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Ed Webb

Alan Kay, Systems, and Textbooks « Theatrical Smoke - 3 views

wedaman.wordpress.com/...lan-kay-and-why-textbooks-suck

education learning systems LiberalArts gaming

shared by Ed Webb on 26 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • I discuss his key idea: that systemic thinking is a liberal art, and I explain a corollary idea, that textbooks suck
  • if you don’t have a category for an idea, it’s very difficult to receive that idea
  • the story of the last few hundred years is that we’ve quickly developed important ideas, which society needs to have to improve and perhaps even to continue to exist, and for which there are no pre-existing, genetically created categories. So there’s an idea-receiving capacity gap.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Education’s job should be, says Kay, to bridge this gap. To help, that is, people form these necessary new idea-receiving categories–teaching them the capacity for ideas–early on in their lives, so that as they grow they are ready to embrace the things we need them to know. Let me say that in a better way: so that as they grow they are ready to know in the ways we need them to know.
  • cultivate the ability to conceive of, work with, create, understand, manipulate, tinker with, disrupt, and, generally, appreciate the beauty of systems
  • The point is to be able to see connections between the silos. Says Kay, the liberal arts have done a bad job at “adding in epistemology” among the “smokestacks” (i.e. disciplines)
  • a game, or a simulation, thought of as a thing we might create (rather than a thing we only act within), is a visceral example of systems thinking
  • It’s the Flatland story–that we need to train our 2D minds to see in a kind of 3D–and Kay’s genius is that he recognizes we have to bake this ability into the species, through education, as close to birth as possible.
  • Systems thinking is to be conceived of as a platform skill or an increased capacity on top of which we will be able to construct new sorts of ideas and ways of knowing, of more complex natures still. The step beyond seeing a single system is of course the ability to see interacting systems – a kind of meta-systemic thinking – and this is what I think Kay is really interested in, because it’s what he does. At one point he showed a slide of multiple systems–the human body, the environment, the internet, and he said in a kind of aside, “they’re all one system . . .”
  • Seeing systems is an epistemology, a way of knowing, a mindset
  • What happens when you’re stuck in a system? You don’t understand the world and yourself and others as existing in constant development, as being in process; you think you are a fixed essence or part within a system (instead of a system influencing systems) and you inadvertently trap yourself in a kind of tautological loop where you can only think about things you’re thinking about and do the things you do and you thus limit yourself to a kind of non-nutritive regurgitation of factoids, or the robotic meaningless actions of an automaton, or what Kay calls living in a pop culture
  • A downside of being epistemologically limited to thinking within a system is that you overemphasize the importance of the content and facts as that system orders them
  • Bryan Alexander on 30 Apr 12
     
    Seems like, among other things, a call for learning with games.
Brett Boessen

What Will They Do? Transmedia Producers as Narrative Architects « Asmedia - 5 views

asmith50.wordpress.com/...ducers-as-narrative-architects

transmedia production liberalarts games

shared by Brett Boessen on 12 Apr 10 - Cached
  • The transmedia producer thus holds a different type of skill set, one that draws connections across media forms and one that involves conceptualizing, analyzing, and designing experiences at the macro-level. It is a person that does not just dive into the transmedia realm with a laundry list of media to explore, but actually has a deep understanding of the relationship between content, context, and culture.
  • transmedia producers must understand the unique storytelling potential behind each media platform. Certain stories lend themselves to particular media and vice versa. And as more narrative complexities threaten to impede comprehension , transmedia producers guard against blatant inconsistencies and contradictions. The narrative structure they design must be durable and organized, all while allowing room for future construction and additions.
  • the transmedia producer will have an incredible knack for activating communities and rewarding collective intelligence.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Transmedia producers possess storytelling talent, yes, but they should also appreciate the complex relationship between story and game, author and audience, openness and closure, art and commodity. They are as well versed in any sector of the entertainment industry as they are in popular culture and fandom as a whole.
  • Brett Boessen on 12 Apr 10
     
    Is there a better description of the concrete skills a liberal arts education offers than the description of what transmedia producers do outlined here?
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Jason Mittell on 13 Apr 10
     
    Brett - Aaron's my former student, so I'll take your compliment once removed! He's a very smart fellow...
  • Brett Boessen on 13 Apr 10
     
    You know, that just makes complete sense now that you say that: it would be hard to imagine someone who was not the product of a solid liberal arts education making such a coherent and persuasive argument for its value in this way.
  • Bryan Alexander on 15 Apr 10
     
    Brett, the liberal arts connection really sings in passages like this: "The best architects draw on a range of influences, disciplines, and perspectives, taking into account history, theory, and criticism to develop innovating concepts. Likewise, I see a similar approach to the emerging field of transmedia studies..."
  • Brett Boessen on 15 Apr 10
     
    Agreed, Bryan. Media Studies has always been deeply interdisciplinary, and transmedia strikes me as pushing it even further in that direction (or perhaps pulling into itself the most interdisciplinary facets of MS).
Bryan Alexander

on Valley Sim - 0 views

campustechnology.com/...-and-social-media-collide.aspx

liberalarts liberaleducation edugaming

shared by Bryan Alexander on 15 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Bryan Alexander on 15 Mar 11
     
    Nice article on Spielvogel's work!
Rebecca Davis

Interactive Games Studies Undergraduate Program | St. Edward's University, Austin Texas - 6 views

www.stedwards.edu/...interactivegamesstudies

interactive games gaming liberalarts

shared by Rebecca Davis on 08 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • Bryan Alexander on 08 Aug 11
     
    This is a full-time bachelor's degree for students who want a traditional 4-year college experience. The Bachelor of Arts in Interactive Games Studies at St. Edward's prepares you to turn your passion for video games into a fulfilling career.
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Brett Boessen on 09 Aug 11
     
    Wow. Is this the first full-size (major) program at an LAC in game studies? Computer Science and I have started some very early conversations here, but I don't think we'd do anything more than a minor.
  • Bryan Alexander on 09 Aug 11
  • Brett Boessen on 09 Aug 11
     
    Cool. I especially like the Design Challenge as a requirement for acceptance into the program. I wonder if they had issues when they started with people declaring the major without sufficient commitment? At ND when I was an undergrad, the Program of Liberal Studies, my major, required a short essay as part of an application to be a major. The Chair later admitted they don't really even evaluate them, but they found just having such a requirement was a deterrent to those on campus who (erroneously) saw the degree as light and fluffy. I'm not sure how I feel about that as the sole motivation for the requirement, but I'd definitely like to see what students who applied to Champlain's program submitted. :)
Bryan Alexander

"Building a Collaborative Online Literary Experience" - 1 views

www.educause.edu/...236670

virtual_world liberalarts digitalhumanities

shared by Bryan Alexander on 04 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • Bryan Alexander on 04 Oct 11
     
    University of Richmond's virtual Poe project.
Ed Webb

Spatialized Difference in Videogames | Gaming the System - 3 views

www.tannerhiggin.com/...lized-difference-in-videogames

games gaming liberalarts GIS geography maps mapping colonialism empire power analysis

shared by Ed Webb on 25 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Bryan Alexander on 26 Apr 11
     
    This would be teachable as heck. I like the FPS-RTS combination.
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