:: Netwoman ::

:: Thursday, March 27, 2008 ::

Safer Children in a Digital World

Tanya Byron released her report:

On 6th September 2007, the Prime Minister asked me to conduct an independent review looking at the risks to children from exposure to potentially harmful or inappropriate material on the internet and in video games.

My Review is about the needs of children and young people. It is about preserving their right to take the risks that form an inherent part of their development by enabling them to play video games and surf the net in a safe and informed way.

By listening to children and young people and putting them at the heart of this Review - and by replacing emotion with evidence - I hope I have provided some very necessary focus to what is a very necessary debate.

:: Netwoman 8:19 AM [+] ::
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Web 2.0 & Education: Meet your Prof

The Professor as Open Book
Interesting piece from NY Times about Profs who share information about themselves (their backstage private life) online for students to see. I think it's good. Too often Profs are situated in a hierarchical relationship with students; a top down approach that dehumanizes the educational process. Using web 2.0 tools (which I think all Profs should be incorporating into their classrooms in some capacity) is good for connecting with students on a different level - you're sharing something with them: "Look Ma, I'm a Prof and I'm human too!". What are people afraid of? That students will actually see that we're not all perfect? That we actually have a life outside academia?

These days, the clues are usually digital and are broad invitations to get to know the person behind the Ph.D. It is not uncommon for professors’ Web pages to include lists of the books they would take to a deserted island, links to their favorite songs from bygone eras, blog posts about their children, entries “written” by their dogs and vacation photographs.

While many professors have rushed to meet the age of social networking, there are some who think it is symptomatic of an unfortunate trend, that a professor’s job today is not just to impart knowledge, but to be an entertainer.

No, I don't expect us to be entertainers, but we do have lives and we are human with interests. Why not share that with students and develop working relationships with them? Are we not here to mentor future academics? We don't do that by simply stuffing information into their brains, it's much more than that.

:: Netwoman 10:03 AM [+] ::
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AI in SL: More Educational Possibilities

Child-like intelligence created in Second Life

"The apps, frankly, are endless," Bringsjord said. "Imagine being able to step into a simulation environment in which you interact with synthetic characters as sophisticated as those seen in Star Trek's holodeck."

"It's one thing to read about trauma scenarios as a first responder; it would be quite another if you could enter a simulation in which, courtesy of synthetic characters at the level we seek, you could strive to get a disaster under control, with the look and feel of the real world."

"Or imagine a hostage situation: How do you prepare for negotiating with a terrorist holding a hostage? Now, it's textbook and playacting. But what if you could enter the holodeck and match wits with a synthetic character that has the ability to reason in earnest about your mind, and about what you're trying to do? This is actually a demo we're considering trying to engineer," he said.

:: Netwoman 11:47 AM [+] ::
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Get a Life: Students Collaborate in Simulated Roles

Virtual reality provides a shared online universe in which students can play to learn.

When the Whypox -- a plague that causes the afflicted to break out in red spots -- hit, residents had to go to the Center for Disease Control to learn about the epidemic. When the WhyFlu went around, those who got vaccinated were protected. But as new viruses escape from a biotechnology project, residents must scramble to develop new vaccines.

Then there was the deadly red tide, which prompted locals to take water samples to the Oceanographic Institution in an attempt to find solutions. And when Hurricane Alice landed, residents took a crash course on the impact of global climate change.

Such is life in Whyville, a Web-based virtual world that provides inquiry-based education for middle school students. Created by University of Texas professor Jim Bower -- a former professor at the California Institute of Technology and founder of CalTech's Pre-College Science Initiative -- Whyville looks and feels like a game to the kids who use it. For teachers, it is one more tool for delivering lessons in a package that delights their students.

Some innovative uses of virtual worlds in educational settings, in particular younger kids - a good way to keep the digital natives engaged with the material.

:: Netwoman 9:33 AM [+] ::
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Sexual harassment is rife online. No wonder women swap gender

Article from BBTV that talks about how women gender-swap online more so than men. The article also outlines some of the harassment women are subjected to online.

Female gamers are used to putting up with sexist claptrap - both from the companies that design games and other players. So a study by psychologists at Nottingham Trent University showing that 70% of them chose to construct male characters when given the option by online games, should come as no surprise.

Nothing has really changed since I started researching women & the internet in 1995; still a lot of chilly virtual spaces for women.

:: Netwoman 5:32 PM [+] ::
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Tweet Scan is Pretty Sweet

Saw this on geekpreneur's 10 cool uses of Twitter:

Search Twitter with Tweet Scan
"Looking for something you once read in a Tweet? Head over to Tweet Scan, a search engine that indexes Twitter posts. What’s neat is you can search by keywords, much like you would do on Google, but also by Twitter user account, and a combination of both. Registered users of Tweet Scan get access to a notification service. That’s useful if you wish to read everything that’s being said about a specific keyword. The service will email you the tweets according to the frequency you’ve set"

This would be a really wicked research resource & tool. I searched for 'EverQuest' with a few results/people twittering about Everquest. This is a useful little treasure that gave me the following:

-resource to access players and potentially new in-game friends
-who's currently online in EQ
-game statuses & updates that are available
-link to YouTube - machinima of someone's battle

When i searched for 'warcraft' I got pages and pages of results with similar types of statuses and even more interesting stuff; people playing, leveling up, game questions, links to machinimas, links to media articles about WoW and more.

very interesting stuff.

:: Netwoman 3:42 PM [+] ::
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IADIS International Conference Gaming 2008

Design for engaging experience and social interaction
Amsterdam, Netherlands
25 - 27 July 2008

As gaming becomes more pervasive we are challenged in our job, learning and personal
life by the growing access to virtual spaces and communities that offer opportunities for everyday needs and aesthetic experiences. ‘Creative Industries’ have a need for design measures that reveal new interaction methods, scenario metaphors and in-depth
co-creation. This conference bring together research and best practices in creative
media design for this new challenging field.

*Keynote Speaker is Constance Steinkuehler, University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA

:: Netwoman 10:55 AM [+] ::
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NetGames 2008

Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
October 21 - 22, 2008

The seventh annual Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games (Netgames) will be held October 21-22, 2008 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. The NetGames workshop brings together researchers and developers from academia and industry to present new research in understanding current networked games and in enabling the next generation of networked games. Submissions are sought in any area related to networked games. In particular, topics of interest include (but are not limited to) game-related work in:

* Network measurement, usage studies and traffic modeling
* System benchmarking, performance evaluation, and provisioning
* Latency issues and lag compensation techniques
* Cheat detection and prevention
* Operating system enhancements, service platforms, and middleware
* Peer-to-peer and scalable system architectures
* Network protocol design
* Mobile and resource-constrained systems
* Augmented physical systems
* User and usability studies, Group dynamics
* Quality of service and content adaptation
* Artificial intelligence
* Security, authentication, accounting and digital rights management
* Networks of sensors and actuators
* Impact of online game growth on network infrastructure
* Messaging and conferencing in games
* Input devices, haptics and accessibility
* Results that reproduce (or refute) previous published results

:: Netwoman 10:53 AM [+] ::
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Mobile Gaming '08

Workshop @ Informatik 2008 in Munich

OVERVIEW
Mobile Games rely on physical movement of players in a world that weaves the real environment and virtual dimensions together. They combine two gaming traditions in a novel way, which have been mutual exclusive till now: outdoor games and computer games.

Game design is facing new challenges. Currently only few games exploit the potential, which is offered by augmented and mixed reality, global networking, location-awareness and sensors. Theory and methodology to survey mobile gaming experiences are far from maturity. The question is, how to understand mobility and physical movement within mixed game worlds? How to study gaming experiences of mobile players, who are moving independently through urban space?
What are the roles of the player's community and its culture for playing games?

Development and design of mobile games are challenging us with core issues of ubiquitous computing, the complexity of mobile, distributed systems, the particular dynamics of game situations and the changing contexts, the diversity of actors, using the technology, and the issues of interaction beyond the desk, encompassing the player’s body, multiple human senses and diverse usage modes. The diversification of hard- and software leads to additional challenges regarding interoperability and calls for flexible frameworks supporting the integration.

This workshop aims to increase the perception of mobile gaming as a rich domain for research in many directions in the German-speaking science and market area. We invite researchers and developers to exchange their experiences, identify urging research issues and to look for ways how to exploit and enhance the basic conditions for research in this domain.

:: Netwoman 11:09 AM [+] ::
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Annenberg Workshop on Games for Learning, Development & Change

Welcome to the homepage of the Annenberg Workshop on Games for Learning, Development & Change! This event will be hosted by the Annenberg Studies on Computer Games (aka ASC Games Group) on the USC campus, May 21-22, 2007.

As you know, there have been many new developments in the gaming industry in recent years. For one, a new field of serious games has emerged as designers and developers use gaming for non-entertainment purposes such as education, healthcare, policy-making, and corporate management. Leading organizations in this area have initiated conferences like the Serious Games Summit, Games for Health, and Games for Change. Funding agencies such as the MacArthur Foundation have indicated an interest by investing in research projects that focus on the potential of games to produce socially desirable outcomes.

The University of Southern California is among a handful of educational institutions that are at the cutting edge of these developments. At USC, the Annenberg School for Communication, together with the Viterbi School of Engineering and the School of Cinematic Arts, has been an active player in a collaborative effort to advance serious games. Launched in 2003, the ASC Games Group is an interdisciplinary research team that seeks to conduct systematic and innovative research about the influence of game playing on individuals, groups, and society at large.

:: Netwoman 10:42 AM [+] ::
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