As we transition from the broadcast era to the YouTube era, the means of media production are becoming more and more accessible to people around the world, particularly young people.  How do we as educators and human rights defenders seize upon the phenomenon of youth-generated video and film in our work?  How do you facilitate individual expression while also retaining focus on a particular human rights issue or cause?  Do institutional standards of professionalism and expertise conflict with the on-the-fly nature of most digital video production?

Global Kids is a pioneer in the use of 3D digital filmmaking, called machinima, as a tool for youth expression and human rights education.  In it’s Virtual Video Program, NYC youth work with Global Kids staff to create  their own short film on a social issue created entirely in the virtual world of Second Life.  The teen filmmakers research their chosen social issue, write the script, create the avatars, film the scenes, record the voice acting, and edit the final short film. Last year’s VVP machinima, DISCOVERED, deals with the issue of child sex trafficking.

We would love to connect with others interested in using youth-generated film and video, what challenges you’ve faced, and what practices we can share to best use this emerging medium for social change.

Games and virtual worlds are powerful tools for engaging new audiences on a range of serious subject matter, but they are also sources of entertainment and distraction.  How do groups that work on human rights issues and causes use these new media tools to promote their missions?  How do we use abstracted or even cartoony representations of serious human rights situations without trivializing the subject matter or the people they depict?

Global Kids has several years of experiencing integrating serious games and virtual worlds into our youth development and human rights education work.  Our projects have spanned a range of approaches and tools, from creating an online game about poverty in Haiti to facilitating an online dialogue between an AIDS orphan in Uganda and teenagers using SMS text messaging and Second Life.

During this session, we would like to have a strategic and practical discussion about how human rights defenders and educators can best employ games and virtual worlds to increase knowledge and spur civic activism.

Please comment if this seems like a session you would be interested in participating in.