Odd
de Presno
(Norway)
Kidlink
Executive Director
Email: opresno@kidlink.org
Web: www.kidlink.org
- The URL of this page
- With children on the net since 1989.
- Norway
Kidlink
What divides kids?
Inter-personal knowledge networks
Teaching opportunities
Risks and dangers
Other applications
- the quality of kids' inter-personal knowledge networks
- Related opportunities
-
Other applications for community
development
| Empower kids and youth through free educational programs. To help them mature, get friends, build inter-personal networks, collaborate with peers around the world. |
Since 1990, kids from 176 countries have participated.
86 conferences in 19 languages.
1st Prize Global Junior Challenge
The US Department of Education
- inter-personal network
- 100% virtual
-
Objective:
give kids the
benefits of global networking,
which means so much for each one of us - kids-to-kids associations rather than computers and modems
- Privileged. Rich country.
- Age. Geography.
- Clothes? Symbols?
- Street kids in Mexico City -> girls in Chile
- Tor Arne's class -> blacks in New Jersey
- Possible face-to-face?
-
A girl with cancer at a Kidlink
House in Recife
what is? -
Two kids
from the
Fulni-ô tribe, Águas
Belas,
311 km from Recife in north-eastern Brazil. Yatê
"people near the river."
- Street kids from La Paz, Bolivia - who have found each others
-
Religion? War?
-
Arabs and
Jews
- Muslims and Christians in Kosovo
-
Umbundu and Kimbundu
in Angola
-
Arabs and
Jews
- Yes to all of these!
- Add..
Friends to call on when you have a problem, needs advice, insights, information or facts, to have fun with. To lean on when the goings get rough. With the same hobbies and interests, who have interesting things to say and share. Who are sincere, true, who know when you are not well, and know how to make you happy. .
-
Inter-Personal Knowledge Networks
- Inter-personal = heart-to-heart, person to person,
- rather than computer to computer, or a technical communications network.
- Not a collection of web pages, like the Encyclopedia Britannica
-
People supporting people.
* Different quality
* The shared network
They Are Building Networks Now!
- How do we measure quality of an inter-personal network?
-
What is a shared
network?
-
Each one of us has
several such networks.
-
One Kidlink
volunteer brings
ThinkQuest
experiences into a discussion, another
- the European Schoolnet, ..
- the African SchoolNetworking Project
- Kidleader: utility for kids to plan their work over time
-
One Kidlink
volunteer brings
ThinkQuest
Inter-personal networks on the
Internet:
global, efficient, extremely low cost, 24 hours/day
Potentially larger and more powerful than in the face-to-face environment
Using computers, members can utilize common knowledge resources better, and more precisely
The value of a knowledge network may grow over time
-
You'll know, when you see the
results of the advice.
-
The Internet
- Many personal networks to choose from.
-
more freedom to choose
with whom to associate.
-
Kidlink's teacher
communities.
-
27
public communities
-
languages
20 Kidleader, Kidproj-Coord, Kidforum-Coord, Kidart-Coord, Khouse-Coord, Kidfamilia-Portuguese, Kidirc-coord, Kidc2d-coord, - Questions?
- insights,
- best practices
- testing concepts
-
sharing
networks
-
27
public communities
-
languages
by Sonia Schechtman Sette
24 online forums for kids only. From English and Spanish to Italian and Icelandic.
A kid may be networking with people she even don't know are there. Who suddenly surface when she asks a question, presents an opinion, requests second views.
More participants give continuity and action. Absence because of holidays, sickness, exams, or other priorities less likely to delay exchanges.
- Panama - Spanish
-
Helping our kids build their
networks:
A responsibility, an opportunity. -
Kidlink's networks
link to
-
educational
contents,
Example: Who-Am-I? and How to get friends?
Where do I live? -> "Writing for different audiences :
to inform, to express personal ideas, to persuade " - teachers, other adult coaches, - "tour guides."
-
educational
contents,
-
Tutors and mentors
- guide individuals and complete online communities to educational contents that support networking processes.
-
Áct as "personalized
encyclopedias" or "human knowledge portals."
- When José wants some fact for a letter to friends, he may ask a teacher or parent. -
- 6 months. 2 schedules
- Prepare kids for the act of meeting new friends
-
How do you resolve disputes?
Do you try to avoid people you disagree with?
Do you find that listening carefully for what the other person really wants and needs can help?
-
What do you think every child
should have?
- Divide the class into groups. Each group draws the outline of a child on a large piece of paper. Name your "new child."
- What special qualities do you want this person to have when it is grown up? Write those qualities in a circle around the child. You might include qualities such as "healthy," "well educated" and "happy."
- Groups "introduce" their ideal child to the class and explain the qualities and needs that each listed.
-
knowledge
communities may grow
like biological organisms,
and have the ability to learn.
-
Common knowledge
base,
often documented, summarized, in discussion archives or web pages,
often referred to as
the community's networked knowledge.
-> Less worth than archives without the people
-
Kidlink is very alert about
this:
FAQs
Resources
Student contributions
-
Integrating
Who-Am-I? with all other programs
- Kids' contributions become learning material.
In the Middle - a Young Individual
Tied into a number of inter-personal, virtual networks
"surrounded" by friends
by mentors, and tutors, such as parents, teachers, youth leaders, library and museum staff, etc.
With all channels open: a tremendous opportunity
The Child
Divide is about
-
- access to the new networking medium, the Internet.
-
our child's
application
of the human
networking
resource
-
It is not
about the Internet as
an encyclopedia,
an entertainment
central, or for
impulsive chats with
strangers.
-
It is about
letting a network
of kids stir
some
kid's
imagination, and
motivation to
learn
-
also for the individual
kid!
- How can they get that?
29 telecenters with Kidlink contents in 7 states of Brazil, one in Mexico City. Some serve public schools. Others serve street kids, or poor communities.
The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation funds a feasibility study in Angola: two KHouses for students at public schools, and one for street kids. Contents: Who-Am-I? in Portuguese, Umbundu, and Kimbundu.
Computers; Internet; pedagogical and psycho social support; translations of Who-Am-I?; training of teachers; involve students - across curriculums
1. Give Them Net Access
- Huge challenge
- Cooperation!
-
Who-Am-I?
- free educational program
- teaching kids some of the art of inter/personal networking.
- Used by teachers to enhance local curriculums
Translations, and in other languages
The magical formula:
- First, face-to-face discussions
- Then, share conclusions and views with peers through the net
When kids have a purpose (to get friends), and an audience, they want to read and write, and use numbers.
- The art of growing up, living
-
helps kids prepare for
meetings with new friends
- "test run" meetings.
- provide experiences with rejection, and acceptance - without giving reasons for bad feelings.
- Researching and writing a composition are only the beginning for the more important "one on one" or group discussion that should follow.
Excitement and interest
When they have a purpose (to get friends) and an audience, they want to read and write
It gives otherwise "boring" classroom tasks meaning for students.
- Earth quake in India
-
Challenges:
- guide them to meaningful knowledge networks,
- guide to the art of getting friends,
- help them setup social antennas.
- to guide them in the art of using their networks efficiently, of being with others
A means to classroom instruction within
writing, research, social studies, history, geography, foreign languages,
economics, mathematics, science, the arts, current awareness, as well as
personal development, Internet networking skills, information and communications
technology skills.
- Initially, developed for classroom teachers - because the school is such a large arena for kids
- Many options to give teachers a choice
- links between the questions and activities and curriculums
- Some planning needed
- Patronato Santo Antonio, Brazil: Using Who-Am-I? as a reference for all work with 8 graders
The invisible kid gets little in return
Sharing experiences and views publicly makes the kid an identifiable person; gives feedback; invitations; friends
- It is acceptable to listen without speaking up, but not enough to be a passive participant.
- Must guide them to be themselves, and show face. So that they migh be honored, and get positive feedback. Assume responsibility for what they say and do.
- A weak network is one where people do not step forward to show face
- The same applies for teacher communities, of course.
Guide kids to some understanding of group dynamics
Explain the power of asking questions that leads to answers that benefit the whole group
Challenge kids to make submissions that contribute to the network's common knowledgebase
The rewards
- Nancy Fares Barbera - Rodrigo 15 years -> Copenhagen.
- Robbert, Rean, Dany from Peru
We have:
- defined inter-personal networks,
- discussed what it takes to join and use efficiently.
Kidlink requires that kids use full names...
The school yard, and the streets are more dangerous. This is life!
How to get a friend without sharing personal information?
Do we signal that it is OK to lie and be false when we deny kids the right to provide full names?
- "Never tell others who you are!" "Do not tell others about your inner feelings, problems, or anything that might identify you later."
- Kidlink wants kids to open up, and help them find someone to talk with.
-
We want them to be sincere and
true
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: the right to preserve his or her identity (§8); freedom of association (§15); to express its views freely in all matters affecting the child (§12); access to modern teaching methods and technical knowledge (§31).
The other side of the coin
- We believe it is dangerous to hold your feelings back.
- Before you know it, you're a boiler that might explode
- Girl with pyromanic ideas.
-
Suicide
- How does Kidlink handle the kids' personal data?
Who-Am-I? in preventive
mental health care:
Foster independence
and an ability to manage their own life. Provide them with spiritual and
cultural stimuli. Strengthen social networks. Help fight drug abuse, isolation,
loneliness, violence, mobbing, absence, depressions, lies, broken agreements,
emotional problems, irregular habits, criminality, broken
borders.
Strengthen the language, culture, and self-esteem of ethnical minorities in a society
Negotiate improved relations between groups that have traditionally been in conflict with each other
Help libraries get more youth users
- Norwegian projects
- Saami, Catala,
- Umbundu, Kimbundu - Hebrew/Arab
Kidlink
What divides kids?
Inter-personal knowledge networks
Teaching opportunities
Risks and dangers
Other applications
- Kidlink
- show some things dividing kids
- focus on one: the quality of a kids' inter-personal knowledge networks
- discuss inherent risks and dangers;
- Teaching opportunities
- close with some other applications that might stir your imagination