WRIT 1122: "So close to a perfect record
March 2nd, 2010 | Author: richard.colby
Shelby Trueax from the 2pm section brutally usurped the noon section’s dominance by writing the best assignment #4 �with her paper “Recycle Bicycle.” �The noon section came back strong on assignment #5 with Mali Darr’s “Self-RULE,” returning honor to her section. �That’s 4 points for noon, 1 point for 2pm, 0 points for 4pm. �Is the 4pm section the dark horse to win for assignment #6, or will noon and 2pm reign supreme?

Posted in Blog | No Comments �"

Reconstructing Technoliteracy: a multiple literacies approach - E-Learning and Digital Media Volume 2 Number 3 (2005): "Much has been written that describes the history of the concept of 'technological literacy' and, more recently, a literature attempting to chart emancipatory technoliteracies has emerged over the last decade. Our article begins with a brief examination of the meanings that 'technology' and 'literacy' have received towards achieving insight into what sort of knowledge and skills 'technoliteracy' hails. We then summarize the broad trajectories of development in hegemonic programs of contemporary technoliteracy from their arguable origins as 'computer literacy' in the A Nation at Risk report of 1983 up to the present call for integration of technology across the curriculum and the standards-based approach of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and 2004's US National Educational Technology Plan. In contradistinction, we reveal how this approach has been tacitly challenged at the global institutional level through the United Nations' Project 2000 , and theorize how this might link up with a democratic project of re-visioning education though multiple literacies. Finally, in closing, we think about what it will mean to reconstruct 'technoliteracy' broadly in this manner and conclude with a call for new critical pedagogies that can inform and be informed by the counterhegemonic idea of 'multiple technoliteracies'."

Kevin Kelly wrote a really cool, rambling book called Out of Control. After a while the book was given a Creative Commons License, which allowed one of his fans to remix (re-edit) the book, emphasizing one of several threads in the original text. So cool.

Richard A. Bartle: Players Who Suit MUDs: "Four approaches to playing MUDs are identified and described. These approaches may arise from the inter-relationship of two dimensions of playing style: action versus interaction, and world-oriented versus player-oriented. An account of the dynamics of player populations is given in terms of these dimensions, with particular attention to how to promote balance or equilibrium. This analysis also offers an explanation for the labelling of MUDs as being either 'social' or 'gamelike'."

Gamasutra - News - GDC: McGonigal: Game Developers Will Shape the Future of our World: "“I think game developers have some of the most reason to be optimistic out of anyone on the planet,” says McGonigal. She proses that about 1 in 2000 people have a chance of altering their own future.

“That’s based on the concept of having 3 million game designers, developers, hackers, and counting. I have determined that game platforms are the best thing we will have in terms of determining the future.”"

Research shows that Internet is rewiring our brains / UCLA Today: "'iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind.'"

App Shopper: Mind Performance Hacks (Books)

App Shopper: Mind Performance Hacks (Books): "Mind Performance Hacks
By Ron Hale-Evans

Published by O'Reilly Media (http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596101534/)

You're smart. This book can make you smarter.

Mind Performance Hacks provides real-life tips and tools for overclocking your brain and becoming a better thinker. In the increasingly frenetic pace of today's information economy, managing your life requires hacking your brain. With this book, you'll cut through the clutter and tune up your brain intentionally, safely, and productively."

Behavioral Grading: an Approach Worth Trying -- Throop and Jameson 39 (3): 3 -- Business Communication Quarterly

Behavioral Grading: an Approach Worth Trying -- Throop and Jameson 39 (3): 3 -- Business Communication Quarterly

Paradox in the Business Writing Classroom

Paradox in the Business Writing Classroom: "Nevertheless, while behavioral grading allows students to discover the best ways to write in the business world, it cannot provide a pedagogical panacea. The business writing instructor is faced with a Catch-22: placing students in a business writing environment does not foster the best learning environment, yet allowing them to work outside a deadline-oriented system misrepresents the business environment. Even though it focuses on learning to write, on the developing writing process, behavioral grading should provide students with a reasonable understanding of the environmental situations they will face in the business world and of how their efforts in a business writing class will transfer to that business world. The system’s largest discrepancy is its violation of the business world’s deadlines—a fact that they should be aware of in their learning rather than be surprised with when they actually enter the business world."

Losing is Fun: An Interview With Dwarf Fortress Developer Tarn Adams - Negative Gamer

Losing is Fun: An Interview With Dwarf Fortress Developer Tarn Adams - Negative Gamer: "I’d venture to say Dwarf Fortress is the most rich, complex game I’ve ever played. The game uses a modified ASCII character set for graphics, and yet it works my computer harder than Bad Company 2. The game’s main objective is simply to survive, and yet there are pages upon pages of documentation for the best methods of doing so. Dwarf Fortress was released in 2006, and has become a huge hit among PC gamers. Even if you’ve never played Dwarf Fortress before, you may have heard of the famous “Boatmurdered” game, where several players took turns playing the same fortress (I recommend you read their stories, it’s absolutely hilarious)."

Gmail - Writing sites that draw upon videogame-style motivational "tricks." - craniac@gmail.com

I'm looking for examples of websites that encourage writing using methods derived from video games. One that comes to mind is http://750words.com/ which gives you a score for the number of words you write each day, bestows achievements, shows the high scores for the day and also sends out email reminders to "play" each day. It's a very nice place to write early drafts.

Another less obvious site might be something like http://boardgamegeek.com which gives users who donate help files bits of in-game currency. Message posters can receive multiple "thumbs up" designations which can be converted into award badges that attach to the users avatar.

I also recently saw a TED-related presentation that mentioned an instructor who converted his course grading into a levelling-up system (here are the quests you have to accomplish to become a grand master, etc).

Is anyone trying this in their writing classrooms?

Addicted to Fat: Overeating May Alter the Brain as Much as Hard Drugs: Scientific American

Addicted to Fat: Overeating May Alter the Brain as Much as Hard Drugs: Scientific American: "Like many pleasurable behaviors—including sex and drug use—eating can trigger the release of dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter in the brain. This internal chemical reward, in turn, increases the likelihood that the associated action will eventually become habitual through positive reinforcement conditioning. If activated by overeating, these neurochemical patterns can make the behavior tough to shake—a result seen in many human cases"

The Collapse of Complex Business Models � Clay Shirky

The Collapse of Complex Business Models � Clay Shirky: "When the value of complexity turns negative, a society plagued by an inability to react remains as complex as ever, right up to the moment where it becomes suddenly and dramatically simpler, which is to say right up to the moment of collapse. Collapse is simply the last remaining method of simplification."

Future of gaming | MetaFilter

Direct link to a great bibliography.

Future of gaming | MetaFilter: "Most of the work I found relating specifically to video games (mostly MMORPGS, it seems) and player motivation is done by Dr. Nick Yee, who is at PARC. What's really great is that he's kind enough to provide links to nearly all his papers directly from his CV.

To start out with, most articles which discuss online player motivation begin by citing Richard Bartle's Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs. Bartle described four basic approaches to how players tackle MUDs, based on his experience in running and building these game systems. Specifically, his interest was in how to build games that would have some manner of balance between the player types. In a nutshell, he said that there were four main motivations for play (this was within a MUD context):
Achievement within the game context
Exploration
Socializing
Griefing
This basic typology of online gamers is expanded upon and critiqued by later work, but Bartle really set the stage."

Future of gaming | MetaFilter

Future of gaming | MetaFilter: "Most of the work I found relating specifically to video games (mostly MMORPGS, it seems) and player motivation is done by Dr. Nick Yee, who is at PARC. What's really great is that he's kind enough to provide links to nearly all his papers directly from his CV.

To start out with, most articles which discuss online player motivation begin by citing Richard Bartle's Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs. Bartle described four basic approaches to how players tackle MUDs, based on his experience in running and building these game systems. Specifically, his interest was in how to build games that would have some manner of balance between the player types. In a nutshell, he said that there were four main motivations for play (this was within a MUD context):
Achievement within the game context
Exploration
Socializing
Griefing
This basic typology of online gamers is expanded upon and critiqued by later work, but Bartle really set the stage."

Future of gaming | MetaFilter

Future of gaming | MetaFilter: "It's really interesting to me that these exploitative, utterly content-free productions targeting the lizard brain are coexisting with a renaissance of utterly brilliant games that push the boundaries of storytelling, machanics, form and genere into thoroughly inspiring new territories"

Future of gaming | MetaFilter

Future of gaming | MetaFilter: "He seemed to move from children's demand games ('Can I have six dollars to play this game?') to teen demand games (Well, it must be worth $20 because I've been doing it so much,' to 'incentivizing' good behavior (tooth brushing) which doesn't cost more than a brush & toothpaste, (and you can do without the toothpaste by using soda). And underlying it all was the idea of 'competition' and it's 'rewards'.

I think he's headed for a brick wall. To get to the behavior mod stage, people need the disposable income to invest in the first few levels of 'reward', (like Joe Beese said. Recall that Scientology broke out during the '60s, when there was plenty of loose money around.)"

Future of gaming | MetaFilter

Future of gaming | MetaFilter: "And for the record, I love game design and frequently pitch game elements to my clients. I don't think that the ubiquity of gameplay and game interface/design elements, as described in the lecture, is feasible or desirable–if everything is a game, then nothing is a game."

Jesse Schell: When games invade real life | Video on TED.com

Jesse Schell: When games invade real life | Video on TED.com

This is awesome.

The Teen Brain: It's Just Not Grown Up Yet : NPR

The Teen Brain: It's Just Not Grown Up Yet : NPR: "There were other advantages to having a neuroscientist mom, Will says. Like when he was tempted to pull an all-nighter.

'She would say, 'read it tonight and then go to sleep,'' he says. 'And what she explained to me is that it will take [what you've been reading] from your short-term memory and while you sleep you will consolidate it. And actually you will know it better in the morning than right before you went to sleep.'

It worked every time, he says."