What does fun really mean?

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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. 

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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, and Reed 

SYLLABUS IS COMPLETE! 

What do Koster, McGonigal, 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?


Freewrite: use this pic from Koster to recall elements of the book to mind. Freewrite on what it or your memories call forth from your reading of the book. Never done any freewriting before? Check out this link: How to Freewrite! 

Koster, Raph. 2005. A theory of fun for game design. Scottsdale: Paraglyph: 145.

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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. 

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Notice that I moved the class description from the Home tab to the <About> tab, so you can get to it easily for reference from now on! But go look at it again now, reread it, and think about what it says for our next class discussions.

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