Reading List 2010 (4/23)
You know, playing Dragon Age obsessively hasn’t been interfering with my reading nearly as much as I’d expected. Which makes me wonder just what’s falling by the wayside so I can save Ferelden from the Darkspawn …
- The Making of a Marchioness, Frances Hodgson Burnett
- The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
- The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion, Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull
- Game Change, John Heilemann & Mark Halperin
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Tags: books
Reading List 2010 (4/19)
How am I behind with my reading list already? It’s barely February, and after today I’ve still got a backlog of eight books to write about. I guess I could read less, but what fun would that be?
- Under the Dome, Stephen King
- Just After Sunset, Stephen King
- Beyond Armageddon, ed. Walter M. Miller Jr. & Martin H. Greenberg
- Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, ed. John Joseph Adams
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Tags: books
Stanley Strogatz Teaches Math!
On a completely different topic, I’m terribly excited about the Stanley Strogatz math-education series in the Times. I can’t wait to watch how he teaches math, and how he gives us a new way to think about numbers. I’m already thrilled at how he situates numbers in a half-real space that is the product both of our imaginations and of a self-consistent reality.
I imagine I’m going to learn something important about teaching a complex topic effectively from this series, so I’ll be watching it closely. You should too!
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Tags: math
Women Scientists and Housework
As part of my research on gender, I often find myself reading pieces like this one, and the Academe article it cites, on the impact of housework on women scientists’ careers. Admittedly, the articles I read aren’t always quite so relevant to my life! But they’re often eye-opening, and this one was no exception.
The thrust of the piece is that women scientists do a lot more housework than their spouses and their male peers, and this is a Bad Idea. Not only is it unjust, it’s also an incredible waste of time for highly trained individuals. I’ve invested a whole lot of time and money in my career; my training is in doing research and designing games, not in cleaning the kitchen. This isn’t to say that cleaning the kitchen is somehow not worthwhile – and I hate a dirty kitchen as much as anyone! But it’s basic economics that I should spend my time doing the things that I can do better than anyone else, not on tasks that someone else can do as well as (or better than!) I can.
I really liked Lorraine Tracey’s take on cumulative disadvantage, too:
Ms. Tracey, who is also a postdoctoral research associate at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, said additional personal responsibilities could add up over time for younger female scientists.
“If you have five hours a week less than your male counterparts available for your research over the five- to 10-year period of your graduate and postdoctoral training, this certainly adds up to a significant amount of time that I imagine could impact your competitiveness in the marketplace,” she said.
To me, this ties to work showing it takes time to become an expert – about ten thousand hours, according to most estimates. Five hours a week you’re spending doing the laundry or cooking? That’s just over 250 hours a year, more than 2% of the total time investment required. Unless you’re more talented than everyone around you, you’re either going to fall behind your colleagues or you’ll have to find five hours per week somewhere else.
So why can’t women just find that time elsewhere? Sadly, it’s not so easy. People need leisure! But leisure, for people who are passionate about their work, isn’t always purely fun. When I look at my own life, I spend a vast amount of my “free” time doing things that are actually related to my professional career. I read, I think, I play and design games, I invent new projects and more! Five hours is a big chunk of that time, and would have a huge impact on the imaginativeness and breath of my work.
After reading this article, I recognize how very lucky I am to have a partner who cooks, does the laundry, and is devastatingly witty and handsome to boot. But I shouldn’t have to feel lucky! As a highly trained professional with something significant to contribute to the world, I already have more demands on my time than I can handle. I just don’t have time for extra hours of housework. Neither do my less lucky peers, but they end up doing the extra work anyways.
I don’t think there’s an easy solution, but all this has reminded me why I’m working to change people’s ideas about gender. This is work that matters.
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Tags: academia, equity, gender
My advanced game design class is going well so far, and it’s always a blast to teach. I run a student-centered class, which means that while I come in with a sense of what we’re going to explore in the course, the students have a lot of say in what we do. The class is also project-centered. A big chunk of my class prep involves setting up real-world projects my students can participate in – but as a class, they choose which one to pursue.
This year, my students are going to be working with the New York Hall of Science to design games about, unsurprisingly, science. I’m particularly excited about this partnership for a number of reasons! First, it’s local, which means my students can head out there to observe the exhibits and watch how people actually use them. Second, it’s a real-world space, which has some interesting implications for the design of mobile or augmented-reality games. Finally, the Hall has been incredibly supportive of this partnership: just for example, they’re sending someone from the Hall to be a guest critic at our midterm and final presentations.
The semester’s only barely begun, but I’ve got a fabulous group of students and I can’t wait to see where it goes!
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Tags: nysci
Lit at G4H-NYC
For those following along at home, I presented on the Lit smoking-reduction game at the Games for Health NYC Meetup on Tuesday. The talk went well, and I got some great questions and suggestions. The thing that’s got me thinking hard is how we can integrate Lit with institutional smoking-reduction programs. I don’t think that’s a near-term design goal -first we have to show it works! – but in the long run it sounds like we want to be accessible for both individual and institutional use. Fortunately, I’ve got the email address of the person who brought it up, so we can continue the conversation!
While I think Games for Health is going to post my slides at some point, I wanted to share them here as well. [pdf] Enjoy!
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Tags: conference
Reading List 2010 (9/15)
A Sherlock Holmes week!
- A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Sign of Four, Arthur Conan Doyle
- Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle
- Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Valley of Fear, Arthur Conan Doyle
- His Last Bow, Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle
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Tags: books
Whatever Pokemon Does So Well
The Phylomon Project tries to “do whatever Pokemon does so well, but with the reality of biodiversity and ecology providing the content.” Which would be great, if they appeared to understand what the thing Pokemon does so well is.
I don’t mean to slam the project. They’re already about ten steps ahead of most educational game designers! They’ve chosen an appropriate game reference for the type of learning they’re hoping to achieve. Learning about real-world species has elements of collecting, categorizing and memorizing, just like Pokemon – and unlike certain other projects, kids’ independent engagement with Pokemon is more than just wishful thinking. It’s an excellent choice.
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Tags: biology, learning, review
Lit at G4H-NYC
If you’re in New York City and interested in learning more about the Lit project, I’m giving a talk at the New York Games for Health meeting on Tuesday, January 26th. The event itself is free, but RSVP is required. Given the project lineup, I’d say it’s well worth attending for any locals interested in the health games field!
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Tags: conference
Lit in Forbes
Lit is featured, among other games for health, in Forbes Magazine!
The ideal: that “Lit” will cause smokers to reach for their smart phones rather than their cigarettes. If it works, it might rank as the healthiest game on record.
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Tags: press
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