Speaking of Islam and virtual worlds, it looks like Joshua Fouts and Rita King of Dancing Ink Productions will be unveiling the findings of their study on "Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds" on January 29 in New York City, and then again in Second Life on January 30. Here's the info on the NYC event:…
Category: Civil Society
Global Kids 2008 Year End Review
I just finished drafting the 2008 Global Kids Year End Review, with a lot of help from my colleagues. It's remarkable listing all of the cool stuff that we did over the past twelve months with our scrappy little team of geeks and educators. Some of my personal favs: An AIDS orphan in Ugandan exchanges…
Year One at Global Kids Wrap-up
December 19, 2007 started off super-crappy but ended super-awesome. That morning, I updated my status on the micro-blog Twitter as "jobless." A few minutes later, I got a text message from Barry Joseph : “Sorry to hear the news. Please call when u can.” Barry is a guy I had known for about a year…
Scenarios USA & Global Kids premieres 3 youth films in Second Life
On Wednesday, I produced the virtual premiere of three youth-written films in Second Life. Organized by Global Kids in conjunction with Scenarios USA, the virtual screening brought together around 50 teens and adults on both the Teen Grid and Main Grid of Second Life. The audiences got to watch three short films on the subject…
Memorial to Slain Filipino Journalists in Second Life
Dakila Lacava sent out a notice about a new memorial she created with Gallia Sinatra devote to journalists in the Philippines murdered in the course of doing their duty. Called "Martyrs of Truth", it's a very simple structure with the names of the 62 Filipino journalists who have been "subjected to the ultimate censorship." At…
A tour of the US Holocaust Museum’s Kristalnacht exhibit in Second Life (video)
Drew Stein, CEO of Involve Inc, and David Klevan of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gave me a tour of their new collaborative project: "Witnessing History: Kristallnacht, the November 1938 Pogroms" in Second Life. It's an impressive exhibit that shows the power of virtual worlds to combine various forms of media into a powerful, immersive,…
OneClimate.net broadcasting live coverage of UN Climate Change Conference into Second Life
The environmental group OneClimate.net have been broadcasting in Second Life live coverage from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Poznan, Poland. I dropped in on a videochat with Jamie Henn from the activist group 350.org, Daniel Vokins from the UK Youth delegation in Poznan, and then Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of…
Second Life Human Rights Festival starts tomorrow: celebrate freedom!
Here's the latest news on the enormous human rights festival starting tomorrow in Second Life: The 60th Anniversary of the Declaration of Universal Rights is being celebrated by a huge festival in Second Life. More than 60 concerts mark the 60 years and the talents of 100 artists and musicians are part of the…
New Code helps teachers understand “Fair Use” of media materials in classroom
The Center for Social Media, the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, and the Media Education Lab have recently come out with a new “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education.“ While intended specifically for teachers in media literacy courses, there is a lot of useful information for educators of…
Making virtual pancakes at Parson’s “Playtech” open house (video)
Rafi and I checked out the "Playtech" open house at Parsons The New School for Design this afternoon, which was a lot of fun. The CDT Lab at Parsons organized "Playtech" to enable young people to check out some of the cool interactive games being developed by their grad students. Here's me playing a silly…