Life you can walk through a human heart or take a spaceship up in space and explore. Organizations like Global Kids are providing youth with a participatory and creative way to learn about current and historical events."

Audio of the hearing:

Download audio here

We look forward to featuring insights from the experiences of the participants of this hearing when we launch our RezEd network.

Posted by joyce at 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In an article entitled Cinemassively: Global Kids' practices science on Teen Grid, Moo Money spotlights our latest video on our Science in Second Life program which is a machinima made by Cathy Arreguin showing the teens working on their houses and calculating their carbon foot print.

Thanks Moo!

Read the article here.

Posted by joyce at 3:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Draxtor Dupres produced an outstanding machinima news story about the launch of the IJC. You can view it below or make sure to check it out on YouTube.

Posted by joyce at 1:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the release of ICED! (I Can End Deportation), an online interactive 3D role-playing game that teaches the player about current U.S. policies around immigration that destroy families and fundamental human rights, people have been not only playing it enthusiastically, but it is spurring others to search out other games for change.

Below is some of the recent coverage Ayiti: The Cost of LIfe has been getting.

For a virtual dose of reality, a different kind of video game, by the National Catholic Reporter

On college campuses, video games move into classroom, by the Associated Press

Posted by joyce at 2:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our friends at SLCN.tv provided some great coverage of the launch of the International Justice Center yesterday, featuring a dynamic dialogue between the ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and former foreign minister of Canada Lloyd Axworthy. The ICC Prosecutor and Mr. Axworthy touched on a number of key global justice concerns, discussing how to balance peace negotiations and criminal investigations, building political will around the world, and connecting national, regional and international justice efforts.

While addressing questions from the virtual audience, the ICC prosecutor posed his own question to Second Life residents:

I'm intrigued with this idea of Second Life. I have no idea if this could be a system with which we could mobilize better people. But I would like to receive your comments on how you believe we can use this system to improve understanding of this idea and mobilize people, to mobilize resources in the world to protect those who have nothing... This could be a very interesting tool. You have ideas how we can use this new tool?

Later Lloyd Axworthy mused about one possible use of the Center as a place for transnational organizing:

It could be an interesting project of the new International Justice Center to put together a strategy, a treaty, an arrangement, to act as an alternative model [to support global justice]. And use this incredible link where you can connect people across borders, where it is the common interest around these issues. Then you can start percolating the change into national systems. From there you can start to put pressure on the national legislatures and organize around major international events.

Thanks so much to SLCN.tv, and particularly SLCN producer Starr Sonic, for your help making the launch of the IJC a success!

Posted by Rik at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a recent Edutopia.com article, Laila Weir writes about how virtual reality provides a shared online universe in which students can play to learn. She spotlights several programs, including Suffern Middle School and Global Kids that are using virtual worlds. Highlights from the article are below; to read the full article go here.

"If you're looking for something for teens who have less sophisticated technical skills, you may want to bring them into Whyville," advises Barry Joseph of Global Kids, a New York City nonprofit organization that's exploring the educational uses of virtual worlds. But he notes, "Second Life is great for teachers interested in working in collaborations to create something that users can view in a community environment."

Continue reading "[Press} Get a Life: Students Collaborate in Simulated Roles" »

Posted by joyce at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Michael Humphrey in a recent online article in the National Catholic Reporter online talks about innovative uses of video games and spotlights the game ICED.

The sit-in, the boycott, the prayer vigil and the video game -- no, it’s not a Sesame Street exercise about which of the four doesn’t belong. This is a wake-up call to activists about what is going to create social change in the digital age.

“Games are a young medium and they are evolving, they are growing up and becoming more able to sustain a different kind of content,” says Suzanne Seggerman, president and cofounder of Games for Change (G4C) (www.gamesforchange.org).

The New York City-based nonprofit has been called the “Sundance” of digital games for social change. It educates organizations and foundations interested in entering the field.

“Our biggest goal is to activate the nonprofit sector,” Seggerman says, “to let them know that games are really good in engaging young people, especially, in social issues.”

Understandably, resistance to the idea abounds. It’s reasonable to ask whether kids accustomed to shooting their way through virtual dangers will suddenly be willing to adopt more worthy gaming goals: save the environment, feed the hungry or help an immigrant get her U.S. citizenship, say.

Continue reading "[Press] A virtual dose of reality, a different kind of video game" »

Posted by joyce at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.
•
• 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.

Posted by joyce at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The winners of the Digital Media and Learning Competition were announced today and our project, the Virtual World Educators Network was one of 17 exciting new MacArthur Foundation funded and HASTAC administered projects.

The Virtual World Educators Network will be developed to serve as an online hub to promote the use of virtual worlds as rich learning environments. The participating community will share best practices, encourage dialogue, provide access to the leading research, provide podcast interviews with community leaders, and feature the latest news on learning in virtual worlds.

Outpouring for interest in the grant was intense, with over 1,000 proposals submitted. There are some amazing projects that were chosen and we are proud to be one of them. Congrats everyone!

The official announcement is below, you can also find out more details by going to the Digital Media and Learning site.

17 INNOVATIVE PROJECTS TO SHARE $2 MILLION IN INAUGURAL DIGITAL MEDIA AND LEARNING COMPETITION

Chicago, IL (February 21, 2008) – A mixed reality game for high school students in Los Angeles and Cairo to learn about the real-time impact of air pollution in their neighborhoods. A web application that aggregates news and nonprofit needs, where every news story is linked to real-world actions that users can take. A mobile musical laboratory that allows students to explore new ways of making music with laptops and local area networks. These are three of the 17 projects that will receive up to $238,000 in funding as part of the first ever Digital Media and Learning Competition funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and administered by HASTAC (the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory). Selected from a pool of 1010 applications, the winning projects are expected to produce promising innovations in the use of digital media for formal and informal learning.

“The ubiquitous nature of digital media has profound implications for learning that we are only just beginning to understand,” said Jonathan Fanton, President of the MacArthur Foundation. “An open competition was an excellent way to inspire new ideas and collaborations, and the amazing number of applications we received speaks volumes about the untapped potential in the field of digital media and learning. The 17 winners represent the best thinking from many disciplines and professions working to harness the power of the web for learning, and we look forward to the insights they will provide.”

Continue reading "[press] Announcement of winners of the Digital Media and Learning competition" »

Posted by joyce at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The local New York City ABC affiliate WABC aired a piece about our Science in Second Life class this past Wednesday. You can view the video of the story below or go to WABC's site to view it.

BROOKLYN (WABC) -- Imagine a science class without text books. It sounds tough to do, but it is happening at one school in our area.

It's part of an innovative pilot program that allows students to experience lessons like never before.

Education reporter Art McFarland has the story.

It is an experience that is out of this world, but inside any computer."You can do things things you can't do in real life, like fly," student Ernesto Machado said. "You can actually go into the volcano."
It is called "Second Life" for a reason. It allows computer users to live outside of themselves, even inside an erupting volcano. At Brooklyn's High School for Global Citizenship, Second Life is part of a science class.

"It connects fun and science, which a lot of kids can't really find these days," student Shaquille Sanders said. "And it was just fun to do and experience things that you can't really do in a classroom."

Second Life is an online community populated by so-called "avatars," a name for the virtual likenesses of computer users.

"So when you go into a virtual world where you can do all that and more, because physics are surreal and you can fly," program director Barry Joseph. "The possibilities are endless."

Joseph is with the not-for-profit Global Kids, which founded the small public high school four years ago. The Second Life science class is a pilot program, new this year. It is paid for by a corporate grant and also provides the students with computers.

Most students will tell you that working in the virtual world is more fun than traditional classroom work. But they also say it's not as easy as it looks.

"It's not just like walking," student Shabede Spencer said. "You have to learn how to use the computer."

"The more technology we have, we have our students interacting with technology every day, the more equipped they are to go out there and compete in the world, which is driven by technology," assistant principal Tracy Rebe said.

Officials say there will be a test at the end of the school year, and that test will happen in virtual reality.

Posted by joyce at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, to celebrate the two year anniversary of Global Kids in Teen Second Life, with the support of Linden Lab, we held the first ever press junket to the GK Estate and announced the launch of three new projects.

View the chat log of the event, including the presentations about new projects from GK staff and those of D.I.D.I. Venturers too after the jump.
We announced the first four round of grants in the D.I.D.I. Initiative and heard from the youth receiving funds to create their own social ventures around health issues (partnering with YouthVenture and funded by Robert Wood Johnson), announced the upcoming Philanthropy in Virtual Worlds program focusing on global human rights and conservation issues (funded by the MacArthur Foundation), and did a virtual ribbon cutting on our new science island established to host our new high school science class (partnering with the High School for Global Citizenship and funded by the Motorola Foundation) and held a dance party to celebrate.

It was very exciting to have so many journalists and prominent SL bloggers present to hear from both us and TSL residents about these upcoming projects.

View photos from the event.

The first reporter to "file" his report is Adam Balkin, from NY1, the Time-Warner news channel in NYC whose content is broadcast around the country. The text can be read here or you can watch the news clip below.

As other reports come in, we will post them below. Thank you to everyone at Linden Lab who helped to support this event and everyone along the way who offered inspiration.

As part of MacArthur's Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning, Barry Joseph pens an article that was the basis of the speech he gave at the recent online event Philanthropy and Virtual Worlds: Considering Civil Liberties.

In this article Barry forecasts upcoming work by Global Kids that explores the potential of virtual worlds within non-profit, learning, and philanthropic communities.

Read the full article here: Barry Joseph: Planned Activities for Virtual Worlds and the Public Good

Posted by joyce at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Contacts: Jonah Kokodyniak, Global Kids, 212-226-2116, Jonah[AT]globalkids.org
Tom Mariam, Mariam Communications, 914-939-4294, Tom[AT]mariam.biz

For Immediate Release:

Media Offered Unique Opportunity by Global Kids to Experience Teen-Only Space of Second Life

Journalists Can Observe Projects on Education, Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy

New York, NY, January 15, 2008 – Journalists from around the world will have a rare chance to get a first-hand look at the teen-only space of the popular virtual world, Second Life (TSL), through Global Kids Inc. (GK), a leader in the use of new media to empower youth.

Global Kids, now in its third year of conducting educational programming in TSL, is conducting the first invitation-only press tour of the teen-only space of Second Life on Wednesday, January 30 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. EST.

Journalists can participate either by coming to the Global Kids office in New York City or remotely. Interested reporters should contact Jonah Kokodyniak (212-226-2116 or jonah[AT]globalkids.org) to reserve a spot.

The special press tour will highlight three of Global Kids’ most exciting new projects:

• The launch of a Motorola Foundation-funded Science Through Second Life class at the High School for Global Citizenship in New York City.
• A $40,000 commitment from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to create health-related youth-run social ventures.
• A series of competitions linked to MacArthur Foundation international program areas.

Continue reading "[Press] Media Offered Unique Opportunity by Global Kids to Experience Teen-Only Space of Second Life" »

Posted by joyce at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The January issue of the New Jersey magazine The Parent Paper, has an article entitled "Student's Try a Virtual World", which spotlight's both the programs Global Kids and Ramapo are running within Second Life.

They quoted Barry several times regarding TSL.

“Once we went into Teen Second Life, we found things we didn’t find anywhere else. In Teen Second Life you have a spatial relationship with others around you and it feels like you are with people. We could do the same workshops for kids virtually that we were doing in reality.

We could do these workshops in ways that we never thought were possible. In Teen Second Life you don’t have to just imagine you are in a factory – you are in a factory. And teens are building the factory. A lot of our top down approach for spreading information was met equally with ideas from the bottom up. The space is about putting young people in charge and giving them tools. What we are able to do as educators in that space is tap into nascent leadership skills.”

The article goes on to mention CONSENT! And our Playing 4 Keeps program, our TSL interns, along with our upcoming science curriculum and the DIDI Youth Venture program. The only thing the article got weird, is a misquote on the number of sims owned by educators…he would have never said 3,000. ;)

“When you are using Second Life you are going into the youth media space. It’s our youth’s playspace and is our workspace. We can’t force ourselves into their world, or them into ours, we have to work together.”

Download the full article here.

Posted by joyce at 1:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ayiti: the Cost of Life was spotlighted on Slate.com in an article written by Justin Peters focusing on his top choices of free games to play online. Not only did we make his list, but he had some great things to say.

Best game with a social conscience: No matter how bad things are going, you could always be a subsistence farmer in Haiti. (To our Haitian subsistence-farming readers: God bless.) Ayiti: The Cost Of Life makes the Oregon Trail look like Candy Land. The game puts you in control of the lives of a Haitian family of five. You have four years to guide the family through a catalog of privations and calamities: hurricanes, robbers, depression, illiteracy, and on-the-job injuries. Ideally, you'll find education, prosperity, and health, but you'll probably just come down with malaria and die.

The article was also picked up by Slashdot on their site! They even made special note of Ayiti.

And when Salon says "Ayiti: The Cost Of Life makes the Oregon Trail look like Candy Land," they mean it -- most games don't need to caution you that "if the whole family is dead, you lose."

Great to see continued recognition of Ayiti. Thanks Slate and Slashdot.

Posted by joyce at 8:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Totally Wired: How Technology is Changing Kids and Learning public forum, featured panelists Henry Jenkins, Katie Salen & Howard Gardner, was held Wednesday, December 12, 2007, 5:30-7:00 pm EST, at the Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Hosted by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to celebrate the publication of the MacArthur Series on Digital Media and Learning. The panel was introduced by Jonathan Fanton, MacArthur President, and moderated by Connie Yowell, MacArthur's Director of Education.

This event was streamed live into the virtual world of Second Life on the main grid at the University of Southern California's Annenberg sim and within the teen grid on the Global Kids island. Below you can watch the video from the live event (we apologize in advance for a few microphone glitches):

Click To Play

Listen to the podcast

In addition, we compiled a half-hour collection of videos made of the presentations as viewed in both the teen and adult grids of Second Life:

Click To Play

To download the original video files, to mash-up with appropriate credit of course, go to our blip.tv collection.

View all photos posted with the mac121207 tag.

Read the abridged transcript from the teens who were watching on the Global Kids Estate. While watching the stream they discussed the topics as they were raised, such as:
- Web sites blocked at schools
- The concept of being a digital native
- The relevance of testing

"Experts Praise Classroom Media," Harvard Crimson, MA
"How they'll learn," Boston Globe
Coverage of the event on a German education blog

Posted by joyce at 6:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A recent nationally circulated Associated Press article online, written by AP writer Colleen Long, announces the new research lab at the Parsons design school which will be focusing on developing and studying serious games and their scope for social good.

PETLab, the first such lab in the country, will work on creating models of new types of games or interactive designs that address social issues and will do interactive research on whether playing the games helps effect positive social change.

Global Kids hopes to partner with PETLab on some of our projects this upcoming year (stay tuned for more on that). We also were overjoyed to be cited as a good example of what is possible in the field of serious games.

Lab researchers hope to create more games like the popular "Ayiti: The Cost of Life," developed by the nonprofit Global Kids and tech company GameLab, in which players manage a rural family of five in Haiti. The aim of the game is to keep the family healthy, and players make decisions on whether to save money or spend it on a party or at the store, and the family benefits or suffers based on the decisions.

You can read the full article here.

Posted by joyce at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An excellent overview of the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Initiative is now available from Education Week (both in print and online). Global Kids machinima program is mentioned, as are overviews of a number of other projects. As MacArthur is now officially a year into the project, it offers an excellent check-in.

Projects Probe New Media's Role in Changing the Face of Learning
By Andrew Trotter
Published Online: November 30, 2007
Published in Print: December 5, 2007

Online multiplayer games that immerse teenagers in scientific challenges and social networks designed to spark their creativity are among a range of research-and development projects that the MacArthur Foundation has backed since it launched its its digital-learning initiative a year ago.

The Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation committed $50 million in October of last year to a five-year initiative to understand how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. ("Funder Seeding Work in the Emerging Field of 'Digital Learning,' " Nov. 15, 2006.)

The initiative so far has awarded about $23 million in 36 grants to lead researchers and their organizations, most of them universities. John C. Cherniavsky, a senior adviser for research in the education and human-resources directorate at the National Science Foundation, said the initiative may have catapulted the MacArthur Foundation to the forefront of funders supporting research in educational technology.

"They're a major player," he said. "They might be the biggest funder, depending how you count the money."

Though some projects reach well beyond schools, they are relevant to the future of public education, said Constance M. Yowell, the foundation's director of education. Schools are like the middle of a sandwich that is falling apart, she said. Flanking them are industry and pop culture, on one side, and digitally adept children, on the other, both moving forward at an unprecedented pace.

"Way behind, in the middle, are the schools," Ms. Yowell said in an interview. "That disconnect is a huge problem that is part of the problem of the disengagement of young people in schools."

MacArthur's work complements research underwritten by his agency and the U.S. Department of Education, Mr. Cherniavsky said. "Their support is probably less encumbered bureaucratically, with less intensive reporting requirements and auditing than the federal government," he said.
Immersive Environments

Continue reading "[dmi] Education Week Article Features Global Kids" »

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A PUBLIC FORUM on how digital media is changing how young people learn and play, featuring:

Henry Jenkins, Professor, MIT, and author of Convergence Culture, will talk about his latest work on media literacy and skills young people need for the 21st Century.

Katie Salen, Professor, Parsons the New School for Design, and game designer, will discuss the new public school based on design and games she is opening in New York City.

Howard Gardner, Professor, Harvard University, and author of Five Minds for the Future, will talk about the ethical implications of growing up online.

A reception will follow:
Upstairs on the Square, 91 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, MA 02135
www.upstairsonthesquare.com

Hosted by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to celebrate the publication of the MacArthur Series on Digital Media and Learning. The panel will be introduced by Jonathan Fanton, MacArthur President, and moderated by Connie Yowell, MacArthur's Director of Education.

VIEW LIVE STREAM:
We will also be streaming this event live to the web. You can view the live broadcast during the event here.

Supported by:

The MacArthur Foundation's $50 million digital media and
learning initiative aims to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. Answers are critical to developing educational and other social institutions that can meet the needs of this and future generations. The initiative is both marshaling what is already known about the field and seeding innovation for continued growth. For more information visit www.digitallearning.macfound.org.

One of the largest American university presses, The MIT Press publishes important scholarly books and journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. With a long-standing commitment to distinctive design and the creative use of new technologies, The MIT Press publishes innovative research that pushes the boundaries of knowledge as well as comprehensive works that contribute to a foundational understanding of their fields.

The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE) is an educational non-profit organization committed to improving access to education. Its mission is to help meet society's need for access to effective, high-quality educational opportunities in an era of rapid economic, social, and personal change.

Posted by joyce at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Continue reading "[press] Motorola Foundation Grants $3.5 Million to Inspire Next Generation of Inventors" »

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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.

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November 14th, at 6:00 p.m. PST, Barry Joseph will be presenting as part of What Are Kids Learning in Virtual Worlds? conference being held at the University of Southern California.

The LIVE SIMULCAST of this event can be viewed on the Web here.

Additionally, this event is being live simulcast into Second Life at Annenberg Island and Teen Second Life on Global Kids Serious Gaming sim.

We will post additional information and coverage of the event below as it comes in.

Here is a videolog taken over the course the day by Barry Joseph, in which he asks everyone he meets: "When you hear the phrase virtual worlds, what comes to mind?"

A transcript from the Second Life live simulcast event that took place in he Annenberg sim. Of interest is the discussion that took place after the event.

Full video coverage of the presentatio below or view it here.

Click To Play

From MacArthur's blog, Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning comes a post by Connie Yowell entitled Week’s Theme: Posts by Forum Panelists (re: Virtual Worlds and Learning), which overviews the forum event. The post also has links to further information and thoughts by each panelist that presented.

• Anastasia Goodstein:
  Learning In Virtual Worlds
• Doug Thomas
• Yasmin Kafai
• Barry Joseph:
  Using Virtual Worlds to Foster Activism Through Youth Media

Other press and blog coverage of the event:

• from C/net news.com's site: What kids learn in virtual worlds
• from the NCS-tech blog: What are Kids learning in Virtual Worlds? A MacArthur Foundation Panel webcast

Posted by joyce at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The teen SL resident Storm Basiat reported in a recent SLNN.com article about the new D.I.D.I. Initiative. It is an informative article and written from a teen perspective - congrats Storm!

Students gather at a workshop on the teen grid to discuss their ideas.

Global Kids launched a new Teen Second Life project called Do It, Dream It, or DIDI Interactive. The project awards grants up to $1000 U.S..

Teen grid residents have worked extremely hard to help the DIDI Interactive team develop the simulator by building and scripting objects.

At recent DIDI workshops teens can find out how the D.I.D.I. Initiative can help them start their own ventures such as clubs, organizations, and businesses.

The workshop allow teens to brainstorm ideas surrounding what they care about , and educate teens about other ventures created by teens around the world.

Amira Fouad, the coordinator of the project, who is behind the SL Avatar Amira Gkid, said, "The workshops are a chance for young people to come together and brainstorm about issues in their communities that they care about and discuss with other teens from across the world on how they can begin to create change around those issues and have a real impact on the world around them. It's been an incredible experience to watch as teens from different parts of the world relate to both one another, and the common issues across communities, that they want to bring change to."

Daniel Voyager, a TSL Resident from the United Kingdom, attended one of the workshops run by D.I.D.I Interactive. "Taking part in DIDI was really cool. We learned about making our own venture project dealing with an issue that has affected us and coming up with great ideas. I really enjoyed the workshop as we all had a good time chatting and showing our ideas."

For more information about the DIDI Interactive program, e-mail Amira Fouad at amira@globalkids.org or visit the Teen Grid simulator .

Posted by joyce at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After almost two years staffing Global Kids work in Second Life, MacArthur Foundation provided us with a platform to reflect on the unique challenges and how things have changed. Read Barry's insightful article below or directly on MacArthur's Spotlight blog here.

Please check it out and post your own experiences and/or solutions to the challenges we all face. Also, to view the open job positions we have listed go here.

Barry Joseph: Staffing the Virtual World

Global Kids’ Director of Online Leadership asks: “How do you hire staff for a medium that most do not know even exists?”

While virtual worlds like Second Life are gaining increased attention - e.g. its virtual appearance this month within episodes of both television shows Law & Order and CSI - most Americans have yet to learn about virtual worlds, let alone work with one.

In the fall of 2006, Global Kids, which traditionally does work with youth in New York City, received a grant from the MacArthur Foundation which allowed us, for the first time, to run on-going programs within Second Life. The job listing was so innovative that Monster.com, the online job site, saw fit to comment upon it:

“Here’s a job you’ve probably never imagined: Developing and running workshops for teens—in Second Life. But thanks to a New York City organization known as Global Kids, someone has the opportunity to do just that… You can also train and mentor others in Second Life and—as the job offer from Global Kids demonstrates—get paid in real US dollars for it.”

Monster went on to say:

“In the online industry, new kinds of jobs are cropping up all the time that simply didn’t exist just a few years ago—corporate blogger, podcasting consultant, Second Life event planner. Yes, I made that last one up, but it will exist before too long.”

And that time is now. Through a second grant from the MacArthur Foundation, to participate in their Virtual Worlds Initiative, we are now seeking to fill four new positions, one being a project manager who is ostensibly an event planner (albeit not for weddings, but to promote international justice).

Nowadays, listings for new virtual world position are not so novel. There are hundreds of educators using Second Life, for example, and scores of non-profits. However, while we were once one of the few guys on the block, today we have fierce competition, and not just from other educators. We just lost a prime candidate to one of the top Second Life development companies, someone who left the NGO community to enter the for-profit world for the first time. Current conditions differ greatly from the early years of the Web, when the .coms were years ahead of the .orgs; this time we entered the starters box at the same time and are often in competition for the same limited pool of experts.

So how does an educational non-profit compete with a multi million dollar for-profit, whose work promises to be just as cutting-edge (but arguably less socially relevant)?

This concern was brought home by one educator who was sending a number of top-notch candidates our way. She reported they were all “the kind of candidates most organizations would flip for” but had concerns about salary working for a non-profit. She wrote they all “wanted desperately to figure out a way to afford to work for GK!”

This is not a new recruiting tool for non-profits: speak to people’s passions. You might earn more somewhere else, but we can feed your soul. Work for us and you’ll love waking up in the morning. And indeed, the dozen or so employees (depending on the month; we’re growing so fast) who work at Global Kids all share in common their passion for their work, using d