On Monday May 18, at 2pm PST , the MacArthur Foundation will be officially launching MacArthur Island in Second Life with a public forum featuring Foundation President Jonathan Fanton and co-creator of Second Life, Cory Ondrejka. Ondrejka and Fanton will be discussing the future of virtual worlds and philanthropy, and then taking questions from the…
Category: Civil Society
Launch of EcoCommons in Second Life Today (Earth Day)!
All avatars are kindly invited to the launch of the EcoCommons in Second Life today, April 22 — Earth Day! This lush, tree-filled virtual island hosts a number of environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club, OneWorld.net and TechSoup's GreenTech Initiative. The EcoCommons launch event will feature a keynote speech at 11AM PST by Jacqueline Chenault,…
Stacked Blog’s 24-hour read-a-thon for the Brooklyn Library: donate today!
My friend Christina over at the Stacked bibliophile blog is doing a 24-hour read-a-thon all day today starting at 8am and going to 8am tomorrow, Sunday April 19. That's plenty cool in itself. But Christina has also added a fundraising component, challenging folks today and tomorrow to donate to the Brooklyn Public Library, which apparently…
HASTAC Digital Media & Learning Showcase: a laptop orchestra, OLPCs in Chiapas, vloggers in Mumbai, and more…
Here's a neat little clip of Connie Yowell of the MacArthur Foundation welcoming the 2008 and 2009 winners of the HASTAC Digital Media and Learning competition, including myself and Amira from Global Kids. Connie always does such a great job synthesizing the broader historic trends, the cumulative impact of the various digital learning projects supported…
Launch tomorrow of “CONSENT!”: youth-produced Second Life game about medical testing in US prisons
Global Kids is proud to announce the public release of "CONSENT!" — a youth-produced digital game about medical experimentation in US prisons on African-Americans. Built in Teen Second Life, Global Kids has arranged for it to be brought over to the Main Grid of Second Life, hosted by the nice folks at Clemson University. Starting…
Fundraiser for Global Kids trip to Kenya on May 6 in NYC
On May 6 , 2009, Global Kids is planning a happy-hour fundraiser for a trip to Kenya for several deserving Global Kids teen leaders this summer. The fundraiser will take place from 7-10 pm on Wednesday May 6, at Sidebar, near Union Square. There will be free food, a silent auction and awesome goody bags….
Yes, this man is my boss
Yet another reason why I love my job. Here's a photo of a bunch of my boss Barry's ID cards over the years. This is so full of win, it's ridiculous.
Youth-led filmmaking of the Global Kids Conference and virtual simulcasts
Last Friday, Global Kids held its Annual Conference at Baruch College, gathering 600-some students and educators from around New York City to examine critical social issues, meet each other, and get activated. This year's theme was "Global Health — Be the Vaccine," featuring speakers and workshops on a wide variety of health-related topics. An important…
“Aha!” moments in virtual education: my talk at the VW Best Practices Conference (video)
Last Saturday I had the honor of presenting at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference about the work of Global Kids and some of the lessons we have been learning about how to best use virtual worlds for education and learning. The multi-day conference took place in Second Life, appropriately enough given the…
Virtual World Best Practices in Education Conference starts tomorrow in SL
From March 27-29, the Virtual World Best Practices in Education Conference is taking place in Second Life. According to their website, this grassroots, community-based conference attracts faculty, instructors, trainers, administrators, instructional designers, and technical specialists from around the world. The virtual conference will "provide opportunities for virtual world communities to showcase projects, courses, events and…