Image: "Adventure West Virginia"
game by MCTC students.
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“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.”
— Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia and Wikimedia Foundation
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“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given the knowledge to: 1) create quality media, 2) contribute creatively and positively to the sum of media on the net, and 3) advance human knowledge.”
— Idit Harel Caperton, Founder of the World Wide Workshop Foundation
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In March 2007, the West Virginia Office of the Governor was seeking an innovative program to help WV students learn 21st-century skills and game production. They connected with the World Wide Workshop and brought Globaloria to West Virginia to fulfill this vision by using the MyGLife network for learning game-making. The Governor’s Office provided initial seed funding to plan and recruit other funders, and train the initial group of pilot educators. First Lady Gayle Manchin co-chairs the Globaloria-WV Advisory Board, and provides invaluable support and strategic advice to this innovative project. In Pilot Year-2, Globaloria is being administered through the Department of Education and the Arts, led by Cabinet Secretary Kay Goodwin. This department provides statewide leadership and innovation, enhancing arts and minds throughout the state, and seeks to reinforce the rich heritage of culture, education and artistic creation in West Virginia.
 Verizon West Virginia became a supporter of the first Globaloria-WV pilot in January 2008, allowing us to add several new schools and expand our research partnerships with West Virginia University and Marshall University Graduate School of Education. In May 2008, Verizon renewed its support for 2008-09. Headquartered in Charleston, WV, it is part of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) - a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. A Dow 30 company, Verizon has a diverse workforce of nearly 238,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of more than $88 billion. Across the Mountain State, Verizon partners with communities they serve and makes grants to nonprofit organizations who share passion for literacy, domestic violence prevention, and for improving people’s lives through technology.
 Benedum provided the seed funding for Globaloria in West Virginia in 2007. They have renewed funding for our Year-2 pilot, which will expand from 8 to 20 sites statewide. Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, is an independent foundation established in 1944 by Michael and Sarah Benedum, natives respectively of Bridgeport and Blacksville, West Virginia. They named the Foundation in memory of their only child, Claude Worthington Benedum, who died in 1918 at age 20. The Benedums expressed the wish that grantmaking be focused in West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania, their native and adopted homes.
 We are extremely pleased that CPD will be our implementation partner for Globaloria West Virginia in 2008-09. The mission of the West Virginia Center for Professional Development is to advance the quality of teaching and management in the schools of West Virginia through (1) the implementation of statewide training, professional staff development, and technical assistance programs and practices to assure the highest quality in such teaching and management; and (2) the provision of technical and other assistance and support to regional and local education agencies in identifying and providing high quality professional staff development and training programs and implementing best practices to meet their locally identified needs.
SEED has been a sponsor and implementation partner for Globaloria's "My Science Life" network. SEED staff and volunteers from around the world are learning to create science sims and games in the MySLife Global Climate pilot, along with students and teachers from SEED schools in Trinidad, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Malaysia. Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development (SEED), is a volunteer-based, non-profit education program focused on underserved communities where Schlumberger people live and work. SEED empowers employee-volunteers and educators—including teachers, parents and other mentors—to share their passion for learning and science with students aged 10-18. The SEED learning-while-doing (LWD) methodology draws on the technology and science expertise of our volunteers to engage students in global issues, such as water, energy and climate change.
 Rethinkers are piloting Globaloria's My Health Life network in New Orleans during the summer of 2008, as they develop proposals for reinventing cafeterias and security in New Orleans public schools. Rethink says "We are a group of students in New Orleans who want to rethink and rebuild our schools after Hurricane Katrina. Our vision is simple: a great education for every kid in our city, no matter the color of their skin, what neighborhood they stay in or how much money their parents make. No one deserves a voice in rebuilding New Orleans schools more than the students who go to these places every single day. That means us!" In early 2006, a group of community organizers, artists, architects, media experts and educators began organizing Rethink. Rethink is now a citywide youth organization with three adult staff members and a number of partner organizations, including the World Wide Workshop.
The 21st Century Foundation supports national and local programs that serve black America. They are providing partial funding for launch of Globaloria in New Orleans. In June 2008, the MyHLife.org network was launched with Rethink (see info above). Founded in 1971 by economist Robert S. Browne, 21CF began making grants in 1972. During our three decades of giving, 21CF has awarded more than 500 grants to dynamic community organizations that make a difference in the lives of black children, families and communities. Towards that end, 21CF supports black community-based organizations in the United States committed to civil and human rights, economic empowerment and addressing the root causes of injustice. The Foundation is committed to supporting organizations claiming equity, equality and the integrity of all black people.
Cisco provided the seed funding for the development of the first Globaloria Network – MyGLife -- in 2006, and sponsored the first MyGLife pilot group of 40 NET@ students in Israel. These students were Arab Israelis, Jewish Israelis and Russian immigrants who were working together from five cities across Israel to create games for social change. Cisco states: “We team with nonprofit and non-governmental agencies around the world to develop programs that improve access to basic human needs, education, and economic opportunities. Our support includes grants, networking technologies, and employee contributions of time, expertise, and financial resources.”
Along with Cisco, NET@ was our implementation partner for the first Globaloria pilot in Israel in 2006. Forty NET@ students, including Arabs Israelis, Jewish Israelis and Russian immigrants from 5 cities across Israel, participated in virtual teams to conceive games and help us test the MyGLife platform. The NET@ Program was established in 2003 as a unique community-social initiative by the Tapuah Non-Profit Organization, the Jewish Agency, Keren Hayesod and Cisco Systems. The overall program’s objective is to change the lives of young people in the geographical and social periphery of Israel, making them into a dream team of the Israeli hi-tech world. NET@ trains youth in computers and communications, thus enabling them gain experiences in leading hi-tech companies, together with the inculcation of social values such as excellence, individual and group responsibility, leadership, pluralism, multiculturalism, democracy, and contribution and commitment to the community.
HBO Corporate Affairs/Corporate Giving provided a corporate contribution to support the MyGLife.org first pilot in the Middle East in Winter 2006-07.
 Since the Summer of 2004, Dr. Caperton, our foundation’s President, has been recruited to consult her MIT colleague Nicholas Negroponte on his most recent innovation – the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child, a.k.a “$100 Laptop”). As a result, we developed the “Next Billion Learners” Program to focus on the development of creative learning software for low cost laptops, in order to support 1:1 computing worldwide. In early 2007, when the first XO beta prototype was produced and in the hands of children, the World Wide Workshop team has been recruited to develop a creative learning software suite for kids. OLPC is a non-profit association founded by Negroponte and a team of MIT educators and technologists dedicated to educating children with the goal of eradicating poverty. In many ways, OLPC is based on the Constructionist learning principles expressed by the research work of MIT Professor Seymour Papert and Idit Harel Caperton and their MIT Media Lab colleagues. Negroponte strongly claims, “OLPC is not a technology project, nor is the XO a technology product: in any conventional sense of the word. It is providing a means to an end — that sees children in the most remote regions of the globe being given the opportunity to tap into their potential, to be exposed to a whole world of ideas, to learn and to contribute to a more productive and saner world community.”
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