Blog Juice for Educational Technology

Anyone think a video game might be a small contributing factor here given what the mother said (in the title of my post)? Modesto Eight-Year-Old Steals Teacher’s Minivan:

An 8-year-old boy swiped his teacher’s car keys and took her minivan for a joyride, cruising safely home and into the record books as the city’s youngest auto thief, police said.

Since no one was hurt, it’s kind of funny. But scary since I have 6 1/2 year old (who, by the way, is not playing Grand Theft Auto yet, but he does like Unreal Tournament 2004).

And yes, I dugg this.

This report from GameDaily BIZ states that the Michigan violent games law has been stricken down as unconstitutional. There are some interesting statements in the report, including this one:

While certain politicians and anti-game activists have also suggested that games are far worse for children than other media because they offer interactive, not passive experiences, the district court once again shot down this notion. “…it could just as easily be said that the interactive element in video games acts as an outlet for minors to vent their violent or aggressive behavior, thereby diminishing the chance they would actually perform such acts in reality….Not only does the Act not materially advance the state’s stated interest, but it appears to discriminate against a disfavored ‘newcomer’ in the world of entertainment media.

Joystiq has a fun article about Geek Chic at the Game Developer Conference (GDC). Surprisingly enough, I expected to see exactly these stats. I’m just wondering if I’d qualify as a “hairy dude” and be part of that exclusive 9%…Or maybe I could just wear a PowerGlove and be that ONE dude at the conf with one. Hmm. BTW, if you want your C-64 retro shirt, it’s HERE. Very, very, suave…

For me, the best part of this year’s 4C’s didn’t happen at the Palmer House. No, by far and away the most exciting and fulfilling experience of the past few days was getting to see the Game On! exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. My only regret was not having more time to see it (I was limited to two hours on Friday before catching a flight back to St Cloud). If I’d only known about this exhibit sooner, I would likely have blown off an entire day of conferencing to really spend some time there (not that having papers read to me isn’t exciting, of course). Of course, I took lots of pictures, but many didn’t come out.

The latest issue of Reconstruction has the theme “The Play’s the Thing: Games, Gamers and Gaming Cultures.” Here’s the table of contents; I hope it’s helpful to some of you!

Introduction

Matthew Wolf-Meyer and Davin Heckman, “Allegorical Reductions and Social Reconstructions”
Articles

Section One: Evolutions/Migrations

Joyce Goggin, “The Playing Card’s Progress: A Brief History of Cards and Card Games”

Claudia Mesch, “Cold War Games and Postwar Art”

Terri Toles Patkin, “Constructing a New Game: J.K. Rowling’s Quidditch and Global Kid Culture”

There’s been a slew of new “serious” games out recently, but one that I think is really interesting (not to mention fun) is McDonalds. The game, which blatently rips most of McDonald’s most sacred trademarks, is one of the most effective yet scathing rebukes of fast food I’ve seen. This game is seriously disturbing on so many levels. There’s an interview with the creator here.

Furthermore, since the game is licensed under CC and freely available in a barrage of formats, we can expect to see it disseminated pretty far and wide before McDonald’s scares them off with a C&D or sues them out of business. Interestingly, the creator talks about this in the interview:

Another plug, but I couldn’t resist after reading Matt Barton’s review of the Steven Johnson book a couple posts down. I’d like to alert Kairos readers to a thread recently begun at if:book — the blog of the institute for the future of the book — where we have mounted a multi-post, ongoing critique of EBIGFY, in which Johnson himself is participating. We were moved to do this after witnessing the near-universal acclaim the book has received since publication. We’ve already come across numerous instances of it being assigned as essential reading for new media and design classes, in some cases by teachers who haven’t even read it. It seemed time for a more rigorous discussion…

One of the more interesting things Steven Johnson writes in Everything Bad is Good for You is that Google is the way our generation learns about itself. I think it’s a bit of a broad claim, but it’s still a fun thought. I was thinking about this quotation when I stumbled across this little game. It’s a fascinating new media game with a very simple gimmick–you are presented with a collage of images based on a Google search, and your job is to determine the keyword. I wasn’t able to get a single point, but maybe you’ll have better luck.

Rockstar (makers of Grand Theft Auto) are under fire again, this time for an upcoming title called “Bully.” The game, which allows a bullied kid to “get revenge,” has been attacked by the mother of a dead teen who started an online petition (WOW, these things work?) The petition states, “The game depicts scenes of violence in a school setting directed at students, teachers and staff. The premise of the game is that the child that has been bullied gets his/her revenge. Bullying is a very serious issue, which should not be taken lightly.” Hmm… It seems Rockstar is really succeeding in its marketing strategy–controversy = publicity, publicity = good publicity = sales.

Over at the Wisconsin Center of Education Research, they have a lot of working papers, some of which focus on technology-enhanced learning. The most recent one is “Video Games and the Future of Learning” by David Williamson Shaffer, Kurt R. Squire, Richard Halverson, and James P. Gee, all of the University of Wisconsin. Here’s the abstract:

Will video games change the way we learn? We argue here for a particular view of games—and of learning—as activities that are most powerful when they are personally meaningful, experiential, social, and epistemological all at the same time. From this perspective, we describe an approach to the design of learning environments that builds on the educational properties of games, but deeply grounds them within a theory of learning appropriate to an age marked by the power of new technologies. We argue that to understand the future of learning, we have to look beyond schools to the emerging arena of video games. We suggest that video games matter because they present players with simulated worlds: worlds that, if well constructed, are not just about facts or isolated skills, but embody particular social practices. Video games thus make it possible for players to participate in valued communities of practice and as a result develop the ways of thinking that organize those practices. Most educational games to date have been produced in the absence of any coherent theory of learning or underlying body of research. We argue here for such a theory—and for research that addresses the important questions about this relatively new medium that such a theory implies.

More here.

A small plug for the new Games, Learning & Society program offered through the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Details here:

http://website.education.wisc.edu/gls/index.htm

Areas of study include digital literacies, digital game-based learning environments, gender and gameplay, and MMOGs.

You know, those videos that game geeks make using footage of themselves playing a game, and the chat about the game, but sort of fanfic-y? Here’s an example of the kind of thing I’m talking about.

Are any of you having students do these in composition classes?

Well, here’s some good news: More colleges are offering videogame-related courses. Apparently, most courses focus on computer graphics, but others are more game specific. Obviously, we’re still very much in a “foot in the door” situation with videogame studies in college curriculums, though I’m excited by these beginnings. I’ve been discussing videogames a lot in my computers and english class here at SCSU, but would like even better to teach an even more game-centric course–perhaps a course in “reading” videogames or even writing them (interactive fiction would probably be the easiest, though there are plenty of DIY kits out there to practically automate the game design process for more ambitious projects.)