Schedule

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COMPLETE SYLLABUS IN PDF 
LEARNING ANALYSIS INSTRUCTIONS IN PDF  

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Daily/Weekly outline of class assignments & activities

YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO BRING LAPTOPS TO CLASS! Of course, all uses of electronic media during class should be class related. You may be asked during class to search for materials on the web and share them during seminar, or otherwise participate in class activities using your electronic media. Be prepared to respond quickly and appropriately, and to demonstrate that your use of electronic media is for class and even allows you to attend more intensively and creatively.

Handouts are downloadable at the class website either from Google Docs or Scribd. See <About> tab for links. 

Reading is very tricky in this class! You must read ahead constantly in order to begin work on the assignments at the right time. We have portions assigned on particular days to discuss, but often this is properly a REREADING, as you sometimes you should have read that a first time already. Notice that some days you have a choice of several readings to focus upon, say, 3 chapters out of 5 in a section of one book. This is to give us all the chance to hear about readings we may not have time to do ourselves by that point. That means you need to be able to tell others about the readings, making note taking and preparation even more important. However, by the end of class you should have read the entirety of each of our books. So you can see that keeping up with the reading, discussed on the day on which it is named, is essential, as is attendance on both days! And that doing all this carefully will make your graded assignments so very much easier!

Notice that you are assigned web research as well as readings. Put as much time into this as you do for reading and take it quite as seriously. Web reading and analysis is as important today as book reading is and should be done as carefully and with as much thought, not as a easy substitute for harder work: it IS the harder work! Similarly, everyone should spend time in McKeldin library, finding on the bookshelves stuff not available on computer databases. Schedule time on campus to do research in the library in person and to meet, face to face, with your partner or with other class buddies. In this class we think carefully about how to do all this as well as doing it! Learn to cite your sources, web and print, carefully and conscientiously. This means keeping good records of them all.

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>>>WHAT DOES FUN REALLY MEAN?

Tuesday 3 Sept – Welcome to Our Course!
·       HANDED OUT: Syllabus, How to Read (also on website for download as well, check the <About> tab for links)
·       CLASS BUDDIES, CLASS WEBSITE, SMART PHONES?
·       Intro to course texts. Bring all the books you have so far!
·       Vered, selection from “Beyond Barbie” – on course website <Home> tab, read before class if possible. Free Scribd Mobile app: http://www.scribd.com/about 
We will start off making class buddies, interviewing each other, and otherwise beginning to create ourselves as a community of intellectual friends. With a classmate generate a list of questions to ask each other about topics that you hope to make part of this class, and take notes on your responses to share with everyone. We will also read and discuss Vered’s selection on “The Girl Question in Gaming.” What does Vered's feminist analysis from the nineties (embedded in class site) have to say about feminist learning, play, games, and virtual worlds today? What is different now? Which of these questions have been taken up? How are we thinking of these same issues today? What does Vered tell us about what we call making and coding today? How do your own histories of play, games, computers, feminisms, everyday life, technologies and media participate in such questions?

You will notice that Katie reads with a pencil in hand, annotating and coding her text, making reading an interactive process! You can do this too! An invaluable discussion of this and other academic practices for reading in handout on HowTo Read (it's not so obvious!).

Thursday 5 Sept – NO CLASS, ROSH HASHANAH
BEFORE THE NEXT CLASS: Watch the three videos embedded on the class website on the <Books> tab. You may want to go to the original site, especially for McGonigal’s TED talk. READ: all of Koster’s quick, simple book. It’s available as an ebook for cheap, instant download, readable on CloudReader: https://read.amazon.com and it is also on hardcopy reserve at McKeldin Library Circulation Desk.

Tuesday 10 Sept – Is “fun” actually all about learning?
·       Koster, Fun: all of it; on reserve, CloudReadable
·       the three videos on the class website on <Books> tab: McGonigal, Flanagan, Reed
·       Done any freewriting before? Check this out for more info: http://www.wikihow.com/Freewrite
What do Koster, McGonigal, Flanagan, and Reed have to tell us about how play, learning, fun, and games intermingle? What do you think this has to do with justice and feminisms? What games have you played in your life? Most recently? What issues of social justice have you most connected with? Why?

Thursday 12 Sept – Prototyping: a Platforms poster
·       How to make cognitively challenging posters, look at Hunter slideshow, link tab <Assignments>
·       How to keep your logbook: template online for download, see <About> tab
·       WHO WILL YOU PARTNER WITH FOR THE SEMESTER? KEEPING RECORDS
·       WHAT TO BRING TO CLASS: class platforms list and pics and notes
Our first “flipping the classroom” Thursday! You MUST BE PREPARED so we can spend our time MAKING THINGS! This one is all about the platforms, devices, and infrastructures we use, mostly unconsciously. You say you write on your computer, but what does writing mean? You SEARCH how? You DRAFT on a phone? You PRINT OUT from Google docs? On a PRINTER at home, school, work, where? You GAME HOW? Phone? Xbox? Laptop? Browser? Facebook? BRING IN NOTES AND PICS TO CREATE A POSTER THAT SHOWS HOW YOU USE PLATFORMS, DEVICES AND INFRASTRUCTURES! Bring in as print outs so we can literally cut and paste and color them on poster board in class. Bring in crafty tools and stuff.

Tuesday 17 September, Intensity and Fiero! What to do with frustration & confusion
·       McGonigal, Reality: Part I, Ch 14
·       Pick a post from Not Your Mama’s Gamer to tie in with what you read in McGonigal
·       Look at Grow a Game, and consider just what McGonigal means by making games that do things
This games course is full of intensity! We will start off with lots of “how to do” important things. But as we get closer to each con date, the readings and the projects will start to pile up. So planning ahead will be crucial! What would McGonigal say about all this? What would the bloggers at NYMG say? What would the Grow a Game people do? How would you mix these all up for yourself? What experiences would help to mix these well, and to sort things out?

Thursday 19 September, Prototyping: a Timelines poster, your experiences with games
·       BRING IN NOTES AND PRINTOUT IMAGES FROM THE WEB with an eye to your own timelines & stories about games and gaming, those of your friends, maybe parents, what you know about the histories of women and technologies in timelines.
·       The syllabus has links, see <books> tab, like a timeline for video games, and other stuff. Check those out and come up with some more to share. We need all this for our prototyping today!
Our second “flipping the classroom” Thursday! You MUST BE PREPARED so we can spend our time MAKING THINGS!

Tuesday 24 September, Living with and as Avatars
·       Pearce, Communities, Ch 3 & 14 (electronic reserves
·       King, Virtual worlds: http://grrrlingitinsl.blogspot.com/ & Tranimal: http://sltranimal.blogspot.com/ 
·       Pick a post from Not Your Mama’s Gamer to tie in with what you read in Pearce and King
·       Optional: use index in Pearce to look up more about avatars
·       LOOK FOR THE REED ESSAY BY EMAIL FOR NEXT WEEK!!
Who are these avatars? When are they us? How do we know? Connect your experiences with avatars with the readings for this week. How do they offer us distributed being, and what are other ways in which we experience that all the time? Embodiment is not just inside of skin…. How does that matter?

Thursday 19 September, Prototyping: an Identities & Avatars poster
·       LOGBOOK 1, DUE TODAY IN CLASS IN HARD COPY & ALSO SENT ELECTRONICALLY to katiekin@gmail.com ; use filename <yrlastname> 468 logbook1. Subject header <yrlastname> 468 logbook1.
·       BRING IN NOTES AND PRINTOUT IMAGES FROM THE WEB with an eye to your own timelines & stories about political identities and also avatars, how these do and do not line up, what you learn differently from each, how they are created, constrained and altered. We need all this and your crafty gear for our prototyping today!
Our third “flipping the classroom” Thursday! You MUST BE PREPARED so we can spend our time MAKING THINGS!

>>>GATHERINGS: WITH PROCESSES, THINGS, BEINGS AND DISTRIBUTED POSSIBILITY

Tuesday 1 October, The Arts and Protests of Games
·       Reed, Games Chapter in ms, sent by email (last week); Arts, read Ack & Intro, pick a chapter that calls to you!
·       NOW IS THE TIME TO BEGIN WORK FOR CON #1: A GATHERING! WILL YOU PARTNER WITH SOMEONE?

LOTTERY TODAY FOR POSTER OR PAPER! 

At first glance Reed’s book on social movements may seem a bit out in left field here. But is it? Why is it not? What clues about this might Flanagan have suggested having heard her vid and seen Grow a Game? (We will be reading her work next.) What does putting Reed’s new essay into connection with our book of his tell you about all this as well? Which chapter did you choose to read first and why?

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.

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?

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?

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?

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, and to look ahead to A Gathering next week!



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!

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!

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  



>>>MAKING REALITY MATTER, MATTERING REALITIES

Tuesday 29 October, KATIE AT UPENN, YOU RUN THE CLASS!
·       Read another chapter in the book you choose for your fifth book
·       Check out the website and its links at FemCon, a feminist gaming convention in Umeå, Sweden: http://www.gamingaswomen.com/posts/2013/05/femcon-a-feminist-gaming-convention-in-sweden/ 
Thursday 31 October, KATIE AT UPENN, YOU RUN THE CLASS!
·       Read an additional chapter in the book you choose for your fifth book
For this whole week, with the aid of some class facilitators, you will run both classes yourselves. You will share with each other your reading and thinking about the fifth book you have chosen to read for Con #2 Gaia. Talk about it and the issues it raises or speaks to in ways most meaningful to you all collectively. Working together without the teacher is a special activity: may it be especially enjoyable! Make if fun to use this time to look ahead to Con #2!

Tuesday 5 November, Histories of Games and what they reveal
·       Flanagan, Play: pick 2 more chapters to read; why those in particular?
·       Salen & Zimmerman: brief selections from Rules of Play (electronic reserves)
·       Check out Zimmerman’s website and projects: http://ericzimmerman.com
·       Check out Salen’s Institute of Play and their projects: http://www.instituteofplay.org
Salen, Flanagan, Zimmerman are all artists that care about learning and play. From looking at these materials what can you tell about how they think alike? Compare and contrast their projects. Bring in examples to tell others about.

Thursday 7 November, Liberations and Arts
·       Reed, Art: choose an additional two more chapters: why those? What attracts you?
·       Sandoval, “Afterbridge” from this bridge we call home (electronic reserves)
·       BE SURE YOU ARE ON TRACK FOR CON #2 GAIA!
Connect all the readings for this week together. How would you do that? Look ahead to Con #2 Gaia. How does Reed help us figure out what to do and why? What sorts of inspiration do you get from Salen, Flanagan, Zimmerman and Sandoval?

Tuesday 12 November, Better Realities
·       McGonigal: Reality: finish it up: Part III and all Appendixes
If Reed and McGonigal were going to have a conversation, what would it be about? What would they think of each other? Add yourself to that conversation and say where you would be in it all.

Thursday 14 November, Playful Values and Political Games
·       Values at Play: http://valuesatplay.org/
·       Tiltfactor Lab: http://www.tiltfactor.org/
Explore the sites well enough to talk about the projects and people involved, the motivations, how these are political (and what do you mean by the term?). Flanagan is a major player in all this. How? Put Nardi, Pearce, and Taylor into these contexts and meanings.


Con #2:
• Gaia: Worlding and feminist action

Week of 19 November:

“Gaia” is inspired by the environmental interests of FemCon, a feminist gaming convention in Umeå, Sweden: http://www.gamingaswomen.com/posts/2013/05/femcon-a-feminist-gaming-convention-in-sweden/  For Gaia you will create either a paper & handout or poster & pics (which determined by lot earlier, whichever one you did not do for A Gathering). You may work on these individually or with a partner.

With the help of Nardi, Pearce & Artemesia, or Taylor, you will analyze feminist processes of play, worlding and games as activist actions. You will either begin from • the most urgent feminist issue you care about, exploring gaming and/or virtual world practices that might speak to it; or you will begin from • your own most valued game or virtual world, and analyze its possibilities for the feminist values you most care to embody. 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! You may also want to use the web to follow-up or look in greater detail at the kinds of worldings feminisms explore today and ways all of these are promoted in popular and scholarly media.

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!

Tuesday of Gaia's 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!

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 3, 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 <paper2> or <poster2> number pics if more than one. Subject header <yrlastname> 468 con2  


>>>HOW WE CARE FOR AND WITH PLAY

Tuesday 26 November, NO CLASS: WORK AHEAD DAY for Website & Learning Analysis
·       Look at and download Instructions for the Learning Analysis
Thursday 28 November, NO CLASS: HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Tuesday 3 December, Share Feminism/s, how? with whom? with what fiero?
·       Explore and review and admire and model what folks have done at NYMG! Bring in printouts of your favorite posts, with thoughts about how these connect with your projects for A Gathering and Gaia, and effects on your own website.
·       PREPARATION FOR THE LEARNING ANALYSIS: do you have questions? You should have started.
What do McGonigal, Reed, and Flanagan have to teach us about the issues raised in the other books that we might have missed if we hadn’t read their work?

Thursday 5 December, Prototyping: website creation and curation
·       YOU HAVE A WEBSITE!
Our fifth “flipping the classroom” Thursday! You MUST BE PREPARED so we can spend our time MAKING THINGS! What are you curating on your website? How does it include what you have learned in this class?

Tuesday 10 December, MORE!! Share Feminism/s, how? with whom? with what fiero?
·       Bateson, “Theory” from Steps (electronic reserves) or here
·       Vared, “Beyond Barbie” read the whole thing now (electronic reserves
How do Bateson and Vared, from much longer again, put what we have done in the class into context? How might they help you frame your learning analysis? Why could they be helpful?

Thursday 12 December, LAST DAY! Learning, sharing, making, doing, thinking, acting
·       LEARNING ANALYSIS DUE & PRESENTED; LOGBOOK 4 DUE  
On our last day we will share with each other our thoughts on how what we know has changed during our time together.

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