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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