(Note: sorry about the length of these posts on the home page, but MT is still messing up extended entries.)

Pop Cosmopolitanism, Collective Intelligence, and Participatory Culture: What Educators Need to Know about the New Media Landscape

see over time a span of skills learned from gaming that are applied to law, etc.

Yoyogi Park, Tokyo – a “fan district”
8–story comic book store!
showed costumes in Toyko Park = “cosplay” which happens every weekend; mostly girls who spend most of their time taking pictures of each other with their cell phones

showed a video of a 17–year old girl who was motivated to learn Japanese and how to sew in order to participate in CosPlay
they go to conventions to be recognized as the character they are dressed as; whole point is to be recognized and photographed
then go on the internet afterwards to find pictures of themselves

— not just consuming popular culture but generating it as well
these kids are integrating this into their identities

showed a clip of the “Yankees” who dance rockabilly dressed as Elvis in the park; one person wears the “red jacket” (James Dean, “the only thing that trumps Elvis”)
see “silent dancing” all over the park; eg, practicing boy band moves

not just Imperialist culture, but integration; see a lot of hybridity; goes both directions

organized reenactments of scenes from The Matrix in Japan

“Pop cosmopolitanism” – contra cultural imperialism; a hunger to escape parochialism

media literacy we’ve been teaching in our schools hasn’t changed since the 1980s – need to rethink this

mass culture is taught as something we consume but don’t participate in; “buy nothing day” leaves us with the option to opt out only – “just say yes” or “just say no”

noted Steven Johnson’s book “Everything Bad is Good for You”

see complexity everywhere in media
– see visual complexity (comic books)
– narrative complexity (Lost)
– paradigmatic complexity (Pokemon)
– cognitive complexity (video games)
– cultural complexity (mixing and matching cultures)

we’ve now reached the point where we feel inadequate to pop culture; now there are people that don’t “get” pop culture, whereas in the past it would have been high culture

distributed cognition: things we would normally offload – example is Tivo, manages TV for you

collective intelligence – we pool knowledge; no one knows everything, everyone knows something; mix and match that information – example is Wikipedia

showed a flowchart of the Zion Underground hierarchy in The Matrix that was created by users; see this in Survivor Fan sites, too

“i love bees” example from halo community - had to work together to solve problems

new kind of competency

corporations are now taking advantage of this – eg Coke lets you participate in many different ways

have to start thinking of children and youth as media generators – grassroots participation; young people will be critical to the change
— eg Joshua Meeter, who created a claymation Star Wars film
— Peter “TheSidDog” Medina, a Sims Moviemaker

“they live across media” - it’s not just digital production

they’re not biased towards any one form

often called “the Napster Generation” because they’re “stealing,” but they are expressing themselves via this mixing; they’re using what’s out there

interesting hybrids of high tech and lo-fi modes — scanning print in order to distribute it digitally

overwhelming number of these kids are home schooled; those that are in school are doing poorly because schools are failing them
— home schoolers use digital technology much more; they’re no longer “cut off from classmates” when being taught at home

Kaiser Family Study:
children under 6–years old spend nearly two hours a day using screen media
83% use any screen media
83% play outside
— study doesn’t ask the right questions, though; what do these numbers actually mean? what do they represent?

parents are given no advice on how to help or shape these kids’ digital tendencies at home
media literacy begins in the crib

Five Key Questions that Can Change the World:

1. Who created the message?
2. What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

— all based on kids consuming, not shaping, media

21st century learning needs: effective communication, high productivity, digital-age literacy

media literacy should be:
the ability to critically assess information gathered from multiple sources
the ability to appreciate works from many different aesthetic traditions
— give them vocabularies for what they’re already consuming
an understanding of the contexts within which media are produced, distributed, and consumed
the ability to express your ideas through a range of media (which kids already do)
the ability to assess which media is most appropriate for a given purpose (cell phones vs. text messaging vs. camcorders, etc.)
the ability to meaningfully participate in collective intelligence community
the ability to think in multimodal terms (multiple levels of interpretation; the videos of Tokyo Park show more than just sound, audio, or text would)
an ethical framework for thinking about our freedoms and responsibilities as communicators

the participation gap - need to worry for several reasons

the digital divide has been largely closed in terms of access, because most kids have some access through schools and libraries
— not really, though, because you can’t participate in this culture in 15 minutes on a public library computer, so now there’s a “participation gap”

also have the group that doesn’t do this at all and doesn’t even know about it

need to create space where the two groups can interact and learn from each other

media literacy should begin at the crib and should occur at every level of the culture:
– parents
– churches
– organizations (YMCA, etc.)
– schools
– media

Jenny note: libraries aren’t listed  :-(

all of this should be taught across the curriculum, which is a major paradigm shift - same as multiculturalism; integrated this into the curriculum, not just as an add-on module
– media literacy should be the same way

what are we doing through our classes now to build this into instructional curriculum?

two crises that are relevant to our schools and our society

1. “the 4th grade slump” - there are certain ways you can teach young children to read, but by 4th grade they can’t read to learn so they struggle after that
2. “the college slump” – we’ve outsourced a tremendous amount of our work, every commoditized job (everything that can be standardized) because other countries are producing very smart people; so we’re left with those jobs that can’t be standardized and we hope they’ll keep doing the rest for us, but that’s not happening anymore; instead, they’re producing people for the non-commoditized work — everyone EXCEPT THE U.S.; this will be very destructive to us within 20 years; we have to be able to innovate and create, not just get a degree; that’s not enough anymore

the solution to these crises is in our face: it’s popular culture and games; this is where it’s getting solved, not in our schools

the 4th grade slump is caused by the fact that what is so hard about school is how hard the language gets; textbooks are NOT recreational reading; unless kids, starting at home, get ready for this language early, they will be lost; it’s like changing the language to Greek in mid-stream; it’s not the english you speak at home - it’s a technical language

interestingly, this language is being reflected in popular culture; eg, Yu-Gi-Oh cards (http://www.YuGiOhCardGuide.com)
gives kids incredibly complex culture by age 7; eg, showed a YGO card that had 3 straigtht conditional clause statements as explanations of powers
as an adult, Gee would rather take physics than figure out the YuGiOh rules! :-)
no failure rates, either – no research has found a failure for a minority group to understand this
where is the one place these cards are banned? SCHOOL

cutting edge assessment: the college slump problem

have to teach students to innovate and create; popular culture already represents a space that is solving this problem and we can learn from it

assessment is important - am I making progress, and why did I just fail? a multiple choice test is not fun and it’s useless  it doesn’t tell you anything or help you figure out what you did wrong; this is a different view of assessment

“Rise of Nations” as an example - showed screenshots, especially of online competitions against others
14 pages of statistical graphs of what you did, and kids read it for pleasure!
creates a lot of multimodal skills with graphs and numeracy
informative assessment - tells you what happened; helps you form strategies by telling you where you failed; assessing to create new strategies is part of the game; gives you ideas for how to do it better; you couldn’t get a better score – but shows where you could do better, which is an ideal assessment; the biggest assessment isn’t those graphs, it’s what you did with them – did you learn from them?

what if a kid got these kinds of assessments in school for science?

afffinity groups:
1. common endeavor, not race, class, gender, or disability, is primary
2. newbies and masters share common space
3. players produce content, not just consume it
4. content organization is transformed by interactional organization
5. encourages intensive and extensive knowledge
6. encourages individual and distributed knowledge
7. encourages dispersed knowledge – everyone (the help) is there somewhere
8. uses and honors tacit knowledge
9. many different forms and routes to participation
10. different routes to status
11. leadership is porous and leaders are resources

“Age of Mythology” – gets them reading more about mythology and planning

told story about his son in 2nd grade who said he and his friends were playing it; Jim didn’t believe it, thought they must be playing it with their parents; an  hour later, his son was explaining to the Jim how to play it; kids totally know it at a very early age

Jim decided he would print out all of the information that flows through the site in one day, but finally stopped on the 2000th page
all of this exists because people are creating content, not just consuming it

these communities speak to the college slump

learning principles: consider all of this as a way to organize a knowledge community (do this in the school!)

in schools, the kids aren’t building content; no dispersed knowledge; only one leader; one mode of learning and one format

incorporate the best of cognitive learning principles

the fun of the game is learning; once they’ve mastered it, they move on and buy a new game

our schools no longer support these principles

Learning in Games:
1. produce (nothing happens if you don’t do something)
2. customize (can totally mod the games; to your learning style; could even try a new style)
3. identity (no learning is done without a strong identity; games give you an identity, schools don’t)
4. interact
5. well-ordered problems (they aren’t liberal or progressive; the problems you face early set up good hypotheses for future play)
6. pleasantly frustrating (which is what keeps them coming back)
7. challenge (don’t get to move on until you’ve solved something; “cycle of expertise”)
8. “on demand” & “just in time” (info when you need it or can use it; don’t have to read things ahead of time; walking up to kiosks in games)
(my side note — ** librarians!!)
9. do, not just talk
10. system thinking (putting many elements in relation to each other)
11. encourage risk (games don’t tell you you’re worthless at the end)
12. explore, think laterally, rethink goals (new view of intelligence; faster isn’t necessarily better – eg, FPS games; want you to explore everything and rethink your goals; virtually every good thing you can find is off the beaten path)

produces learning where you MUST innovate and have to master what you do; you don’t get credit for nothing

we have on the plate models that have to be transferred; it’s not did the kid transfer it to algebra, it’s will we?

Questions for Henry and Jim:

one way of thinking about schools is that school is a game, too. certain ways of thinking, certain things across each area, certain identities – it’s just not a good game; but you’ll get a bad game if you try to change a game quickly or arbitrarily; since it’s already well-designed to do what it does, how do we change the game school?
Jim: for the first time in our history, our kids have genuine competition, which is the biggest crisis we’ve faced; the paradigm for schooling will have more competition than ever before; science and math is so poorly retained because you never got the roles and meaning; have to get a new game
Henry: if current school is a game, it’s CandyLand or Chutes & Ladders (go in a circle no matter what color you pick or slide down if make the wrong move by luck); poor games to prepare kids for the future; doesn’t know if we can reprogram our schools; need to become more open-ended; we widen the participation gap if do this outside of the schools; there ARE teachers fighting to make this happen

this discussion has been about what some kids do, but it’s a minority
Jim: that’s the participation gap; we’re not producing enough of these kids, whereas the rest of the world is; need research on who these kids are; the college slump is the first crisis that crosses class lines - can affect rich and poor; now there is going to be a price when they all grow up
Henry: need statistical information about the level of participation; our studies are asking the wrong questions – eg, the Kaiser study lumped all screen media together and didn’t ask what they’re actually doing;  have to recognize all of the different forms of participation (Will Wright’s chart of participation in The Sims); invariably, there’s a parent who cares behind these kids; plenty of roles for parents to enable and encourage this

what transformations have you made in your own programs to incorporate these ideas:
Jim: boomer retirement! the new faculty being hired “get” all of this; Jim has switched his style to teach how to enter the world, not how to read; “I’m on my way out”
Henry: hasn’t gotten into elementary or grade schools as much as he’d like to; trying to break down the barriers between media at MIT; integrating a range of media in every class (sound, vision, text, etc..); combine theory and practice in the classroom; all students are required to do some actual production in addition to theory; creating “creative opportunities;” don’t teach the skills, they use what they know for final assignments, so they don’t just make something in isolation; integrating theoretical and participatory work; collective problem-solving

what would a curriculum of the future look like, and are these examples really about relevance? what does a curriculum that addresses this look like?
Jim: liberals make the mistake of basing education on who you are; conservatives base it on stuff that’s irrelevant; future is giving kids strong identities; you’ll “become an urban planner,” which helps you learn facts and theories because that identity requires you to know those things; if you had learned a bunch of algebra to pull off an identity you really wanted to have, you would have learned it and been prepared for future learning
Henry: when developing games for classroom use, ask “what’s the knowledge used for” – gives you roles, etc.; MIT is finishing a game called “Revolution” now – you decide how far you will go for your freedoms, etc.; kids struggle; each kid has a different perspective based on their roles; kids are creating diaries where they mash what they’re learning in textbooks, in the game, etc.; kids are bringing things to the game to shape their interactions; told the story of a kid who showed up at a protest and was shot by her own side (“How could they do that to me?) – really brings home the history; understand history much better, make choices, gain context for them; the role of voices; these tools open up history and make it more relevant

Cory Ondrejka (Second Life developer): Brace for Impact: How User Creation Changes Everything

MMORPGs: a consistent and persistent place that allows many simultaneous users to interact

10 million people playing these games right now; $1 billion market

why Second Life is different than other mmorpgs and why it’s suitable for education:

user-creation: atomistic construction
this is a big transition – to let users create
example of guy who created the best gun available in the game right now – sells them to other players for $8 each
users added alien abductions into the game and would go around abducting characters every couple of weeks
users figured out you could stack multiple things to make something look like a piano because they wanted one; but it just looks like a piano, it doesn’t do music
users added skateboarding – no code in the game for “skateboard”

game relies on broadband because of the rendering

today is the game’s 2nd birthday
now at 1,000 CPUs

user-creation: collaboration
interaction and creation are synchronous and collaborative
people stand next to each other and do things together or for each other

community: demographics
SL community is older and more gender balanced than most games

see a lot of amateur-to-amateur learning and helping

economics: model
it’s a virtual real-estate model, not a subscription one
buy only what you need to do what you want to do

economics: market
in the last month:
20,000 customers
50,000 distinct items were sold
1 million p2p transactions (player to player)
$2 millions in internal economy

30,000 user hours per day
30% of time each day is spent creating
9,000 user hours per day spent creating = 4.5 user years per day
becomes a team of 1600 creators — a $175 million rate

economics: property rights
residents retain their intellectual property rights to their creations
residents can license their property in the real world

innovation and inevitability:
transportation and communication
real world connections (encouraged) – users create external web sites to sell stuff
property rights
capital – can exploit real world sources like real credit cards
marginal costs in the online world
gameplay – no required RPG elements; so is it a “game?”

games are being built within Second Life

amateur-to-amateur:
a basic building class in the game; they teach each other how to script, how to run events, etc.
knowledge spreads out to the web
abbott’s aerodrome – users added skydiving; started giving away parachutes (you can pay for better ones); they teach skydiving in the game
vertu – people are very free with their virtual currency; evangelizing in the virtual world to donate money in the real world to charity organizations

advertising has appeared in the game

tringo: over christmas break, this australian built a game that mixed tetris and bingo; has a betting component, no twitch responses, can taunt each other while playing, very social; just licensed the game to a real world company for mucho [real] money to put it on cell phones

shared learning environment for AI

James Cook on motivated users; James is a doctor

don’t have to be a programmer to create in the game

virtual hallucinations:
Peter Yellowlees simulated hallucinations in SL of a real schizophrenic
did it to show other people what it’s like – medical students, families and caregivers
did an in-world survey tool; paid 75 cents to get listed as an “interesting place”
asked for spontaneous feedback
whole experiment cost about $100; no transaction cost

wilde cunningham
9 physically disabled people sharing an account with the help of June-Marie Mahay
they decide what they want to do - go skydive, etc.

brigadoon island:
John Lester, founder of Brain Talk Communities, migrated Aspergers patients and families to Second Life
bought an island in SL for them to talk to each other; it’s consequence-free, text-based, they set up the space however they like; designed their own meeting spaces; had to decide how far apart the benches would be

live2give
an island where these wilde cunninham and brigadoon players meet

Megan Conklin on research

sociology research
business experimentation
collaboration experimentation

she doesn’t lecture very much at Elon University; use other multimodal methods
taught a technology and society class using Second Life

at the session, she provided a handout for how to create a “safe lab” environment and research ethics

when the class started, she immediately got questions about identity – great for anthro, socio, philosophy studies
can rate other players and there are economic benefits for doing that
can have students compete to come up with a business idea
in-world marketing and advertising; intersection with the real world
intellectual property issues
the business of gaming - how do you make money
there have been some sweatshop issues that came up

social sciences:
class and status issues
subcultures
religion, marriage, health issues, evangelization, how do you treat death
race, gender, criminal justice issues – how is punishment doled out in this kind of a world
terrorist groups
avatar and identity
nascent democracies
legal and ethnographic studies

Linden Labs is adding foreign languages to SL
politics, public policy

the gap comes in applying this to your classroom - the practical issues

Cory: Linden offers a campus second life
college classes can utilize SL to augment their curriculum - tend to have 5–6 classes running per semester

life drawing:
can upload audio clips, animations, and textures; the textures allow users to hold life drawing classes in the game
MST3K - users stream public domain videos into the game and sit around and watch them together, MST3K-style

building with bits:
what happens when there are no limits on creativity?

leverage:
you don’t have to build the technology
you don’t have to build the content - can pay someone else in the game to create content
don’t reinvent the wheel - there are worlds and communities waiting to help
developers are working with a bank to create an area where they’ll teach kids about money
take advantage of these communities - don’t have to create your own in order to add this to a curriculum

where to go slide includes 4 blogs!

Questions:

is there a way to guarantee that a class wouldn’t be exposed to adult content
Cory: technically no, because they can’t control what those students will say and do
Megan: tips for managing this are in the handout; in her class, she walked around and saw where the students were; instituted rules
Cory: social conventions for what can be created in the PG worlds; can restrict users to them; the communities police themselves

lab/equipment issues trying to run the software?
Megan: can definitely encounter issues; have to check for this ahead of time; not all students could run the game on their laptops; students wanted to stay and play the game in the lab after class ended; you’ll need most modern graphics card and as much memory as you can afford

are there tools to build 3D wireframes:
all of the modeling is done real-time, in-world; not uploaded from the outside; it’s all done server-side; Linden brings as many tools as possible into SL, but they don’t duplicate PhotoShop; textures tend to be done outside and brought in

noted that patches require admin level access on Windows computers; how do I get my students through the first week of “what the hell is this?”
Megan: watched The Matrix and read “Snow Crash” first; tried other virtual communities first; didn’t do it on the first day; the fact Megan is a woman helped the females in the class

Cory: SL is increasingly becoming a final question for law students because of the legal issues, particularly intellectual property

how long and can SL avoid the commercialization and centralization we’ve seen on the web?
James: first web browser (before Mosaic) was an authoring tool AND a browser, but Mosaic left out the authoring tool; SL’s focus is on providing the tools to create
Cory: major difference is the collaborative aspects; get a lot of ad-hoc amateurism because it’s all live; reduction in costs to do things normalizes and levels the playing field; developers are trying very hard to make good decisions that avoid this scenario

what’s to prevent Coke from dropping $250,000 and taking over SL?
Cory: the community would back out of the world pretty quickly, would create compromising images of Coke that would appear on the web; could set Coke Island on fire; they wouldn’t tolerate this and it would end up hurting Coke in the end

request to centralize info about SL classes for academics in one place
hook up academics who want to do this, coordinate efforts, get away from the idea of isolated teaching
Megan: has a wiki where she’s trying to do this

James: SL has mature regions; communities police themselves

are there any kids in this game?
James: theoretically, no because have to confirm you are 18 and have a credit card; creating a second world for younger users (14–17); it will be interesting when the two worlds begin interacting - Linden has to decide how and what will go between worlds (goods, services, etc.)

David Squire: Learning Game Design: Creating Links – RPG, Identity, Characterisation and Learning

noted there’s no entry for “avatar” in Wikipedia (I’m counting down how long it takes before someone adds it)

Gee’s 3 forms of identity:
– virtual
– real
– projective

transference
introjection

showed pix to illustrate the evolution of avatars from Pong and Pac-Man to the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2005)

need a safe place to play and be in control of “self”; evading the commands – RPGs provide this

predefined or prerendered characters don’t impact on player’s identification
role playing is a natural way to learn
is fantasy more interesting than fact?

interesting question to him is what happens when you strip out fantasy

doesn’t think you get attached to the character if you don’t see it (eg, FPS where you don’t see the shooter)

Diner Dash game where you’re a waitress

Betty Hayes: Gendered Identities at Play

issues now circle around what kinds of games women want now that we know women do play games

girls are horizontal competitors; boys are hierarchical competitors
problems with this perspective (the stereotypes) include presenting attributes as intrinsic, static, & immutable; social context is treated as irrelevant; differences are rendered invisible or deviant

her research starts with the assumption that we’re affected by gender belief systems

did a case study of two women learning to play the game Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls III
both were in a class where they were required to play a video game; chose this one; neither was a gamer
Hayes interviewed them and observed their game play

in Morrowind, you enter the game not knowing your role; a lot of exploration; find out you’re the saviour of this world

both women spent a considerable amount of time creating their avatar/character

ended up enjoying the fighting; both were successful and enjoyed the experience, although both experiences were very different

one wanted to be a healer, but there just weren’t that many opportunities to heal
one started out as a potion maker, but it was too much like “cooking” so she changed roles

women gamers want:
modelling
to be forgiven
to benefit others

men gamers want:
expository explanation
to be punished
to win

gendered play is situated in personal histories and social context
women “play gender” differently
can gaming serve as a site for new understandings of gender and identity?

Lisa Galarneau: The Power of Perspective: Games and Simulations for Transformative Learning

has been closet gaming for 20 years; is the daughter of a closet gamer
is also a former dot-commer

can motivate Millennials to learn using gaming, but it’s only one thing games are good for; it’s not the main thing

the sweet spot for games and learning:
– flexible environments that allow for infinite possibilities and points-of-view (“going meta”)
– allow learners to form connections by experimenting with knowledge in context
– learners learn by doing, discovering and through failure
– allow learning designers to foster authentic learning experiences
– facilitate transformative learning

why learning must be transformative:
– no longer sufficient to know stuff or do stuff, learning is about being/becoming different

modernism, postmodernism, and identity play:
– hyperidentities
– digital media allows us to manipulate our “selves” and multiply them indefinitely
– “narrative of the self”

transformation is the natural by-product of experience:
– transformations can be positive; reflection becomes key (classrooms?)
– without guidance, experiences without reflection can result in unconscious judgment (stereotypes, etc.) – Gladwell’s “Blink”
- they are often abrupt shifts in perspective enabled by “disorienting dilemmas”

“point of view gun”

“September 12th” game about terrorism
shooting the terrorists just creates more of them

MIT’s Replicate game that helps you understand the human body, in this case the immune system, from the perspective of a virus

The Oregon Trail – player takes on the role of a pioneer

MIT’s Revolution game – what if you could change history?
replaying history shifts one’s perspective (Civilization 3)

SimSchool - professional development training for teachers (“FPS for teachers without the gun!”)
what if you could turn this around and be the student, too?

BT’s Better Business Game - what if you were CEO? would you make environmentally and socially responsible decisions?

Magellan’s Understanding Diversity - how does experience contribute to our sympathy for others? a CYOA type of model
explore a situtation and have to decide what to do

Simulearn’s Virtual Leader – how do we learn to handle the complexities of business relationships?

guidelines:
– consider using games and simulations to allow a point-of-view that is unexpected; don’t tow the party line
– allow learners to play at being - encourage them to try on different identities
– remember that simulations are well-suited to practice that is impossible or impractical in tthe physical world
- don’t forget to add fun, challenge, and stickiness
– keep in mind that transformatioin is the goal, but it only comes iwth experience; design authentic learning experiences, not just materials or resoruces
– don’t forget the importance of guidance and reflection

Questions:

how do you measure transformation?
Lisa: focus on short-term assessment is prevalent, but you can’t measure this short-term; need to use profoundly qualitative and very subjective measures; no good answer yet
audience member: lets other learning happen, will lead to other things
Lisa: one of the things transformative learners become is better learners, better collaborators; means future problems are solved more easily; could do more formative assessments in other areas

design implies a controlled, intended response; what about the unintended transformation?

Doug Thomas: Teaching (not so long ago) in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Using Star Wars Galaxies in/as the Classroom
new journal coming out – Cultures in Games

taught 14 students in this class

the game is profession-based, half of which have to do with social interaction rather than exploring, killing, etc.
provides a significant social basis for play

showed a video invitation he received for a party to celebrate a one-year anniversary for entertainers – a LOT of dancing
– all of this has nothing to do with the game itself or Star Wars; build their own cantinas for parties
“biggest party in the galaxy”

course goals:
– three distinct points of view – designer, player, and critic - in order to look at the way communities are created
– games as objects to think with

one student got married 4 times in the game over the semester

challenging assumptions:
– fun/learning binary; we tend to hold those terms in opposition; we usually say it’s okay to have fun as long as you’re learning; flip this to say it’s okay to learn as long as you’re having fun
– play/teaching dichotomy

Thomas went from being in a class to being in a game
– traditional assumptions about classroom roles and behaviors
– the idea that people are having fun in the classroom makes it suspect
– course material as primary
– most interesting transformations came from experience - watching students become players

if you give people groups, they will view everything through them
play as expertise
blurring the binary distinction
– fun and learning as indistinguishable
– student anxiety: “we didn’t want people to think we were just playing games.”

students who weren’t the “best” students turned in the best midterm papers he’d ever read

from teacher to ???
– forced him to rethink the role of the teacher
– was anxious about the class throughout the semester because it was so unfamiliar; “but they aren’t learning anything;” the students “got” it right away, though, and knew exactly what they were learning
- theory testing and theory breaking
- read Murray’s “Hamlet on the Holodeck”
– haflway into the semester, the students started saying, “What would Murray say about what just happened to me in the game?”

conclusions:
– play creates expertise
– taking play seriously violates everything we know (or at least feel) about student and teacher roles; it’s uncomfortable when you’re no longer the leader with all of the knowledge
– principle barriers are faculty, not students; they immediately understood what was important about the experience (gender, social networks, embodiment, etc.); readings gave them something to push back against – they dialogued against it, which was very different and was engaging

Joshua Fouts: Public Diplomacy and MMOGs: Rethinking Foreign Policy, Cultural Understanding, and Peace through Play

Why MMOs?
– one ot many networks (developer to community)
– many to many networks (networked communication systems)
– one to many networks (player to community)

Stephen Gillett: Guild Building is Skill Building: How guild building leadership & management skills learned in MMORPGs transcend into the real world of a startup company

represents the 20something specimen of all of this
grew up around games

mom & dad didn’t know he had a 200–person guild or that he was learning basics in ten languages in Ultima

was told that the things he did might seem totally normal to him, but they’re not normal business practices
noticed that the skills of the guildmaster were the same as being a CEO
– raising money/funds
– had to incorporate
– had to come up with a mission statement
– had to keep the talent
– recruitment of talent
– ceremony and rewards systems were very similar

entering the workforce with several years of managing a guild workforce gave him an advantage

worked at c|net and now Yahoo

Connie Yowell: Respondent, (a non-gamer) from the MacArthur Foundation

response to Stephen:
we don’t have much understanding of adult learning
don’t have much on how all of this transfers, but Stephen just noted how this transferred for him; preparation for future learning
the concept of “stolen knowledge” – is it enough to have that knowledge without knowing you have it?

response to Doug:
role of the teacher is to be able to move the student from concrete experiences into a body of knowledge; it’s a continuum
“are they learning anything” is a fundamental question, and we need to understand those moments
games allow us the opportunity to rethink all of this

response to Joshua:
how do we maintain these communities through conflict?
the notion of trust and security; the role of “soft power”
as you become a member of a community, you gain “collective efficacy” – can we get this in public policy?

Doug: thinks players see race as a user interface issue
thought it was great that the game included the full range of “colors,” but once they got into the game, they didn’t see a single person of color
no discussions about this are happening

Today and tomorrow I’m at the Games, Learning, and Society Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. I’ll post my session notes tonight, but suffice it to say I’m being blown away, and we’ve only gotten through the first session! LOTS to ponder. You’ll be able to watch some of the sessions later, because they’re recording them to be webcast. Highly recommended watching already.