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What are you working on now?
So in developing nations, we need to give kids a sense
that they are self-efficacious, that they can produce
change.
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I'm
taking this next year off, and I'm trying to pursue a project
that's very close to my heart. In 1998, I directed a project
for children around the world called the Junior Summit, and
gathered a little over 3,000 children from 149 different countries
online. We handed out some computers and we handed out Internet
connections, built an online forum. It is now almost five
years later and I want to see whether it has made a difference
to their lives. I want to see whether they acquired a belief
in their own ability to be agents of change. That is what
our goal was, to give children a voice. It's just about giving
voice to girls, to children from developing nations, to all
people in both metaphorical and concrete senses. So in developing
nations, we need to give kids a sense that they are self-efficacious,
that they can produce change. But it could have had the opposite
effect. It's possible that what it did was teach kids that
they're little cogs in a big wheel and that they're never
going to amount to anything. So I applied for funding to go
around the world and visit the kids and talk to them about
their lives today and collect some follow-up data on their
communities and their beliefs about themselves. They're extraordinary
kids. 
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