Here is my game screencast. I'm not much of a gamer so I went with a game that required little head to head interaction.
Bingo Mama
Monday, April 28, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Game On! Librarification of games or arcadification of libraries, you be the judge.
Here's how I would go about choosing a system for a public library:
- Review your library's mission. If your library doesn't have one, start writing. It is important to know what your library's mission is so that you can evaluate how gaming can dovetail with that mission.
- Set your budget. It would be horrible to do all kinds of research, decide the Playstation3 is for you and then find out you can't afford it.
- Decide what kinds of activities you envision sponsoring with your game system: family fun nights? tournaments? boys activities? girls? age groups? Are you in it for fun? Education? Both?
- Anticipate resistance. There are going to be some people who Just. Don't. Get. It. If you've done your research and have a plan, you wll find it easier to persuade the haters.
- Research what others have to say about the subject. First stop: ALA.--here and here. It's important to get the "company line". Then hit the blogs. You'll get tons of anecdotal information that can help you make a sound decision. Next: ask your patrons. Whether it be casual conversation, a forum, a survey on your library blog, or a more formal SurveyMonkey, you need to take into consideration what your patrons want.
- Don't forget peripherals. The game system is not just the unit. Make sure you know what games are out there for your system and what other peripherals you might need (controllers, dance pads, joysticks) you will need to get maximum fun out of your chosen system.
- Choose your system. My system of choice for libraries just getting into gaming who might anticipate some resistance from patrons or their board would be the Wii. It's non-threatening to video game newbies (of all ages), with simple easy-to-understand controllers but still lots of fun. There are games for a wide variety of ages, and lots of games that all ages can play together. This way, you can include the whole library community and not just kids. My stepfather loooooves bowling on the Wii. I could see starting a senior program in addition to kids/teen programs. The Wii is a versatile, non-threatening system that doesn't have a Grand Theft Auto stigma attached to it. Also, you don't want your programs to skew to one age/sex group. Gaming can easily skew to tween and teen boys if you don't have a varied program that will appeal to all. The one down side is that you cannot play the Wii online, so if you envisioned tournaments with other libraries, you would be limited.
- Explore online gaming options or even none at all. Perhaps your library isn't ready for full-on system gaming, there are a lot of games on the net, including educational ones, and there are ways to work wth these to create a program. It's not a shame to know your strengths and weaknesses, and more than OK to decide that gaming isn't right for your community.
I think the most important part of the process is determining your library's mission and how gaming will contribute to that. To simply say "It will bring more people into the library" is not enough of a reason to start a gaming program in a library. It needs to contribute to more than just foot traffic to be justified. It needs to be an integrated part of what the library wants to do and should be doing for the community.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Quiet on the Set!
Screencast best practices:
* Double check your links if you are going to switch screens during the screencast. Nothing more annoying than getting halfway through a cast and hitting a broken link or a link that suprises you. Also, remember that your desktop or toolbar may be on display and if there are things you don't want to show, hide them.
* If you are not alone, notify everyone in the household that you will be screencasting for the next half hour and need QUIET. That quiet should include not just a ban on talking but on flushing the toilet in the bathroom adjacent to your office, emptying the dishwasher, or employing ridiculous stage whispers to still attempt to communicate. Unless the house is on fire, someone has severed a limb or Ewan McGregor is at the door, DO NOT DISTURB!
* I would say don't overpractice because if you do it sounds it. For me, I'd rather sit through a screencast by someone engaged in their topic who might fumble a bit than someone who has practiced a screencast into submission.
* If you mess up a few times and get frustrated, walk away. Tension is reflected in your voice. You're better off coming back to it later.
* Learn where the pause button is. It doesn't matter much with the short screencasts we do, but redoing a fifteen minute screencast because you don't know where the pause button can be frustrating.
* Play with pan and zoom, especially if you are doing detail work. I had fun with this feature, and I think it can be helpful as long as you don't overdo it and make everyone dizzy.
* Watch your sound levels. The first few times I did screencasted I didn't and ended up being disappointed when I played my "good" one back.
* Have fun. Remember: edutainment!
* Double check your links if you are going to switch screens during the screencast. Nothing more annoying than getting halfway through a cast and hitting a broken link or a link that suprises you. Also, remember that your desktop or toolbar may be on display and if there are things you don't want to show, hide them.
* If you are not alone, notify everyone in the household that you will be screencasting for the next half hour and need QUIET. That quiet should include not just a ban on talking but on flushing the toilet in the bathroom adjacent to your office, emptying the dishwasher, or employing ridiculous stage whispers to still attempt to communicate. Unless the house is on fire, someone has severed a limb or Ewan McGregor is at the door, DO NOT DISTURB!
* I would say don't overpractice because if you do it sounds it. For me, I'd rather sit through a screencast by someone engaged in their topic who might fumble a bit than someone who has practiced a screencast into submission.
* If you mess up a few times and get frustrated, walk away. Tension is reflected in your voice. You're better off coming back to it later.
* Learn where the pause button is. It doesn't matter much with the short screencasts we do, but redoing a fifteen minute screencast because you don't know where the pause button can be frustrating.
* Play with pan and zoom, especially if you are doing detail work. I had fun with this feature, and I think it can be helpful as long as you don't overdo it and make everyone dizzy.
* Watch your sound levels. The first few times I did screencasted I didn't and ended up being disappointed when I played my "good" one back.
* Have fun. Remember: edutainment!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Pop Culture is the Opium of the People
Full disclosure here: I am a pop culture junkie...and proud of it. While in my youth, I always wished I was one of those people who could scoff, "I never watch TV. There are too many books out there to bother with--[barely suppressed sneer]-- television." (What can say, I was an English major in college and there ain't no snob like an English major snob--hmmm, unless you count theater majors...) But alas, it was never to be. As much as I loved books, I still heeded the call of the TV and later the internet. I couldn't help myself. I am more information junkie than snob. While I do love catching an obscure reference in literature, I love being able to catch an obscure reference in The Office even more. Do I wonder sometimes if I am the dumber for it? Sure. Sometimes I think that the part of my brain that is currently analyzing the Project Runway finale might be put to better use, but honestly, why?
Johnson makes a good point: it isn't so much about content and WHAT people think about and encounter in pop culture, it's HOW it makes people think. Some examples:
Gaming: As bad as some content is (seriously, I don't even like to be in the house when Condemned II is being played, I can feel the creep vibe), you cannot deny that there needs to be solid reasoning and decision making skills employed in order to play and win these types of games. That the games may be sexist and desenstize people to violence is something to consider, but I have always contended that if you are parenting peoperly when the game is turned off, you have less to fear when the game is turned on.
TV: Believe it or not, TV shows have prompted some of the liveliest and intelligent debate I have ever witnessed. Back in the day, I participated on a forum dedicated to a TV show. While the subject matter of the TV show often bordered on the soap opera (even sometimes on par with a telenovela), the lively analysis and debate that occurred the week after the show aired was something to behold. People wrote haiku, developed games with elaborate rules, wrote recaps and fan fiction, and used sophisticated debate techniques to dismantle an opposing viewpoint (when they weren't flaming each other). Granted, sometimes the resulting content was as amateurish as the show itself, but sometimes it transcended it. TV shows, even bad TV shows, can make people think and create and interact. It's not all about passive watching anymore.
Internet: We know it's like crack. But the collaboration and interaction it has enabled far outpaces the threat of information overload, if you ask me. Again, there's a lot of junk out there, but in order to navigate the junk, you need to develop a whole different set of skills. The real question here is when will the educational system catch up to the technology and teach the skills that are really needed, instead of what is going to be state-tested?
So is pop culture the opium of the people? In a way, yes. As Johnson pointed out, a lot of the pop activities that we pursue tap into the natural reward circuitry of our brain--whether it's getting to the next level of Bioshock or obessesively checking our MySpace/Facebook to see who friended us or wrote on our wall. No doubt, pop culture is like crack in that way. But I don't think that it is an opiate in the sense that Marx would have intended: sedating us to the pain and suffering of our reality. And I think that a lot of critics of pop culture see it that way: we use pop culture as an easy way to avoid doing the "hard stuff" of life. But for a moment consider this: the skill sets that worked well in the last hundred years may not be the ones we need for the next hundred. What if pop culture thinking, not the WHAT but the HOW, is part of the skill set we need? What if "stupid" is the new smart?
Johnson makes a good point: it isn't so much about content and WHAT people think about and encounter in pop culture, it's HOW it makes people think. Some examples:
Gaming: As bad as some content is (seriously, I don't even like to be in the house when Condemned II is being played, I can feel the creep vibe), you cannot deny that there needs to be solid reasoning and decision making skills employed in order to play and win these types of games. That the games may be sexist and desenstize people to violence is something to consider, but I have always contended that if you are parenting peoperly when the game is turned off, you have less to fear when the game is turned on.
TV: Believe it or not, TV shows have prompted some of the liveliest and intelligent debate I have ever witnessed. Back in the day, I participated on a forum dedicated to a TV show. While the subject matter of the TV show often bordered on the soap opera (even sometimes on par with a telenovela), the lively analysis and debate that occurred the week after the show aired was something to behold. People wrote haiku, developed games with elaborate rules, wrote recaps and fan fiction, and used sophisticated debate techniques to dismantle an opposing viewpoint (when they weren't flaming each other). Granted, sometimes the resulting content was as amateurish as the show itself, but sometimes it transcended it. TV shows, even bad TV shows, can make people think and create and interact. It's not all about passive watching anymore.
Internet: We know it's like crack. But the collaboration and interaction it has enabled far outpaces the threat of information overload, if you ask me. Again, there's a lot of junk out there, but in order to navigate the junk, you need to develop a whole different set of skills. The real question here is when will the educational system catch up to the technology and teach the skills that are really needed, instead of what is going to be state-tested?
So is pop culture the opium of the people? In a way, yes. As Johnson pointed out, a lot of the pop activities that we pursue tap into the natural reward circuitry of our brain--whether it's getting to the next level of Bioshock or obessesively checking our MySpace/Facebook to see who friended us or wrote on our wall. No doubt, pop culture is like crack in that way. But I don't think that it is an opiate in the sense that Marx would have intended: sedating us to the pain and suffering of our reality. And I think that a lot of critics of pop culture see it that way: we use pop culture as an easy way to avoid doing the "hard stuff" of life. But for a moment consider this: the skill sets that worked well in the last hundred years may not be the ones we need for the next hundred. What if pop culture thinking, not the WHAT but the HOW, is part of the skill set we need? What if "stupid" is the new smart?
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Radio Free MySpace
Not a good computer day. I am ready to fire my laptop right out the window. So if my voice seems a little tense in this screencast showing you how to add a song to your MySpace profile, please forgive me.
Click to play
Click to play
Ning! Went the Strings of My Heart
I am by nature a private person so I've been having a hard time this week with MySpace and Facebook. I kind of don't see the point. I mean I understand why it's important for libraries to have a meaningful presence there, I completely respect the medium, and I subscribe to alerts for bands I like, but for me...meh. Honestly, if I want someone to know something about me, I'm going to call them or email them or even--gasp!!--write to them. (Yes, I still use snail mail. I do believe letter writing is an art that will be sorely missed in the future). And if I'm really not interested enough to seek them out, then I probably don't want them to have the information. I know it seems old fashioned, but I like my privacy. Which is why nings appeal to me a little more than MySpace or Facebook---because it is a community of my choosing, centered around an interest or an activity or a group I choose to belong to. In other words, there seems to be a point beyond exposing my absolute worship of Michael Stipe to the world.
Good example: there is an alopecia ning. A lot of sharing and emotion goes on in that forum, some of which might be uncomfortable to share with the world wide public. Using a ning provides a little safety, protection and comfort. Yes, you get all the convenience and ease of having on online place to go and trick out as you like, but you are far less exposed. Using nings to galvanize interaction in groups makes a lot of sense, especially in business. As you know from our reading, knowledge-management is a bitch (I may put that on a t-shirt). To have a space to post and share ideas and thoughts, and then to have a written archive of them would be invaluable.
I guess I'm just not social enough for social networking. Or possibly too boring. And definitely too private.
Good example: there is an alopecia ning. A lot of sharing and emotion goes on in that forum, some of which might be uncomfortable to share with the world wide public. Using a ning provides a little safety, protection and comfort. Yes, you get all the convenience and ease of having on online place to go and trick out as you like, but you are far less exposed. Using nings to galvanize interaction in groups makes a lot of sense, especially in business. As you know from our reading, knowledge-management is a bitch (I may put that on a t-shirt). To have a space to post and share ideas and thoughts, and then to have a written archive of them would be invaluable.
I guess I'm just not social enough for social networking. Or possibly too boring. And definitely too private.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
If you build it, will they come?
Young people are on MySpace and Facebook--some quite obsessively so. Does this mean that libraries need to be there too? Yes, if you are serious about outreach. If people are checking their pages daily and you have the potential to reach them daily, that's pretty significant. But the key to getting through to the MySpace generation isn't just about having a page--it's about having a page that "sticks". Let's face it, people are not on social networking sites for non-social reasons, so you have to give them a reason to come to your page. This requires a plan and putting time and effort into promotion and updates. If you are just going to plop a site up just to say you have it, then you should probably not bother, because none of your target audience will either. Social network sites are about creating and maintaining community. Simple presence does not a community make. Showing up is the first step, certainly. But a true community is built on fostering and encouraging interaction. A lot of libraries can't even seem to accomplish this in the brick and mortar world, let alone the click and mortar world. If your community link is weak in real life, it's certainly not going to get stronger by putting up a MySpace page.
Another thing that I find interesting is this: social networking sites are as much about "public displays of connection" as they are about keeping in touch with people. They, in some strange way, validate your identity. How many young people will shy away from "friending" a library because it doesn't fit their online identity? How do you create a page that can overcome the "image factor"? Furthermore, how can you create a community where there may be loose or no ties at all to the library? Can you create a page that will attract, or is the point only to keep in touch with the community you already have?
I think MySpace/Facebook is crucial to getting connected to people, but it must dynamic and/or useful for it to make sense. And another important point: it should cover both sites, MySpace AND Facebook. Boyd made a powerful statement about the "good kid" vs. "bad kid" class division on Social Networking sites. If you are going to dabble in MySpace or Facebook make sure that you take into consideration all possible effects of what you do. For instance, a librarian may have experience with Facebook so s/he will put up a page there, but ignore MySpace because it is unfamiliar. While this may seem like no big deal, the decision has an impact beyond a matter of preference.
So if you build it, will they come? Maybe. The question really should be if you build it will they care?
Another thing that I find interesting is this: social networking sites are as much about "public displays of connection" as they are about keeping in touch with people. They, in some strange way, validate your identity. How many young people will shy away from "friending" a library because it doesn't fit their online identity? How do you create a page that can overcome the "image factor"? Furthermore, how can you create a community where there may be loose or no ties at all to the library? Can you create a page that will attract, or is the point only to keep in touch with the community you already have?
I think MySpace/Facebook is crucial to getting connected to people, but it must dynamic and/or useful for it to make sense. And another important point: it should cover both sites, MySpace AND Facebook. Boyd made a powerful statement about the "good kid" vs. "bad kid" class division on Social Networking sites. If you are going to dabble in MySpace or Facebook make sure that you take into consideration all possible effects of what you do. For instance, a librarian may have experience with Facebook so s/he will put up a page there, but ignore MySpace because it is unfamiliar. While this may seem like no big deal, the decision has an impact beyond a matter of preference.
So if you build it, will they come? Maybe. The question really should be if you build it will they care?
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Labelmania Thursday Afternoon Smackdown
If you've ever dreamed of learning how to do a mail merge using Microsoft Word, today is the day your dreams have come true! Here is my camtasia recording of just that exciting topic.
And here is my link to the quicktime movie
Click to play
And here is my link to the quicktime movie
Click to play
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
New Adventures in YouTube
Everyone had something interesting to say last week, but here are my faves:
Mark's (mzscils598s08) "Using a flash drive" video made me laugh. Plus, it really did teach something. Very edutaining!
Karen's (khscils598s08) "Day out in London" video captured the feeling of walking around in a city that you love, a feeling I instantly related to. Made me want to run out for a pint and some chips.
Laura's (lhscils598s08) "Making scones". Using the oats to write key directions was really creative, showed that you don't necessaruly need words to get your point across.
Great work everyone!
Mark's (mzscils598s08) "Using a flash drive" video made me laugh. Plus, it really did teach something. Very edutaining!
Karen's (khscils598s08) "Day out in London" video captured the feeling of walking around in a city that you love, a feeling I instantly related to. Made me want to run out for a pint and some chips.
Laura's (lhscils598s08) "Making scones". Using the oats to write key directions was really creative, showed that you don't necessaruly need words to get your point across.
Great work everyone!
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
I'm gonna DJ at the end of the world
Pandora radio screencast
There were some definite production issues in the middle, but I finally got the volume right so I'm sticking with it. A short introduction to Pandora radio in honor of R.E.M.'s new album release.
Enjoy this bonus video, too.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Clown Shoe Grudge Match
My son and I have a difference of opinion on footwear. You be the judge. The color came out poorly, but take my word for it they are bright and vibrant.
Click to play
My show page
Click to play
My show page
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Bald is the New Black
My kid rocks, and he rocks hard. A year in the life of a kid with alopecia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY-wnQTcoeQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY-wnQTcoeQ
Let me Edutain You
Apparently, if males ages 18-34 had their way, YouTube would be nothing but videos of people swallowing spoons of cinnamon , skateboarding dogs, or this. There's no denying surfing YouTube can be fun. But that represents just the infancy of YouTube and other video-sharing outlets. Just like the infancy of TV and MySpace/Facebook and blogging, entertainment is the initial draw. It is through entertainment that people become attracted to a medium, and once that medium has proven that it can capture the imagination of an audience, it starts to evolve. And it also starts to attract institutions and corporations. Now whether or not corporate/institutional buy-in evolves a medium or subverts it is a matter of opinion, I suppose. But the fact is that if corporate/institutional users can preserve the philosophy and spirit of the medium in their use of it, a lot of interesting things can happen. (Look at that guy who did an ipod "commercial" for fun and actually had it picked up and used by Apple.)
In fact, YouTube and the technology that makes taking and posting video easy has created a whole new category--edutainment (or infotainment). It is not enough for a video to be strictly educational. A generation is coming of age that is used to quick-cut, sound-bite, multi-task, mutli-platform media. You will lose them if you present dry, long-winded, straightforward material on YouTube or blip.tv. But if you can engage them, you will be able to teach them. So do educational videos stand a chance against entertainment videos? Yes, because they will, if done right, be one and the same. And the "getting hit in the cojones" videos? They're forever.
In fact, YouTube and the technology that makes taking and posting video easy has created a whole new category--edutainment (or infotainment). It is not enough for a video to be strictly educational. A generation is coming of age that is used to quick-cut, sound-bite, multi-task, mutli-platform media. You will lose them if you present dry, long-winded, straightforward material on YouTube or blip.tv. But if you can engage them, you will be able to teach them. So do educational videos stand a chance against entertainment videos? Yes, because they will, if done right, be one and the same. And the "getting hit in the cojones" videos? They're forever.
You Say Tomato, I Say WTF?
In looking over the flickr groups from a couple of weeks ago, I had an "I Am Legend" moment. Can I be the only NYC-loving, non-pet-owning, no interesting hobby-having person in the class? I felt so lonely. :( (**Are my emoticons right? I'm left handed and easily confused)
But then I realized: if we were to all meet in person we would have plenty to talk about and to share. It's just that photos, as rich and interesting a medium as they are, can only show you one or two facets of a person. It's not the same as "knowing" a person. For our purposes, it may be "good enough", in that I know more about my classmates than I would if we were just posting in a discussion forum, but there are still limits to what miracle social media can perform. So maybe we are not destined to become a society of feed-programmed pod people after all...
Endnote: It's fun to see people from areas outside New Jersey and also get input from the students who are taking an online class but are "regular" students by day. It adds a nice perspective.
But then I realized: if we were to all meet in person we would have plenty to talk about and to share. It's just that photos, as rich and interesting a medium as they are, can only show you one or two facets of a person. It's not the same as "knowing" a person. For our purposes, it may be "good enough", in that I know more about my classmates than I would if we were just posting in a discussion forum, but there are still limits to what miracle social media can perform. So maybe we are not destined to become a society of feed-programmed pod people after all...
Endnote: It's fun to see people from areas outside New Jersey and also get input from the students who are taking an online class but are "regular" students by day. It adds a nice perspective.
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