Yesterday, I organized a special fireside chat on the Teen Grid of Second Life focused on HIV/AIDS in Africa. The workshop began with Rafi leading a small group of teens in an exercise to have them think about the links between poverty and HIV/AIDS, and the role of Western governments in the fight against AIDS….
Category: Civil Society
Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds: the machinima, graphic novel and report!
As previously reported, on Thursday, I had the pleasure of attending the event "Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds" at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. The gathering featured Rita King and Joshua Fouts discussing their project to research how Muslims have been using virtual worlds as a medium to express their faith, find…
Draxtor’s report on Human Rights in Second Life on PBS Frontline/World
My buddy Draxtor Despres filed his first story for PBS's "Frontline/World" show today, about human rights advocacy within Second Life. Drax focused his reporting on the Virtual Gitmo camp created by Nonny de la Peña and Peggy Weil. And he describes the somewhat mixed reception he got from other human rights activists in Paris when…
Speaking on Global Kids approach and nonprofit services today
I got an opportunity to speak about Global Kids's approach to youth development and the kinds of services we offer other institutions at "Nonprofit Week" on Orange Island in Second Life today. It was neat being among the 150 or so avatars who rezzed in for the talks today by my friends Coughran Mayo and…
Global Kids at Education Faire, Metanomics, Orange Island this week
Global Kids is all over the Second Life grid this coming week, with appearances at three high-profile events. Come by if you want to find out what we've been up to, our views on Teen / Main Grid integration, and how you can support youth development using virtual worlds. Here's the breakdown: Second Life Education…
Witnessing history with 2 million Americans in the National Mall
At 4am on Tuesday, some obnoxious chiming noise woke me with a start. For a minute or so I was completely disoriented: Where am I? Why am I up this early? Whose bed is this? Then it all came in like a jolt: it’s Inauguration Day! I leapt out of bed and started getting ready…
Preparing youth for our rapidly changing times
Such a cool little video dramatizing how quickly our world is changing. My takeaway from this video is that educating youth to be effective citizens in the 21st century is less about cramming knowledge in their brains as much as preparing them with the right disposition to absorb new information, learn new skills, and effectively…
Tweet of the Day: Global Kids wins the Linden Prize!
The spoof posts by Twitter user "Second Lie" are consistently hilarious and spot on (at least if you are a Second Life resident.) Today Global Kids got a very funny mention in the "Second Lie" Twitter feed, referring to the "Linden Prize" being offered by Linden Labs for the most innovative new application of Second…
Virtual worlds and civic engagement: Obama’s health care policy discussed in Second Life
Draxtor Despres's latest dispatch from the virtual world examines how people are using Second Life to speak this country's health care policy, as part of Obama's online policy dialogues. Here's organizer Siri Vita (sp?) describing why a Second Life consultation works: One of the most amazing things was how people were willing to open up…
My promotion: Assistant Director of Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program!
After a year at the Online Leadership Program at Global Kids, I'm excited to announce that I have been promoted to Assistant Director of OLP! Functionally, I will still be doing a good amount of "Second Life producing," but also doing more programmatic and staff oversight. We've got an awesome bunch of geeks and educators…