Etale – Life in the Digital World

interdisciplinary musings on life and education in the digital world

Archive for category reviews

The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond

Dec 16

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Mark Wolf, a colleague at Concordia University Wisconsin, has contributed yet another excellent resource for those interested in video game culture. The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond (Greenwood Publishing) provides a rich history of video games, providing a coherent tour of video game culture from its infancy to the full grown multi-billion dollar industry today. It is a readable yet academic work that brings us all the way up to the Wii, XBox 360, and PlayStaion 3.

This is not a dry catalog of video games, but a tour of the culture surrounding these games. It includes wonderfully engaging essays that challenge us to explore a wide variety of ethical and cultural elements surrounding video games. While I appreciated Steven Kent’s Ultimate History of Video Games, Wolf’s work includes important cultural aspects that have emerged since since Kent’s 2001 text was published. Apart from that, Wolf has shaped an altogether different text, pulling together a talented assortment of scholars, each addressing different aspects of the culture in a way that a single author text is unlikely to do.

RSS and the Living Syllabus

Dec 14

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I have a wide variety of interests. With these varied interests, it is not easy to stay abreast of emerging trends. That, of course, is one of the wonders of the blogosphere- a worldwide network of diverse people from diverse places with diverse interests, posting commentary, news, even creative works for the world to see. That is one step in the transformation. Now we need to add to the mix the magic of RSS feeds. Not long ago I had 20+ blogs that I would visit, one by one; checking to see what was new. That was quickly replaced with my use of Blogines and then Google Reader (integrated into my iGoogle home page). As you probably already know, these feed “aggregators” allow you to subscribe to multiple blogs and make it easy for you to track and read the most recent posts to each blog, all in one centralized location. The following picture is a screen capture of some of the most recent posts in my aggregator.

Google Reader

If I did not lose your attention already, please know that I have getting close to a point.

On what seems like a completely different topic, consider how the Internet has changed research over the past decade. When I was working on my dissertation, I could search dozens of databases, skim thousands of articles, and identify hundreds of pertinent sources, all from that uncomfortable $20 office chair in my makeshift home office. In many cases I could read and download full text articles from these online databases. I could also search dissertations on related topics from around the world, viewing most of them online for free (through my University subscription). When they were not freely available I could purchase a copy to be delivered digitally or by mail. I suspect that writing a dissertation twenty years ago would have been an entirely different experience, and this is without considering what it would be like to write a dissertation on a typewriter.

Now to the point…

What do RSS aggregators, databases, and dissertations have in common? I just had lunch with a friend and she filled me in on the connection. Did you know that you could subscribe to RSS feeds of recent journal articles and dissertations through ProQuest? This is amazing! Consider the possibilities for staying up-to-date and for teaching. I can now subscribe to an RSS feed through ProQuest on a topic of interest; perhaps “distance learning” or “educational technology.” Then any new dissertation or journal article related to that topic gets fed right into my Google Reader! Consider this, something that ProQuest demos on their site. I can create a living syllabus or resources section for a course. For each unit topic, I can pull in a list of the most recent articles or research on that topic, with direct access for my students. If you are interested, you can read more about this at the ProQuest web site.

Transforming Education for the 21st Century

Dec 10

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This is 6 month old news, but I just got around to viewing it.  Here is a trailer for the full 30 minute video by Cisco.  

The full 30-minute video is worth your time.

Transforming Education for the 21st Century is an excellent introduction to how digital culture is influencing visions of education.  The argument is that the current educational system exists to prepare people for a 19th and 20th century, and that we must recreate education in order to prepare students for life in the 21st century.  This goes beyond reading, writing, math, and science.  It explores the role of digital literacy; critical thinking and problem solving; and new approaches to collaboration, communication and creation.

Ken Kay, President of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills lays out a vision for education that respects the importance of teaching content and memorization, but it also includes: “life and career skills; learning and innovation skills; as well as information, media, and technology skills.”

By the way, you can find another great video on the subject at the Partnership for 21st Century Skills web site or by clicking here.

Another Video Sharing Option

Jul 16

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In addition to the video sharing options from my last post, I recently learned about Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com). It has features similar to the others, but with added control over who can and can’t see your videos. So, if you are looking for a free place to post your videos but only want a select group to view them, this may be one of your best options. I am considering it as I think about designing for a distance learning speech class, where the instructor wants students to easily post and review speeches of classmates. However, they don’t want the rest of the world to see the videos.

Video Sharing Sites

Jul 11

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It doesn’t take much work to find dozens of places to post your digital stories on the web for free. Once they are up, you can embed them in your site, link to them, etc. So, here are four of my favorites:

Youtube – You probably didn’t need to read this entry to learn about Youtube as it is probably the most popular video sharing service on the web.

LiveVideo – This Youtube competitor just started in the last year but almost instantly took off. You can Google Youtube versus livevideo if you want some of drama that took place :-) .

TeacherTube – This video sharing service focuses upon videos with an instructional purpose.

VideoPile – This is a Christian video sharing service that seeks to keep the content “clean.”

If you want reviews on more of the video sharing services, check out these:

Brief Book Review – Digital Storytelling: The Narrative Power of Visual Effects in Film

May 12

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The content and title of this text perfectly illustrates the variety of ways in which people think and write about digital narrative. In the case of Shilo McClean’s 2006 book Digital Storytelling: The Narrative Power of Visual Effects in Film, the issue is how the use of digital effects impacts modern film. McClean affirms the central role of film as story, and yet masterfully illustrates the way in which digital effects can help tell the story.

You will not be disappointed with this book if you are looking for a well-written, thoughtful explanation of how digital effects can be used to tell a great story. The focus of the book is on film. What McClean writes has great relevance for screenwriters, film students, filmmakers, storytellers, writers, digital storytelling hobbyists, and anyone interested in how the ancient art of storytelling is alive and well in the digital age.

Atomic Learning and Video Stortelling Intro

Jan 4

Posted by etale in blog, reviews, sites and sources, software | Comments off

Atomic Learning is a popular online collection of software tutorials. Their target market includes schools, districts, and educators, but anyone can get an individual annaul subscription for $80.00. For this you get access to over 100 tutorials on software like Microsoft Excel, Photoshop, Flash, IPhoto, Moodle, Premiere Elements, and most other popular applications. In fact, all but a couple of the applications that I have referenced in the blog thus far have Atomic Learning tutorials. In addition to the straight software lessons, they also have tutorials on things like podcasting and blogging (both of which are free and include a series of informative video tutorials). I have been very impressed with the quality and simplicity of the tutorials that I have used in the past. But even if you aren’t interested in paying for the service, their site includes some great free resources, sometimes demos of the full tutorial.

My reason for including a post on Atomic Learning is to note a great preview of a tutorial entitled “Learning to Speak Video Like a Pro.” From the preview you can learn about basic camera shots, tips for shooting good video, and over a dozen video examples of good practice. This might come in handy for the budding digital storyteller.