By "Man" The students of the second Playing for Keeps session walked in and sat down quietly. Most of them did not know each other, but all it took was one question - "So, what games do you all play?" - for them to break out into animated chatter. After the great success of the first Playing for Keeps session, we were excited to welcome the students of the second session - and they did not disappoint. The students came in with new ideas, genuine curiosity, and infectious enthusiasm. Using MIT's game design platform Scratch, the students were able to create some truly creative and entertaining games based on important issues that affect us today. Of course, to design a game, we had to start at the basics. Like Session 1, we began by challenging the students to creating a representation of a movie out of Legos pieces. This activity helped them start thinking creatively about the characters, story, space, and how to deal with limited resources (in this case, Legos pieces and time). They were able to create some amazing things with just Legos pieces - including a surprisingly realistic clownfish from Finding Nemo, and a whole scene from Monsters, Inc., complete with multiple characters.
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By Melissa Students at SIS were joined by middle schoolers from around the city to take part in Global Kids' signature "Playing for Keeps" program. They used MIT's open source video game design software,Scratch, to program and design games about environmental issues ranging from pollution ("Pollution's no Illusion" by Jayme, Julisa and Summit) to habitats (Wildlife Takeback by Robert, Gabriel and Patrick). It was an exhilarating week of hands-on activities that exposed students to the elements of a game and content about population density supplied by NASA. All throughout, students kept blogs documenting their learning. On the first day of the program, after a warm-up that involved representing movie plots with legos, the students learned to name the core elements of a game by identifying those elements in classic games such as Rock, Paper, Scissors and soccer. They chose specific elements of a game that they wanted to change, and noticed how their jams affected game play. They were also introduced to Scratch and learned basic functions using the Scratch Program.
By Joliz Cedeño
Without hesitation everyone involved agreed that this year's Emoti-Con! was the BEST EVER! We saw over 150 youth bring their energy and a-game as they set up the projects they worked so hard on over the course of the year. The diversity of mediums ranged from film, scratch, projects using arduino boards, geolocative gaming, robotics and so much more. Youth heard from four amazing keynote speakers including: Mike Edwards, software engineer at The Huffington Post; Ayah Bdeir, founder of littleBits.cc; Jeffrey Yohalem, lead writer of Assasin's Creed: Brotherhood; and Naveen Selvadurai, co-founder of foursquare.
Global Kids represented with three projects including the Playing for Peace Challenge, NYC Haunts, and the debut of Cut It Out a documentary made by GK Leaders at Long Island City H.S. on truancy. Taking home crowd favorite was a team from MOUSE who developed Dining Bands. These bands worn on the wrist were to aid the visually impaired while dining. They would vibrate near food to let its user know where it was and had a sensor for temperature to warn the user when their food was too hot. Overall, the day was a great success and we will have many more videos and photos to share. For now feel free to check out the gallery thus far and watch a brief reflection from two NYC Haunts youth who attended the festival. GK Leader Paoly said it best as she summed up her thoughts: I learned to make something... it doesn't have to be perfect, or ugly, or pretty... By Joliz Cedeño 5/16/12, New York—Using smart phones to map skateboarding hotspots in New York City, learning to view media critically by remixing commercials that reinforce stereotypes about older adults, projecting multimedia projects on building facades. Welcome to learning 3.0.
Grants from Hive Digital Media Learning Fund in The New York Community Trust support NYC nonprofits working with teens to develop ways of tapping into their digital lives to encourage creativity, interests, and learning. All grantees are members of Hive Learning Network NYC and work together on projects, sharing what works—and what doesn’t—in the ever-evolving worlds of digital media and education. For more information about the projects listed below, or to arrange a visit to see the work in action, contact Ani Hurwitz at (212) 686-0010 x224 or at [email protected]. “These projects are driven by the topics, platforms, and technologies that interest youth most,” says Chris Lawrence, director of Mozilla’s Hive Learning Network NYC. “This third round of funding supports both expanded versions of existing projects as well as new initiatives that share resources, expertise, and best practices as we continue to build an innovative, collaborative network of informal learning organizations across the five boroughs.” “The New York Community Trust’s role is not only to fund these exciting projects, but to use our knowledge about local arts and education to identify effective nonprofits developing digital media learning projects and to bring funders together to magnify impact,” says Kerry McCarthy, arts program officer at The Trust. “With the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur and Mozilla Foundations, we are helping kids discover their interests, connect with others who share their passion, and tie it back to what they are learning in school.” The following grants were approved in April 2012: Bank Street College of Education, $50,000, for Civil Rights Remix, a youth-produced multimedia exhibition connecting contemporary and historic civil rights events in New York City. Partners: the Schomberg Center and People’s Production House Bronx Museum of the Arts, $23,000, for a summer program in which teens will record audio and video interviews with residents in Joyce Kilmer Park about living and working in the Bronx.Partner: City Lore Brooklyn Public Library, $32,000, for Brooklyn teens to develop multimedia book reviews and teach these skills to other teens at 10 library branches in Sunset Park, Crown Heights, Bushwick, and other neighborhoods. Partner: Eyebeam City Lore, $83,000, to expand a project in which teen skateboarders record and share videos of skate culture in New York City. Daylong programs in skate parks will introduce skaters to digital mapping, video production, and other innovative ways to share their passion. Partners: Reel Works and Bank Street College of Education Common Sense Media, $25,000, for a teen-produced activity kit that provides young people with the information, tools, and practical skills they need to consume and discuss media. Partner: WNYC’s Radio Rookies Joan Ganz Cooney Center for Media and Research, $100,000, to develop a series of video game design workshops at Hive Learning Network member sites that also encourage youth to participate in the National STEM Video Game Competition. Partner: Global Kids The Lamp, $50,000, for an intergenerational media literacy program covering biased media messages about seniors, in which participants respond by re-mixing video and audio clips on the topic. Partners: Museum of the Moving Image and OATS (Older Adults Technology Services) Museum of the Moving Image, $42,000, to help teens create digital videos using the Museum’s archive of presidential campaign ads. Partner: YMCA of Greater New York New York Public Radio/WNYC Radio Rookies, $150,000, for a program where teens learn journalism basics so they can produce print, audio, and video pieces that explain what it means to them to be Americans today. Partner: Facing History and Ourselves Parsons the New School for Design, $7,000, to create a series of projects, quests, and games that engage and reward youth while they explore the ecology of the urban environment. Queens Library Foundation, $38,400, to help youth who use the Far Rockaway Teen Library to look critically at the media they consume and produce their own print, digital, and broadcast news stories.Partners: the LAMP and People’s Production House Reel Works, $50,000, to help film and science students create an online database of short science clips and make films from the Museum’s archives. Partner: American Museum of Natural History Urban Word NYC, $150,000, for the Words on Walls project, in which teens create poems, blogs, and videos and present them at events around the City against the backdrop of their multimedia projections cast by City Lore’s POEMobile. Partners: City Lore, Bowery Arts & Science, Nuit Blanche NY/Bring to Light Festival, and Global Action Project Wildlife Conservation Society, $48,224, to help Bronx teens learn about climate change and create online games, oral histories, and other multimedia projects on the topic. Partner: Eyebeam World Up, $25,000, to help youth to create original music using digital recording tools. About Hive Digital Media Learning Fund In December 2010, The Trust joined with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to create Hive Digital Media Learning Fund in The New York Community Trust to promote adolescents’ and teens’ learning anytime, anywhere through digital media. This year, funds also are provided by the Mozilla Foundation and the Joan Ganz Cooney and Beth M. Uffner funds in The Trust. For more information, follow: @HiveLearningNYC and @SpotlightDML, and visit bit.ly/tyhvqG and explorecreateshare.org. About The New York Community Trust Through the generosity of New Yorkers past and present, The New York Community Trust makes grants for a range of charitable activity important to the well-being and vitality of our city. We’ve helped make donors’ charitable dreams come true since 1924. Grants made from these funds meet the changing needs of children, youth, and families; aid in community development; improve the environment; promote health; assist people with special needs; and support education, arts, and human justice. The Trust ended 2011 with assets of nearly $2 billion and made grants totaling $137 million. By Joliz Cedeño Nonprofit Commons posted a write up of a recent visit from Global Kids. Check it out!
Barry Joseph of Global Kids recently came to visit the Nonprofit Commons to discuss the potential of gaming for social change. It has become increasingly popular in gaming to blend fantasy-based solutions with real-life social issues. And organizations like Global Kids, Gamestar Mechanic,Games for Change, and the AMD Foundation have been leading the way. Global Kids' Online Leadership Program Global Kids is a nonprofit educational organization for global learning and youth development. They work "to ensure that urban youth have the knowledge, skills, experiences, and values they need to succeed in school, participate effectively in the democratic process, and achieve leadership in their communities and on the global stage." Joseph's initiative, the Online Leadership Program, integrates a "youth development approach when tackling international and public policy issues with youth media programs that build digital literacy, foster substantive online dialogues, develop resources for educators, and promote civic participation." The Playing 4 Peace Challenge The Online Leadership Program has been working with youth in New York City to design video games for 10 years now. This time around, they've partnered with Gamestar Mechanic and AMD to bring together the Playing 4 Peace Challenge. "Over March and April, youth can go to Gamestar Mechanic, design your own game, and submit it," explained Joseph. "In May, one youth will win a new laptop with other cool prizes. But more importantly, scores of good games will be produced, by youth, judged by youth, for youth, on the topic of peace." As academics, activists — and even gamers of old — harness and reinvent the power of gaming as a new medium for social change, kids will keep imagining and designing a better world for us all. For all of you awaiting the arrival of the next revolution to begin with a bang, behold! It just may begin with the sound of powering on a video game. Alexandra Bezdikian Online Community Coordinator TechSoup Global @alebez http://flavors.me/techsoup By Joliz Cedeño Andrew Gardner posted a great write up on the presentation on Playing for Peace led by Barry Joseph and Global Kids Leaders Ednica and Kendell. Check out the post below!
Game nights have been bringing people together for generations, and recently BrainPOPcollaborated with our friends from YouPD to host our very own! The evening included game play, of course, and presentations from NewVisions, the MIT Education Arcade and Global Kids, to more than 50 teachers, administrators, non-profits employees. First, Scot Osterweil, Creative Director at the MIT Education Arcade, shared how play is at the root of human nature and learning, yet it’s not honored within the US educational system. He continued by describing how play is at the root of many well designed educational games including his own Lure of the Labyrinth which we played collaboratively with the entire group! Grand Theft Calculus it was not Next Barry Joseph, Online Leadership Director at Global Kids, along with two youth leaders, Ednica and Kendell, presented on the process of designing games in their after school class, specifically “Playing for Peace” with Gamestar Mechanic. They are currently challenging young game designers to create games with social impact about the causes and effects of war around the world. Get your students involved by clicking the link above. Next Hsing Wei from NewVisions showed off Hackasaurus from Mozilla, demonstrating how the thoughtful “x-ray goggles” tool allows students to see and remix code from various websites to make instant realtime mashups. She illustrated the ease of mixing code from the google logo and a cat, and the results were hilarious. YouPD has also created a challenge to create a lesson for your students using these tools. Click the link to share your ideas, or read about ideas from other educators. Mashups have never been so educational! Finally we broke into small groups to play on our xbox 360 kinect, to survey the games on GameUp, and to enjoy the company of educators who are excited about the possibilities of using games in the classroom. If you’re in NYC and would like more information about future NewVisions and YouPD Blender events, check out their website, and tell ‘em BrainPOP sent ya! See original post at BrainPOP! By Joliz Cedeño A junior at Benjamin Banneker Academy in Brooklyn, Kendell Francis originally joined GK's Playing 4 Keeps (P4K) program as a way to gain community service credit while practicing an activity he already loved: video games. However, since joining P4K, Kedell say his perspective has changed. "P4K is helping me think about how I view the world. It's helping me re-evaluate my relationship with media. Now I think about what I can do to affect the media and teach others." With the support of Global Kids trainers, he has even begun to look at collegiate programs in game design. Kendell says his goal is "to focus on building more realistic games that address everyday issues." Playing 4 Keeps emphasizes social impact game design as a tool for exploring issues such as resource management, conflict and the influence of media on youth.
By Daria In this week's Playing 4 Keeps, youth blogged about their experience going to E-Line Media to go behind the scenes of Gamestar Mechanic last week. You can read their entries here.
One entry to highlight is Kendell’s, who wrote: Our trip to E-Line Media taught me a lot about the complex process of creating a chapter for Gamestar Mechanic and also about the many different jobs there are at E-Line. I learned how each member of E-Line contributes something to the finished product, whether it be the dialogue or the expression on the characters’ faces, and that the process involves a great deal of give and take. In the end, the team at E-Line Media will have produced a chapter that along with conveying the right message to the player, is appealing to everyone. Youth spent the majority of the session designing their own challenge around a serious issue, except they did it entirely with paper and pen, rather than online. One group chose global warming as an issue and another group chose violence prevention. Each group brainstormed a story narrative and then wrote or drew out each step on index cards, including an intro, missions, and outro, in keeping with Gamestar Mechanic’s usual challenge format. The trip to E-Line was interesting. We learned how they make the challenges and how they do the art work. We learned that they first plan how they want the challenges to teach. It was interesting how they called playing PS3 and Xbox research. The trip was great. They are good with drawing and you can see then how they draw with great ability.
Our trip to E-line Media taught me a lot about the complex process of creating a chapter for Gamestar Mechanic and also about the many different jobs there are at E-line. I learned how each member of E-line contributes something to the finished product, whether it be to the dialogue or the expressions on the characters' faces, and that the process involves a great deal of give and take. In the end, the team at E-line Media will have produced a chapter that along with conveying the right message to the player, is appealing to everyone.
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