Group items tagged

I had trouble uploading this a a quicktime video. I actually had to save it as web streaming and use the expert setting in I-Movie to create an MP4. When I did this the video uploaded is 3 minutes. I also discovered to use PSU web streaming service you have to request an account. Only faculty and graduate assistants have automatic accounts.

Thank you, Michelle. These notes are helpful!

I think this is a good chance to know more about how other educators and educational institutions are using Second Life in education. Here is the information about the fair. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Education_Support_Faire

Akrasia This is a must-play game. I LOVE this game. It is a piece of artwork that is very thought provoking. It didn't present the intent directly, but the meaning of the game is emerging though the play. At first, you might need to spend some time to figure out what happen, and from my experience, even if I knew the goal is to find the exit, I would enjoy just play in the joyful environment. This reflects the psychology of addiction (and a lot of other things also applicable). I think the game is a good lesson content itself. It not only can function as a way to motive students, but also can provide a lot of dialogues and discussion after playing the game. BTW, This reminds me an art piece "Game, game, game, and again game" http://www.secrettechnology.com/gamegame/gamegame6.html

Your comments really interested me in playing this game. I have tried to get this to open on my computer without sucess. The profiles I was able to access, and the demos were beautiful.

Energyville This is a sample game about energy planning. The objective is clear and direct. I found the game not so attractive to me, because although I can choose different energy to use in my city, there are many restrictions too. This is in fact the reality for considering energy source. My score is very poor ranked in compare to other people. I think through playing it many times, people will be able to learning from the mistakes and learn how to balance energy source. In a course content, since this game provide information about energy source, it can be a good way to teach these knowledge. Students can participate in challenge with peers. This will be more fun than reading a textbook or listening to a lecture.

Energyville: I also played this game. This game was based around economics, the environment, and fuel usage. It was pretty effective with communicating its view, but I think it would have been better if designed a little differently. There was a lot of text and information to be gained from this site, which I found very useful. It explained pros and cons about each of the different fuel sources and how much it would challenge your city. I didn't have a good sense of how much money I had and was more concerned about meeting demand with supplies. I found the game fun to play and was able to take away a lot more concrete information form this game then the other game. I felt like this game was directly providing knowledge, while the other game I played was indirectly teaching me something. This could be incorporated into a unit about economics, environmental science/art, social change, globalism, etc. Since this game provides direct facts and information, this game could fit into any structured educational environment. Students who play the game, as long as they read, will be able to learn impact from fuel use, what is using most fuels in cities, and possibly solutions. I agree that this would be a great supplement to reading a text book.

Ayiti: The Cost of Life. It is based around the idea of poverty in Haiti and how difficult it is for families to get past it. I played this game three times, and every single time I lost, my whole family died. I could not get past the 3rd year without having my whole entire family die. I created different strategies each time. The first time, I thought education was so important, so I tried to get the three kids in school for at least 2 out of the 4 times the seasons changed. The family ran out of money, then got too sick to work, and they ended up all dying. The second time, I decided to split up the family, have one child go to school and the other 4 work. This strategy worked a little better, but same result. Last try, I worked everyone and tried to create enough money for the family to live off of, but unfortunately, once someone is sick, you cannot seem to make them better without a few seasons in the hospital, which is expensive. I am interested to see if someone else who plays this gets a different result! Anyways, I thought this game was fun, but frustrating. It really did show how difficult it can be to get a family out of trouble, especially with 3 children, living expensive, health concerns, and education. Since I played 3 times and failed all of them, I would say it is very effective in communicating its view. This game could be incorporated in a unit about social change, human rights, poverty, living conditions in 3rd world countries, etc. Students could play this game and get a broad idea on what it could be like taking responsibility for a family. I think this may be a good introduction to what people in other areas could be facing since learning is indirect.

Right, Ashley. I also could not win if even one of family member studies continuously. I could win when I focus only on family's health and economy.

Many games are designed for player to take on certain identites to role play. However, does these identites really engage people is another question. Sometimes it might be because there are not many choices.

Those who are familiar with playing video games what are the range of roles and who would be most likely to identify with those roles? Since I have sons it may be that they and their friends play games that do not have roles I identify with or desire to try out but its more than gender, it is also age, and difference in interests.

This thinking came up when i was playing the games in G4C. I questioned why do I want to be a refugee or other identities? When students are introduced to differnt games, do they really want to take the identities the game designed to play? From my experience, fantasy identity is most popular. The popularization of these games, such of World of Warcrafts, can explain this. Even avatars people who created in SL are fantasies. ideal self is a fantasy.

what are the potential and limiation of avatar creation in art education?

Both of these-anonymity as well as the possibility of causing a stereotype, prejudice, and preferential treatment depending on avatars' appearances-could be main limitations of avatar creation in the SL.

I am not sure I completely understand the assignment, but the one seems obvious. However, if this is a fake secret, then it might be the reverse. I am disturbed by this one.

I agree with this one being a female submitter.

The assignment is to guess who the sender of the postcard is based on the secret and the imagery shared on the postcard. Hopefully, this will make more sense after reading the article. Some of these postcards seem very obvious, but you're right that if the sender is lying or trying to portray themselves as someone else(an alternate identity) than the postcard takes on a different meaning. They may evoke different feelings.

After the reading, I am trying to challenge my first responses. I seemed to of assumed they were just male or female, never thinking that maybe transgendered would come into play with these secrets. Since these are anonymous it means that any of these secrets could be a man portraying a woman, a woman portraying a man, or even purposely aiming their secret towards a gender they do not necessarily associate with.

Even though an intimate revelation is sent the anonymity of the sender allows for the sender to keep the secret of sending the postcard. Post Secret reveals secrets, but also keeps them.

This sounds like the stereotype of a heterosexual male fantasy.

Lindsay, I agree with you that this seems like a hetero male fantasy. After reading the article I am thinking of this idea of "trying on" and "role-taking."

I read today a 2007 article in Hypatia (v22, v3, pp. 30-45) by Michaele L. Ferguson on identity. It fits with my belief in process theory/actor network theory, and my position posited in several of my articles concerning a pedagogy of perpetual displacement (i.e., a theory of feminist democracy of continual self-critique, perpetually calling every notion into question). A premise of Ferguson's position is that "The meaningfulness of a claim to identity rests upon ongoing social practices that make such a claim intelligible. ... Without corresponding to live, ongoing practices, claims to identity cease to be meaningful. ... The target audience of the performance of identity matters. ... The practices in which identity is manifest are often overlapping, inconsistent, and even contradictory. ... the more complex the practices are that sustain it, the harder it is to dismantle or alter-like gender " (pp. 39-40).

This might be a female. I guess the secert is for herself.

Yes, I think so too. The handwriting is bold at the top and meek/lower case at the bottom. I think this supports the idea that the person is talking to themselves. We think of anorexia as being associated with young women.

I agree, the mask leads you to believe that the individual is hiding themselves.

I thought this was written to someone. I can imagine a male identity speaking this to a female identity. Male anorexia feels much more hidden / doesn't make me think of this image.

This one also seems fairly obvious. I would assume by the picture and the reference to a husband that a female wrote this one

I think so too. This one seems pretty much obvious. The sender would probably be female.

I am guessing the author/artist of this postcard is female.

I also guess that sender might be female. I heard that Irritable Bowel Syndrome is more to female.

Lindsay, my first publication was about chairs. I have been collecting images of chairs in various context for almost 20 years. Keifer-Boyd, K. (1992). Deep-seated culture: Understanding sitting. Journal of Social Theory in Art Education, 12, 73-99.

Really that's Crazy. There is something about them that fascinates me. I had an assignment in a 3D art class to make a chair. I'll post a picture of it. The only guideline was that our professor had to be supported by it. Mine was Spaghetti and Meatballs!

I revisit chairs in my first chapter on mindsets in Engaging Visual Culture, my co-authored book with Jane Maitland-Gholon published by Davis Publications in 2007. One time I had 600 freshman engineer students draw chairs and then 300 out one side of the auditorium and 300 out the other side to join together by organizing themselves according to their chair drawings.There was more to it but that's how I started with a presentation on creativity.

About the discussion in voice thread about teaching Microsoft Office programs, I agree with the statement in the voice thread. Teaching the programs should not be the goal. Besides, there are a lot of other alternative options that is free to use. Only teaching the commercial programs makes educators become like sales people for big corporation. Educators need to provide other options when, for example, ask students to turn in a paper using word processing program. Unfortunately, many schools don't provide the environment for using alternative programs. But fortunately, more and more educators are aware of this and are working on providing a free and open environment of software using. Web 2.0 technologies might serve as one of the alternative.

I agree with you about wanting to make the most of this first life. I do wonder if we can separate these lives, or if the distinctions will become academic.

This podcast takes a critical look at Web 2.0

This is tutorial section in worth100.com. When I think of web resource in teaching context, this kind of information sharing came up to me first.

I read the instructions to "mark up" the lesson plan as an invitation to write notes throughout the text. At first, I was not sure how to do this because it seemed that the marks I was making were blending into the rest of the document (and would have created a very nonlinear document, but also not accessible document). I then decided to change the font color to blue and highlight passages that I was marking. Because I could not tell which marks past collaborators made, I was wondering what this addition to the process might mean -- and if I was making the best choice. One thing I have noticed about critique and exchange in on-line environments is that I rarely know the person with whom I am collaborating. This is a very different process for me. I makes me more aware of how the comment might come across, how my tone might be interpreted, and makes me concerned that the collaboration could have a negative impact on the author. Because I value critiques that are generative, I am not sure how to resolve this. I think collaborating on lesson plans through a wiki could be a wonderful tool for teachers who have had personal introductions and established some trust with each other. I don't have any concerns about people changing suggestions I make on another person's work. In fact, I like that. Perhaps because it removes some of the responsibiltiy of how my words could affect another =). When it is my own work -- well, not every piece needs a collaboration, and not every stage of a work is ready for a collaboration. It can actually be liberating to let go of the control of a piece ... perhaps the complicated part is how we value other's remarks. Do we think everyone has something worthwhile to say about every topic? What happens when ideas we do not value show up on the ideas we've initiated?

The use of wiki for Story Cube lesson plan is creative idea. The idea of art teachers (pre-service, in-service) and art educators cooperate for making into the planning of lessons is amazing. I believe that there is a big possibility for the use of wiki. However, I feel a little bit complicated to participate in the lesson plan. When I visited wiki lately, I feel difficult to change the lesson plan because I am not sure to remove or change another person's work.

Hi all, I added my reflections about the facilitation to the comments section of the blog. Thanks so much for participating last week, it really opened my eyes and helped me to use wikis', blogs, and second life in a better way. Hopefully we'll incorporate this, or a version of this, assignment into one of the studio classes in Photography. Thanks, Rob