In 2010 and 2011 I worked with the Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program (GK OLP), the technology-focused arm of a renowned youth development organization with a history of creating powerful youth-driven educational experiences with digital media. One of my favorite efforts was”NYC Haunts,” a transmedia community game design afterschool program created in partnership with the New York Public Library. For the first iteration of NYC Haunts, a group of GK’s middle school Youth Leaders in the Bronx were tasked with creating a location enabled game for the iPad 2, addressing contemporary social issues affecting their neighborhood while celebrating the rich history of the community and its members. In NYC Haunts, the player takes on the role of a detective using clues revealed through the location based app SCVNGR and a customized itinerary created using scannable QR barcodes to discover the stories of neighborhood landmarks and local residents, past and present.
Below is coverage of the project that appeared on the Huffington Post as well as a video of the students visiting one of the landmarks featured in their game, the Edgar Allen Poe House, located just blocks from their middle school.
