Group items tagged

PSU offers free and low cost training on a variety of technologies. This page is specifically about the training for groups. We could schedule a free "training on demand" 1 hour lecture/overview of Web 2.0.

"Web 2.0 Overview" January 28 (W) 9:00-10:00 am in 116 Wagner I registered this lecture. If someone has a plan to go to the lecture, let's meet there.

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.

The floating layers of sticky note commentary seems to disrupt the grid rule, and the authority of the Web page. I think the "floating sticky note" changes the architecture of participation. kkb

That's really interesting Karen, it does step out of the document grid. Although I think Focault would argue that it's just another type of grid, one vertically layered perhaps? Certainly the power structure is evident in sticky notes in having defined authorship. I've been thinking today that the way to undermine this power system might be in the editing of each others work. By defying authorship the unseen power grid breaks down into bands of content that competes for attention, but isn't attributable to an individual. In this way perhaps the egos tie to it's output is undermined, and creates a truly collaborative document which is difficult to percieve as an individual. Perhaps the grid becomes the prosthetic by which we percieve the collaboration?

Haraway brings up a Foucauldian critique in her article Situating Locations, and more recent feminist theory does too (Ellsworth for example) in that the power grid between players always exists but it is in the recognizing and exposing the location of power that agency and co-existence of difference is possible. Annonymous collaborations can yield irresponsibility to one another. Allucquère Rosanne Stone/Sandy Stone tried such experiments in 3D worlds. Here's a link to a lecture I heard her speak regarding this issue when I was in Finland in the new media program: http://lumen2.uiah.fi/gamesandstorytelling/Sandy_Stone.html The issues you raise with the grid and text with Foucault quotes concerning social gridlocked, power, authority, ownership, collaboration, agency--are so important to consider, especially as educators who need to understand one's operating theory of knowledge and what it means to be human to be cognizant of what and how one is teaching.

Spivak (1988) critiques both Foucault and Deleuze in her article Can the Subaltern Speak? She notes the "failure of Deleuze and Guattari to consider the relations between desire, power and subjectivity" (p. 68). Regarding Foucault she faults his lack of recognizing that his theory of ideology is steeped "in its own material production of institutionality" (p. 68). Spivak argues that desire and subject are connected, a unity, and there is a need for theories of subject formation in two senses of representation (darstellung/rhetoric as persuasion & vertretung/rhetoric as trope)-and that "the production of theory is also a practice" (p. 70). She suggests "the possibility of collectivity itself is persistently foreclosed through the manipulation of female agency" (p. 78). It is this issue of agency being foreclosed by institutionalized systems (for example, with binary logic of computer databases) that has troubled theories of collective identity whether that identity is "teachers," "students," "women," or any socially formed category. Audre Lorde's question of whether the master's house can be only be changed with the master's tools is relevant to thinking about what we can do with the grid systems of a clockwork world, and how we go about subject formation, activism or mobilization for changing specific systems of oppression in referencing back to the concern of agency, voice, and authority.

Introducing Opera Face Gestures for Controlling Your Browser http://brendaclews.blogspot.com/2009/04/introducing-opera-face-gestures-for.html