Video games designed for a change

Most people would agree that video games are an enjoyable waste of time. Some argue that these games can boost your intelligence. If intelligence is narrowly defined to include whatever skill is being practiced in the video game then that’s probably likely. A few game designers have begun to create online experiences that try to stimulate your conscience and call you to action. Darfur is Dying is one recent entry that gives perpective on the survival issues facing Darfurian refugees. Click NPR for a National Public Radio interview with one of its designers.

Another entry is, 3rd World Farmer. This online experience simulates the conditions faced by a third world farming family. Your goal is to survive hardships that are mostly out of your control. Another game, September 12, simulates a middleastern city. Here your goal is to decide whether or not to kill terrorists among a civilian population and to do so with little to no collateral damage, as doing so creates more terrorists. Click game for more information on the game designers. Food Force is a downloadable game in a Mac and Windows version. The game was created by the United Nation’s World Food Programme to bring attention to the issue of world hunger. Your goal in this game is to help rebuild a fictional country, Sheylan. As part of a food aid team, you will among other tasks run convoys and negotiate food shipments from around the world. A Force More Powerful, is sponsored by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. The game is purported to be “the first and only interactive teaching tool using nonviolent tactics to overcome oppression.” It is a for purchase game and only available in a PC version. America’s Army is the official video game of the U.S. Army. It is intended to teach “teamwork, values and responsibility.” Some would question its inclusion in this list but I’ll leave you to make up your own mind. All these game environments are constrained but they do require you to be more engaged than if you were only reading about the circumstances that the games recreate. You can find a more comprehensive list of these and other kinds of “serious games” at socialimpactgames.com. Try playing some of them and if you feel informed and inspired and so inclined then click over to the sponsoring agencies for more information on how you can make a difference in the real world.

A great logo

This is a great logo designed by johnson banks, a design firm located in London. It reminds me of the University’s primary mission. (via swissmiss)

Finding your groove

One distinguishing characteristic between high achieving students and those who are struggling to find their groove is that high achieving students have relatively concrete motivations that compel them to overcome school-based and other challenges. Another characteristic is that they are confident in their ability to problem-solve, otherwise they would more easily quit in frustration as do other students. One other characteristic is that they enjoy what they do. Whether it be a general love of learning and problem solving or love for a specific subject, they’ve already found their groove. They enjoy what they do here in school. It makes sense to them and is integrated with and supportive of who they are as persons. A quote taken from the Freakonomics column in the NYTimes supports the notion that doing well in school has a lot to do with not finding school and problem solving tedious and onerous.

“Ericsson’s research suggests a third cliché as well: when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love — because if you don’t love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally don’t like to do things they aren’t “good” at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don’t possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better. ”

So, an interesting question to ask yourself is that in your heart of hearts does learning, school, your major, your particular class turn you on. Is it sexy? Does it float your boat? If your answer is yes, then figuring out how to become more successful at school becomes just a question of metacognition and better technique. If the answer is no then talk of technique alone is insufficient. In this case your most important task is, finding your groove. This task of course is neither simple nor quick. In some instances, finding your groove will take a lifetime but if you start now you can discover important aspects of your groove that will make the decisions that you need to make much easier. Here is a personality inventory called Personality I.D. that will provide some personal insight, i.e. when you are sharply focused on a task, you may come across as being overly critical, judgmental, blunt, or impatient with others. The Career Development Center will help you to discover the careers that fit your interests and the Rutgers Learning Center can suggest and provide assessments to help you examine your school habits and begin to weed out unhelpful habits and cultivate more helpful ones.

RU podcasting

So, the University is considering Itunes for its podcasting solution. The upside is that it will be a cheap means for establishing whether or not podcasting benefits students and faculty. The downside is the ever-present and commercial Itunes interface. The reality is that podcasting in academia will become not only ubiquitous but necessary. When I was lad there was much talk about the doing away with geographic boundaries in education. This technology brings us closer to the more likely hybrid of the new and the traditional. Here are Georgia College & State University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and New Jersey Institute of Technology podcasting pages. This Serendiptiy 35 blog post provides more detail on NJIT podcasts.