Yep. (Thanks, John. I get it now.)
Yep.
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Monthly Archives: January 2006
Defining ARG’s
Here’s a really good definition of Alternate Reality Games by a guy who helped write one of the more interesting recent ones:
You can be standing in a parking lot, or a shopping center. A pay phone near you will ring, and on the other end will be someone demanding information.
ARGs
combine video, text adventure, radio plays, audio, animation,
improvisational theater, graphics, and story into an immersive
experience. The game doesn’t just happen online: players are sent out into the real world to meet one another and complete tasks. Players have traveled thousands of miles to follow clues to their source.Unlike
many video games, where players are encouraged to use cutthroat tactics
against one another in search of victory, ARGs encourage cooperative
play and the formation of ad hoc ommunities. No
one player can possibly have all the knowledge and skills necessary to
succeed in the game, and players are required to combine their talents
and share information. The ARG is all about the creation of community through a shared experience. The
games attract a somewhat older audience than video games, more or less
evenly divided between men and women, and with better social skills.
Interested in learning more? Then you probably should have clicked over to Williams’ blog to read the rest of this fascinating, behind-the-scenes post. But, you might also try this link.
My Thoughts on Wiki Textbooks
I just posted some of my thinking about a wiki textbook project to the EducationBridges wiki. Feel free to edit and improve upon the seed thinking that’s there.
How Long Do You Think It Will Be
How long do you think it will be before the spellcheck in my blog software knows the word "blogger" and doesn’t see to correct me everytime I use it?
I’ve been blogging for a year now, and it still hasn’t happened.
But I’m hopeful.
It’s Monday
While I haven’t been posting here much in the last several days, my head and heart have been firmly entrenched in the edublogosphere. I’ve been trying to catch up on my reading and taking the time to comment on some of the folks who are keeping me on my toes. Also, I’ve been listening to an awful lot of podcasts as I’ve caught up on some of the less, ahem, interesting chores around the house. (The first year you put up Christmas lights on your house, you do get permission to leave them up until almost the end of January, right?)
I’m reminded as I read and comment that this is one of the essential tasks of a reflective blogger. Read. Think. Respond. Repeat. Write. (I think that’s the gist of Will‘s definition of what a blogger does — but I can’t find the link right now.) Good thinking and good teaching only come as a result of good input — and the ratio of input to output is something like 10:1.
One thing that I’m following closely right now is the Wikibook (or Wiki Textbook — the name changes, because it’s a work in progress) conversation going on over at EducationBridges. They’re doing an awful lot of thinking about how to create an "open source" curriculum as well as create ways to train folks on how to use it. I wish I could make the live chats — but I’m still learning a great deal in my car and on my walks from what everyone over there is talking about. Dave has some wonderful ideas that get good conversations started, and Jeff is one of the best moderators out there.
They’re setting up for a huge project, but one that’s got a potentially large payoff for students and teachers and schools. I hope they can negotiate all of the great ideas into a meaningful product. I hope I can find a productive way to contribute.
I hope that you can, too.
A Confession and Some Thoughts on Modern Storytelling
Okay, so I’ve got to come clean with all of you: I’m a Lost fan. I’m not ashamed — my wife and I really enjoy deconstructing the show and we both enjoy the way the show paints its main characters — but I feel like I should come clean.
Earlier today, I was catching up on some reading on my listservs, and I came across a thread asking about uses for Lost in the classroom. I didn’t have any specific ideas, but I did write the following because I got to thinking about some of what Lost is doing on television, and how that relates to other trends I’m noticing. I’m curious to know what you think.
I’ve been struck by how Lost is moving off of television and onto the Internet and other
places. Several "mythology off the show" websites have sprung up
that contain hidden secrets of the show. Some links:
(The fictional airline of the show — there
are some interesting bits of text hidden in the code of this page.)
(The group behind the mysterious hatch and the Dharma Initiative.)
(This is a link to a novel purportedly written by someone who dies on
the plane crash. While the cover of the book features a Lost
logo, the description on the Amazon page acknowledges the fiction that
the author died in a fake plane crash.)
Now, I know that some of this stuff is just to create hype for
the show and to sell a few more products, but I’m really intrigued by
the idea of telling a story in several different media — along the
lines of how The Matrix involved comic books, anime, and video games
in its storytelling.
As media get more and more complex, how should we be teaching
the concept of "story?" How do we trust a site like Amazon when
they themselves play the game of the fictional story?
A while back, some of my students interested me in the concept of
Alternate Reality Games , fictional
stories that reach out to real people via text messaging, late night
phone calls, and a ton of other real interactions. (I played one of the first, but I didn’t know they were called such back when I started playing.) Heck — one
author a while back wrote a book called A Treasure’s Trove and hid
more than a million dollars in real treasure all over the United States
(There were clues in the book to help you discover the real treasure. All but one of the treasure jewels have been found so far).
Is the nature of story telling changing, in some
ways? Or is this a bogus question, and has nothing
really started to change?
I don’t have a clue about the answers — but I find this stuff
really, really interesting. As a reader of textual and visual
media, I am very captivated by some of these developments. How can we help our students to both navigate these new environments — and, more importantly, create their own?
Staying Safe
Darren‘s complied a collection of some solid blogging safety resources. Also, he’s posted a recent interview he gave about how blogging is a part of his classroom practice. Well worth a listen. Still more good stuff — he’s also begun to blog over at nonscholae.org, a:
site devoted to the responsible use of blogs,
photosharing, podcasts, web hosting, educational games, instant
messaging and other social software in schools. Our students want to be
web authors, create content and take part in distributed conversations,
not just web consumers.Non scholae sed vitae discimus
We learn, not for school, but for life – Seneca, EpistulaeWe believe that these tools and resources should not be blocked or banned
from schools. As educators, we should be familiarising learners with
these technologies, supporting and facilitating their responsible use
and equipping our students with the skills to keep them safe and savvy
in the online world.However, at the moment, many schools are simply closing their eyes,
banning these technologies and doing their learners a disservice in the
process.We want to persuade and help you to persuade your school, district
and department that this is an irresponsible approach to information
communication technology literacy. To do that we publish a regular blog, maintain a critical analysis of software and filters, have a simple manifesto signed by hundreds of teachers and experts in education from around the world and a number of resources ranging from more information about the movement to pamphlets and lesson plans.You can also join us and become a blog and resource author or contact us for feedback or press inquiries.
They’re just getting rolling, but Nonscholae.org is a good first step towards organizing a collection of blogging resources.
But Who’s Watching the Bloggers Who Are Watching the Bloggers?
Mediashift, a new blog from PBS that will focus on New Media, made its debut yesterday. Looks pretty interesting:
And each week, I’ll pose a more pointed question to you all to get
Your Take. The following week, I’ll do a roundup of the best of what
you’ve offered to share with us. And once per week, I’ll do a feature
called Digging Deeper that will include deeper thinking and even
interviews. Eventually, I’ll start a weekly podcast, add audio and
video to the site, and do more stories that include you in a two-way
conversation.And I hope that together we can break the bonds of traditional
blogging and journalism. The more I think about the traditional way of
doing journalism, the more questions I have about it. If I’m a movie
critic, for instance, why does my view rate in importance? I got in
free to the movie, the movie stars are there for me to interview, why
do I know better than you?And as a journalist reporting a feature story or news story, why do
I only talk to the usual analysts and experts? Why are the same people
quoted over and over again in all the different news outlets? Are they
really that much smarter than you are?
I’m subscribed.
Literature Carnival
Dana‘s doing a weekly roundup of blog posts pertaining to books and literature. Check out her fourth edition of the Literature Carnival. If you’re writing about books or lit, there’s information there on how to contribute.
MLK Day
I’m sitting in a coffeehouse in my hometown trying to bang out some thoughts on a conference proposal as well as get a reading list put together for my science fiction course that begins tomorrow.
It has not escaped my mind that today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Been running through the back of my head all day, in fact — but not for why you might think.
When I was a child in North Carolina, I read and re-read Dr. King’s biographies that were in the school library. I distinctly remember a carpeted reading tunnel in an elementary classroom where I escaped with a copy of a Dr. King book after finishing a test or something. I remember falling asleep in the tunnel, perhaps one of the safest places ever — a good book open across my chest.
I still believe that we’ve got a long way to go on race relations in the world — and it’s only getting more complicated and interesting as I can immediately reach out and touch someone on all of the continents of our planet, thanks to Skype or this blog or a multitude of other tools. It’s weird — I regularly talk to some of you halfway around the world, but I don’t know the names of everyone that lives on my street. But that’s not why I’ve been thinking about Dr. King today.
Last year, on MLK Day, I opened up my aggregator and found the complete audio recording of Dr. King’s "I Have a Dream Speech." (It turns out that was probably an illegal copy, as I discovered this morning.) I didn’t expect it — it just showed up via OpenPodcast.org. Someone thought it was a good day for the reminder. They were right.
That was a big moment for me in terms of learning about how technology can touch people. The impersonal computer sent an impersonal string of ones and zeroes into my impersonal cable modem and then into my indifferent computer hard drive. Later, I put on my sterile plastic headphones and was transported back thirty-some years by the warm, fatherly voice of a man I’ve never met who made an awful big difference in the world.
I know — it’s not a new revelation for the world, or for most of you reading this — but it was one of those "Aha!" moments for me. Not only can we connect with the past — but we can push the past right onto the MP3 players of those around us.
These tools can change lives. Not bad for silicon, plastic and electrons.