Global Kids: Playing 4 Keeps Evaluation

Global Kids has asked CCT to serve as the program evaluator and Global Kids’ formative research partner for the Playing 4 Keeps program. Global Kids have developed an innovative curriculum for engaging traditionally underserved youth in the development and dissemination of online games, called Playing 4 Keeps (P4K). The P4K games are designed by the program’s youth participants to educate their peers around the world about important social issues. In 2002–2003, Global Kids launched the program, training a cohort of 20 New York City youth, who developed a prototype online game about profiling in airports. In expanding the program, Global Kids will conduct P4K annually as an afterschool program, enabling the students involved to publish one Web-based game each year. As the evaluator, CCT will examine how the P4K afterschool program influence participants’ attitudes about themselves, game design and civic literacy; what youth game players learn from the P4K games; and in what ways educators use the game to promote student learning.