Tag Archives: global kids

Youth-Led STEM Game Design Workshops

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This is a guest post by Juan Rubio, Program Associate for the Online Leadership Program at Global Kids.

Global Kids Youth Leaders

As part of the National STEM Video Game Challenge, Global Kids youth leaders in the Playing for Keeps program designed and led game design workshops that will reach over 200 New York City youth at more than ten Hive NYC institutions. They held two different types of sessions. The first showcased game design concepts and introduced participants to gamestarmechanic.com, a game platform designed specifically for learning how to create games. The second workshop taught participants how to pitch their game design ideas to an expert panel of game gurus from E-Line Media and other game design companies like BrainPop.

At the start of the year, Global Kids trained its youth leaders in the Playing for Keeps program. They learned the core elements of game design and explored the use of games as a platform for social awareness. They also learned presentation and coaching skills to prepare them to teach their peers throughout the spring.

Then, the youth took their new skills on the road to Hive NYC members, including The New York Hall of Science, Iridescent, The Brooklyn Public Library, The POINT and others.

These sessions started off with Global Kids youth using familiar games like soccer or Rock, Paper, Scissors to introduce their peers to these core game design elements:

  • Components
  • Space
  • Rules
  • Mechanics
  • Goals

They then asked the participants to modify and hack one of the components in Rock, Paper, Scissors and the groups presented their modified games to the rest of the group.

The Global Kids youth leaders were learning right along side the youth they taught. The leaders become proficient both at presenting the concepts related to game design, and teaching others how to coach one another. Continue reading →

April Hive Meet-Up Recap: Summer coding, Leah + Rubin = Hive expansion, and more!

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From this point forward, we’re going to recap the amazing-ness that is our monthly member meet-ups.  On the third Thursday of every month, 25-40 Hive NYC members gather to learn more about other youth programs in the city, brainstorm around new opportunities, share updates on their projects, and generally enjoy each others company. It’s an incredible group of educators/peers/colleagues/friends, and we’d like to share a glimpse of what results when we’re able to come together to do cool stuff. The structure is generally as follows:

  • Host organization leads a brief ice breaker
  • Host presents overview of their youth programs, or more specifically, updates on their Hive-supported projects
  • Sometimes a guest will join us to introduce/demo a relevant tool or concept
  • Activity and/or brainstorm around a timely topic, upcoming event, emerging product theme (either as an entire group or in break-out groups followed by a share-out)
  • Snacks!

Last week we were hosted by The YMCA of Greater New York, at their international headquarters on West 63rd St.  Lori Benson, VP of Healthy Lifestyles and Membership initiatives, kicked off our ice breaker – there were a variety of cards on a table with different images, and we were all asked to select a card that spoke to us in a positive way, then share why we chose that card with the group.  Through this activity, we discovered a bit more about each other, who were the music lovers, the artists, the childhood camping enthusiasts, the world travelers, and those that directly connected the images and positive experiences with the work we do in the Hive every day. Next Dana Mantella, Director of City-Wide Teen Programs, shared an overview of programs that address everything from college readiness and civic engagement to healthy lifestyles and the arts.

Then we announced that Leah Gilliam, formerly of Institute of Play, joined Hive NYC as Portfolio Strategist, where she’ll help develop systems and pathways that align youth across projects and programs, as well as work to productize, ship and scale the best ideas that come out of the network.  She’s been a Hive member for quite some time, and we’re excited to have her on board! Also, we introduced that Rubin Museum of Art has joined as a new member of the network – also looking forward to the opportunity to collaborate with them moving forward. Next up: Mark Surman introduced Mozilla’s Summer Code Party campaign, and explained the commitment to make stronger the connection between making and learning, as well as the desire to help the world become more web-literate!  Jess Klein detailed how she’s working on developing projects that make it easy to learn how the web works, using tools such as Hackasaurus and the 2-pane editor.  You can follow her process and her progress, as well as see some mock-ups  on her blog.

She also facilitated a short brainstorm where everyone shared the most common tools and places their youth spend their time online, as well as their current interests. Having this information will help Hive NYC, Jess and the Mozilla Learning team plan and build projects that address the direct interests and skill sets of one of the core audiences for campaign – youth!

As an example of the type of Hive project that would work well as part of the Summer Code Party campaign, I briefly shared my own experience beta testing a project with my daughter that combined Hackasaurus with Inanimate Alice, to use storytelling as the entry for learning how to remix the web. Jess will be hosting open office hours for Hive NYC members on May 9th from 2-5pm, in case you’re interested in discussing or developing webby projects to feature on Mozilla’s campaign site.  Please email her if you’re interested.  If you’re interested in learning more about Mozilla’s campaign, developing your own webby activities, or just joining the party, sign up here. Jeff Smink from The National Summer Learning Association shared an update on their efforts to help connect the DOE with Hive members to develop innovative summer programs.  As a pilot this summer, Global Kids will be working with two high school teachers to co-plan and deliver a program, and will document their process to help inform planning for summer 2013.  Stay tuned! We wrapped up with members sharing updates on upcoming events and projects – best way to stay up to date on activities and opportunities is via our Facebook page or @HiveLearningNYC on Twitter. Until next month!

Global Kids to Develop Badging System in Partnership with Hive

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This is re-posted by Hive NYC member Barry Joseph. Barry directs the Online Leadership Program at Global Kids, Inc., helping urban youth acquire leadership skills and engage in efforts to address global issues through the production of digital media.

GLOBAL KIDS, INC. ANNOUNCES NEW BADGING SYSTEM TO CERTIFY INFORMAL AND INTEREST-DRIVEN LEARNING

More than two dozen institutions in New York City and Chicago invited to participate

Through a generous grant from the MacArthur Foundation, Global Kids, Inc. is excited to announce that it is developing a new badging system for New York City and Chicago members of The Hive Learning Networks. The Hive Learning Network is a community of civic and cultural institutions dedicated to transforming the learning landscape and creating opportunities for youth to explore their interests in virtual and physical spaces. Up to 28 Hive member organizations will pilot badging programs within the system, both for their own organizational needs and for the broader Hive network. Global Kids (GK) will contribute the first series of badges, for global citizenship and civic participation, and be amongst the first to offer a model demonstrating how the Badging System can be deeply integrated throughout a youth-serving organization.

The project addresses MacArthur’s interests in strengthening informal learning institutions and using digital badging systems to motivate, scaffold, and certify the informal and interest-driven learning of the youth they serve.  This project will address the two while expanding the breadth and depth of learning opportunities for youth in both cities. Civic and cultural institutions within Hive NYC and Hive Chicago will be invited to participate in the first year of the project. Some Hive members will use their content expertise to contribute new badges for the use of other Hive members, while others will create badges just for youth within their programs. Some organizations will integrate the badging system into their programming, while others will use it to connect youth they serve with other Hive youth, resources, and activities.

For example, Global Kids will integrate the system within our after-school programming to offer Global Kids youth leaders:

  • Assessment, both formative and summative, to provide meaningful feedback about their participation in our programs and qualified certifications that can be shared with those in the workforce and at universities;
  • Deeper engagement with Global Kids’ programs, through games-based techniques and an online social network;
  • Scaffolded learning, supporting them to find their own path through Global Kids’ programs;
  • Enhanced lifelong learning skills by developing their ability to value what they learn at Global Kids, give name to it, and connect it with their formal and informal learning; and
  • A more democratic learning experience, in which they get to take part in their own assessment process and shape the system itself.

The Hive Badging System will be a branded version of Global Kids’ installation of LearningTimes’ BadgeStack. LearningTimes provides tools and expertise to the world’s most innovative organizations to create powerful interactive online learning experiences. LearningTimes’ BadgeStack is one of the most robust badge-based learning platforms on the market today, and includes features key to executing GK’s vision. Developed in 2011 and released for public use in 2012, BadgeStack was the first to fully integrate with Mozilla’s Open Badging Infrastructure. The key features of the new site will include:

  • A youth feature-set
  • An admin feature-set
  • Digital badges
  • A digital transcript
  • Digital portfolios
  • Missions, power-ups, and rubrics
  • Facebook integration
  • GK and Network-wide badges

Global Kids began developing its first badging system four years ago, within an after school setting funded by the MacArthur Foundation, which supported youth to recognize, talk about, and demonstrate a range of digital literacy skills. This system was later taken to scale within the New York Public Library, adapted for use within a K-6 school in New Orleans and an Atlanta middle school, and is currently in development for additional schools. This experience also informed a badge implementation to train youth to become serious game designers, in partnership with MOUSE, and to assess, direct, and engage interest-driven learning for the American Museum of Natural History and the Bronx Zoo (the latter funded by The Hive Digital Media Learning Fund in The New York Community Trust).

Today, Global Kids is poised to play a prominent role to advance our collective understanding of the educational potential of badging systems, demonstrating how digital media can provide a network binding together the institutions within youth’s learning ecology and supporting the development of the lifelong learning skills required to strategically shape and navigate those ecologies.