Kidz Connect

This is a live mix recording of our show yesterday in Tampa, Amsterdam and Teen Second Life. We haven’t fixed the audio levels yet — and we will — but in the meantime, enjoy the show.

Tags: mixed reality, performance, show, teen second life, video

I am new to the Second Life Blog and new to even the Second Life program, but today I was able to see first hand what these students have been able to do.  Have you ever played the computer game The Sims?  I’m not talking Sim City or Tycoon, I’m talking about the game where you control the little virtual people in a little virtual world that you create? 

Okay, now, take that image and add to it.  What you’re looking at now is an island full of avatars (the little virtual people from before) who are building their own society on the island (think Swiss Family Robinson without all of the struggling for food).  And then, if that is not enough, add on the fact that each of these avatars have a real life counterpart and that some of these counterparts are from right here in Tampa, FL and some of them are from Amsterdam!  It really is the cross-section of techonology and really awesome internet communities.

These kids have quickly learned how to operate this complex program and have been communicating regularly across the ocean with kids doing the same thing.  And *cool tidbit warning* one of the kids involved in the Amsterdam program is a popular television actor in the Netherlands.  Think the Zac Efron of Amsterdam.

So, today these kids were rehearsing for their part in the Amsterdam show tomorrow and they danced and performed a song together.  It was funny to watch the Amsterdam students dance to the music and then move to talk and interact with them as avatars.  Talk about multiple personalities!

So, their big performance is this weekend and it will be live here at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and also streamed online.  They have rehearsals, more song and dance routines, and a world all of their own.  

What would I do if I had my very own virtual island?  I don’t know, but I’m sure that I would begin with the question: How do I make myself taller?

“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

I have another confession: I never really “got” hip hop before Kidz Connect. Rap music has never been my favorite. But listening to the kids rapping to ranney’s song yesterday has given me a new respect and enjoyment of this art form.

The students were given the lyrics and the rhythm and got to work. And let me just say, it is work. They had fun, twisting their tongues around lyrics like “correlation or causation - situation or equation; validation or negation - stimulation of each nation” - but it wasn’t easy. Ranney (itsranney.com) suggested they study their breathing and consider melody. “Great hip hop artists have a melody in their voices,” he explained. He encouraged them to use their “voices and attitudes” to stay on rhythm.

About the lyrics, I kept wondering how on earth he was able to come up with these words - words with rhythm, but with meaning so deep they kept true to our workshop theme of “What Is Real?” Words the kids can relate to, words that provoke thought and meaningful discussion.

“We are given this world as a problem to be solved
From sunrise to sunset - or is it that we revolve?
Truth is what you make it, so you better find your peace
How does one make their truth better in the Middle East?” ranney wrote and the kids chant.

From politics to fashion to sports to musical tastes, these teens have been learning about each other and life across the world. Similarities and differences in our “real” world and in our “virtual” world. As ranney wrote:
“Schools out, schools in - both are in class
They bike it home; we pump the gas
Everyone gets home; it’s much respect
All go online where we connect
No fuss, just us, virtual bliss
The world we know does not exist
It’s different world; yet it’s all the same
It’s a second life - we can rearrange
The laws, the rules - they all are ours
And we co-exist with our avatars”

“How will we do this and dance at the same time?” one student asked. Someone else suggested half the group dance and half the group sing. That’s real collaboration. They were still discussing it when it was time to break for lunch.

Tags: dance, hip hop, lyrics, rap

Kidz Connect is in its second week and the kids are connecting. That’s what it is all about, peeps! As the resident cynic, I was apprehensive about a program that encourages teenagers to spend MORE time online. Not only is that not the case, but Kidz Connect is so much more than that. A group of teenagers in Amsterdam and a group of teenagers in Tampa are locked in dialogue and collaboration impacted by culture intersect and culture clash. They are brave and fun enough to just go with it and send a message to the rest of us who have reduced and/or ignored the relevance of phrases like “What’s up?” Unfortunately, I have only had two days in the camp, but between what I experience and what I am hearing, this will definitely be the beginning of a more pronounced landscape of this kind. Youth from various points on the globe coming together - not to just use the internet to meet in a virtual community; but, coming together and using all of their communities to collaborate on a more diverse and more promising world. They have not only inspired me and made my job easier as a songwriter for this venture, but they have simply inspired me. Get down youngin’s. Show us the way…

Tags: collaboration, community, ranney