Vol. 1, No. 1 | Spring 2002
David Yim and friends building new worlds online.
UNDERGRADUATE VOICES
Webpages and Active Worlds
BY DAVID YIM
What good is the Internet to your average kid? Depending on whether you ask kids or their parents, you'll either hear that the Internet is good for games and chat or education and research. Notice the gap?
Can this gap be filled? I feel that making webpages is one way to satisfy everyone's cravings. I started making webpages as a junior in high school for fun. In the past five years, my knowledge of the subject has grown exponentially, and I've had a blast too.
Since last September, I've been running a Web Club for the UC Links site at the Boys and Girls Club in Solana Beach, California, to test my idea about making webpages. In the club, I teach kids the basics of web design. I also guide kids through an online world called ActiveWorlds, where they build 3D chat environments for interacting with kids from around the globe. In the end, the kids will have learned some HTML, DHTML, Javascript, and C-style programming.
They're definitely learning something (don't tell the kids!), but what about the fun factor? I met fourteen-year-old Shelly a short time ago. She just wanted to surf the net to look at "stuff." When I told her that I could teach her to make her own "stuff," she became part of the club. She loves to take pictures of her friends and post them online. She loves to get email from friends and family asking how she did it, and how they can do it too.
On the ActiveWorlds side, I'm working with nine-year-old Pete and ten-year-old Roger. I consider them the odd couple of the Boys and Girls Club. They have vastly different personalities, but they've teamed up to tackle the ActiveWorlds project. To mark the partnership, they built a physical bridge between their virtual houses.
All in all, though, the kid who learned the most and had the most fun was definitely me.
David Yim is a senior at UC San Diego, majoring in Communication and minoring in Computer Science and History.
La Clase Mágica: New Communities of Learners
HumaniFest Online: Linking Humanities Out There and the Whittier Fifth Dimension
The Magical Web Fifth Dimension
Digital Storytelling in West Oakland
Undergraduate Voices
David Yim
Brianna Guillermo-Newton, Miranda Cheang, Robyn Rachac
Links for Kids
How to Make Links: Social Capital and Community-University Collaboration
Growing up with UC Links: An Interview with Jesse Paulos