This is me, standing around in a Japanese-inspired cafe, in Second Life. My name is Mira Delicioso, and despite (or because of?!) the Dorothy Gale get-up, I was hit on by an avatar from Brasil my first day in SL. That, and the creepy weirdness of both Orientation & Help Islands, made for a stellar first impression!

Haven't been to Info Island yet, but plan to go. Right now, though, Mira's chillaxin' in Gabrielle's designated 'safe space'! Updates to follow.

The Johnson Reading

The Johnson reading has direct implications for education. However, I don't think what he's talking about in the book "EBIGFY" should be news to educators who know Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. Breaking up lessons to apply to multiple learning styles and strengths should come naturally to seasoned instructors: and in fact, there ought to be very little "stand-and-deliver" instruction at this point. Most schools are supposed to be engaged in collaborative learning that engages students, not lectures. This is not always the case in higher ed - but it ought to be.

In a collaborative model, gaming and particularly multiplayer games which encourage group problem solving ought to be a learning tool. It might be worth having educators read the Johnson book just to shed light on what kind of learning games facilitate, and then play some educational games. Also, why not work in tandem with people who create games to develop new software? If I'm not mistaken, didn't the man responsible for the 'last lecture' make educational games for children? (Alice, maybe, was the name?)

I don't want young people to get the kind of 'education' offered in Feed. But I don't believe it's an 'either/or' proposition with learning. Everyone can learn, but the 'how' of learning varies depending on the individual. Educators and librarians ought to have every tool at their disposal to make this happen for students.

Rate the Class.

I’ve really enjoyed this class. Certainly, things in the class ARE going to change: that’s the nature of the subject. However, I think the current mix is a good one. I also believe that the skills we learned progressed in the correct order, and I was impressed that each week’s assignment built on the previous week’s knowledge.

One minor, minor point: while it may be useful for everyone to sign up for and try every type of im account (yahoo, gmail, aol, msn), I only used two between our meebo assignment and the rest of the homework. Perhaps paring the amount of mock accounts down would save time – then you could just add more to that week’s group assignment! =8P

I learned some really amazing things this semester. The best part was that most of this stuff outside of blogging was new and somewhat scary. (Screencast! imovie! Podcast! Avatar?!) Yet it was fun, far easier than I thought it would be, and completely interesting and engaging! I can’t wait to have free time to play around more!!

So my only advice is: keep it up! And share anything new with us ‘alums’ once we hit the end of the class, proper.

Debi Creams Tara at Tetris: Film at 11

Well, actually: film below. It's not pretty!

Tetris keeper!

Which System?

The answer to the question "which system?" depends upon the user population of your library. Who comes there and uses the consoles? Teens? Adults? Children? Perhaps you want to survey your user population, or see how much volume use games take up in your computer usage, or track who has used the previous console(s)/how many times it has been checked out, if you have a prior system. If you're not seeing much use of the current system, is it due to obsolescence or disinterest? You want to know this before potentially breaking the budget on something few would use.

You may also want to see what user preferences are. Do they have systems at home? If I know that the majority of my YA population has a particular system at home, do I want to duplicate those systems, or introduce something new? Also, is this for in-library use, in a game room, or to check out?

Finally, what is my budget? What do other libraries use, and what has their experience been with certain systems?

I think my 'dream system' would be a Wii. My reasoning would be that there would be plenty of cross-use among adults and teens, and it is still exclusive enough to be something not everyone would have at home. The availability and expense could be prohibitive; however, it would have a longer shelf-life, being relatively new, than an older system that might be replaced in a year by newer technology. You don't want to purchase something cheap that no one wants to use. The Wii has enough excitement factor built in to generate use and enthusiasm.

Screencast Best Practices

I tend to take the hand-held, 'burn tape', cinema verite approach to screencasting: just start, and see what happens. Multiple takes give you a better chance of finding something you want to use.

I find that if I script it, it sounds scripted, so I don't write anything down. I do, however, have a general idea of what I want to say and what I want the viewer to take away from the screencast.

I also attempt to practice, if I can. This was not the case in this week's screencast, where I had little idea of the game, the interactive function of the game, and the ways that Facebook operated things like 'challenges' or chat while in the game. I was also operating in a time-crunch: I literally sat down, opened a game, began to set up Jing - and then there was Debi, who had agreed to give me a half-hour on a Friday night (we won't even talk about the time difference between NJ and WI!). But an important thing I learned when I began shooting film is that you need to factor in the unexpected - and sometimes the things you don't plan are far more entertaining than those you do. So I've applied the same approach to screencasts when it's appropriate. In the context of a game, where fun and confusion are part of the reality, this week's off-the-cuff aspect makes sense.

I practice more when I am focused on instruction and clarity. I want to make sure the links work and the transitions are smooth. I put a lot of 'screen rehearsal' into the 'how to use IRIS' screencast because there were a number of links, screens, and tasks to integrate, and I wanted to be sure to make this simple and fluid.

I also factor in that the technology won't work, or work as expected. It's what happened with equipment at my school's film program, and it's what happens with all technology every day, everywhere. It's something you did or some glitch or some simultaneous perfect storm - but you have to roll with it. Re-shoot, reconfigure, re-do. Deal with the frustration that your perfect take vanished, or stopped in mid-cast.

And, last but not least, try to enjoy the process for the process. Could you do this before? No? Then, look at the cool thing you just learned!

George Will: Wrong Again

I must admit that this week's reading and gaming assignments have changed my perspective a bit. I should have realized, given high school friendships with D&D gamers, the complexity of games. Most of the people I knew who played these games were brilliant at math and in the computer classes where they learned Basic and Fortran, so I certainly did not believe these games were for lightweights. However, it was hard to see the connection between D&D and early computer/video games like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, or Atari Pong. I did recognize the 'addictive' properties of games, which was one huge reason I didn't play them: the idea of investing hours of my time in this type of activity seemed extremely wasteful. What possible benefit could I get from perfecting my score at Pac-Man?

But then along came Steven Johnson - and Tetris. Johnson's argument about the increasing sophistication of games and the kinds of skill and perseverance needed to achieve mastery rings true. I doubt he can convince George Will, but it seems to me that the mental skill needed to balance several levels of tasking - the immediate goal vs. the overarching goal - and the sheer number of hours devoted to multiple approaches at problem-solving actually makes today's gamers more able to understand and decode similar real-world problems. I also like what Johnson said about framing discussions of current culture as comparisons to previous cultural shibboleths: the infamous reading vs. gaming. These are false comparisons, since both exercise different skill sets. I enjoyed Johnson's 'description' of reading as seen through the eyes of a game-based culture: sometimes you need to see the argument from the other side!!!

But why Tetris? Well, at first it was the challenge: what is this game, exactly, and why is it so popular? How do you play? Why did this happen while playing? Then, competitively: what does the other person know about this game that I don't? Is it game knowledge, intuition, facility, speed at the controls? All of the above? Finally, it's the 'aha!' moment in miniature: it's a pattern recognition game! It's a visual/spatial exercise! You have to line up the cubes in unbroken chains! Mostly, it's what Johnson means when he talks about probing - the kind of thrill of discovery, and satisfaction after a period of frustration, that the game provides.

Some games may deliver the stupid. But my sense is that gamers become bored with the stupid. Game creators don't want players to become bored - they want them to engage with the game and get the next version. The demand for increasingly complex games is a good sign - just as the demand for increasingly complex forms of entertainment is a good sign. Let's face it: humans need diversion. They always have. The fact that demand for complex diversion is increasing is a sign of an increasingly complex society.

George Will and his ilk in the chattering classes would have much more credibility if they actually explored the areas they profess to deplore. My sense is that Will is stuck somewhere in his idea of a cultural golden age, and he thinks we should be, too. Fortunately, humans continue to evolve despite these 'tsk-tsk'ing naysayers nattering on about our impending doom.