put all the assignments in context....

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http://www.leunig.com.au 
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http://gamefemvw.blogspot.com/p/normal.html
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From Brain Pickings: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/10/23/7-lessons-from-7-years/
Reflections on how to keep the center solid as you continue to evolve.

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A Gathering: with and without avatars

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This week we conclude the second section of the course
>>>GATHERINGS: WITH PROCESSES, THINGS, BEINGS AND DISTRIBUTED POSSIBILITY

All during this week keep re-thinking what this means, how what we do and talk about are examples of such gathering, and why we want to be conscious and conscientious about it all....

Tuesday of Gathering week, we will meet during class time to share our projects, displaying posters and handouts on the walls of our room, walk and talk one-on-one with each other, share questions, observations, excitements! On that Thursday, we will continue to work with the energy generated by the first day of the con, collectively coming up with reflective analysis and more ideas for what comes next! Next week you will run the show and begin the third section of the course! 

CON #1:

• A Gathering, with and without Avatars: exploring the feminist play of learning with games

Week of 22 October:

 “A Gathering, with and without Avatars” is inspired by the Feminists in Games Workshop which takes place in British Columbia: http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=10905  For A Gathering you will create either a paper (with enough handouts for each member of the class) or a poster (and document it with digital pics): which one determined by lot early in the semester. You may work on these individually or with a partner.

With the help of three books (McGonigal, Reed, Flanagan) you will “Grow a Game,” and discuss its feminist implications. 

• Identify a theme from the book that most captures your imagination, interconnect it with ideas from the other two, 

• make your game, and 

• share in either poster or written analysis why it matters for feminist learning. 

ALWAYS make a point of connecting projects to class readings, activities, and discussions. 

ALWAYS use a standard model for citation and bibliography, even on posters. 

NOTICE how useful the website Not Your Mama’s Gamer will be here!

Remix additions: flip cameras at WMST: Papers and posters may include a range of media creativities, in addition to their analytic aspects. Media fandoms are known for creative work: drawing, mashups, remix, vids, machinima, and more. Any of these may be ADDED to a project if you like. Women’s Studies now has a library of flip cameras for video projects, and you can check one out for a week at a time on a first come, first served basis. Notice that these techno-crafty things are enhancements to the basic project, not a substitute for one, or the only platform! They must be accompanied by a paper or poster no matter what. This is an opportunity to enjoy media learning in alternative forms, but these additions are entirely at your own discretion and pleasure!

Full credit for this assignment requires: • having begun work several weeks ahead of time, • writing and postering in several drafts, • displaying paper & handout or poster during first day of event and • actively participating both days of the con, • turning in electronic copies of poster pics or paper and handout to Katie’s gmail account by the evening of Friday of the week of the con (you are allowed to revise anything during that week, but what you bring in on Tuesday should still be like a final version and complete), • and documenting each piece of the assignment as completed in your logbook, which must be turned in electronically with everything else by the evening of Friday of the week of the con for credit. If for any reason whatsoever you miss any piece of this, you will need to document that in your logbook, with explanations, and perhaps notes of any discussions you have with Katie about it all. If you miss either day of the con, you will need to arrange with three fellow students your own little mini-con, where you all meet together outside class to share your work and discuss it, and you write a two-page report on your meeting and discussion.

·       DUE THURSDAY IN CLASS: LOGBOOK 2, PAPER & HANDOUT IN HARD COPY & ALSO SENT ELECTRONICALLY, DIGITAL PICS IN HARDCOPY AND ALSO SENT ELECTRONICALLY

·       Everything must be in final finished state on Tuesday to display, but you are allowed to revise one more time before turning things in on Thursday

·       Send to katiekin@gmail.com , use filename <yrlastname> 468 <paper1> or <poster1> number pics if more than one. Subject header <yrlastname> 468 con1  

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Gatherings happening....

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<<NEXT WEEK IS OUR CON! 

A GATHERING, WITH AND WITHOUT AVATARS >>

YOU SHOULD HAVE A FIRST DRAFT FROM THE WEEKEND. 
ASK YOUR QUESTIONS NOW!

WORK IN THREE DRAFTS: 1: to figure out what you know and think. 2: to figure out how to say that to other people, with attention to the craft of presentation. 3: REMEMBER TO MEET WITH CLASS PARTNER TO EDIT FINAL VERSIONS BEFORE TUES 22 OCT. 

Tuesday 22 Oct & Thursday 24 Oct

Tuesday of Gathering week, we will meet during class time to share our projects, displaying posters and handouts on the walls of our room, walk and talk one-on-one with each other, share questions, observations, excitements! On that Thursday, we will continue to work with the energy generated by the first day of the con, collectively coming up with reflective analysis and more ideas for what comes next!

·       DUE THURSDAY IN CLASS: LOGBOOK 2, PAPER & HANDOUT IN HARD COPY & ALSO SENT ELECTRONICALLY, DIGITAL PICS IN HARDCOPY AND ALSO SENT ELECTRONICALLY

·       Everything must be in final finished state on Tuesday to display, but you are allowed to revise one more time before turning things in on Thursday

·       Send to katiekin@gmail.com , use filename <yrlastname> 468 <paper1> or <poster1> number pics if more than one. Subject header <yrlastname> 468 con1  

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Tuesday 15 October, Leveling Up

·       McGonigal, Reality, Part II

·       WORK FOR CON #1 SHOULD BE IN FINAL SWING: WORK IN DRAFTS FOR POSTERS AND PAPERS

·       WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH GROW A GAME SO FAR?

Rewards and recognition matter to humans individually and in groups. Where you do find “leveling up” in your own life or in your game lives? How well does this concept and the processes and work it involves help for learning generally? For maximizing social justice? For minimizing harms? How do you know? [carrots & sticks link, p2p link, Wlink, politics?, nudge, neuroethics, Wneuroethics and Wchoice architecture]

feminist conflicts & social critique: Stanford article 

what would a feminist game entail? convo in SL with Ellie & Feminist DOCC ::: 

convo picks up from this video!  ===

"Feminism, Technology, and Race" from FemTechNet on Vimeo.

problematize, criticize, critique, debunk 

=conflicts among feminisms?
=in good faith?
="I don't understand how they can believe…." 
=how could games get all entwined with these? 

oppositional work and consciousness
Necker cube: dominant and alternate cultures
subversive? to what? 

=how can we open up to places where being "right" is not the point actually?

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Thursday 17 October, Whose Game is this anyway?

·       Nardi, Night: Chs 6 & 8; Taylor, Worlds: Ch 4 (electronic reserves) 

·       You have now read bits of the three ethnography books: which one will you read in its entirety for Gaia, our second con?

Nardi, Taylor, and Pearce are pioneers in the ethnography of virtual worlds and gaming lifeworlds, distributed environments that “belong” complexly to many beings, processes, economic infrastructures, and technologies, all of which turn out to be agents and agencies, making things happen and participating in social learning across all of them, not just in human heads. Why does this matter and to whom? What is “belonging” all about? 

Now is the time to decide which of the three books you will read in more depth for the second part of the course, and to look ahead to A Gathering next week!

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Everquest Online: https://www.everquest2.com/home

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Gender Sensitivity & World of Warcraft: http://wowongender.tumblr.com
WOW Online: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/  

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How's your Game?

PLEASE SIT WITH YOUR CLASS PARTNER TODAY! 

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Thursday 10 October, A Movement and an Art form: how does such activism work?

·       Reed, Art: pick the next 2 Chapters that most interest you.

·       HOW WOULD REED USE GROW A GAME WITH THE CHAPTERS YOU PICKED?

Why did you choose the chapters you did? Were they what you expected? What surprised you? What emotions were put into play? Are these movements you are involved in already? How did this change your understandings? What does this have to do with Games, anyway? What game experiences does it call to mind?


=with partners: 2-4 chaps: why those? pick out a thread from each one. 
=expected? what surprised you?
=what emotions in play?
GROW A GAME FOR ONE CHAPTER IN SPIRIT OF REED'S ANALYSIS, AND TELL US ABOUT IT!

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Everything now leads up Con #1! You need all of it!

Only two weeks or four classes until we meet together in  

• A Gathering, with and without Avatars: exploring the feminist play of learning with games

Week of 22 October:

 “A Gathering, with and without Avatars” is inspired by the Feminists in Games Workshop which takes place in British Columbia. For A Gathering you will create either • a paper (with enough handouts for each member of the class) or • a poster (and document it with digital pics): which one determined by lot early in the semester. You may work on these individually or with a partner.

With the help of three books (McGonigal, Reed, Flanagan) you will “Grow a Game,” and discuss its feminist implications. 

• Identify a theme from one book that most captures your imagination, interconnect it with ideas from the other two, 

• make your game, and 

• share in either poster or written analysis the process involved here and why it matters for feminist learning. 

ALWAYS make a point of connecting projects to class readings, activities, and discussions. ALWAYS use a standard model for citation and bibliography, even on posters. NOTICE how useful the website Not Your Mama’s Gamer will be here!

By today you should have talked with your class partner and come up with ideas about what you are going to do, and how! Will you collaborate with someone? What will be your approach to your poster or paper with handout? 

Both research posters and research papers should demonstrate the RESULTS of your research and analysis, and also HOW YOU GOT THEM! Always make a point of connecting projects to class readings and lectures. Always use an academic citation system for both papers and posters. Some info here. Discuss this with your class partner too, and also brainstorm what a research poster can do. If you are doing a paper, consider these issues of cognitive visualizations for your handout. Leeann Hunter's work on posters should be useful for handouts too! Look here! 

Grow a Game description from Tiltfactor: http://www.tiltfactor.org/growagame  
Grow a Game brochure: http://www.tiltfactor.org/wp-content/uploads/grow-a-game2.pdf  
Grow a Game instructions, apprentice edition: http://www.tiltfactor.org/wp-content/uploads2/instructions_apprentice.pdf  

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[collection] from mary flanagan on Vimeo.

Mary Flanagan's website: http://www.maryflanagan.com
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Tuesday 8 October, When is play critical and why does it matter?

·       Flanagan, Play: Pref, Ack, Intro and Ch 8.

·       BE SURE YOU HAVE BEGUN WORK ON CON #1 A GATHERING! FREEWRITES?

·       WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH GROW A GAME?

Why do we need to have games "designed for artistic, political or social critique or intervention"? How could these help us understand what is happening, who we are, and what roles we play in all of it, not to mention the scope of our abilities to intervene? Why does this matter?

You will find some of Katie's thoughts on all this in her essay for The Scholar and Feminist Online, "A Naturalcultural Collection of Affections."

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Some encouragements (making us all courageous?) as we work toward Con #1: A Gathering!

(From John Cage and Corita Kent: Ten Rules for Students and Teachers: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/08/10/10-rules-for-students-and-teachers-john-cage-corita-kent/

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will be around SL this weekend, on and off, if you want to see....

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willing to see about meeting up in SL this weekend, but you need to let me know....

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VIRTLANTIS%20Community/224/72/591

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working with the bits and pieces that make up the web....

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Email TV Reed with thoughts about the Games chapter! get the address from Katie....

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A website might be on a single server, with a simple browser interface. Or it could be housed in bits and pieces across several servers, in different places, worked on by people in a division of labor: the browser interface styled by one (CSS), the images and other "assets" located on another, and the text repurposed from one site to another as an element of content management. It is worth playing with various ways to author on the web, to start to "feel out" the distributions and "gatherings" involved!

[Image: http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/40920-mainland-simulators-now-running-8-a-2.html ]

Thursday 3 October, Prototyping: website creation and curation

·       Check out the Feminists in Games Workshop website: http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=10905 

·       LOOK UP ALL YOU CAN ABOUT OTHER FEMINIST GAMING SITES ON THE WEB! BRING IN A PRINT OUT OF SOME SPLASH PAGES!

·       Also useful: Easyedutools: http://easyedutools.weebly.com/collaborate.html

Our fourth “flipping the classroom” Thursday! You MUST BE PREPARED so we can spend our time MAKING THINGS! If you have never made a website, you might start off with a Blogger version: https://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g  Blogger is what I use for the class website. I use Weebly for my professional website: http://education.weebly.com/ Both of these are very simple. Or you might like to build a site on Word Press: http://en.support.wordpress.com/using-wordpress-to-create-a-website/  If you have already begun crafting websites, pick your favorite platform for something new, or enhance what you already have going with projects from our course.

[Images: http://max.limpag.com/article/create-wordpress-theme-yahoo-ui-css-aptana/  &   http://jonghwapark.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/reflection-of-19th-february-website/  

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Katie uses different platforms, software, infrastructures for various purposes. Weebly for her professional website, Pinterest to curate collections visually, and Blogger for most everything else! 

Katie has been thinking about how to use social media for classes since 2007: her slogan is "Worn Tools: not worn out but warmed up!" to indicate that she wants to use media tools people are likely to know or to use in everyday life in simple ways. Her thoughts on this are in a talk on Social Media Learning, and in her classsites and talksites. 

She also uses the web to think about writings and collect her ideas, to organize links and other resources visually for her own use, and to have fun!


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There are html basics all over the web! Google around for ones you like! Here is one (I will hand one out too!): http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/02/html_cheatsheet/  

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TV and Lara! 

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Games Studies

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Most recent issue of the international academic journal Game Studies: http://gamestudies.org/1301/

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