OK. Now what.

Here I am at the end of the semester and I contemplate this blog.
Nobody reads it.
Next semester I'm going to change the format. 

Short & Sweet

OK, I have to brag about my game design students. They were featured on WV public radio, sounding all smart and kewl. Idit Caperton of Globaloria fame also was featured, making it something  you should really listen to.

Phew. That's off my chest and I feel so much lighter.

Who knew?

 If you thought games were solely for entertainment, think again.

"Seventy percent of major employers utilize interactive software and games to train employees according to... the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). The study data also showed that more than 75 percent of businesses and non-profits already offering video game-based training plan to expand their usage in the next three to five years. And more than three-quarters (78%) of organizations not utilizing this technology today are likely to offer it in the next five years."    - from the Entertainment Software Association's website.

Creating a Body of Work

I'm currently collaborating with Kitty Clark and Colleen Tracy on a dance/multimedia work called Mood House. Mood House is a multi-disciplinary performance for proscenium stage that will premiere in April 2010 at Shepherd University and at Berkeley Springs High School auditorium. It will include original choreography (Kitty), ‘artfits’ (Colleen) and video projections(Me). This project is funded by the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.

We're organizing our thoughts on a wiki... everything from what the house layout will be, to documenting our influences. I'm not sure how well this will work. Colleen and Kitty are traditional artists in that they work with physical assets. Things like bodies and fabric and movement. Contact on the wiki goes in fits and spurts. I can't know if this simply reflects our progress on the work as a whole, or if it is reflecting the awkwardness of translating a process for the first time onto an online workspace.

Looking for inspiration, last night I spent a lot of time revisiting the music video work of Spike Jones and Michel Gondry. The latter is my absolute favorite. The video he did for the Chemical Brothers' Let Forever Be achieved a beautiful blend of music, dance, sculptural objects and video integration. I'm hoping to create a similar spirit for Mood House.


While watching exceptional work inspires me, last night I was also filled with a deep sense of sadness. Will I find the time to make an artistic work? I look at some of my old friends and see they have created meaningful pieces. I have spent my time making commercial efforts... not the things that will stand the test of time I'm afraid. My entry into the academic world will hopefully support my aspirations.

Fun Factor Kicks into Gear

Confessions of a Digerati

Of late I have found myself limiting the time I spend online. I read my email twice a day now: once upon arriving at work, and once when I'm leaving. I log into Facebook only once a day.

While this may seem a conflicted message for an i-phone wielding teacher of new media, it nonetheless seems to be a trend in my life. And a trend for others.

I think designer Stefan Sagmeister would understand. For those of you unfamiliar with his work, Sagmeister is a respected designer perhaps most famous for an AIGA poster where he carved the information into his own flesh. Recently Sagmeister closed his studio for a year-long sabbatical, explaining the time would be used to "refresh his creative outlook."

Teaching five classes, all intensive in computer use, leaves me at the end of the day appreciative of the non-digital world. The touch of paper in a fine book... the smell of beets roasting in the oven, and the din of children after a soccer game ground me.

Do I want to play a Wii, or PS3? Read up on the latest advances in technology? Loath as I am to admit it, no. I want to create, and use the computer as my tool, but the constant influx of media messages has reached a saturation point.

Humbled by beauty and cleverness

This animation amazes me. It is a reminder to me how much more I like hand-crafted items over slickness.

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

Media Eats Me Alive

OK, so I've been having an incredibly active life recently. Not in the "ohmygodimoverwhelmed" kind of way. But rather in the "woo-hoo aint life grand" kind of way. In fact, I've had so many thoughts I've found it hard to even approach blogging. Which thing should I let come to the surface? What should I focus on?

Well, clearly that approach wasn't working. I never got around to focusing on anything.
So today, I will embrace the flood of ideas and simply give highlights.

1. The Farmer's Market in Shepherdstown has not only nourished my body, but my intellect as well. Bill Mayer humorously pointed out why when he wrote: "The research is in: high-fat diets makes you lazy and stupid. Rats on an American diet weren't motivated to navigate their maze and once in the maze they made more mistakes. And, instead of exercising on their wheel, they just used it to hang clothes on. Of course we can't ban assault rifles - we're the first generation too lazy to make its own coffee. We're the generation that invented the soft chocolate chip cookie: like a cookie, only not so exhausting to chew."
2. Ted Talks are amazing and motivating. Never heard of them? You must check them out. (Confession: I have had a crush on David Carson since I heard him speak back in the 90s. If a video could be dog-eared, his presentation on Design + Discovery would be in tatters.) I want to watch one every day and emerge a smarter person.
   
3. I'm hooked on NPR's podcasts of The Moth. (Yup, my favorite ones are inevitably the ones marked "explicit.")  I found myself at the sidelines of my kids' soccer games on Saturday with earplugs on, cozy in my hoodie, laughing out loud. Sure I got some looks from the other parents, but it helped my soul to hear about Burning Man.
4. Flash can be fun. Especially when it involves animated cows. That's all I'm sayin'.
5. You can use a wiki to collaborate on a dance piece. Who knew?
6. Facebook makes birthdays fun.
   

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-if-america-cant_b_299383.html

Why 'Historic Men' calendar will not be on my holiday shopping list

I wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Shepherdstown Chronicle today. Here it is:
"This morning I sat down to breakfast at Betty's with my youngest daughter, Daisy. We had a copy of the Chronicle to share between us, and I opened to the page with the story highlighting the “Historic Men” of Shepherdstown calendar fundraiser. I looked at the list of names, and agreed that those featured were all noteworthy individuals. With that said, I am appalled that any group would create a list without any women in this day and age. Maybe we’re saving “Historic Women” for another year… swimsuit calendar anyone?
"Such gaffes, intentional or not, reflect a deep-seated history of discrimination and misogyny in our country.  While I hope that Historic Shepherdstown has no conscious desire to slight women’s contributions, its actions are sustaining a culture that inevitably teaches our girls that men are the leaders.  Women, at best, can only hope to photograph the achievements of their male counterparts.
"I ask the members of Historic Shepherdstown to rethink their approach. Create a "Historic Citizens" calendar. (After all, just because you are a historical group you needn't remain mired in 1950s thinking.) Our future leaders, like Daisy, need to be given examples of the people that make this town a wonderful place to live."

The End of Week Two

It is Friday afternoon, and the ground floor of Knutti is a ghost town. I'm the last class of the day, wrapping things up at 1:10. In my office now, I find myself presented with a nice quiet time to reflect on the past week and catch up.

This is going to be a fun semester. My classes have a good mix of returning friends, and enough new ones to make it fresh but not overtax me with learning names. The second section of my Computer Mediated course is almost half football players. Never had that happen before...makes for a lively dynamic. If they learn about my world of technology, I may have to take the kids to a game to be immersed in theirs!

I'm getting a handle on my Game Design class. It was a rough start, especially with gmail refusing any account requests from Shepherd. But we struggled through, and have now (I hope) bridged the abyss between starting a new technology and actually studying/designing games. It takes a lot of thought to try and integrate Globaloria's content with my content, but the payoff will be worth it.

Went to the first Common Reading event, a showing of King Corn on Wednesday night. It told the disturbing story of the impact of corn on our food industry and our health. after the show I had to run to the grocery to pick up a few things. My youngest, Daisy, read the ingredients label of everything I put in the cart. A few of my game design students showed up; I had made it extra credit since we'll be designing games to educate on the topics covered in the Common Reading, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." It was such a good film that I think I may need to order a copy of the DVD.

This week finds me easing back into work, and with it blogging.  While I loath the thought of summer ending, there is something reassuring about getting back into a schedule. 

Globaloria training was yesterday and will run through today. We looked at the game design presentations of the five groups after dinner. I think it is so brave for educators whose background is nowhere near coding to take on Flash assignments. And in good humor too!

I had felt bad about not being able to dedicate any time to my group's project (that crazy MFA got in the way!) but I think we all pulled it together in the 11th hour. Matt's game coding was very impressive. I need to take and download the working doc and look under the covers.

I still need to figure out how to use the wiki for swf files that have external xml and media files though. Guess a call to Jeff is in order. For our presentation I just loaded my slideshow on my Shepherd server.

Today's lecture on animation made me drag up an old file I did a year or two ago. You can take a look at the animation.

Michael Jackson's Glove

Today in the NY Times Style Section there was an article about Michael Jackson. As I read about this incredible artist, it occurred to me that it would be interesting to do a semiotic analysis of his glove. Certainly it has taken on a meaning of its own. And what about the Pop King himself? What does he represent to us, especially those of us born in the 60s? Another day perhaps.

Today I will simply listen and enjoy.

Photo from The Directory of New York City.

Integrating Globaloria into my Curriculum

In the adoption of Globaloria for my game design class I have found myself at odds between two concepts: The advantages of using an integrated system that the students are familiar with, and the benefit of a more extended learning community with expanded content. I keep trying to figure out how the two would not be mutually exclusive.

SAKAI

Shepherd uses Sakai, an online learning tool that offers the following features/tools: Wiki, Calendar, Integrated Messaging, Podcasts, Grade Book, Drop Boxes, Resources, Tests & Quizzes and Site Statistics. Note: There are many more tools available, but these are the ones I use most often.

Sakai was universally adopted by the University last year. I was an early tester of the system, so some of my students have been using Sakai for two years. (We also tested Moodle.) Like any online environment, it has its strengths and weaknesses. I wish it had an attendance module for example, and some file formats are not readily posted. On the plus side, Sakai is easily navigable and modular. Each tool provided to the educator and student is designed specifically for a certain task. It doesn't try to make one tool do all things. I can add tools as needed, keeping the screen clean and uncluttered.

Sakai's Site Statistics tool gives me a good idea of how the students are actually using the site. I can look for example, at the usage from my Advertising and Imagery class.



You can see that they are looking at each others work, documenting/discussing things in the wiki, and posting/reading assignments with regular frequency.

GLOBALORIA

From my experience with Globaloria, I was very impressed with the overall content. The modules are broken up intelligently, and supporting resources are very well researched. The teachers utilizing the curriculum within my state of West Virginia are great, and have glowing reports on student responses. A disadvantage I found in my exposure was that by making the wiki contain everything, the usability has suffered somewhat. During a recent training session educators often had trouble finding they needed. With that said, the wiki format provides a huge advantage by allowing all learners on Globaloria to have access to each other. It also allows the Globaloria administrators to constantly update and improve content and have it distributed immediately.

WHAT NEXT?

So what do I do for my class? I'm leaning toward doing a hybrid of the two. The students could enter Sakai, and in a lesson module find the direct link to the Globaloria content. (This would bypass any navigational confusion.) Doing this would also allow me to integrate my own curriculum easily. Maybe this first semester they use Sakai's wiki tool, but use Blogger as specified by Globaloria. This does limit the ability of other learners to access their work, but as Shepherd is the first university-level participant this may not be such a huge problem for now.

Happily, the folks that run Globaloria are open to suggestions. This first time through will no doubt be challenging, but I'm hoping for the best of both worlds. No matter what the reults, students will find themselves immersed in a digital learning environment, with plenty of opportunity for collaboration.

Everything I needed to know I learned in 3rd-5th Grades

I was born in 1963, and attended elementary school in the 70s. As a country, we were immersed in the Vietnam war. Every night on the news I would see Walter Cronkite report on the casualties, while a graphic appeared over his shoulder with a large number of the total war dead. The unrest in the country, paired with the remnant idealism of the 60s, made many a school district reexamine its approach to education.

Genesee Hills Elementary School, in DeWitt New York (a suburb of Syracuse) was definitely exploring alternative means to teach its student body. As a third grader, I found myself in an experiment. It was called "Multi-Age." My class consisted of 75 students, grades three through five, with three teachers and probably as many student teachers. They took three classrooms and removed the walls completely between two of them, and carved a wide open passage to the third space.

The idea behind Multi-Age was that the students would interact and learn from each other as much as from the teachers. Some of the concepts applied were:

• Independent learning: At the beginning of the week I created my own schedule. I was presented with a grid, and knew I had to have mark so-many boxes for math, language arts, reading etc.
  
• Learning at your own pace: If a 5th grader was "behind" in math, they would get the appropriate content for their own skill level. There was no real differentiation from 3rd grade work versus 5th grade work (at least in the student's mind.) So there was no stigma associated with "failing" a grade. You simply learned math.
  
• Peer teaching. I felt empowered helping other kids with their work. Older kids served as mentors for me. I had friends of all ages and both sexes. Cliques really didn't exist.
• Tinkering (!!!): In one corner of the classroom was a wood shop. You could schedule a block of time to do art or whatever. Yes, sometimes there was hammering while I studied Math.
• Experiential learning: Our class raised money and leased a pumpkin patch. We went and harvested the pumpkins and sold them for Halloween. We also set up a small bookstore in another corner of the room. We used the money from the pumpkin sale to stock the shelves, Students kept inventory and worked the store. We studied geology by going to a nearby quarry.
• Democracy in action: Every morning we had a group meeting to talk about what was going right, and where we could improve. Now I recognize this as transparency. We kids knew what was going on, and had a voice in our own education. I remember very clearly going on the yearly overnight camping trip and having an unpleasant experience. A young woman, Jo-Anne, was constantly teased by the boys and accused of stuffing her bra. Apparently she finally got fed up, marched the boys into the woods, lifted her shirt and showed them that no, she indeed did not use toilet paper. Not surprisingly, word of the incident spread like wildfire among the students. Eventually our teachers found out, and around that night's campfire Mr. Barnello had the awkward task of addressing the group. We were asked to decide Jo-Anne's fate. Like some crazy kid's version of Survivor, the majority of students voted her off the island. I felt sorry for Jo-Anne, and had wanted her to stay.

I remained in Multi-Age from 3rd through 5th. I flourished under the system. It seemed to have polarizing results. You either loved it, or did poorly. Kids with less structure at home tended not to do as well, not knowing how to manage the independence afforded them. However, I'm not so sure those same kids would have had any better luck in a more traditional system.

Sixth grade was quite a shock. I moved into a Middle School where the other kids clearly didn't come from a Multi-Age environment. The attitudes were different, and I found myself with hurt feelings an awful lot. Happily, my study skills had already been established so I excelled in the rest of my academic career. And slowly I learned how to deal with the "mean kids," and find like-minded friends.

I feel a tremendous sense of gratitude for having been in such a system. Mr. B, Ms. Moser and Mrs. Shadlack remain some of the most influential people in my life.

A favorite first person shooter?

Shooter games have always annoyed me. No matter what the subject matter, they all seem like veiled references to gunplay. Disclosure: I'm a (neurotic/pacifist/treehugger) mom of three and we don't have "water guns"... we have "water squirters."

Last year I traveled to Boston to see the Institute of Contemporary Art's exhibit Design Life Now. This is the design world's Mecca... showing the best of the best from the past three years.

Among the installations I spotted what was clearly a virtual reality game. "Ug" said my inner voice. "VR is so 90s." Boy was I wrong. Snow World is a game made to help burn victims deal with the pain associated with their injuries. Men who have been injured in Iraq (due to real point and shooting) don the game's glasses, lob snowballs at snowmen and feel relief.

That's a FPS even I can support.

You cannot live on games alone...

To me, the perfect Sunday morning is spent at Barney Greengrass, on Amsterdam and 86th. An "everything" bagel is on my plate: one half lox, the other sable. Cream cheese, red onion, capers, and cucumbers accompany the fish, making an impossible-to-resist combination of flavors, textures and colors. This meal wouldn't be complete without a side of the Sunday New York Times. My husband reaches for Frank Rich, and my cousin and I share the Style and Entertainment sections.

I have now lived in West Virginia for 15 years, and visions of what they wear on 5th Avenue or in Milan become increasingly irrelevant to my life. Yet the need to touch base with some of the best writers and thinkers in the country persists. While living in a small town like Shepherdstown has wonderful advantages, I recognize that I'm certainly not living on the cutting edge of anything. Happily, I can rely on the Times to provide me with information to at least stop me from becoming dull.

Bits (Business, Innovation, Technology and Society) is a blog on nytimes.com that keeps me aware of what is going on in the tech arena. While it doesn't pertain specifically to games, it highlights things that influence the development of games from both a creative and platform standpoint. I find the smallest mention can sometimes start a hailstorm of new ideas for me.

If I want a gaming-specific perspective, I can always turn to Wired's GameLife. It keeps its finger on the pulse of new games and platform improvements. It does it so well that I can even forgive its 90s remnant title using the TwoWordsSmashedIntoOne trope. (Sorry, even great writers and thinkers sometimes succumb to marketing trends.)

If GameLife occasionally seems a bit too pragmatic, I can find solace in reading Jesper Juul's blog, The Ludologist. It covers deeper and more sophisticated theories of gaming as well as " other important things." It makes me feel like I'm engaging with an intellectual. I like reading about things like semiotics, or The Collapse and Reconstitution of the Cinematic Narrative. (Clearly this guy also reads The Economist. And isn't afraid to reference it visually with his own banner.) For me, Juul helps bridge the gap between sticky fingered teenage boys clutching controllers and crusty old academics clinging to their spectacles. And it is somewhere in that gap that I live.

photo used courtesy of a Creative Commons license.

First day of training

This is my first day of training for Globaloria. While everything has been pretty much review for me up to this point, we saw a cool video during lunch.

http://video.ted.com/talks/podcast/ClayShirky_2005G_480.mp4