Tag Archives: play

November 12, 2012, 8:00 am

Digital Pedagogy, Play, and Mass Collaboration: An Online Event This Afternoon

From the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University comes this announcement of an event this afternoon from 1:30-3:00pm Eastern time, featuring ProfHacker’s own Adeline Koh:

Please join us for an event on MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) and play in education with Pete Rorabaugh (English, Georgia State University; @allistelling) and Jesse Stommel (English & Digital Humanities, Marylhurst University; @jessifer), editors of the journal Hybrid Pedagogy. Adeline Koh (Literature, Richard Stockton College & 2012-13 Humanities Writ Large Visiting Faculty Fellow) will moderate.

We’ll be livestreaming the event on the FHI Youtube channel, and everyone is encouraged to watch and take part via the Twitterstream: hashtag #dukehp.

For more information, read the entire announcement.

Update at 5:00pm Here is the video from today’s event:

[Creative Commons-licensed…

March 8, 2012, 8:11 am

How to Learn the Basics of Digital Technology

By Jason B. Jones

Between my MA and PhD programs, I worked briefly at a research lab that addressed artificial intelligence-type questions, mostly in the context of building training systems for corporations and government agencies. Among other projects, I worked on a program that taught negotiation, using expert feedback from Roger Fisher and the Harvard Negotiation Project. It was a great experience: I learned a lot about pedagogy, about project management (and, thanks to our client’s needs, got an all-too-personal introduction to the idea of the mythical man-month) . . . heck, I even learned some LISP!

But the most valuable thing I learned was from an officemate at ILS, Greg Downey, now the director of the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin. Greg explained that I should consider it part of my job to try out new technology regularly, even if it didn’t seem…

October 24, 2011, 3:00 pm

Playing for Wellness

By Anastasia Salter

It can be tough to fit wellness goals into a to-do list governed lifestyle. Grading, teaching, meetings, research—all of those demand priority, and often my best intentions to exercise or rest get pushed further and further down the list by more pressing concerns. To make sure I don’t spend every waking hour in front of my computer or classroom, I’ve been relying on games that offer the alluring potential to play my way to wellness without leaving the living room.

Exergames like the Wii Fit Plus, with the Wii “balance board” used to detect the player’s weight, motion, and balance, add achievements, points, and mini-games to otherwise familiar gym activities. The Kinect, with programs like Your Shape Fitness Evolved and UFC Personal Trainer, offers more variety thanks to full motion recognition and exercise classes with some “instructor feedback” that doesn’t require…