After a brief introduction, Barry showed a video that introduced information about the Global Kids program and highlighted many of the program participants talking about their experiences. The group was then invited to play a card game/mingler that helped to introduce various things that Global Kids has done.
Jonathan, one of the teen panelists described his experience in the Playing for Keeps program - designing a game about life in Hati last year and a game called "Consent," developed in Second Life that explores the problems of experimentation on prisoners.
Angela then described a digital media project that she worked on that tackled the problem of obesity, using Dance Dance Revolution among different things and showed a brief video. Shen then showed a video, entitled "A Child's War." Created in Second Life, this short film was a great example of machinima with elaborate scenes acted out by avatars (at least that's how I'm assuming it was created), told the story of a boy from Uganda forced to fight as a rebel. Angela served as the interviewer in this movie and explained how Second Life enabled them to make a film that they otherwise would not have been able to make. She described the use of SL as an educational tool as "fun as well as complex." She explained a situation where their movie was tampered with after they first put it up on SL, and Barry explained that the permissions were subsequently changed to protect the students' work.
Next, Lane was invited to help with a demo of Teen Second Life. Barry explained that there are nearly 1000 teens that now own some form of property in SL. Other property is owned by Linden Labs and organizations such as Global Kids. Barry explained how he had come to meet Lane in SL - because Lane (and his avatar "Cheesepuff") had created a form of in-world graffiti that protested the involvement of adults in the teen grid. Lane explained that this was in response to having heard that some kids had gotten kicked off the adult grid. The interaction that resulted between Lane and Barry, sparked additional public conversations about the role of adults in the teen grid that continue to this day. In April, shortly after the one year anniversary of Teen SL, a debate was held in-world. This ultimately led to a proposal to more clearly delinate adult-owned lands in Teen SL. When Linden actually modified the grid accordingly. Lane was quite pleased about the fact that he had contributed to changing SL - he commented that he was suprised that he had as much "power or voice" as he did - how much power a group of teens had when they got together to protest.
(the modified look of the Teen Grid displayed)Then Barry turned back to SL, joining Brooke Barmy, a well-known in-world furniture designer. Brooke described his involve in the Global Kids camp in SL. The camp adressed global issues (such as child sex trafficking) and leadership, but also allowed time for traditional camp activities such as in-world campfires. A brief video on YouTube explained more. The participants ultimately created a maze that mirrors the exprience of being drawn into the world of child sex trafficking). This maze was incredibly helpful not only in raising awareness about the image, but also in helping to raise funds to help combat the problem in-world.
Barry asked Brooke, why did you create a maze (a game) to raise awareness? Brooke's response: "in world, people don't just want to come and sit and hear someone speak. The maze, on the otherhand, is a physical activity that people can try their hand at." Barry then asked Brooke about the promotional strategies. Brooke explained that Linden put messages up on the welcome screen about the maze and a special teach-in event, and several in-world products were also created to promote awareness.
Q&A
What barriers do you see to doing something like this in your regular school experience?
J: the school officials would never agree to it - they are more concentrated on academics...they would see it as not good enough. Games are seen as a waste of time - they destroy your brain, or so they fear. In a very professional and adult manner he then cited a study done by a Harvard professor who did a study that showed students who played games went on to do better in school than peers in a control group that did not play games.
Once schools see what students learn, how can they deny the value of it?
B: its not always enough
I'm a teacher, one of the challenges I see is that everything takes time. How long did it take you to do this project and build this game?
A: it took us the whole school year. To make "A Child's War" it took 2-3 months and we didn't finish during the school year.
J: the computers were too slow at our school. We couldn't develop the games ourselves, we just came up with the idea and did the design. Barry explained the Digitial Refinery (headed by a home-schooled 15 year-old who started the first for-profit in-world development company) helped to actually make the game in-world.
Have you ever thought about taking this to libraries instead of schools? Would you go to this program if it was in a library?
J: a good idea
L: If you do libraries you get a much wider spectrum of teens, if you target one school at a time you aren't going to make much progress.
A: I go to a musuem, so why not a library.
B: GK was the second adult-owned island in teen SL - the first was owned by librarians.
Strictly virtual vs real-world? Benefits to doing it in person/in the real world?
J: shouldn't be strictly virtual - good to meet people. Instructors help you out - I didn't know much about it before, plus got to meet and socialize.
L: benefits to online - get lots more people involved, don't have to drive anywhere. But I also agree, if you don't meet in person you don't get the social element - good to have a balance.
A: Both, it is helpful to have somebody there to lead you but doing it in SL at the same time.
How important is your identity in SL:
J: I believe that the avatar enables kids to create an image that is more creative and lets you do things that you can't do in real life.
Resources:
The Program: http://Globalkids.org
The Blog: http://www.holymeatballs.org/
PS: it is _really_ hard to take notes in real time - but it was sure fun to give it a try.
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