obal Kids is a group of youth and educators based in New York City. The youth consist of a racially diverse group, mostly coming from schools who have poor attendance and poor graduation rates. The group is educated in leadership skills and important world issues. So why am I interested in this group? Well they are involved with a program called Playing for Keeps (P4K), a program which supports computer games as a medium to educate other youth.P4K includes a partnership with GameLab so that Global Kids are creating high quality games to spread the word while at the same time they are building skills in game design and development.
One game they created is called Ayiti: The Cost of Life. I found it on the Un
icef website. It's free to play and it helps illustrate the cost of life. In the game you are responsible for a family of 5 in Haiti. You have to consider things like health, happiness, education, and money. The game is very professional, it's very current with world issues and I think it's an excellent way to get our youth enlightened about the world we live in. Heck never mind our youth, it enlightened me.PS. Ayiti is the Haitian Creole pronunciation of Haiti.
Youth photo courtesy of www.globalkids.org
I've always loved learning materials (games and everything else) that have a social justice angle. Of course there are some that hide corporate agendas behind a cloak of social justice, but when we can combine empathy with learning, I think we have a powerful brew.
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