More Trouble in River City

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Here’s a well-written explanation for why most of the media-effects studies really don’t tell us anything:

WHY VIDEO GAME RESEARCH IS FLAWED

By CHRIS LAVIGNE

Studies that spread the idea that video games are harmful to children are conducted by researchers whose knowledge about video games is embarrassingly poor.

May 25, 2009

What do 23 martial-arts fighters have in common with a talking Australian marsupial? According to one team of video game researchers, they’re identical.

Last year, the journal Aggressive Behavior published a study by a group of Dutch psychologists examining gaming and violence in children. As in most video game research, a lack of fundamental video game knowledge led to a study no gamer would consider credible.

Read the whole article here

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Be professional enough to do a decent literature review…

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SHEESH!

I get a lot of papers to review in Game Studies; Serious Games; Educational Games., etc.

I used to learn a lot from reading these papers.

Not anymore.

Not only is much of what I read “old news” (i.e. it’s been done or discussed and mostly published before), but FAR too many of the papers I read now don’t even cite the other works. What’s going on?

I am finding more and more submissions (journals, conferences, etc.) from authors who have not done a thorough lit review. Many papers I’ve read appear to come from authors who are relatively new to the field, did a quicky lit. search (1st 2 screens in google scholar, or for many of the Education papers I see, it looks as though they simply went to 2 or 3 education websites (AERA, AACE, AECT) and searched a subset of the journals there. This leaves people with a fairly restricted view of what’s been done and what is known.

What’s the problem? Do people not know how to perform a lit. review anymore? Do they not care? Are they naive enough to believe they’re the first ones who thought of this?

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On: On Sheep Dogs and Wolves

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Working Sheepdogs

Working Sheepdogs

I don’t usually do this, but this is a response to another blog, found here.  The piece I am commenting on is part of a larger post about what Canadian troops are doing in Afghanistan. It is in support of our Canadian Military and repeats a sheep and sheepdogs metaphor written by Dave Grossman. My own thoughts about the military (well, some of them) are below. The quote however, demonstrates Grossman’s ignorance once again. Having been in the military does not, in and of itself, qualify you as the last word on the subject. Not only does he have no real clue about videogames, but he now demonstrates he has no real clue about sheep, sheepdogs, or wolves. If you are going to use a metaphor, at least use one that doesn’t show off your lack of insight. That kind of defeats the purpose.

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Have we really evolved beyond the days of throwing the Christians to the Lions?

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By now almost everyone online is familiar with the wonderful story of Susan Doyle.

There are many interesting dimensions to this story, like the one discussed by Henry Jenkins having to do with how quickly the world came to know about her (in How Susan Spread and What It Means). Like most people I’m sure, I too am happy for her current good fortune. It always makes me happy when something nice happens to someone – all the sweeter if they appear to be decent, deserving people. And there’s the rub, isn’t it?  We (i.e. the great unwashed) were very quick to pass judgment on this lady and then changed our judgements when we discovered she really could sing.

Well, here’s an article that offers another way to think about it: What if Susan Boyle Couldn’t Sing? by Dennis Polumbo

How would the story be different if her voice had been unremarkable, or even ‘worse’ (interesting how that seems an appropriate adjective) flat or scratchy or off?

What does this say about us? It makes me ashamed. I was caught up in the hubub too. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there is anything wrong with being happy for her. The problem lies in how we judged her beforehand, AND with the fact that somehow it was OK to do that.

Think about it.

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Look out SMART Technologies – the writing may be on the wall, and it isn’t yours.

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In Today’s MIT Tech Review: A Better, Cheaper Multitouch Interface

A new pressure-sensitive pad could improve large and small touch screens.

I’ve thought for some time that the SMART Technologies’ White Board which is marketed so vigorously to Alberta schools relies on physical technology that has become obsolete. Note the Wii mote stuff developed by Johnny Chung Lee. That technology’s been known for a few years now.

As if that’s not enough, Ken Perlin and his crew have come up with this. SMART Tech isn’t even mentioned in the article.

C’mon SMART, any chance you can try and live up to your name?

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Wouldn’t it be nice to have a job where you can be wrong or change your mind THIS often?

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Compare: (these are all taken from the Environment Canada Weather Site)

The day before there had been a severe winter storm warning. Nothing happened. Continue reading →

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In Class Laptop Use Shown to Lower Test Scores…

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Intellagirl posted a note about this article today and I was curious, so I read it too…
She suggested that the article had entirely missed the point, and she is absolutely right!

The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 16, 2009

Students Stop Surfing After Being Shown How In-Class Laptop Use Lowers Test Scores

The article seems to be reporting on a victory in the reduction of laptop use in the classroom. Yup, you heard right, they are actually HAPPY that their students are no longer using modern technology in the classroom. The belief seems to be that using the laptop causes the students to do less well on tests.

Now, to be fair, they do admit that those students who had lower scores were in fact using their computers to check out their FB pages, ‘surf’ (apparently we *still* have a problem with surfers), watch YouTube, etc.

Churchill’s Commentary on Man:
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.

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New Puppy

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We are getting a new puppy this week.

Arrow & the Turkeys

Arrow & the Turkeys

In the spring of 1997 we got our first Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD). A  Great Pyrenees. Scanner. She changed my life. My birds were safe from local predators – all day long AND all night. You see, LGDs work 24/7. They like it. It’s what they do.

They protect the critters in their territory in whatever way is necessary. Now, before you go thinking that this is some sort of macho, kill the nasty coyotes deal, understand that LGDs are among the most natural canines there are. They are VERY intelligent, but they are also VERY independent. They have been selected and bred, for centuries (at least), to live with and protect the flocks and possessions of the human shepherds who depend on them. This means a number of things:

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