The Story of My “Second Life”

Just came across this post by Nafiza GKid on the Global Kids Digital Media Initiative blog. [Nafiza was one of a small group of teens from Global Kids (GK) at the Second Life Community Convention in Chicago this past August.] I’m sharing it because I think it’s a great example of the hope and promise Teen Second Life has as an educational environment, and sets a high standard for the skills, behaviors and professionalism teens can develop in-world that carry over into real life. It’s precisely the kind of thing that excites me about our Teen Second Life after-school project at my school.

Anyway, Nafiza writes about a Teen Grid event she organized and ran featuring Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone whose story was the basis for the amazing GK machinima piece, “A Child’s War.” The event was streamed into TSL on the Eye4You Alliance island on October 18th as he presented live at Eye4You director Kelly Czarnecki’s library in North Carolina, USA.

Although the event Nafiza organized was “virtual,” she used very real skills to organize, promote and manage it. She had help, including some other very talented GKids, but responsibility for the event was hers. Read her post and you can’t help but feel the pride and accomplishment in her voice as she describes what it was like to produce the event, the insights she gained, the challenges she faced. Imagine the collaboration, communication, presentation and technical skills she needed – levels of facility WELL beyond those I’ve seen demonstrated by adults two or three times her age.

How did this happen?

The answer: Global Kids, that’s how. To be sure, Nafiza is a bright, talented, hard working young person who, one could argue, would succeed at nearly anything she attempted. (I don’t know her personally, though I saw her speak and believe we met brielfy at SLCC.) So, she brought quite a bit to the GK table. But something about the GK experience helped cement those inner capabilities, helped her forge solid relationships, guided her as she developed outstanding communication and technical skills, all leading up to this event. I believe that something was, in large part, her experience in the world of Teen Second Life.

None are more proud of her than the GK staff themselves, I’ll bet, some of whom I know personally (and would, one day, love to call coworkers). Global Kids was already an outstanding after-school program before Second Life became a part of the curriculum. Now, though, it seems to have taken on a truly international presence, guided in large part by the Second Life elements of the program. It is precisely these kinds of transformations that I hope to facilitate as part of the after-school Teen Second Life project at my school.

-kj-