That said, my work is very influenced by Ken McAllister's approach to
computer games, which he outlines in his book, Game Work: Language, Power,
and Computer Game Culture. You might be familiar with this book, but if not,
it takes a very rigorous, Marxist approach to understanding what he calls the
computer game complex--the various, interdependent socio-economic forces that
produce computer games.

My approach is also indebted to Roger Callois's notions of paidic (sp?) and
ludic modes of play, especially in the way that these notions seem to connect
with Derrida's notion of freeplay and the way he interrogates linguistic
structures and systems (if you think about it, a computer game is one large
linguistic system). All of these threads come together nicely (too nicely?)
in Baudrillard's work on simulation and hyperreality, which I think is
especially pertinent to computer games.

I think that we do disagree about the direction game studies should take, but
like you said, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. As Ryan pointed
out in a previous thread, this sort of conversation has the potential to
generate new knowledge and approaches to the topic of computer games and of
all the things that are (always already!)implicated in computer games and in
the larger questions of reading and writing and learning.

Sincerely,
Kevin Moberly

design in-flight: DIY Photography on the cheap

Hi, please fill out the following short grade survey as soon as possible:

http://complicity.uvsc.edu/clipboard/survey.php?surveyid=9

If you can't make it to class this Friday, be sure to submit your assignment on webct. I'll drop the lowest-scored assignment before completing final grades, but all work should be submitted.

jwz: "Yes, it's that time of year again: the primary impact that Burning Man and methamphetamines have had on the computer industry is the SIGGRAPH Fashion Show. This year we learn that, In The Future, your clothing will look like an office building's HVAC system pooped on your head."

Civicspace for Schools | CivicSpace: "IMHO, it would be a much better use of resources and more practical to develop a module for integrating Moodle with Drupal/CivicSpace. The perfect learning environment for me would be a nicely integrated combination (through special modules of connectors) of original implementations of: - Drupal/Civicspace, for virtual communities and content management features. - MediaWiki, for collaborative knowledge bases and reference content. - Moodle for e-learning environment and educational support. -----Original Message----- From: Nick Lewis"

CivicSpace Hosting Providers | CivicSpace: "Well,
Just to help out, I run a Drupal based site on BlueHost.


The Drupal installation was a snap with Fantastico, they give you plenty of databases and a ton of space for a pretty low montly fee (7 bucks a month I think)."

Using Moodle: Glossaries Search: "Fantastico is an automatic installer for open source scripts such as Moodle. When you use it, Fantastico will install Moodle in less than five minutes, including setting up the Cron.

Fantastico is a service or feature provided by web hosting companies. You cannot get it yourself. If you cannot use a Moodle partner (the best solution!) for hosting your Moodle site, then look for a hosting service that has Fantastico--usually a feature included in the cPanel. A cPanel is the adminstration interface that you use to set up your site.

To find a hosting service with Fantastico, you can do a Google search, or look on a variety of sites that rate the hosting services. If you see a good hosting service, then check the feature list. If it does not include Fantastico, I recommend trying another hosting service.

Note that Fantastico takes up to six weeks to add new releases of Moodle. But upgrading is surprisingly easy."

drupal vs. moodle set up | EdTechTalk.com: "I don't think there's any doubt that the way you want to go is with moodle. I think drupal has some very fine qualities, but it is not as easy to install as moodle.  If you are using something like fantastico, or you are having someone else install your platform, moodle is particularly more useful, as the learning curve is pretty easy, kinda like a stroll up a set of steps to your favorite bar rather than the hike up the mountain to the beautiful view

 dave
 

"

Social Constructionist Pedagogy Toolset for Drupal? | DrupalED

Creating and Working with Collaborative Books | C&W 2005 Drupal Pre-Conference Workshop

Cool Tools

Just a great site.

Memo Assignment
English 4310

I am writing this memo for the company I work for, which is a general contractor. The reason for this memo is that a sheetrock subcontractor is trying to collect their total bill on a $400,000 home that we are working on. The company is called Ross Sheetrock and they have so called completed their work. For this reason they are trying to collect the remaining balance of $8,000 for the total job. The reason for the memo is to let them know that we are very unpleased with the final sanding job they did and the delay they have put on the finish work, which we are doing.

Dear Jorge,
We regret to inform you of the poor job that we found as we tried to begin finish work last Wednesday. We found that very little sanding had been done as well as absolutely no clean-up had been performed. As a result we were forced to start cleaning up so that we could begin our finish work. That afternoon three individuals came to sand and clean-up but only were there for a total of three hours and did hardly anything. The following day one of them returned with his girlfriend present and began to spot sand a few spots to whom we expressed our dissatisfaction in the sanding that had been performed. He was not very happy with our expressing this and became irritated. He did have his girlfriend leave and continued to sand some areas but he didn’t stay very long. On Friday one of your supervisors came to talk with us and to see what had happened with the sanding and to find out why we got upset with the sanding crew. He was in total agreement of the poor job that was done and assured us that the sanding would be redone. He then showed the sanding crew, who showed backup later that morning, what they needed to do. The sanding crew stayed for a few hours and left. We would like a thorough inspection done on the sanding job at this time before any money is paid. We were very pleased with the hanging and texturing of the walls however, for a job of this size and price the teenage workers used for sanding were very unprofessional with the ending portion of the job. We look forward to an inspection so that we can get this problem resolved and behind us.

Sincerely,
Fait Construction

superior railing instructions.pdf

installing a vinyl railing