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Steven Szalaj

Raise the bar with national exam for teachers - chicagotribune.com - 53 views

www.chicagotribune.com/...29-bd-20121229,0,7069731.story

Education Certification Union

shared by Steven Szalaj on 30 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Steven Szalaj on 30 Dec 12
     
    Editorial about a recommendation by the AFT Pres to develop a professional certification for teachers.  It's about time...
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Michelle Kassorla on 30 Dec 12
     
    About time for what? For standardized tests to ruin the teaching profession like it has ruined our kids? For the government to control, from the top down, what education departments teach their students? Looks like a HUGE power grab and a very bad way for a Union, who professes to stand against standardized tests to act! Shame on them! Go to Fairtest.org to find out more about the scam of standardized testing. If you think a standardized test can improve education, you must also think you can fatten a calf by weighing it!
  • Mark Smith on 30 Dec 12
     
    Michelle is right. More standardized testing is not the answer for anything, least of all teacher certification. Come on, Steven .. use your critical thinking skills. Don't encourage the bean counters and bureaucrats who are so enamored of things that can be measured and filed into neat categories. The most valuable things cannot be measured in any "objective" way. To focus on what's measurable is to focus on what's shallow.
  • Steven Szalaj on 31 Dec 12
     
    Mark & Michelle, thank you for your comments. When I posted this I knew the words "standardized test" would be a flashpoint. It is for me too. With nearly 40 years in the classroom, teaching a creative art (music) to all different levels (kindergarten through college and well beyond), I have often railed against reducing any education, any student, to a number. Very little in what I have taught can be measured with a pencil-and-paper test. What I see here is different than this. It is the union that she is saying should be the "gate-keeper" to our profession, rather than some generic government standard test. Yes, tests would be a part of the certification, but from what I read, so would much more, including actual classroom work. The certification would be similar to the AMA for physicians or the Bar for attorneys. These are certifications designed and administered by the profession - not the government - and validate a candidate's readiness to practice. Yes, I too am strongly against the government, or any organization outside of our profession, to certify, to validate, a teacher's ability to do the job. But we have to admit there is a problem with teacher certification and validation. There are people who simply should not be in the classroom (haven't we all seen them?). It is very difficult to remove folks who are dragging the respect for our profession down. Yes, there is remediation. Yes, it should be a difficult process to remove someone in order to protect against administrative abuses. But what is talked about here is the profession policing itself - something that the teacher's unions, in general, have steadfastly refused to do. What the AFT Pres is suggesting is that the best thing we can do to raise the status of teaching as a profession is to take action ourselves to make it happen. Really, if we in the profession do not do this, then it will be imposed from those outside who do not know what we do, how we do it and why we do it.
  • Michelle Kassorla on 31 Dec 12
     
    You are still talking about a standardized test. Let's face it--doctors have to have specific knowledge to do their job. Whether or not they are creative or engaging is not as important as their knowledge base. The same with lawyers--knowledge of the law is essential, and everything else is secondary. However, in teaching, although educational theory and knowledge of their subject area is important (and already tested, by the way) the most essential aspect of teaching is how you can creatively engage students, interact with parents and peers, and stay organized and motivated. These things CAN'T BE TESTED. Right now, teachers already go through extensive training, evaluation, and continuing education. Do you REALLY think that a standardized test will really improve teaching? I know a lot of university professors who can easily pass a test, but few of them can teach worth beans.
Roland Gesthuizen

Why Rubrics Fail as a Means of Measuring Documentation Quality | I'd Rather Be Writing - 3 views

idratherbewriting.com/...s-a-means-of-measuring-quality

rubric measuring writing assessment education blog

shared by Roland Gesthuizen on 12 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Almost nothing can be broken down into a list of parts that, when properly assembled and in the right balance, create a perfect whole.
  • if we want to measure effectiveness of something, it should be measured against its goal
  • that’s the direction any rubric should go — toward the user’s perspective, not evaluated from an internal perspective
  • Roland Gesthuizen on 12 Feb 13
     
    "One of my issues with using rubrics to assess anything - documentation, essays, support sites - is that, at least for me, judgment is not so mechanical. Almost nothing can be broken down into a list of parts that, when properly assembled and in the right balance, create a perfect whole. "
H DeWaard

Creating an Authentic Maker Education Rubric | Edutopia - 105 views

www.edutopia.org/...r-education-rubric-lisa-yokana

creating maker education rubric edutopia process understanding product

shared by H DeWaard on 20 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • H DeWaard on 20 Jan 15
     
    To assess maker projects in your class, begin with a three-part rubric to guide students through process, understanding, and product.
  • H DeWaard on 20 Jan 15
     
    To assess maker projects in your class, begin with a three-part rubric to guide students through process, understanding, and product.
tapiatanova

A Social Network Can Be a Learning Network - The Digital Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 98 views

chronicle.com/...129609

social network sociallearning Social Media learning education millenials socialnetworking socialbookmarking pln ple optometry

shared by tapiatanova on 08 Nov 11 - No Cached
Kate Pok liked it
  • Sharing student work on a course blog is an example of what Randall Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, of Georgetown University, call "social pedagogies." They define these as "design approaches for teaching and learning that engage students with what we might call an 'authentic audience' (other than the teacher), where the representation of knowledge for an audience is absolutely central to the construction of knowledge in a course."
    • trisha_poole
      trisha_poole on 08 Nov 11
       
      Very important - social pedagogies for authentic tasks - a key for integrating SNTs in the classroom.
    • Daniel Spielmann
      Daniel Spielmann on 09 Nov 11
       
      Agreed, for connectivism see also www.connectivism.ca
  • External audiences certainly motivate students to do their best work. But students can also serve as their own authentic audience when asked to create meaningful work to share with one another.
    • Daniel Spielmann
      Daniel Spielmann on 09 Nov 11
       
      The last sentence is especially important in institutional contexts where the staff voices their distrust against "open scholarship" (Weller 2011), web 2.0 and/or open education. Where "privacy" is deemed the most important thing in dealing with new technologies, advocates of an external audience have to be prepared for certain questions.
    • tapiatanova
      tapiatanova on 03 Jan 14
       
      yes! nothing but barriers! However, it is unclear if the worries about pravacy are in regards to students or is it instructors who fear teaching in the open. everyone cites FERPA and protection of student identities, but I have yet to hear any student refusing to work in the open...
  • Students most likely won't find this difficult. After all, you're asking them to surf the Web and tag pages they like. That's something they do via Facebook every day. By having them share course-related content with their peers in the class, however, you'll tap into their desires to be part of your course's learning community. And you might be surprised by the resources they find and share.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • back-channel conversations
  • While keynote speakers and session leaders are speaking, audience members are sharing highlights, asking questions, and conversing with colleagues on Twitter
    • trisha_poole
      trisha_poole on 08 Nov 11
       
      An effective use of Twitter that can be translated to classrooms.
    • Daniel Spielmann
      Daniel Spielmann on 09 Nov 11
       
      All classrooms?
    • John Dorn
      John Dorn on 09 Nov 11
       
      classrooms where students are motivated to learn. Will this work in a HS classroom where kids just view their phones as a means to check up on people? Maybe if they can see "cool" class could be if they were responsible for the freedoms that would be needed to use twitter or other similar sites.
  • Ask your students to create accounts on Twitter or some other back-channel tool and share ideas that occur to them in your course. You might give them specific assignments, as does the University of Connecticut's Margaret Rubega, who asks students in her ornithology class to tweet about birds they see. During a face-to-face class session, you could have students discuss their reading in small groups and share observations on the back channel. Or you could simply ask them to post a single question about the week's reading they would like to discuss.
  • A back channel provides students a way to stay connected to the course and their fellow students. Students are often able to integrate back channels into their daily lives, checking for and sending updates on their smartphones, for instance. That helps the class become more of a community and gives students another way to learn from each other.
  • Deep learning is hard work, and students need to be well motivated in order to pursue it. Extrinsic factors like grades aren't sufficient—they motivate competitive students toward strategic learning and risk-averse students to surface learning.
  • Social pedagogies provide a way to tap into a set of intrinsic motivations that we often overlook: people's desire to be part of a community and to share what they know with that community.
  • Online, social pedagogies can play an important role in creating such a community. These are strong motivators, and we can make use of them in the courses we teach.
  • The papers they wrote for my course weren't just academic exercises; they were authentic expressions of learning, open to the world as part of their "digital footprints."
    • Daniel Spielmann
      Daniel Spielmann on 09 Nov 11
       
      Yes, but what is the relation between such writing and ("proper"?) academic writing?
  • Collaborative documents need not be text-based works. Sarah C. Stiles, a sociologist at Georgetown, has had her students create collaborative timelines showing the activities of characters in a text, using a presentation tool called Prezi.com. I used that tool to have my cryptography students create a map of the debate over security and privacy. They worked in small groups to brainstorm arguments, and contributed those arguments to a shared debate map synchronously during class.
  • Daniel Spielmann on 09 Nov 11
     
    A great blog post on social pedagogies and how they can be incorporated in university/college classes. A good understanding of creating authentic learning experiences through social media.
  • John Dorn on 09 Nov 11
     
    A great blog post on social pedagogies and how they can be incorporated in university/college classes. A good understanding of creating authentic learning experiences through social media.
  • tapiatanova on 03 Jan 14
     
    A great blog post on social pedagogies and how they can be incorporated in university/college classes. A good understanding of creating authentic learning experiences through social media.
John Trampush

Seven misconceptions about how students learn - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post - 5 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...gIQAenfFCR_blog.html

learning teaching misconceptions Education practice

shared by John Trampush on 16 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • a list of seven myths about learning on the website of the Independent Curriculum Group, which is part of a movement of leading private college preparatory schools with teacher-generated curriculum.
  • John Trampush on 16 Feb 12
     
    ... a list of seven myths about learning on the website of the Independent Curriculum Group, which is part of a movement of leading private college preparatory schools with teacher-generated curriculum.
dmassicg

GOOD Video: Can Computers Enable Students to Teach Themselves? - Education - GOOD - 6 views

www.good.is/...e-students-to-teach-themselves

news review resources

shared by dmassicg on 27 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • This video is part seven in our Future Learning video series about technology in classrooms. Check out our first video on Khan Academy here and learn about other forward-thinking innovators like Sifteo,  Digita Tabula,  Innovations in Learning, Connexions, and Collaborize Classroom.
  • dmassicg on 27 Jan 12
     
    "This video is part seven in our Future Learning video series about technology in classrooms. Check out our first video on Khan Academy here and learn about other forward-thinking innovators like Sifteo,  Digita Tabula,  Innovations in Learning, Connexions, and Collaborize Classroom."
Jac Londe

17 U.S. Code § 113 - Scope of exclusive rights in pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works | LII / Legal Information Institute - 10 views

www.law.cornell.edu/...113

u s code scope exclusive graphic works information

shared by Jac Londe on 23 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • U.S. Code › Title 17 › Chapter 1 › § 113 17 U.S. Code § 113 - Scope of exclusive rights in pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
  • (a) Subject to the provisions of subsections (b) and (c) of this section, the exclusive right to reproduce a copyrighted pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work in copies under section 106 includes the right to reproduce the work in or on any kind of article, whether useful or otherwise.
  • (b) This title does not afford, to the owner of copyright in a work that portrays a useful article as such, any greater or lesser rights with respect to the making, distribution, or display of the useful article so portrayed than those afforded to such works under the law, whether title 17 or the common law or statutes of a State, in effect on December 31, 1977, as held applicable and construed by a court in an action brought under this title.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • (c) In the case of a work lawfully reproduced in useful articles that have been offered for sale or other distribution to the public, copyright does not include any right to prevent the making, distribution, or display of pictures or photographs of such articles in connection with advertisements or commentaries related to the distribution or display of such articles, or in connection with news reports.
  • (d) (1) In a case in which— (A) a work of visual art has been incorporated in or made part of a building in such a way that removing the work from the building will cause the destruction, distortion, mutilation, or other modification of the work as described in section 106A (a)(3), and
  • (B) the author consented to the installation of the work in the building either before the effective date set forth in section 610(a) of the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, or in a written instrument executed on or after such effective date that is signed by the owner of the building and the author and that specifies that installation of the work may subject the work to destruction, distortion, mutilation, or other modification, by reason of its removal,
  • then the rights conferred by paragraphs (2) and (3) of section 106A (a) shall not apply.
  • (2) If the owner of a building wishes to remove a work of visual art which is a part of such building and which can be removed from the building without the destruction, distortion, mutilation, or other modification of the work as described in section 106A (a)(3), the author’s rights under paragraphs (2) and (3) of section 106A (a) shall apply unless—
  • (A) the owner has made a diligent, good faith attempt without success to notify the author of the owner’s intended action affecting the work of visual art, or (B) the owner did provide such notice in writing and the person so notified failed, within 90 days after receiving such notice, either to remove the work or to pay for its removal.
  • For purposes of subparagraph (A), an owner shall be presumed to have made a diligent, good faith attempt to send notice if the owner sent such notice by registered mail to the author at the most recent address of the author that was recorded with the Register of Copyrights pursuant to paragraph (3). If the work is removed at the expense of the author, title to that copy of the work shall be deemed to be in the author.
  • (3) The Register of Copyrights shall establish a system of records whereby any author of a work of visual art that has been incorporated in or made part of a building, may record his or her identity and address with the Copyright Office. The Register shall also establish procedures under which any such author may update the information so recorded, and procedures under which owners of buildings may record with the Copyright Office evidence of their efforts to comply with this subsection.
Nigel Coutts

Learning and Cognitive Load - Part Two - 31 views

thelearnersway.net/...ng-and-cognitive-load-part-two

shared by Nigel Coutts on 09 Aug 15 - No Cached
  • Nigel Coutts on 09 Aug 15
     
    There are three cognitive loads that impact the efficient formation of schemas. Extraneous cognitive load are those not directly required to master a task and have a negative impact on schema formation, reducing these is desirable and can be achieved through efficient design. Intrinsic cognitive load is that which is inherent in the task and for the most part cannot be reduced. Tasks with high intrinsic cognitive load are by nature more complex for an individual and in the long term are managed through equally complex schema. Germane cognitive load refers to the mental resources devoted to the efficient formation of schemas and is seen to have a positive effect on learning. Understanding these things will allow us to more effectively target our efforts as learners and teachers ensuring the cognitive load theory has a valuable role to play.
anonymous

The beauty of unfinished work - The Learner's Way - 34 views

thelearnersway.net/...the-beauty-of-unfinished-work

shared by anonymous on 25 Jul 15 - No Cached
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 28 Jul 15
       
      I love this concept!  The focus is on the process of learning.  Doesn't that also help to identify the way we learn as well as the progress of the learning?
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 28 Jul 15
       
      The down side of this is that there also has to be some sort of focus on the importance of completing what is started.  Everything might not have to have an end product but some things certainly should have!
  • At times it has been deeply admonished and hidden from view. Individuals who failed were to be shunned or punished. At other times failure was to be avoided by setting the bar for success so low that failure was impossible. The result of this movement was that success became meaningless, achievable by all without risk and through little effort.
  • ...8 more annotations...
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 28 Jul 15
       
      The generation when who were deeply admonished and hidden is older and most are relieved that this is no longer the case.  The generation who were shunned or punished seem to still be a part of the mainstream but most have embraced that this is no longer the case.  The generation who were part of the low expectations with failure impossible seem to be the predominance of the population now and we are seeing that there is no concept of consequences, no motivation toward high achievement, and an attitude of entitlement.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 28 Jul 15
       
      This seems like we are evolving but moving more in a cyclical fashion and thinking more like the early innovators in our country - Jefferson, Franklin, Ford, Bell - We see a need for something and strive to create it - marking our failures as a way of knowing, "well that won't work so lets find something that will."
  • A culture that accepts failure as a part of the learning process will need to take time to celebrate the steps taken towards learning as much as it celebrates the finished product.
  • A digital work of art, of music of writing is never truly finished, it grows and transforms over time. 
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 28 Jul 15
       
      Transformation from the mindset of this is done, this if finished, this is the final draft to here is where we are at this point but it may be revisited, revised, refined at a later time.
  • mistakes are a sign that the learning is not pitched at a level below the needs of the students; if the students are not making mistakes when they engage with new learning the expectation has been set too low.
  • What must be avoided is a belief that mistakes are to be accepted without an equal emphasis on identifying and understanding their causes.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 28 Jul 15
       
      Identify and understand the causes of mistakes so that another attempt can be made at correcting them and progress is made!
  • Nigel Coutts on 25 Jul 15
     
    There is a danger in seeking finished perfection in all that we do. There is a risk that our students will focus solely on the attributes that define a finished piece and overlook the importance of the process that leads to it.
Steve Ransom

Creating Lifelong Learners » Blog Archive » 10 Myths of Writer's Workshop: Part 1 of 4 - 0 views

www.needleworkspictures.com/...blog

writing writersworkshop literacy blogpost

shared by Steve Ransom on 05 May 09 - Cached
  • Steve Ransom on 05 May 09
     
    10 Myths of Writer's Workshop: Part 1 of 4
Miss Miller

Alternate Reality Games: Design, Development And Implementation (Part III) - Robin Good's Latest News - 0 views

www.masternewmedia.org/...y_games_design_development.htm

Teaching Ideas

shared by Miss Miller on 07 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Miss Miller on 07 Apr 09
     
    Alternate Reality Games: Design, Development And Implementation (Part III)
Kate Tabor

Ten rules for writing fiction | Books | guardian.co.uk - 42 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...s-for-writing-fiction-part-one

writing ten rules

shared by Kate Tabor on 20 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Kate Tabor on 20 Feb 10
     
    Writers give advice - re: writing fiction - part 1
Javier E

Taking the Information Plunge With Tinderbox | Mac.AppStorm - 146 views

mac.appstorm.net/...ormation-plunge-with-tinderbox

information understanding structure app software writing

shared by Javier E on 18 May 11 - No Cached
  • Tinderbox “the tool for notes.”
  • The power of Tinderbox comes from its ability to display those notes in a number of different and helpful ways, and its array of mechanisms for manipulating those notes.
  • Tinderbox is a toolbox full of tools that let you play with information. DevonThink Pro is a better tool for research, particularly when linked with Devon Agent, OmniOutliner is a better outliner, Scrivener is a better writing tool, and Omnigraffle does a better job of drawing. All of these tools are great, but while they overlap some, they don’t cover everything Tinderbox does.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • For many years, I have walked into large, complex businesses and attempted to identify what was going on and how it could be done better. My job was part Qualitative Research, part Quantitative Research, and part Political Analysis. Qualitative Research has a number of tools for analyzing interviews and playing with the data, teasing meaning out of diverse viewpoints. I used these tools effectively, but I wish I’d had Tinderbox earlier in my career because it would have made this job easier. Tinderbox is a far more useful tool for ‘right-brained’ qualitative analysis than most of the other tools I’ve worked with, but even that sells it short.
  • Very few people I’ve seen truly understand its character as a tool box for manipulating and exploring information.
  • I have been using TB for just over a year and it has become my second top application after Scrivener. (I also use DEVONThink Pro) I have planned a trilogy of novels on it, and a detailed timeline for the first novel. I’m currently editing the first novel, which is to come out in Feb 2112, and I have set up my Scrivener screen so that the timeline occupies the lower third of my screen (though the Apps can be viewed together in other ways).
  • As for the trilogy, the plan is a work in progress using map view. But the power to manipulate the characters, events and relationships, and run what-ifs, has far exceeded my expectations.
Peter Beens

Comments4Kids: Does Commenting Make a Difference? - 29 views

comments4kids.blogspot.com/...ommenting-make-difference.html

education blogging blog #Comments4Kids

shared by Peter Beens on 30 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • I have written about why I think blogging and commenting about blogs are an essential part of learning today in Kaia and Room 10 - Why Blogging and Commenting on Blogs Are So Important.
  • Peter Beens on 30 Aug 11
     
    I have written about why I think blogging and commenting about blogs are an essential part of learning today in Kaia and Room 10 - Why Blogging and Commenting on Blogs Are So Important.
Carol Mortensen

EdTech Toolbox: Ultimate Web 2.0 List - 139 views

edtechtoolbox.blogspot.com/...web-20-tools_04.html

web2.0 tools edtech toolbox education list Resources web 2.0

shared by Carol Mortensen on 09 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • place to share e-learning and Web 2.0 tools for education. Computers and laptops in education are important only when used with good pedagogy. Digital content and creation is an important part of the process for educators in the 21st century
  • Carol Mortensen on 09 Jul 11
     
    "A place to share e-learning and Web 2.0 tools for education. Computers and laptops in education are important only when used with good pedagogy. Digital content and creation is an important part of the process for educators in the 21st century."
  • Carol Mortensen on 09 Jul 11
     
    Great collection! I'll be lost in this list for days!
JB Reynolds

Math and PBL resources - 74 views

21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/...-learning-22-amazing-resources

Math PBL Project Based Learning

shared by JB Reynolds on 29 Oct 13 - No Cached
Kelly Dau liked it
donnawesley

Gray, T. (2014). Enabling e-Learning: Professional learning community. Personal Blog. - 17 views

www.vln.school.nz/...862137

PD

shared by donnawesley on 20 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • donnawesley on 20 Jun 14
     
    This item will be referenced in my paper, but is not a part of the 3 item diigo annotated bibliography. This professional learning community blog discusses how PLC's and Communities of Practice can enable e-Learning community members to engage more with each other, to help define/discuss/debate e-learning theory, pedagogy and practice.
  • donnawesley on 20 Jun 14
     
    This item will be referenced in my paper, but is not a part of the 3 item diigo annotated bibliography. This professional learning community blog discusses how PLC's and Communities of Practice can enable e-Learning community members to engage more with each other, to help define/discuss/debate e-learning theory, pedagogy and practice.
fishy65

BBC - Radio 4 - So You Want To Be A Scientist? - The Experiments - Homing Snails Experiment - Snail Swapping Instructions - 37 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...snail-swap

bbc radio 4 science experiment snails

shared by fishy65 on 09 Aug 10 - Cached
  • fishy65 on 09 Aug 10
     
    Take part in some real science. The question was asked by a young girl, "Do snails have a homing instinct" and it turns out no one really know. So BBC Radio 4 is asking people to help find out by getting involved and conducting the experiment. What a great opportunity for young science students.
  • fishy65 on 09 Aug 10
     
    Take part in some real science. The question was asked by a young girl, "Do snails have a homing instinct" and it turns out no one really know. So BBC Radio 4 is asking people to help find out by getting involved and conducting the experiment. What a great opportunity for young science students.
Adrienne Michetti

Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as "Third Places" - 52 views

jcmc.indiana.edu/...steinkuehler.html

games gaming social

shared by Adrienne Michetti on 19 Nov 09 - Cached
    • Adrienne Michetti
      Adrienne Michetti on 19 Nov 09
       
      This is, I think, why I'm more keen on today's social networks than I am on games -- games do not provide deep emotional support.
  • "bowling alone" hypothesis (Putnam, 2000), which suggests that media are displacing crucial civic and social institutions
    • Adrienne Michetti
      Adrienne Michetti on 19 Nov 09
       
      Putnam - need to check this article. Interesting; not sure I agree.
  • ...80 more annotations...
  • According to Putnam, time spent with relatively passive and disengaging media has come at the expense of time spent on vital community-building activities.
  • The evidence to date is mixed
  • A core problem on both sides of the debate is an underlying assumption that all Internet use is more or less equivalent
    • Adrienne Michetti
      Adrienne Michetti on 19 Nov 09
       
      SO True
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • loosely structured by open-ended narratives
  • They are known for their peculiar combination of designed "escapist fantasy" and emergent "social realism"
  • 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.
  • the conclusions of both studies were remarkably aligned.
  • the assumption that the most fruitful advances are sometimes made when congruent findings are discovered through disparate means
    • Adrienne Michetti
      Adrienne Michetti on 19 Nov 09
       
      Love this quote.
  • demonstrate the "effects" of game play vs. no game play.
  • first project was a traditional effects study
  • second project, a qualitative study of cognition and learning in MMOs (
  • ethnography
  • sociocultural perspective
  • 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
  • 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)
    • Adrienne Michetti
      Adrienne Michetti on 19 Nov 09
       
      but I wonder why he chose these games -- this is not specified. Only their success in US and abroad?
  • brick-and-mortar "third places" in America where individuals can gather to socialize informally beyond the workplace and home
  • the exaggerated self-consciousness of individuals.
  • In what ways might MMOs function as new third places for informal sociability?
  • virtual environments have the potential to function as new (albeit digitally mediated) third places similar to pubs, coffee shops, and other hangouts.
  • in this section we analyze the structural form of MMOs that warrants this "third place" assertion.
  • eight defining characteristics of third places
  • there is no default obligation
  • To oblige any one person to play requires that explicit agreements be entered into by parties
  • the default assumption is that no one person is compelled to participate legally, financially, or otherwise.
  • 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
    • Adrienne Michetti
      Adrienne Michetti on 19 Nov 09
       
      and this is why, in my opinion, you will never see games in school. The game cannot be the Third Place because school is a Second Place.
  • 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
  • the relationships that play-partners have with one another offline are often "leveled" within the online world
  • an individual's rank and status in the home, workplace, or society are of no importance
  • appeal to people in part because they represent meritocracies otherwise unavailable in a world often filled with unfairness
  • conversation plays an analogous role
  • "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).
  • third places must also be easy to access
  • such that "one may go alone at almost any time of the day or evening with assurance that acquaintances will be there"
  • accessible directly from one's home, making them even more accommodating to individual schedules and preferences
  • barriers to initial access.
  • "What attracts a regular visitor to a third place is supplied not by management but by the fellow customer,"
  • "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"
  • affective sense
  • As one informant satirically commented in an interview, "You go for the experience [points], you stay for the enlightening conversation.
  • engendering a sense of reliable mentorship and community stability.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Oldenburg (1999) argues that seriousness is anathema to a vibrant third place; instead, frivolity, verbal word play, and wit are essential.
  • The playful nature of MMOs is perhaps most apparent in what happens when individuals do bring gravity to the game.
  • the home-like quality of third places in rooting people
  • 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
  • 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
  • Are virtual communities really communities, or is physical proximity necessary?
  • Anderson (1991), who suggests that geographic proximity itself is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for the emergence and preservation of "community."
  • Social capital (Coleman, 1988) works analogously to financial capital; it can be acquired and spent, but for social and personal gains rather than financial
  • operates cyclically within social networks because of their associated norms of reciprocity
  • bridging social capital is inclusive.
  • This form of social capital is marked by tentative relationships, yet what they lack in depth, they make up for in breadth.
  • 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.
  • bonding social capital is exclusive.
  • social superglue.
  • it can also result in insularity.
  • shows that bridging and bonding social capital are tied to different social contexts, given the network of relationships they enable.
  • 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.
  • 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:
  • 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.
  • Despite differences in theoretical grounding and methodologies, our conclusions were remarkably similar across complementary macro- and micro-levels.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • In such cases, MMOs appear to enable a different kind of sociability, one ostensibly recognizable as a "community" nonetheless.
  • 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
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • Moreover, despite the semantics of the term, "weak" ties have been shown to be vital in communities, relationships, and opportunities.
  • is to what extent such environments shift the existing balance between bridging and bonding
  • 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
  • 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.
  • it seems ironic that, now of all times, we would ignore one possible solution to our increasingly vexed relationship with diversity.
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