Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

I've been contemplating on what I want to write about in my staff reflection and I'm thinking about all of conferences I've attended this past month. I've received a tremendous amount of insight on theoretical conversations about new paradigms and how the media is affecting our youth. I'm thinking about the impact of digital media on learning and how we should begin to integrate technology and virtual worlds into our learning instead of criticizing and rejecting it. I'm thinking that I've witnessed our youth create a new way of processing knowledge via technology and media. I want to articulate all of the theories and projections for the future of our youth and I'm excited yet stuck on what and how much I want to say. Then it dawns on me that this is my last staff reflection at Global Kids and I pause to think about what am I taking with me as I leave GK.

Since day one, working at Global Kids has helped change my perspective about the world. I no longer see a foreign country as an unreachable isolated world apart from my reality. I know that with a click of a button I can be connected to another part of the world. This connection makes us one community in a matter of second, sharing the same experience across the hemisphere. Technology makes the world a smaller place to say the least.

I am taking with me the importance of becoming a responsible global citizen. I am taking with me the tons of technology skills that I've enhanced and learned. I will forever hold in my memories the enthusiasm and dedication that GK's staff has towards empowering our youth and last but not least I am taking with me the laughter and the many smiles of the GK staff. Thank you GK for making me a part of your family.

Posted by Kathy at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been a blood donor for most of my life, having been blessed with large veins and no squeamishness around needles. It's one of the easiest ways to give that might literally save another person's life. Plus I love the free cookies and juice at the end.

Recently I got contacted by one of the New York blood banks notifying me that they need help finding donors during the summer months, which usually are subject to a smaller number of available donors and a resultant dip in the city's blood supply. The blood bank suggested that people organize a blood donation day at their work, church or community center.

Trying to organize one at Global Kids taught me a lot about what kind of staff we have here. In short: we are tremendously diverse, giving, and almost to a person ineligible to be blood donors.

Continue reading "[staff] Global Kids: why our blood is unacceptable" »

Posted by Rik at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been about two years since I facilitated my first workshop in Second Life, and since then I've encountered this core question of how to effectively facilitate in a space that offers lots of new opportunities from the offline setting, but also poses a new set of challenges.

As any good public speaker or facilitator knows, it's entirely possible to have an audience in "the palm of your hand", and how necessary it is to "feel out a room". I've written before about the challenges of emotional latitude in the virtual environment and its implications for learning, specifically about the ways that it makes perceiving how a given student is comprehending difficult when communicating via realtime chat. On the other side of things has always been the challenge of the facilitator getting across their ideas effectively and leading a class or workshop through strong facilitation. Via text chat, it's often hard to keep tempo up, relay long instructions, and have your "voice" as a facilitator heard within a potentially long stream of chat comments from the participants.

Continue reading "[staff/tsl] Changing the Facilitation Game in Second Life" »

Posted by Rafi at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week on behalf of Global Kids' Online Leadership Program, I attended the PodCampnyc.org conference in Brooklyn as a presenter on youth and the digital media in the 21st century.
Like any other conference, I tried to encourage the students in my program to practice public speaking and present with me, and since it was during spring break, one of the kids volunteered to check it out and tagged along. Together, we provided 70+ handouts, spoke for a little over 60 minutes, and shared 12 teen-made machinima videos with the audience there.

Throughout the presentation, we answered questions about Global Kids in general, the Virtual Video Project after school program, and questions about the teen presenter himself and questions about how his Second Life experience has changed him. Subsequently, every question targeted our work in Second Life, and we had some supporters but most were cynical if not skeptical about Second Life. How did we do it? Why did we decide to use Second Life? What is the connection in SL to real life skills? Bottom line - is it worth the time and resource to explore in public schools? Is being in SL making a positive and worthwhile impact on the youth in our programs?

Continue reading "[staff reflections] Second Life - not for everyone." »

Posted by tabitha at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As teachers, parents, mentors, journalists, media makers (the list can go on and on), we are the ones responsible for teaching today's youth bad words. We are the ones guilty of introducing the latest additions to this infamous list of words. These are words so bad, so loaded, we ourselves don't dare to mutter them in the presence of youth. And because of this we are doing a major disservice to the generations younger than us, who cannot tell you the meaning of the words other than that they are something bad.

The "bad words" I refer to are words such as "genocide" and "Darfur". They are terms showing up in newspapers, shouted out in the latest stints of celebrity activisim, yet rarely mentioned in an educational setting. As part of the "Deconstructing Darfur" application process, teens were asked to write a short description telling us why they wanted to be a part of this action project looking at the situation in Darfur today. Reading over forty applications, I was left with one common response. It went something along the lines of "I know Darfur is something bad... and I want to help... but I don't know who or what Darfur is".

The atrocities in Darfur have grabbed the attention of religious groups, human rights activists, professional athletes, television and movie stars, you name it. All these voices have made one thing clear. Darfur is bad and today's youth know it. Beyond that, however, there are an awful lot of teens who can't tell you much else and it is not their faults. It is ours. We need to do a lot less labeling of situations and a lot more explaining about what is going on in the world today. We need to stop referring to such words as bad words that we are too scared to say in the presence of young people... we must start talking, asking, and explaining before we find ourselves in a world where no one dares to even utter these words any longer.

Posted by Shawna at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the main reasons we created the International Justice Center in Second Life was to explore the challenge posed by MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton last year, who asked, "Might not there be a group in Second Life that could come together to educate itself about the ICC and organize a campaign to persuade public and leaders that we should be part of this court?"

In other words, could Second Life be used as a vehicle for promoting public education about the court and catalyzing civic action in support of the ICC?

Continue reading "[staff] Leveraging virtual worlds for civic action" »

Posted by Rik at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The GK Annual Conference was a strong testament of what our work means. What really touched me, more than the tremendous effort of the staff up until the event, and more than the incredible energy on the day of, was our own leaders, as we all stood behind them, knowing, that they had arrived.
They shined.
They led workshops on politics to an audience of councilmen and academics.
They questioned complacency.
They refused to become docile.
They reimagined democracy.
They participated critically.
They questioned authority.
They led.
In one day they captured the necessity of our work. They captured progress, and education.
No Annual Report could have prepared me for this very real accomplishment that Friday April 4th would be. It was a proud day for all of us as we stood behind our youth leaders. There was so much to learn that day, so much to feel a part of, and so much to be hopeful for.

Posted by Amira at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It takes a lot of effort to avoid the presidential race in the US these days. And that is without even turning on the television or opening a newspaper. Instead, I open my Facebook and am greeted with videos, quotes, fan pages, and friend requests. All of which are about my preferred presidential candidate. Then I log in to my email only to find messages containing linked articles, websites, and upcoming events all about… who else but that very same presidential candidate.

I am far from alone in this campaign of increased interconnectedness. The International Herald-Tribune estimates "Between the two sites [Myspace and Facebook], Obama has about one million "friends," Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, has roughly 330,000, and Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, has more than 140,000." Be mindful that "friending" is just one means of connecting to your candidate, this does not include the fan pages, groups and embedded and linked articles, speeches, and quotations. Now, consider this, according to the same article, "Fully two-thirds of Web users under 30 say they use social networking sites, while fewer than 20 percent of older users do." I, like many others, find myself more connected to others, including presidential candidates, than ever before. I have access to the politician's issues, words, rallies and likeminded supporters in a few simple clicks and strokes on my computer's keyboard.

As the under-30 generation had been previously criticized for its passiveness, perhaps its means and ability to mobilize was simply unrecognizable in this new era of social networks and web-relations. The Herald Tribune affirms, "According to interviews and recent surveys, younger voters tend to be not just consumers of news and current events but conduits as well — sending out e-mailed links and videos to friends and their social networks. And in turn, they rely on friends and online connections for news to come to them. In essence, they are replacing the professional filter — reading The Washington Post, clicking on CNN.com — with a social one."

Posted by Shawna at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As I understand it, Global Kids has three basic rules that form the basis for all of our youth programs:

1. One Mic: We give the floor to the person who is speaking.
2. Safe Space: We respect other people's opinions even if we don't agree with them.
3. Participate: We all take responsibility for contributing.

The youth who participate in our programs are asked to agree to these basic rules at the beginning, and quickly adopt them as their own.  When a heated debate is going on, and everyone starts speaking at once, you hear them cry out "One Mic!" and "Safe Space!" which almost always quiets everyone down. 

I'm a member of the Religious Society of Friends, better known to the outside world as Quakers. At Quaker Meeting for Worship this Sunday I was thinking about how much Global Kids' rules of engagement reflect standard Quaker practice for how we conduct our meetings and discussions.

Continue reading "[staff] Global Kids & Quaker Practice" »

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

A few years ago I was having a conversation with an Indian friend of mine about post-9/11 racial profiling of South-Asians. He was angry about it of course, but he also had an interesting perspective. “Yeah it’s wrong,” he told me, “but you know they’re just finally doing to us what they been doing to black people all along.” Yep, the oppression and suspicion weren't new, just the targets. Well, to every Sikh who’s been accused of being a terrorist, to every Iranian who’s ever been called Iraqi, I have some good news: there’s a new target in town.

Have you heard the news? Fox and CIA director General Hayden are all atwitter. Fear mongers start salivating: there’s a white Al Qaeda. It’s official folks: Goldstein is everywhere. White boy with the pierced nose, fatigues, and 9/11 Truth shirt, considered yourself warned.

Continue reading "[staff] And justice for all" »

Posted by Jay at 8:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I went to a packed strategy session with forty-some human rights activists and advocates to talk about how to best take advantage of an upcoming documentary on the International Criminal Court. It was awesome re-connecting with old colleagues from my time at the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, as well as to making new connections with people doing really neat human rights and justice work.

Leaving the strategy session, I started thinking about the enormous potential for combining socially relevant films and virtual worlds to complete the circle from public education to civic engagement...

Continue reading "[ijc] The virtual movie-viewing experience and civic engagement" »

Posted by Rik at 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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)

What does Color War look like on the internet?

For years growing up, I went to summer camp. While being filled with a host of activities, one of the most hyped (and occasionally actually exciting) of those was color war, in which the entire camp was split into two teams each represented by a color. You'd wear your color, and participate in a wide range of sports and arts competitions, and hopefully not break your arm. (I didn't always manage to achieve that last one.)

Now color war has made it to the internet. And yes, it's way cooler than it was in camp. Developed by the always innovative Zefrank, teams have organized via twitter and a variety of social media sites across the web, and have engaged players in time limited, creative games, including a rendition of rock, paper, scissors via flickr.

I entered color war, and joined a team (red), as did a number of colleagues, friends and teens that I know via my work here at Global Kids. It's been a lot of fun, creating photo renditions of rock/paper/scissors (see above and after the jump) and bantering about who has a better team, even laying down some lighthearted smack talk.

Among the interesting things about this color war for me, and there are many, are its effects in terms of shifting norms and conceptions of what the educator/learner relationship can look like in the digital age, something I've written about before. In the past I discussed how changes to this relationship might challenge traditional conceptions of how educators share opinion as a result of their participation in informal communication settings (like blogs and social networks, as opposed to classrooms or afterschool programs) as well as what it means to work with young people both in the context of them being learners and at the same time employees. What's striking to me about color war though is its overt playfulness, and what that playfulness means in the context of this educator/learner relationship.

Continue reading "[staff] Color War, @RedTeam and Play in Informal Learning Environments" »

Posted by Rafi at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On March 20, 2008, I had the pleasure of taking Mathew, Jonathan, Nafiza, Tarana and Yessenia to a very special event hosted by the MacArthur Foundation, at one of the most grandiose location in New York City, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Now in its second year, the teens are students from the Virtual Video Project after-school program, founded by the MarcArthur Foundation. We were invited to meet the international community, and support Kofi Annan, as the first-ever recipient of the International Justice Award. What an eye-opener it was for all of us to see him in person! A night to remember, indeed!

As a Canadian living in New York, not only was it inspiring to meet world leaders from my home country, but to recognize exceptional individuals from all over, I was beyond belief. To name a few…Allan Rock, former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nation, whom I met once when I was younger. Lloyd Axworthy, former foreign minister of Canada, and Louise Arbour, former member of the Supreme Court of Canada, now in her fourth year as the appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Human Right; whom I had the brief pleasure to speak with in the ladies’ restroom.

What I learned from the dazzling evening was something I never expected. I expected the teens to be ooohed and wowed by the beautiful hotel, the array of gorgeous refreshment and amenities, a wonderful time and a pleasant meal, and of course, being in an environment with a crowd of people they are normally unaccustomed to.
What I did not expect was my own excitement from the event, the "giddy" feeling, so tp skea. I can't describe how much I enjoyed from participating in the capacity bestowed upon us. I felt like one of the students; just another wide-eyed follower of people greater than me, by what they’ve accomplished in their lives, and how overwhelmed I was to be a part of it. I shook hands with former child soldier and book writer, Ishmael Baeh, and to say it was a humbling moment for me would be one simple way to put it. I was beaming with pride, curiosity, and a real sense of belonging each time I introduced myself to someone or vice versa.
In the minds of my students, they remember a crowd of predominately middle-aged White folks dressed up for a fancy evening. In my eyes, I saw global citizens, fighters for justice, individuals who struggled to bring peace to different corners, men and women, children and parents of those who care to give all they have for a better world.

Posted by tabitha at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Typically, when I ask a teen about their online experiences - they will adamantly argue that the relationships they develop and the bonds they are making are very real. This is why I was surprised, recently, but he reaction many of the TSL youth have had to the DIDI project.
Dream It. Do It. is a project where we support young people (in Teen Second Life) to come together, identify what is important to them, and what passions and interests they have, and support them to create sustainable social ventures to improve their communities. Youth Venture has been reaching youth out there in the ‘real’ world with this program for quite some time. We’ve been working together since this past fall to reach youth in TSL.
In our workshops, we encourage youth to consider the community that they identify with - it could be home, school, their neighborhood, or even the TSL community. Interestingly, almost all the teens who have gone through our program so far have decided to focus their venture ideas on the TSL community. We think that’s great! However, I wonder, lately, if the youth recognize that they are part of a network of young people throughout the world who are making change in their communities.
Last week we had a special guest from Youth Venture come and speak to DIDI. Kyle Taylor, from Youth Venture’s Road Trip America is a ‘real life’ youth Venturer who is traveling the country to visit various YV Teams and report back on his blog what he learns.
Kyle told about his Real Life venture, and also talked to the teens about what Youth Venture is all about. The teens asked Kyle a number of questions that alerted me to the fact that not all teens ‘get’ the fact that DIDI is a ‘real’ project. While some of the teens at Kyle’s event were new and still learning about DIDI - it was obvious to me that the blend between the Real Life implications and possibilities of DIDI and the method of using TSL for organizing and supporting youth is not clear, even to some of the youth in TSL.
This is a new idea - using TSL to promote real life change, and I’m hoping that, with special help from real life folks like Kyle, we can help more teens in Second Life to look beyond the idea of a play or virtual venture - and more toward something they feel is real.

Posted by Meghan at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There were many exciting moments to talk about for the month of March and there will be more to come in the month of April. March marks the month were I participated in my first panel. Speaking at the Guggenheim was a great experience for me because not only was I proudly representing Global Kids, but I was also exposed to other educators who have been questioning the effects of technology in education.

On Tuesday March 18, TSL celebrated its anniversary and it was great to be a part of that celebration. I was happy to see that many of our supporters came out to celebrate with us and that we got the opportunity to bond as a team during the event. It was the ultimate proof that so much can be done simultaneously with technology. I for instance was dancing live, dancing virtually and streaming at the same time.

Next month I am looking forward to going to Minneapolis for the NYLC conference and to Stanford University in Los Angeles for the Common Sense Media Forum. Although these events require alot of energy and time there is always something to learn and experience. Plus, I don't mind working on adrenaline. I'm looking forward to the rush.

Posted by Kathy at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's 11PM and I've been scrambling all day to coordinate my team of builders, avatar designers, video stream experts, educators, press people, and cadre of volunteers to get the International Justice Center ready for launch on Thursday.  Clearly it's a labor of love for a lot of people, who have gone above and beyond the call to get every prim ready for the unveiling. 

Maybe I am just overtired and sentimental, but looking at the still unfinished builds, I am struck by the poetry of it.  We're constructing a new edifice for justice and human rights, using the most ephemeral and illusory tools. It sits empty, devoid of content and life, just a prim skeleton, suggesting what's to come.  Aren't "Justice" and "Human Rights" structures that always stand unfinished, needing more planks, foundations and support?

And what will be there in a month, six months, a year?  I have plans and strategies and visions. I see great potential for using virtual world and social networking tools to scale up public awareness and action on these vital global issues -- from Darfur to Climate Change to HIV/AIDS.  The International Justice Center seems like a great place to start exploring how that might work.

But truthfully I don't really know what will happen. Which part of what makes it exciting!

(Here's a secret: We've set the sim as public as of today, if you want to check it out here. Please pardon our dust.)

Posted by Rik at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Howdy readers! The On-line Leadership Program “staff reflections” blog entries are digital therapy for the virtual soul, and every month the intelligent bunch of O.L.P. staffers collectively process their thoughts, perspectives and ambitions about their various O.L.P. projects on this luminous blog. The “staff reflections” section provides committed bloggers, Internet wonderers, youths and digital media folks a pipeline into the beautiful minds of each staff member.

Enjoy reading our blog.

Amira reflects on the changing landscape of both traditional education and civic engagement.
You Tube is their Soapbox

Barry reflects on his recent trip to the International Criminal Court and what he learned about their response to learning about Second Life.
GK in Netherlands to Pursue International Justice Through Second Life

James writes a didactic essay about how the world doesn't need anymore didactic essays.
Words and Actions

Kathy talks about how OLP helps to empower youth by providing them with a digital venue where they can create worlds and express their concerns.
Media That Matters and OLP

Leslie Ann write about breaking down her mental digital divide.
Breaking down the digital divide in my head

Rafi reflects on how the worlds of educational technology and online communities force educators to rethink the educational process.
Educator as designer?

Radhika talks about her experience at the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable.
My first experience speaking on a panel and some general observations

Rik muses about his first round of trips to engage new partners with OLP's work and the many challenges of working in close collaboration with other organizations.
If it's Thursday, this must be Chicago

Shawna looks at the "sociology of avatars", reflecting on the advantages and disadvantages of avatar interaction.
Avatar Sociology

Tabitha writes about getting to know her students.
Getting to really know my students...

Posted by Leslie Ann at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have no idea why I never received my Bachelors degree in graphic arts. Maybe because I just discovered black history and I wanted to live with the idea of loving blackness as a political and intellectual resistance for four years; maybe I felt the field was exclusively for white men; or maybe I didn’t know women, black women could enjoy technology, should be creators of tech instead of just consumers. Working as an Online Program Assistant with Global Kids, it have sparked my fire again for technology.
To be continued..

Posted by Leslie Ann at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week OLP was invited to speak on a panel at the Arts in Education Roundtable held at the Guggenheim Museum. I was nervous since it was my first time talking on a panel but to my surprise it ended up being a really fun experience. It was great to be able to share and talk about all the fabulous work the students in the p4k program have been doing past 3 years and most impressive to hear the students speak so confidently about their experiences. I enjoyed hearing more about DiDi Initiative from Amira, the Machinima program from Kathy and seeing the GK video yet again made me proud of being a part of this organization. The audience was really great too, they seemed engaged and quite excited with the idea of integrating virtual worlds into their classrooms.

One thing in particular that stood out for me during this roundtable was the initial audience response to the human barometer question - ‘do you think that technology should be integrated into all k-12 education?’ We were talking to a room full of educators mostly and I noticed that the bulk of the audience moved towards disagree. After hearing some of their reasons I sort of began to understand why. While we were saying integrate…somehow they seemed to be hearing replace. In their minds it seemed to translate as – ‘do you think technology should replace traditional forms of face-to-face education in classrooms?’ I think we did manage to clarify this to the small audience present there but left me curious to know if this is the reason why most educators are so resistant to technology.

Posted by Radhika at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As an educator, you spend a great deal of time trying to figure out who your students really are. Through their work, behavior, even their environment you are constantly taking mental notes to put together as much of a completed picture as possible in your mind. With this picture of understanding, you aim to share information with these students that is not only relevant but that also speaks to them and their life experiences.

Just when I thought I was getting a grasp on this trick, I led my first workshop in a virtual world. I found myself immediately identifying the participants as I would if they were in any classroom or after school setting. There was the one who cracks the jokes, the one who follows all the rules, the one who sits there quietly, I felt like I was in any ‘real-world’ setting and took a sigh of relief as my instincts came into action. Of course, my instinct was to dig into that bag of tricks to reach out and engage all the different types of participation involved in the activity. But then as we sat around the virtual camp fire on a virtual island in a virtual world upon my computer screen, I realized while I may be right on, I may be completely off.

I have no way to know if the one cracking all the jokes really shares any jokes at all. Perhaps, he is the one who sits through his classes in the back corner without saying a word the entire day. Maybe the participant who is sharing the most intriguing of explanations is the same student who struggles to earn a passing grade in each and every class. While I envision him sitting in his room focused in on this virtual world workshop, maybe he is actually camped out in a public library or community center without a computer to call his own. Maybe he signs in to this virtual world, not for added enjoyment but to escape the realities he lives in otherwise. Perhaps he is really a she.

While some of these teens I will be lucky enough to encounter one day in-person in the real-world New York office I spend each day in, many if not most, I will never know at all. I will get to know their avatar’s name, gender, personality, and friends, but I have no way of knowing if this same information rings true for the teen who is sitting at the computer across the city, country, or world from me, signing into the same program, pressing the same keys on their keyboard to join me around the camp fire to learn about global issues.

Some might be quick to assume this would be incredibly frustrating to not really know who you are interacting with and in some ways I have to agree. Yet, I am also realizing its strengths. Maybe this setting allows you to share experiences you wouldn’t otherwise share. Perhaps you now are more eager to ask questions that you would be too nervous or ashamed to raise your hand and ask when surrounded by your peers. And maybe best of all, you can attempt to walk in someone else’s shoes with an avatar of a different gender, appearance, or style than your own, a life lesson we too often talk about yet can never really try in our everyday lives.

Posted by Shawna at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak at the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life, where I sat on a panel alongside a number people that had a good amount of experience utilizing Second Life to support not for profit missions. I had about 5 minutes to say what I had to say, and was asked to specifically speak to common pitfalls that educators entering SL might make. During my preparatory brainstorm, I came up with two core points: Don't replicate broken pedagogies in a virtual space, and start thinking like a designer.

In a recent thread on the Second Life Educators (SLED) listserve, a heated debate occurred about the idea of spaces designed for education. Many were of the camp that any kind of space within the virtual world (and without) could be used for education, be it a dance club, an "adult" oriented island or traditional lecture hall. On the other end of things were people that believed that the best education happens in spaces that are intentionally created for the explicit purpose of education, rather than those that are created for another use and then appropriated by an educator that can leverage spaces to teach.

While much can (and was) said about this topic, the one thing I noticed was the way that those that hailed more designed learning experiences were somehow treated as "close-minded traditionalists" and those that argued that any kind of space, be it intended for education or otherwise, could be utilized for learning seemed to be taking the "progressive educator" high ground in the argument. I was struck by this largely because of my experience with those thinking about games and learning, where designed education is hailed for it's ability to effectively scaffold and provide "just in time" learning.

In my own comments about educators thinking like designers, I can now reflect that what I was really referring to was the ability of educators to think outside the confines of the both the physical as well as mental classroom. To explore limitless possibilities in utilizing the incredible resources that are now at hand to support education, whether it be in creating a space that allows for certain types of interactions to occur, or exposing them to ones that we'd never be able to create as individuals.

Posted by Rafi at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

How you say something means more than what you say. There is a misperception among many people, specifically progressives, that in order to make the world a better place, we simply need to use rational arguments to teach people of the present problems and explain reasonable solutions. “Speak truth to power!” the activists cheer. The gentle drone of Ralph Nader will topple the walls of Jericho. Orderly marches into police-constructed Free Speech Zones and speeches by left of center politicians will send the pilots of the War Machine fleeing for the hills. It’s not true though, of course. Let’s be clear here: despite sporadic victories and brief flashes of human goodness and communal justice, the world has been dominated by power-mad oligarchs since at least Sumer. The bullies hold guns and use double-speak propaganda to cow the public. The Republic stands head down, stupefied by the flickering idiot box and fish-gene tomatoes.

Continue reading "[staff] Words and Actions" »

Posted by Jay at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February was a very interesting month for me. I was able to publish something official for the first time. Albeit it was a long process, it was certainly rewarding so hopefully it won’t be the last. Sometimes we concentrate so hard on challenging the teens we work with that we forget to challenge ourselves.

Second, I had to let two students go in the program, while another had to leave because of personal reasons. Losing students in the program is not something I take lightly, I probably get too attached to the teens sometimes that I often have to make a conscious effort to draw the line, so this time I am learning to let go and accept the fact that I can't always be the one to help them mature, be all that they can be, achieve nothing short of what they can do, etc.
So for the 2 students who had to leave the program, I wish them best of luck, and perhaps they will return next year, you never know.

I got to know my students better this month, and I am very very happy about that. Now that we are more familiar with each other, they have become more comfortable sharing with me on a personal level and the feeling is mutual. I know what songs they like, not the songs we assume they "should" like based on their age or gender, I know what goes on in their school and home lives, how many siblings they have, who grew up without a mother, or father, or who has never moved away from their neighborhood. I am also realizing my "role" in their lives, which is always evolving in a good way. I might be a friend to some of them, but to most, I am still seen as a "teacher", even though I don't work at their schools as a regular teacher, or have any obligation to evaluate their academics career on a regular basis. So the interaction we have with each other is special, and for this I am thankful.

I want to share one story of a teen, someone I was afraid of losing in the beginning of the program. This student grew up without a mother; her sister has raised her since her mother’s death. She is intelligent, warm, and possesses a wicked sense of humor. However, she is also defiant and strong opinionated, and does not always work well with others. Over the months she came and went, at times she would not show up for the program for 2 to 3 consecutive sessions, or arrive late with no valid excuse. She felt frustrated with the program and was often distracted. However, instead of confronting her with problems I noticed with her behavior, I showered her with encouragement and small talks. I knew she has it in her to do well and excel, and I also knew that she was not the type of person who could take criticisms well. Let’s face it, who can? Especially when you are a teenager.

Then I noticed that she started coming more frequently, more and more on time, and befriended another student in the program. Now she is becoming a leader in her own ways, and when she smiles, it brightens up the room.

Lesson learned for me this month is that the extra few minutes you take to get to know someone, will get you a story, a deeper understanding of who it is you are really talking to. Noticed I said someone, not “student”, or “teen”?

Get to know one of your teen today, and leave work out of it. Who knows, maybe you secretly admire the same pop singer or watch the same TV show just as religiously as they do.

Posted by tabitha at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today as educators we are challenged to think ahead of education.

Today we witness our youth becoming a part of the democratic process through YouTube and not the picket line.
They are empowered to have their voices heard sooner and to more people than ever before.

They gain knowledge, the way they should, in repositories that are no longer vacuums but constantly evolving, in places like Wikipedia and comment threads.

They learn early that they are a part of change, contributors as much as seekers of knowledge, of processes.

They learn that they are experiencing something unique in their country’s (and their world’s) historical trajectory. They learn that the system that they are a part of depends on them as much, if not more than the system they have been taught to depend on.

And so they network. They speak publicly. They think critically. They advocate.

And all of this is done beyond, above, even against the confines of the classroom teaching that dominates their education.

Continue reading "[staff] YouTube is their Soapbox." »

Posted by Amira at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I would really like to share my experience as a jury at the Media that Matters film festival jury screening in February. I really enjoyed watching the movies but also talking about the different genres and the impact that they would have on different audiences. It triggered different thoughts on how OLP's work impacts so many audiences including educators, scholars, students and much more. OLP not only creates digital media with a message but it also exposes urban youth to different types of media. OLP helps to empower youth by providing them with a digital venue (second life) where they can create worlds and express their concerns. OLP, along with Global Kids really encourages kids to be concerned global citizens and it feels good at the end of the day to be a part of that. I am interested in seeing Global Kids create a short film festival by the youth that we serve. We could stream it into TSL or on our blog but what's most important is giving youth an opportunity to feel proud about creating meaningful media messages.

Posted by Kathy at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last month Rik and I made a trip to the Hague in the Netherlands to pursue their involvement in our creation of the International Justice Center in Second Life. The responses we encountered to the concept of using a virtual world like Second Life for the public good was unexpected and surprising.

Rik, Nicola (our amazing point of contact at the court), and myself:

However, before I can get to that, I wanted to post about today's headlines, read in the national free newspaper within the cafeteria of the International Court a half hour before our meeting, making fun of recent U.S. efforts to track terrorists... in Second Life!

Watch the video to hear the translation. It would be funny if, as an American, it wasn't so embarrassing, as well as indirectly implying that nothing "real world" or "serious" could be occurring in this "game":

This press encounter is what I am used to around Second Life. Either a dismissive attitude towards Second Life (the reporters), an irrational response to overblown concerns (the U.S. government), or, in the case of this article, both. What surprised me about the responses to Global Kids' proposed use of Second Life, over the course of four meetings with three organizations, was the striking absence of either.

It seemed clear to all with whom we spoke that virtual worlds are just another viable media with which they should be engaged. No one asked about sex in Second Life, or the presence of gambling. No one suggested that it was too different or weird to expect regular folks to use, or too otherworldly to tackle real world problems.

Rik and I were prepared to make the case for the relevance of virtual worlds as a vehicle for social change and education, not prepared to have to reign in people's imagines as they explored with enthusiasm the various ways our project could support their work - whether it was for lawyers around the world, journalists covering the court, or the workings of the court itself.

It was very refreshing and helped the project get off to a tremendous start.

The question, of course, is why? Why were all of these ex-pats in the Netherlands able to approach this new medium without prejudice and lacking the protective cynicsm I so often encounter? If you have thoughts, please post them below.

Posted by Barry at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The last few weeks have been filled with a somewhat ridiculous amount of travel for Global Kids, including two trips to Chicago, a hop over to Los Angeles, and culminating in a transatlantic flight to the Netherlands at the end of this month. The purpose of all these trips has generally been to solidify relationships with key partners of Global Kids and firm up respective responsibilities and next steps. As one of the new kids on the staff, these trips have been invaluable ways for me to get up to speed quickly on the larger nexus of institutions and individuals that Global Kids is a part of.

It's somewhat ironic that Global Kids Online Leadership Program works in the virtual world, but accomplishes much of its relationship building and partnerships up close with people not avatars. The reality is that nothing beats the "high speed socio-emotional bandwidth" that comes with face-to-face encounters.

Here are some random musings rolling around my brain from all of these meetings...

Continue reading "[Staff] If it's Thursday, this must be Chicago" »

Posted by Rik at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was my second day as an intern at Science in Second Life class, and students, again, surprised me with their curiosity and exploration skills.

Continue reading "[HSGC] Communication, Exploration & Second Life" »

Posted by Selen at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If I could have one super power I will choose the power to control the elements. I would choose this super power because it will be easier to do certain tasks like building houses and providing water to thirsty and hungry africans. This power would basically be a new way to take care of everyone going through poverty. One global problem i will defeat with this power is hunger and lack of crops for I would just use this power to grow clean and tasteful crops in a short period of time.

Posted by Shaquille S at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)