Announcement of Interest

I was reading through some SL announcements the other day and noticed this announcement from Global Kids, a major player on the Teen SL grid. I thought that some of our groups might be interested in submitting something to them for them to use on the Teen grid. One of the advantages of this is that it would give your research access to an under 18 audience in VW, something that MUVE research has been lacking in. Well, here's the announcment:

As you are well aware, educators around the world are increasingly using 3D, persistent virtual environments as pedagogical tools in areas as diverse as science, art and civic engagement. However, there is as of yet no community of practice for practitioners across disciplines and platforms. Global Kids is excited to announce new efforts to create such a community and to invite your participation to support RezEd: The Hub for Learning and Virtual Worlds.

With generous support from the MacArthur Foundation, RezEd will be an online community for educators, parents, librarians and more to get informed, connected, and inspired. While leveraging an array of participatory and social media tools, the initial focus upon launch will be on:
·       Best Practices from the field
·       Thematic, guest-moderated weekly discussions
·       A regular, twice-a-month podcast series
·       A rich library collecting and contextualizing the best
research and support material from the field.

One component of RezEd is to make accessible and practical the type of work being done by many members of this growing community and connect it with practitioners in the field to inform their work.

As an organization with great interest in the development of this emerging community, it is with great enthusiasm that Global Kids invites you to submit a best practice piece on your respective programs and methodology. The best practice form that we have created is short, but designed to ask you to explore the experience that you've had that has proven to reliably lead to a desired result in
your work.

The Best Practice submission process is comprised of an Online Best Practice Form that you can fill out at your earliest convenience. If your best practice is accepted, Global Kids will notify you as to when you can expect your piece to be published on the site.

Lastly, any feedback is welcomed as we develop the initial offerings for RezEd Beta and move towards an official launch in May of 2008. Please feel free to pass this on to colleagues and wider networks where this may be of interest.

Many thanks.

Amira




------------------------
Amira Fouad
Program Manager
Online Leadership Program
Global Kids, Inc.
137 East 25th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY  10010
tel: 212.226.0130  x 114
rezedinfo@globalkids.org

Global Kids new International Justice Center

I think this provides linkage for a number of threads and topics we are considering this week. Global Kids is a major presence on the Teen Grid, working with secondary educators to provide a variety of content.

The fact they have partnered with the International Criminal Court is a bit of a surprise to me, and I will be interested in seeing what projects they undertake in-world as a follow-up to their major media events with the ICC prosecutor and with Kofi Anan.

Here's a link to another announcement about the event last Thursday that provides a website for the SLCN coverage of the day's happenings.

http://www.nonprofitcommons.org/taxonomy/term/259

Doug