Re: [xmca] Copernicus 2.0 [toolforthoughts]

Thanks for this helpful post, Mark. I am clearly reading out of sequence,
but
came to this discussion this morning thinking about David K's recent post
that included discussion of activities where increasing competence opens new
and interesting horizons. I spent some time trying to find the publication
of
Thomas Malone's (circa 1981) on what makes video games motivating, but
struck
out. I did, however, come across an article by Kurt Squire on game studies
from 2002
that contains (a false, I think) reference to Malone (perhaps I was
searching inadequately)
and is itself kind of interesting, if only because he explicitly uses Yrjo's
expanded triangle
as a representational device in his discussion.

That link is http://www.gamestudies.org/0102/squire/

I am off to get the meme article!
mike

On 6/30/07, Mark Chen <markchen@u.washington.edu> wrote:
>
> Oh, I forgot to add references... Bogost has a good starting page for
> more
> on unit ops:
> http://www.bogost.com/books/unit_operations.shtml
>
> And the meme article can be found at:
> http://www.geocities.com/c.lankshear/memes2.pdf
>
> mark
>
> On 6/30/07, Mark Chen <markchen@u.washington.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Hi!
> >
> > I am wondering if this could be done or if it has the same function as
> > getting people to see the larger picture and how they connect to others
> in a
> > larger system. What I wrote about specializing and knowing who knows
> what
> > could be done on an individual level whereas getting students or people
> to
> > learn how to learn would require a more community or network or systems
> or
> > meta way of thinking...
> >
> > Also, here is my brief overview of Ian Bogost's unit operations (written
> > elsewhere):
> >
> > A unit could be likened to a genre cliché or an object in
> object-oriented
> > programming, though it is not exactly like either. Where genres can be
> > recognized by the clichés or conventions that have come to typify them,
> so
> > too can games be understood through the units within them. By doing so,
> > games can be placed into cross-media analyses when using the same units
> to
> > analyze other media. For example, if I were to say the phrases "high
> noon,"
> > "sheriff," and "outlaw", anyone at least superficially familiar with the
> > Western genre would know what I was describing. This is a story element,
> but
> > it also represents a certain cause-effect relationship or "operation"
> that
> > occurs at a specific moment within a larger narrative. Similar to
> objects in
> > programming, then, units have attributes that define them and how they
> > relate to other units. On the one hand, a game's content and the way in
> > which certain story elements fall into certain clichés help to classify
> the
> > game. On the other, games can also be understood as a collection of
> enacted
> > metaphors where the actions taken by players, and how these actions
> relate
> > to other elements in the game serve to define the game.
> >
> > Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear (2005) have been researching Internet
> > "memes" as cultural products that emerge out of specific affinity groups
> > into larger popular culture. Certain memes present counter-cultural
> ideas
> > through parodies or satires of popular culture and offer signs of
> rebellion
> > against a dominant social order. It may be fruitful to also consider
> units
> > as cultural products and that these can be reflections of particular
> > socio-political ideas. The unit in a game unlike memes, however, takes
> on a
> > special quality since it requires player participation and enactment. It
> > might be possible, then, to think about players as enacting political
> > discourse through certain units. If one considers that, in a game, units
> are
> > an amalgamation of story metaphors and player actions, perhaps we can
> say
> > that players themselves can be understood as units within a larger
> system.
> >
> > So, to tie it back to the discussion on here, if units can be seen as
> > player-game (or user-tool), are they the same idea as toolforthoughts
> > (toolsforthought?--now I'm confused). Shaffer's recent book on
> epistemic
> > games makes the link even stronger I think, where players enact the
> behavior
> > of the identities games have them assume. The actions and identities
> are
> > not separable... right?
> >
> > mark
> >
> > On 6/29/07, Lois Holzman <lholzman@eastsideinstitute.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > This portion of Mark's interesting post has me asking, matters for
> what?
> > > And
> > > also suggesting for consideration that it might be desirable to break
> > > out of
> > > the knowledge paradigm more completely. How to find answers still has
> > > the
> > > product as a goal, to my reading. Maybe what matters for learning and
> > > development is learning how to learn, learning that we learn, and
> > > learning
> > > to create environments in which it's possible to learn that!
> > > Lois
> > >
> > >
> > > > From: Mark Chen <markdangerchen@gmail.com>
> > > > Reply-To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu >
> > > > Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:21:48 -0700
> > > > To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> > > > Subject: Re: [xmca] Copernicus 2.0 [toolforthoughts]
> > > >
> > > > As far as what people should be learning... I agree with the
> > > sentiment that
> > > > it no longer matters what you know, only that you know how to find
> > > answers.
> > > > If those answers lie with a friend in your social network or perhaps
> > > with
> > > > some sort of computational model (that you have access to), you've
> > > > successfully navigated our new virtual culture. That implies,
> > > however, that
> > > > *someone* (or I guess *something*) needs to know the answers. I
> think
> > > it is
> > > > enough for people to specialize, so long as other people are
> learning
> > > how to
> > > > access these deep pockets of knowledge, and so long as *all* people
> > > are
> > > > afforded the same access. Public education, then, would have to be
> > > > reconfigured to reward and nurture different social networks while
> at
> > > the
> > > > same time letting students specialize and make available their
> > > > specializations to the community.
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > xmca mailing list
> > > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Mark Chen | grad student | games researcher/designer | tech instructor |
> U
> > of Washington
> > http://markdangerchen.wordpress.com/
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Mark Chen | grad student | games researcher/designer | tech instructor | U
> of Washington
> http://markdangerchen.wordpress.com/
> _______________________________________________
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> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
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Received on Sun Jul 1 08:25 PDT 2007