Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as "Third Places" - 52 views
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"bowling alone" hypothesis (Putnam, 2000), which suggests that media are displacing crucial civic and social institutions
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According to Putnam, time spent with relatively passive and disengaging media has come at the expense of time spent on vital community-building activities.
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A core problem on both sides of the debate is an underlying assumption that all Internet use is more or less equivalent
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It would be more plausible and empirically rigorous, then, to consider how specific forms of Internet activity impact civic and social engagement as a result of their particular underlying social architectures
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combining conclusions from two different lines of MMO research conducted from two different perspectives—one from a media effects approach, the other from a sociocultural perspective on cognition and learning.
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By providing spaces for social interaction and relationships beyond the workplace and home, MMOs have the capacity to function as one form of a new "third place" for informal sociability much like the pubs, coffee shops, and other hangouts of old.
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They are known for their peculiar combination of designed "escapist fantasy" and emergent "social realism"
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from two research projects: one an examination of the media effects of MMOs, the other an ethnographic study of cognition and culture in such contexts.
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the assumption that the most fruitful advances are sometimes made when congruent findings are discovered through disparate means
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as a way to tease out what happens in the virtual setting of the game and how the people involved consider their own activities, the activities of others, and the contexts in which those activities takes place
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a reasonable level of generalizability (random assignment to condition in the first study) and contextualization (ethnographic description of existing in-game social networks and practices in the second)
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brick-and-mortar "third places" in America where individuals can gather to socialize informally beyond the workplace and home
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virtual environments have the potential to function as new (albeit digitally mediated) third places similar to pubs, coffee shops, and other hangouts.
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the default assumption is that no one person is compelled to participate legally, financially, or otherwise.
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Unless one transforms the virtual world of the game into a workplace (e.g., by taking on gainful employment as a virtual currency "farmer" for example, Dibbell, 2006; Steinkuehler, 2006a) or enters into such agreement, no one person is obligated to log in
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Yee's (2006) interviews also reveal that individuals who game with romantic partners or family find that such joint engagement in the "other world" of MMOs allows them to redefine the nature and boundaries of their offline relationships, often in more equitable terms than what may be possible in day-to-day offline life
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the relationships that play-partners have with one another offline are often "leveled" within the online world
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appeal to people in part because they represent meritocracies otherwise unavailable in a world often filled with unfairness
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"In all such systems, linguistic interactions have been primary: users exchange messages that cement the social bonds between them, messages that reflect shared history and understandings (or misunderstandings) about the always evolving local norms for these interactions" (p. 22).
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such that "one may go alone at almost any time of the day or evening with assurance that acquaintances will be there"
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accessible directly from one's home, making them even more accommodating to individual schedules and preferences
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"What attracts a regular visitor to a third place is supplied not by management but by the fellow customer,"
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"It is the regulars who give the place its character and who assure that on any given visit some of the gang will be there"
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As one informant satirically commented in an interview, "You go for the experience [points], you stay for the enlightening conversation.
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Oldenburg argues that third places are characteristically homely, their d�cor defying tidiness and pretension whenever possible. MMOs do not fit this criterion in any literal sense
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In neither of our investigations did the degree of formality exhibited by players within the game bear any relation to the degree of visual ornamentation of the players' immediate vicinity.
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Thus, while the visual form of MMO environments does not fit Oldenburg's (1999) criterion of "low profile," the social function of those environments does.
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Oldenburg (1999) argues that seriousness is anathema to a vibrant third place; instead, frivolity, verbal word play, and wit are essential.
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The playful nature of MMOs is perhaps most apparent in what happens when individuals do bring gravity to the game.
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Participation becomes a regular part of daily life for players and, among regular gamemates such as guild members, exceptional absences (i.e., prolonged or unforeseen ones) are queried within the game or outside i
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create an atmosphere of mutual caring that, while avoiding entangling obligations per se, creates a sense of rootedness to the extent that regularities exist, irregularities are duly noted, and, when concerning the welfare of any one regular, checked into
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Anderson (1991), who suggests that geographic proximity itself is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for the emergence and preservation of "community."
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Social capital (Coleman, 1988) works analogously to financial capital; it can be acquired and spent, but for social and personal gains rather than financial
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This form of social capital is marked by tentative relationships, yet what they lack in depth, they make up for in breadth.
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On the one hand, bridging social capital provides little in the way of emotional support; on the other hand, such relationships can broaden social horizons or worldviews, providing access to information and new resources.
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shows that bridging and bonding social capital are tied to different social contexts, given the network of relationships they enable.
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Virtual worlds appear to function best as bridging mechanisms rather than as bonding ones, although they do not entirely preclude social ties of the latter type.
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One could argue that, if the benchmark for bonding social capital is the ability to acquire emotional, practical, or substantive support, then MMOs are not well set up for the task:
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While deep affective relationships among players are possible, they are less likely to generate the same range of bonding benefits as real-world relationships because of players' geographic dispersion and the nature of third places themselves.
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Despite differences in theoretical grounding and methodologies, our conclusions were remarkably similar across complementary macro- and micro-levels.
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It is worth noting, however, that as gamers become more involved in long-term social networks such as guilds and their activities become more "hardcore" (e.g., marked by participation in large-scale collaborative problem-solving endeavors such as "raids" into difficult territories or castle sieges), the function of MMOs as "third places" begins to wane.
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It may be, then, that the structure and function of MMOs as third places is one part of the "life cycle" for some gamers in a given title.
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In such cases, MMOs appear to enable a different kind of sociability, one ostensibly recognizable as a "community" nonetheless.
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However, our research findings indicate that this conclusion is uninformed. To argue that MMO game play is isolated and passive media consumption in place of informal social engagement is to ignore the nature of what participants actually do behind the computer screen
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Perhaps it is not that contemporary media use has led to a decline in civic and social engagement, but rather that a decline in civic and social engagement has led to retribalization through contemporary media (McLuhan, 1964).
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Such a view, however, ignores important nuances of what "community" means by pronouncing a given social group/place as either wholly "good" or "bad" without first specifying which functions the online community ought to fulfill.
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Moreover, despite the semantics of the term, "weak" ties have been shown to be vital in communities, relationships, and opportunities.
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In light of Putnam's evidence of the decline of crucial civic and social institutions, it may well be that the classification "lacking bridging social capital" best characterizes the everyday American citizen. T
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Without bridging relationships, individuals remain sheltered from alternative viewpoints and cultures and largely ignorant of opportunities and information beyond their own closely bound social network.
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it seems ironic that, now of all times, we would ignore one possible solution to our increasingly vexed relationship with diversity.
Second-Graders At Elmwood Franklin School Edit NFL Tweets For Bad Grammar (PHOTOS) - 42 views
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"NFL players steal the spotlight for lots of reasons. Proficiency in grammar has never been one of them. Mark Saldanha, a second-grade teacher at Elmwood Franklin School in Buffalo, N.Y., decided to use that to his advantage last week, when his class selected tweets from NFL players -- and then corrected them."
Vaughan Memorial Library : Tutorials : Credible Sources Count! - 63 views
Rachel's Challenge - In Memory of Rachel Scott - 27 views
How is math involved with soccer? - Yahoo! Answers - 36 views
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- Team Salary (Similar to marketing, each soccer club must determine "ahead of time", how much they will pay each player. The base salary is determined by calculating the expected value of future revenue generated by each individual player with 90% confidence; that is to say, only 10% risk. The remaining 10% risk is not given to the player in the form of base salary, but rather as bonus incentives. "If you score so many goals, or the total games played win % is higher than X%", then a reward is given in the form of additional money. In either case, the job of a Statistician or in this case; Accountant, is to determine the probability of each player's expected preformance; then, the expected change in revenue due to such preformance; determine the risk the soccer club is willing to bear for such preformance; and then determine a fair compensation amount to each individual player.)
Twitter vs. Zombies - 33 views
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Inspired by the popular campus game Humans vs. Zombies, join @Jessifer and @allistelling for an epic zombiefied experiment in Twitter literacy, gamification, collaboration, and emergent learning. Part flash-mob. Part Hunger-Games. Part Twitter-pocalypse. Part digital feeding frenzy. Part micro-MOOC. Part giant game of Twitter tag. Band together your most trusted Twitter allies to defend against a virtual Zombie horde. Collect canned goods, store water, watch your hashtags, and sleep with one eye open. THE RULES TO JOIN THE GAME: Register on this page. Commit to posting at least 10 tweets per day. THEN, TO PLAY: 1. A ZOMBIE can #bite (to attack) once every 30 minutes. A bite will turn a HUMAN to a ZOMBIE in exactly five minutes. A #bite can only be sent to a player who has been active on Twitter in the last five mins. 2. A HUMAN can #dodge (protect yourself) once per hour and #swipe (protect someone else) once per hour. 3. When you are bitten, you have five mins to reply to the ZOMBIE with #dodge or have another player reply to you and the zombie with #swipe. A turned HUMAN must update the Twitter vs. Zombies Scoreboard by changing his/her status to ZOMBIE. 4. The rules are emergent. There will be challenges, amendments, and rule adaptations as suggested by the community and implemented by administrators. Keep your eyes on the blog and #TvsZ for updates. Anatomy of an action tweet: [@name(s)] [body of tweet with action tag #bite, #dodge, or #swipe playfully inserted] [game tag: #TvsZ] Example of a bite/dodge: @DigiWriMo attacks: "@moocmooc I want to #bite your lovely flesh. #TvsZ @moocmooc dodges: "@DigiWriMo No you don't. I have not used #dodge in an hour. #TvsZ Example of a bite/swipe: @DigiWriMo attacks: "@moocmooc What's that lump on your neck? Is that some kind of #bite? #TvsZ @Jessifer defends: "@DigiWriMo @moocmooc I #swipe your hungry beak. [pets @moocmooc] #TvsZ The game is beta, and we will be crowd-sourcing the rules as it's played.
How do I make multimedia accessible? | AccessComputing - 9 views
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Multimedia presentations can enrich education and enhance learning for many students, but it can also pose barriers for others. Audio and video are inaccessible to people who are unable to hear, and video is inaccessible to people who are unable to see critical information that is presented visually. Other students are impacted by low bandwidth Internet connections. Multimedia players can pose barriers as well if the player controls require use of a mouse or if they are not labeled sufficiently to be usable by screen reader users.
Pixton | World's Best Way to Make & Share Comics - 70 views
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Unleash your creativity! Fun, quick and easy to use.
Tell your story your way.Collaborate with others.New Create with friends, even at the
same time, with Team Comics™ (beta)Create real comic layouts. Edit the shape and position
of each comic panel.Express yourself. Unlimited range of expression.
Move your characters into any pose.Style your words. Give text and speech bubbles
personality in any language.Add your own images. Upload photos and personalize
with your own art.Make your own art. Group objects to create original
characters, props and backgrounds.Show your personality. Design characters of any age
— people and other animals.Fast and easy. Kickstart your creativity with
presets, shortcuts and templates.Make 'em laugh! Share instantly with friends,
family, classmates and colleagues. -
Create real comic layouts. Edit the shape and position of each comic panel. Express yourself. Unlimited range of expression. Move your characters into any pose. Style your words. Give text and speech bubbles personality in any language. Add your own images. Upload photos and personalize with your own art. Make your own art. Group objects to create original characters, props and backgrounds. Show your personality. Design characters of any age — people and other animals. Fast and easy. Kickstart your creativity with presets, shortcuts and templates. Make 'em laugh! Share instantly with friends, family, classmates and colleagues.
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Pixton is a widely used comic strip maker. The personal account is free. So many options and the click and drag editing is really easy to use. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+&+Web+Tools
Minecraft - 137 views
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Minecraft is an award winning building game and something of an educational phenomenon. It's an addictive game where players build a 3D landscape by adding and destroying blocks. Play this free java version to get your class creating and imagining. No registration required. Play the multi-player version at http://www.minecraft.net/classic/list, but a free registration is needed to play as a team. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools
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I have tried before and tried again the morning, but I cannot figure out how to get the free version, only the paid one. Suggestions?
Victor Reader Stream, the versatile, powerful DAISY player - 1 views
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Download your favourite books and MP3s on your Stream and leave home with your library in the palm of your hand. This versatile, powerful DAISY-MP3 and NISO player lets you read and navigate through complex books, such as reference manuals and school books, as well as novels and magazines. You can also use its built in text to speech to read books in text format such as Bookshare. And thats not all there are many more functions, including an integrated microphone to record voice notes. No other DAISY player offers you so much in such a small package and at such an affordable price.
Pathfinders Game - Strategizing for College - IES Grant - 80 views
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A combination of tools such as graphic novels, board games, and online games will be developed for middle school students.
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The online version of the high school Pathfinder card game will have players guide a character through class and activity selection, time management challenges, putting together application materials, and acquiring the financial resources to afford college and its related costs. Games are to take about a week to complete and will require 5–10 minutes at a time to advance the game. The goal of the game is not only to be accepted but also to be able to afford and be prepared to succeed at the player's college of choice. Students can repeat play the game using characters with different backgrounds.
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Bill Tierney at USC got over a million bucks to modify his card game called Pathfinders to an online version so it can be played on Facebook. "The intended audience is students with low-income backgrounds who are not aware of their postsecondary options and who attend schools lacking strong college guidance counseling." Hope the players can cash in their winnings at a local casino and get real money to pay for college! That would be even better!
Minecraft Will Eat Your School - 63 views
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GeekDad: What is the magic that Minecraft adds to a classroom that any other collaborative game might not? Mikael: In a single word, engagement.
PodSnack - 5 views
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Upload music, podcasts or voice files to PodSnack to make a audio player and embed them on a website or share with a link. Great for publishing a class podcast. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Music%2C+Sound+%26+Podcasts
Rotate and Roll - 79 views
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This is a fun logic game where players must rotate the platforms and objects on the screen to collect tokens and touch the orb. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Educational+Games
Record a screencast using QuickTime Player on a Mac - Nathan Hall - 52 views
KenKen - 77 views
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Kenken is a logic puzzle game similar to Sudoku, but players are given + - x or ÷ questions to solve the area and complete the grid. This site has a range puzzles at various complexities and difficulty levels. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Maths