Changes are Coming to Hogwarts…
November 26, 2012
Peer-supported
Dissonant Futures: The Importance of Aligning Digital Media and Learning Environments with Future Orientation in Schools
November 26, 2012
The Digital Edge is invested in situating digital media and learning strategies in social context, including exploring the factors that contribute to a student’s future orientation. In related blog posts, both Vivian Shaw and Alexander Cho explore this topic based on the Digital Edge team’s field work in an Austin-area high school.
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Moving Towards an eSports Future
October 12, 2012
eSports are a specific category of computer games. eSport games like StarCraft II are intentionally designed by the game developer to be both highly competitive (“difficult to master”) and also easy for fans to watch. eSports is an emerging market participated in by professional gamers, coaches, sponsors, event organizers, and celebrities. An eSport is an emerging sporting genre entering public spheres occupied by traditional sports like football and soccer.
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From Theory to Design: Exploring the Power & Potential of ‘Connected Learning,’ Part Two
October 9, 2012
One of the more compelling aspects of connected learning is the opportunity for students to create personalized learning pathways that establish important links across the different nodes in their learning ecology. I had a chance to witness the power and potential of connected learning during a three-week summer digital media and design camp that we conducted with students at Texas City High School (TCHS).
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Information Literacy, Connected Learning, and World of Warcraft
October 4, 2012
World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game with a subscribership of 10.2 million1. The player is offered a variety of options when choosing a character. There are two factions each with six races (and the recently added pandarens which can play either faction), two genders, and there are ten classes and each class can have one of three specializations. There are many choices just to select your character. Then there are professions to choose and play style choices (like whether you want to join a guild), and the list goes on.
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A Design to Broaden Creativity: Lessons Learned from LittleBigPlanet2
September 21, 2012
In my previous posts[1] I’ve talked just a bit about some of the design principles that our work with the game designers at MediaMolecule (Mm) revealed. The purpose of this post is to foreground a system of design principles underlying the LittleBigPlanet2 game that are relevant to the design of connected learning environments.
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Gender and Sexism in Online Gaming Communities
September 12, 2012
While news about sexism in gaming came as a shock to many media outlets in recent months, researchers of gender and game culture were not surprised.
Read More...A Female StarCraft Player’s Entry into the World of Competitive Gaming
September 7, 2012
According to a StarCraft self-reported community survey, only 1.8% of respondents are female.1 That is a very small number. Why are female gamers nearly absent from the StarCraft community site?
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Creative Ways Teens Maintain Social Privacy with Social Media
August 29, 2012
I recently read an article about teens posting random photos to Instagram so they and their friends can chat “under the radar” via the comments feature. Based on the time I’ve spent working with teens this does not surprise me at all. Teens are accustomed to their parents reading their text messages or social media, therefore they utilize different spaces that are unlikely to be discovered by adults. This certainly is not new.
Read More...The 2012 Ravellenic Games: Community, Challenges, and Competition
August 23, 2012
July 27, 2012. The countdown on the London 2012 website hit 0, the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremonies began, and I made a slipknot and slipped it onto my crochet hook. My daughters – sitting with me in their red, white, and blue outfits – curiously picked at the yarn that I’d strategically placed in their laps for this photo opportunity. My husband took a picture that would later be uploaded to my team’s group to document our official entrance into the 2012 Ravellenic Games.
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