Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

12.7.09 | Last month we previewed the Fall 09 Roundtable on Virtual Worlds and Nonprofits, which took place on MacArthur Island in Second Life (teleport link). Nonprofit organizations gave brief presentations on their initial explorations of Second Life and other virtual worlds, and the groups discussed how they are thinking of integrating these virtual tools into their organizations’ missions.

The organizations are recent graduates of the Virtual World Capacity Building Program, an intensive four-week session sponsored by Global Kids, a New York City-based nonprofit organization. The following individuals and organizations took part: 

• KC Swopes and John Englander of Facing History and Ourselves
• Theresa Dawson of Jacob Burns Film Center
• Mark Belinsky of Digital Democracy
• Emma Lloyd of Eyebeam Art and Technology Center
• Bruni Burres of International Center for Transitional Justice 

Global Kids posted a number of screen shots from the roundtable on Flickr, and Holy Meatballs, the Global Kids’ blog, has a great write-up of the Second Life presentations. Some of the questions raised focused on whether SL could be used to facilitate large discussion groups or to showcase projects and connect with alumni. One participant raised the issue of staff participation and commitment.

Writing at his own blog, Mark Belinsky of Digital Democracy posted a write-up and video of his presentation, as well as his thoughts on the pros and cons of SL. Here’s a summary of Belinksy’s presentation, via Holy Meatballs:

I was working on the border of Thailand and Burma with youth democracy activists. There we found a correlation between internet access and self-identification of “activist.” We are interested in supporting activists like these with tools to help them do their work.

Our SL interest comes from hearing about the virtual Camp Darfur. We were interested in moving beyond an exhibition to direct connection to refugees.

In a refugee camp I worked with youth on a photo project where they chose the topic. (see Video about Digital Democracy “Project Einstein”). We created a Digital Pen Pal program between youth in schools in US and youth refugee camps. We would love to have a wall in in SL where people could post questions and messages and those could be answered by refugees.