Micheal Atkinson, a movie maker and critic, has written an article about gaming. He notes that 68 percent of American households played video games. In these homes 41 percent of all video gaming involves mission/action/narrative gaming while 47 percent of gaming (mostly older people) involves solitaire, word games, and similar things. Could there instead be progressive virtual games, he asks. I have bookmarked this article on Delicious.
Just a quick test a WordPress’ application on the iPad. Seems to be working quite nicely.
Learning a new (for me) style of typing – a sort of one-handed touch typing.
More later, but this application has interesting ramifications for a number of nascent projects here at Baylor.
Hmmm – wondering how to post this. Currently saved as a local draft. How to submit?
Last December I bought a Blue Ray version of the 2001 restoration of Fritz Lang’s classic film “Metropolis.” So it is with mixed feeling that I now learn of an even better restoration. The 1926 original version was 153 minutes and was not a commercial success. To improve ticket sales it was repeatedly cut and many of the cuts were lost. The 2001 restoration includes 120 minutes from newly discovered cuts. The upcoming version adds material discovered in a Buenos Aires archive and is 147 minutes, that is, erything is back save 6 minutes. Of course I must see this and I may even buy another Blue Ray. I could watch this futuristic dystopia time and time again despite its cornball happy ending. Trailer for 2001 version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j8Ba9rWhUg
I have just read R. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated. Now, those of you who are conservative in your reading of the Bible might be offended by the idea that Crumb, creator of Mr. Natural back in the 60s (above), would do this, but it is a serious effort. Crumb says that he tried to be as literal as possible in illustrating the text. This is just a strategy for illuminating the text as it stands. Notes at the end make it clear that he is very knowledgeable about modern historical-critical approaches to the text—including feminist ones. So Biblically conservative people will still be offended most likely.
But for me using the format of a graphic novel really brings out things that are easy to glide over if one is just reading the words. This comes out best in the figure of Jacob. What a character! He tricks his brother out of his inheritance. He deceives his dying father. He marries two sisters and has children by them as well as by their servants. He tricks his father-in-law out of his wealth. And so on and so on. I asked a colleague in Biblical studies about Jacob, and he noted that Jacob can be read in the context of some ancient stories in which God is portrayed as a trickster. I replied that Jacob reminded me of Odysseus, the many of many ways, the man of mêtis (cleverness, cunning). Odysseus is always tricking people and telling lies to cover up his identity. After his return to Ithaca, he continues the subterfuge until the time is ripe for his revenge against the suitors. In Book XIII Athena confronts him:
“Only a master thief, a real con artist,
Could match your tricks—even a god
Might come up short. You wily bastard
You cunning, elusive habitual liar!
Even in your own land you weren’t about
To give up the stories and sly deceits
That are so much a part of you.
Never mind about that though. Here we are
The two shrewdest minds in the universe,
You far and away the best man on earth
In plotting strategies, and I famed among the gods
For my clever schemes.”
(Lombardo translation, 299-309)
While the illustrations are revealing, I also recommend the fairly brief notes at the end. They draw on scholars such as Savina Teubel for some insight into some of the stories about women that seem so strange to us moderns. One starts with Abraham having Sarah say she is his sister which leads to sex with the pharaoh. This story is repeated two more times with other characters. Teubel interprets these stories as reflecting themes from an earlier partly matriarchal world in a society that had become patriarchal. In brief in early Mesopotamia men who wanted to get ahead had to go to a priestess at a temple to get her approval. The decision was based on whether the man could please her. I have no idea about how widely this view is held among scholars now.
The translation used is largely that of Robert Alter, one of the most prominent scholars of the Hebrew Bible.
Following the conclusion of our New Media Faculty seminar, I found myself thinking about what I’ve gained from this experience (other than the nifty little Baylor Green iPod nano that I now have to hide to keep my family from “borrowing”!!). Probably the biggest benefit is that I feel less trepidation in exposing myself to new technology. Even though I’m not that far out on the fringes (nor would I consider myself that ‘old’), the recent explosion of new technology and new media available has left me feeling somewhat left behind, and less confident about immersing myself in discovery. But the exposure to different media types this semester, while even itself highly under-represented considering all the new potentials, has helped me to feel considerably more comfortable with trying out the waters. Sure, maybe I’m still on the second step of the pool (as opposed to cannon-balling in), but at least I’m past the ‘sticking my big toe in’ stage!
One of the most interesting (and challenging) aspects of the semester were the readings, which provided us glimpses into the mindsets of the visionaries and creators of today’s technology. It was both enlightening and inspiring to realize I’m directly benefiting from the manifestations of some of those early ideas. To see what worked and what didn’t. To realize that today’s generation is actively building the next new media – and what we may see as crazy-bold or just plain crazy just may be the next ‘new’ medium that a few short years from now that will leave people wondering how they ever lived without ‘it’. Recognizing that so much of what I take for granted in my life was very recently birthed out of the daydreams of those who don’t simply ‘wish’ that a technology existed but actually devote the brain power to make it so – that’s pretty cool! Makes me feel more connected to, rather than feeling affronted by, the explosion of new media now accelerating rapidly around me.
And finally, I’ve learned that if I really want to stay connected with my own students (today’s dreamers and doers) then like it or not, I’ve got to engage them from their own perspective. I cannot effectively teach them new ideas, take them to new levels of thinking/learning if I don’t first relate to them where they are now. And their world is highly immersed in new media. A perfect example, so poignantly revealed after two weeks of seminar on the subject, is the world of video games. I was unaware of just how influential video games are in the lives of today’s teens and young adults. Not that I feel I have to become an expert at Halo, but I do feel I need to understand the culture of video games. So much of what I do is ‘tag’ material with hooks to which students can attach and relate material (to help them better learn and process). Knowing about video gaming gives me one more type of hook – a fresh, highly relevant hook at that. To further drive this point home, I’ll refer to a blog earlier this semester by Anne Bowery in which she described a wonderful dialogue that occurred between her and a former student when she mentioned “Leroy Jenkins” in a previous posting – a whole new world of thoughts and discussion! I have yet to use the phrase in class, but can’t wait to see the looks on the faces of my students when I casually refer to him in relation to some point I’m making. How fun! It’s all the little insights I gleaned from this semester’s discussions that I carry with me into my future classes. And that’s what teaching, to me, is all about: taking the ideas of those before me and around me and melding them together with my own style to be a better facilitator of learning.
And heck, now that I’ve created this blog site, maybe I’ll even check in now and then with my own random musings…
As we wind down to the end of the semester (well, honestly, it's winding up...), I am in the middle of grading a giant pile of final papers for the Personality Psychology course I teach. As always, there are a few brilliant gems that stand out of the pile and amaze you. This semester, one of my more brilliant gems is a literature review of personality traits and online multiplayer games (MMOs). The student wrote a strong paper that was well-developed, organized, did an amazing job of covering a very sparse literature, and most importantly, that you could tell she was passionate about. She talked about which personality traits are most linked to developing an interest in MMOs and, even more interestingly, how individuals create characters within the framework of MMOs to both express and explore their own personalities. It was a delight to read, which is sometimes hard to find at the end of a long, exhausting semester.
But seeing the joy on her face as she discussed her project was the largest success I could ever ask for as a teacher - to give a student a platform in which they can engage in something they are passionate about. It reminded me that technology is something that most students really, really connect with and are often passionate about. Certainly not all students are, but I have to remember as a professor that new media is such an integral part of my students' worlds. Thus, as the professor, I must walk a fine line between engaging them in that passion and also challenging them to step outside of their own comfort zones. And that's just it - isn't it? New media is meant to push the bounds of what we already do! That's why it's sometimes received with such skepticism.
As we draw to a close on our New Media seminar, I am reminded that the important thing is that we are passionate about what we do and open to learning new things when it comes to technology. There are aspects about technology that I learned about this semester that fascinated me and others that underwhelmed me, but the point is that we are open to learning about these things, trying some of them out, and ultimately attempting to become better teachers in the process.
I have begun exploring the Europeana site maintained by the European Commission (http://www.europeana.eu/portal/). It contains images, texts, sound, and video from archives, museums, and libraries from around Europe. This includes the Rijksmuseum, the British Library, and the Louvre among others. With it I can read a 1777 universal history in the Staatsbibliothek in Munich. Or I can look at old newscast such as one from BBC dealing with British reaction to German unification
This project appears still to be in its early stages. When I do searches, I am surprised at the uneven distribution of items. For some there was much. For others there was less than I would have expected. Still, I think this is a promising innovation.
Following our faculty seminar on video games and their use as models for navigating the world of computers, I keep finding myself thinking “what if”. What if we lived in a topsy-turvy world where all the latest technology had actually preceded earlier forms of human communication and interaction. In preparation for last week’s seminar I ran across a student’s blog that mentioned that very thought, asking “would we still be as negative about today’s technology if trends were reversed”? That’s a great question. And one that I continue to ponder. Consider our current generation video games. Then think “pong” (man, I used to spend hours playing pong with my sister!). Next step back to pinball, and even go further to solitaire – the one with actual cards that had to be meticulously set up prior to each round; or any other card game for that matter. Each of the technological ‘advances’ could arguably be addictive, taking one away from healthy human community interactions, etc. In other words, each time “new” comes along, we find reasons to mistrust its effects on society, and envision all the evils that it may introduce; regardless of what constitutes ‘moving forward’.
Next let’s envision classroom instruction from our topsy-turvy perspective. If we suddenly replaced all A/V equipment on campus with old fashioned chalk boards, how many articles would soon find their way to publication hailing a leap forward to a new bare-bones, simplistic way of teaching? More likely, we’d discuss all the challenges the new technology would present from our current method. How about replacing all computers with books? What a wonderful invention, no! Or, what an archaic method of educating our students (no more videos, no youtube, no fast searching by relevant terms)? Instead, drive to your nearest library, possibly have to put in an interlibrary loan and wait one to seven weeks for delivery. Return to pick up the book. Turn page by page, having to ‘fill in’ visual content from simple text. Spend long hours reading lengthy descriptions of scenes that could be displayed instantly in a video – hours that could be spent interacting with other humans. You get the picture. We fret over replacing our trusty books with high-flutin’ computers, but would we feel any better about the reverse? I just don’t think so.
Why? I think it’s because we fear change. Each new technology represents a new way of doing things, with unknown pitfalls, learning curves, and unforeseen difficulties. It’s human nature to become anxious about the unknown. Part of what makes us “human” separate from other species is our ability to manipulate nature to better suit us rather than relying on nature. Yet, that very quality sets us up for rapidly changing environments (not such a good thing from an evolutionary perspective) – one that requires rapid adaptation (if not at a purely evolutionary level at least on an intellectual and emotional level). That’s been our dilemma from the start, reaching all the way back to our earliest ancestors 200K years ago. But what’s the alternative? Take a look at our close relatives Homo neanderthalensis. Even though Neanderthals survived for a much longer time than Homo sapiens has thus far been on this planet, studies of their technology show they were not so good at adapting. Their tools and abilities remained virtually unchanged from their earliest known existence 600K years ago right up until their extinction 20-30K years ago. In fact, it’s been hypothesized that’s exactly why they went extinct. During a time of rapid climate fluctuations, Homo sapiens shows a remarkable resilience to that change through changing technology while Homo neanderthalensis slowly disappears along with his old, antiquated ways of coping. Fear of change may be real, but the alternative isn’t necessarily a better option either!
Fast forward to today, and we live in a time of unprecedented technological advance that has never before existed on Earth. We are “hard wired” to deal with geological-scale changes (100’s to 100K’s of year time scales) and yet, we are dealing with change not on a decadal, not even a yearly, but almost a daily scale. Considering where we started, what we’re adapted to, and what we are now experiencing it’s no wonder we sometimes wish (despite our desires for newer, easier ways of living) that change would slow. Allow us a little more time to adapt to current technology before it goes obsolete. Muddle through the ‘known’ before being hit head-on with increasingly common ‘unknowns’. It’s enough to make me want to end this post, log off and go read a good book or play a game of solitaire or two.
In a previous post, I was writing about the concept of home with respect to yoga practice, I didn't tag it as a baylor-nms_s10 hashtag in that it did not deal in anyway with technology.
I was talking about the sense of being at home I feel in the yoga community and it struck me that there is a sense in which technology enhances that feeling. I have been travelling to Dallas to do yoga for many years but with the advent of Facebook, I now know significantly more about the non-yoga lives of the people I do yoga with and they know more about me. Also, several people up in Dallas profess to read my blog regularly. All that seems quite positive.
There's a sense in which I'm trying to create a sense of home in the philosophy classroom and I do think the main point of the various educational technologies is to expand that sense of community beyond the classroom or to enhance the sense of community in the classroom. I'm more interested in the in classroom space issue, but I do increasingly see the potential in the out of classroom experience.
At the same time, technology seems to draw us away from home, in that it draws us away from engagement in the present moment, which at root, is the only true home we have. It is tempting to check the email, to text, to answer the cell phone... rather than attending to what is present at hand. of course, technology is present at hand too, so it is part of what is there. but I think technology is an every present vritti machine. It allows full play to the fluctuations of the mind.
Yoga and philosophy, each in their own way, ask for a stilling of certain fluctuations of mind and ask us to cultivate a more single minded focus.
His name was Gene, and he was one of those old, grizzled guys wearing overalls with the perennial dirty rag sticking out of the back pocket. When I worked in historic preservation in a colorful small town in Texas, Gene would often come by my office to chat. He was full of stories of how things “used to be.” [...]
Delicious New Media
