“Better than expected.” While some of us did have some great expectations, the overall consensus expressed by students and even the creators of Kidz Connect, is that reality has surpassed even our highest expectations. “They get the vision; they’re making it their own,” says creator Josephine Dorado, adding that it’s exciting to see the project manifested and to see how engaged the students have become.
15-year-old Ivaniel had thought the workshop might be boring and he has been more than pleasantly surprised. Turns out he’s having a great time and the workshop has been anything but boring. Eight hours a day for two weeks these students been working, creating avatars and building spaces in Teen Second Life, learning songs and dance moves, getting to know each other here and video streaming and bonding with teens in Europe.
Vanessa had previously researched Teen Second Life and says she knew a bit what to expect. “It’s been fun learning what things are like over there because it’s different than here,” Vanessa says. Meghan, 13, plans to keep her avatar and stay in touch with her new friends in Holland.
Like them, the Dutch teens go to school and like to hang out with their friends, Vanessa observes. Director Lisa Powers has noticed that the teens are focusing on similarities, ties that bind them, so to speak. Then, they notice the differences, which have mostly been about styles of living, such as transportation. The Floridian youth are primarily driven from place to place, while the Dutch ride more bicycles and walk, Lisa says.
This whole cultural exchanges helps to prepare them to live together, to live in a world where we have many differences, but where fundamentally, we’re all alike. The way it’s going, these students have a real shot at making the “real” world better for us all.
“We can change the world, today, if we mean just what we say…
If we want to come together, the solution depends on whether…
We are real, let’s be real; there’s a bond that can be sealed-
Let’s be real, it is time for the world…to be real!”
–from the song, “What is Real?” written for Kidz Connect by James Crumbly