Discourse Chronicle

Microsoft has put up $1.5 million to start The Games for Learning Institute, a joint venture with New York University and other colleges. The goal of the research is to see whether video games — and not just software specifically designed to be educational — can draw students into math, science and technology-based programs. The institute has begun lining up middle school students to study. –Dave Kolpack

[Sources such as Linda Burch, chief program and strategy officer for Common Sense Media, claims that “There isn’t a lot of good research out there,” referring to shooter games. However, James Paul Gee’s What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and LIteracy is a book-length examination of the first-person-shooter video game genre, recently revised and updated in a new edition. BK]

category: Gaming, Literacy, Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

[I realized again that much time passed since my last regular updates, so I thought I might share a few games keeping me busy. I am writing on Rock Band, Final Fantasy VII, and hopefully Street Fighter IV this semester. BK]

Rock Band

Final Fantasy VII

Street Fighter IV

category: Gaming, Life, Literacy, Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

Yesterday morning Nintendo of America announced that the latest evolution of its DS portable, the DSi, was due to hit stateside on April 5 of this year, priced at $169.99 MSRP. The device is the next system upgrade in the line of DS handhelds, and not a successor to the DS itself (much like the GBA SP or Micro releases for Game Boy Advance), though it promises to bring even more technology to the Big N’s innovative pocket platform. Adding in two cameras, internal memory for music, pictures, and downloadable software, a SD port for additional memory, a new front end inspired by the Wii’s channel system, and a pair of slightly larger screens, the DSi hopes to bring new lift into the already impressive DS hardware. –IGN Nintendo Team

[Today my students asked me about how I felt toward Nintendo’s next handheld gaming device called DSi. I remember reading about this product when its Japanese release happened and I believe its new features help the DS become more multimodal like a computer (such as a basic photo editing software), but I fear it might be trying too hard to be like Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP), which fared poorly in comparison with the DS. For me, I’ll be staying with my DS Lite because I need the GameBoy Advance slot to play my Castlevania: Double Pack. BK]

category: Gaming, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

Polaroid Instant Digital Camera

If you’re mourning Polaroid’s recent decision to stop making film for its classic instant cameras, here’s some good news. This 5-megapixel camera, due on the market in March, contains a built-in printer for producing 2-by-3-inch pictures on the go. The camera’s printer contains no ink or toner; the prints pass through a thermal heat head, activating dye crystals embedded in the print paper and producing an image.

The resulting pictures are a little grainy, but they’re ready in seconds and have a sticky-back feature for scrapbooking. And, unlike your old Polaroid, you can review the image on the camera’s LCD screen before deciding whether to print it.

“It’s not going to replace your 12-megapixel camera,” Polaroid marketing associate Michael Holmes said. “It’s fun. It’s convenient.”

The camera will retail for $199, and a 10-pack of print paper will cost about $5. –Brandon Griggs

[Jay David Bolter and Robert Grusin claim nothing is new about New Media, but rather remediations of older concepts or technology, and things like this remind me that both of them are right. From Elizabeth. BK]

category: Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

Amy Taylor filed for divorce when she discovered her husband cheating in Second Life — an online community where players adopt personas called avatars, mingle with others and teleport themselves into a series of artificial worlds. –Raphael G. Satter

[Satter cites Ellen Helsper from the Oxford Internet Institute, whose research shows people make a personal investment with their avatars in a virtual setting, whether Second Life or another popular program like World of Warcraft (also mentioned in the article). Although personal attachment with a virtual identity is interesting, I imagine an element of addiction may also be involved, since online activities are interfering with life offline.

I question motives whenever I read stories like this one because such a personal investment is an unhealthy behavior, not necessarily because it happens since video game players often describe their gaming experiences with self-reference (“I died…”, “I saved…”, “I killed…”), but because it is a sustained investment indistinguishable from real life. Gamers love playing games for a number of reasons, but being able to oscillate between their real-life identity and rhetorical situations encourages replay. However, oscillation only seems possible as long as players identify with their avatars rather than accept them as extensions of themselves, offline or online. BK]

category: Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

[A hilarious video for people familiar with the classic Mega Man video game series. From Nick. BK]

category: Gaming, Humor, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

[No blog this week. I am presenting a paper in Louisville, Kentucky at the biennial Thomas R. Watson conference. BK]

category: Gaming, Life, Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

YouTube, the world’s most popular video-sharing site, will start to sell music and video games and experiment with new advertising formats to grow revenue, executives said on Tuesday.

[…]

Visitors to YouTube.com can buy songs from music videos they watch on the site by clicking on buttons that take them either to Amazon.com Inc’s MP3 store or Apple Inc’s iTunes store.

YouTube users will also be able to buy video games, such as Electronic Arts Inc’s sci-fi game “Spore” through the Amazon link.

Amazon and iTunes will share revenue with YouTube when users buy content through the partnership. –Yinka Adegoke

category: Literacy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

A new feature called Xbox Live Party will let parties of up to seven people chat and share pictures over a television screen while simultaneously playing games. The Personality Plus tool will let users create customized avatars that will represent them throughout the Xbox world. –Paul McDougall

[I am interested in seeing how this new feature changes a gaming experience because of its multimodal possibilities, especially since players may already communicate using voice with a headset while playing with a controller, which demonstrates multitasking if nothing else. BK]

category: Gaming, Literacy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology    

Female Power Emergency Up! DS promises to “Change your destiny in three months!” by measuring skills in love, fashion, beauty, diet, and fortune-telling(?!), then challenging girls to increase their scores. –Brian Ashcroft

[Nintendo’s DS Lite offers numerous video games, but as a whole, Nintendo seems to be successfully expanding a gaming audience and I suspect offering educational titles is a culprit. However, I never imagined using Nintendo DS titles for life coaching purposes for women or men. Japan is offering other titles dealing with improving social etiquette (My Happy Manner Book), simulating psychiatrist sessions (Mainichi Kokorobics DS Therapy), and demonstrating Yoga workouts (Yoga Anywhere). BK]

category: Gaming, Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, Technology