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Here’s quick map I made in Omnigraffle that lays out some of the main elements that I could study. The octogons represent “things” (clearly, I need a better descriptor), and the arrows represent “influencing factors.” So, for example, tools are shaped by, and shape, culture, activity, place, and the individual. As it is mapped out, […]

This is a “working paper” briefly discussing PBI’s connections to Sociocultural Learning.
My most immediate Place-based Inquiry project is a place-based augmented reality game for a deep-woods camp. In this project there are many influences from and connections to topics like video games, environmental education, embodiment, design-based pedagogy, sociocultural learning (communities of practice, activity theory, […]

I *need* one of these. “Need” here means “want” of course, but in a “gosh this sure would be neat to have at my FML cabin for those nights when I don’t want to stay up long enough to justify lighting a candle, or those nights when I *do* want to stay up and read […]

This is a “working paper” briefly discussing PBI’s connections to video games.
My most immediate Place-based Inquiry project is a place-based augmented reality game for a deep-woods camp. In this project there are many influences from and connections to topics like video games, environmental education, embodiment, design-based pedagogy, sociocultural learning (communities of practice, activity theory, […]

Place-based Handheld Games (PbHG) is a terrible name and acronym. I like the simplicity or ARG (augmented reality games), but ARG doesn’t get into the “culture of place” aspects that I like (I had been trying to call culture of place “geoculture”, but Immanuel Wallerstein already has that term defined with a much different meaning […]

This kind of stuff in human-computer interfaces keeps me “turned on” in Educational Technology. Jefferson Y. Han has a pretty cool demo video of the work he and his colleagues at NYU have been doing, and while the demo is currently an “inside a dark room” thing, and my work is all about the geocultural […]

I’m excited about my research. I think it’s a really cool thing in so many ways. Consequently, perhaps, when I explain it I tend to mention many of the ways that I think it’s cool. I talk about how I want to incorporate the appeal of video games into this outside game experience. I talk […]

75 hours on this character. ~30 hours before I started Db. And, say 15 hours on my other and roommates’ characters.
More importantly, I got my cat form. And I love my kitty! Here’s a picture of Db taking a catnap! She deserves it after all the slinking around she’s done this week, sneaking up on […]

I am having serious issues with World of Warcraft. It’s annoying the hell out of me by continually disconnecting me from the server (6 times tonight; I can barely move three steps nad it disconnects me), and then telling me when I try to log in again that a character with that name already exists.
Eventually […]

I added links to your right to the follwoing sites: Mobile Games and Mobile Gaming.
If you have ideas for other sites that should be included, suggest them!

So, we’re in class discussing some people’s disappointment about their experience in 2nd Life, and the consensus seems to be that whereas in WoW people are on quests and always have little tasks to do, in 2ndLife players are left to their own devices. They need to come up with, or find their own ideas […]

My silly little obsessive plan to bike to work every day this academic year failed today.
It snowed big.
I started well enough this morning in the 3″ that fell overnight. I fish-tailed my way to the coffee shop in the soft flurries that were still falling. But after two hours of writing I looked out […]

I eat those candy hearts without reading them now.
I think that’s kind of sad. I realized this after downing the fourth of five in my hand with nary a glance at the little pearls of heartfelt love inked onto them. It made me pause and carefully consider the last one in my hand.
I have […]

After years of immediately taking the games off my new computers; years of not having a TV; years of scorning video games and telling gamers to “get a life” and “go outside”; years of watching the game industry explode and everyone and their brother and sister talk about games around me, I bought a Playstation […]

Building off the last post, and partly building off tonight’s discussion of narrative in games in Kurt’s class, I got to thinking about the narrative variables in our ARGs:

Identity: who are you?
Social scene: who are the other players, and how do they relate to you?
NPCs: who are the NPCs, and why are they in the […]

It’s an estimate. But by 10 this morning I reached level 19, got my Sea Lion form (apparently I should have done this 3 levels ago), found (and died quickly near) Dalaran in Alterac. And I have to say that things are fun. But I want more. I want more recognition at level 19. More […]

Once upon a time, not so long ago, I was in a group and we all got loaded, needed to go to the Crossroads to unload and fix gear, etc. While in town, one of the group said he needed to go to Ratchet and he’d “brb”.
What’s the call on that? I guess I’d figured, […]

Matt and I met today to talk about creating an AR game for the GLS conference. One of the thoughts that came up was: how to structure the game in such a way that part of the goal is to come up with and document (digital camera cosplay?) your own narrative (inspired by Tayler the […]

I’ve lost track of the amount of time I”ve been playing this game, but it’s well over 80 hours now. I’m a mere level 18 druid after all this time, and wonder if perhaps I might have been better off getting a Playstation 2 — I might have already finished 2-3 games by now, or […]

So, as Christine looks for jobs, I’m also looking at places that might have a good support for my work (help me finish!). This map might just be a *very* useful tool.

Name: John Martin
School: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Department: Curriculum and Instruction
Major Program: Educational Technology
Specialization: Games, Learning, and Society
Minor Program: Learning Sciences
Advisor: Dr. Kurt Squire
Status: passed prelims, starting proposal
Tentative Research Title: “Sociocultural Learning in the Play and Design of Place-Based Augmented Reality Games”
(the title needs work)
My Elevator Talk
Question
My specific research project takes the appeal of good video games […]

Some questions about the learning principles (and other ideas/issues) in video games, translated into Augmented Reality Games:

Lower the consequence of failure: How do ARGs deal with the consequences of failure? Are there ways to incrementally fail throughout the game without losing the entire game? What do (or could) ARG bosses look like? does it give […]

This weekend I grouped with Ben and some characters I didn’t know (but he did, or knew someone who did), and we did my first dungeon, which for reason is called an “instance” — or in this instance it was. We ran through Orgrimmar to get to it, and I mostly tried my hardest to […]

Yesterday I joined the Alliance. Why would I join our sworn enemies? First off let me reassure that I still my three Horde characters. I joined the Alliance in order to see cute bunny rabbits. I heard they were all over the place where the dwarves lived, so I became a dwarf hunter named […]

Another article on how the cell phone is becoming the ubiquitious computer [and another log on the fire to make AR games fit them].
Excerpt:
And with cheap processors, full-color screens, high-speed cellular networks and versatile software standards like Sun’s (Research) Java programming language, the mobile phone is becoming increasingly indistinguishable from a PC. For proof, just […]

Thursday I played 4 hours in the morning, but think I only played a few hours in the evening. Friday I played another 4 in the morning, but only 2 at night. I played way too long Saturday. My hearing was getting fuzzy, my vision was getting fuzzy, my wrists are shot. But it was […]

It’s starting to happen. I’m approaching that point in a Discourse community where I am able to start to talk the talk and walk the walk. I’d still neeed lots of training and supervision, but I’m not entirely useless. I got into a situation where I was the more experienced player in an in-game conversation. […]

Played Db for two hours last night while Bush confessed his oil addiction. I’d love to help him through much of the 12-step program, but the bit with his higher power might be hard for me to handle. After the speech I went out and my roommate created a Tauren, “Regzin”, and levelled him to […]