Giant Sized Crossover Episode 0: Peter vs. Steve on Games, Learning, Pedagogy, and Collaboration
Podcast:
Steve and Peter team up! In this episode, they uncover several themes found within last week’s readings. Steve, who is taking the conservative stance towards writing and technology, grills Peter as he defends why technology not only can better our everyday lives but students’ writing, as well. While Steve is a skeptic at first, the two commentators uncover that the same critical and collaborative strategies in which students learn in an online, virtual game setting, will, in turn, become the critical manner in which students learn, write, collaborate in an academic setting. A win-win situation for everyone!
Intro/Outro music is a classic collaborative track: Derek and the Dominoes - Layla.
P.S. This is last week's reading!
(15 votes)
Comments
Collaborative Podcasts! Yes!
Peter and Steve, I like the collaborative podcast! I think that adding another voice creates a conversational style that encroaches on what you call an “interdependent relationship.” I think that the dual podcasts succeeds in what it set out to do, which is to add a unique dynamic that would be impossible with just a single voice.
I found it helpful to hear Peter and Steve work out the differences between the real world and the virtual world and it was insightful to hear two different opinions come together to sort it all out. I definitely agree that there is a lot of overlap between the real and the “virtual world,” and the way you both work out these overlaps allowed me to become situated in the argument and make other connections between these overlaps and my own experiences. When discussing how the real world and virtual worlds influence and collapse on each other, I thought about the process of reading fiction. Like entering virtual worlds, when reading fiction, the reader enters a world that is “other” than the real one, and he or she must adjust to it. Also like the overlaps between real and virtual, the real and fictional worlds begin to influence each other (especially in academia!).
Thanks!
Jenna
p.s. just to
p.s. just to clarify....steve.urkel as the other voice on the podcast.
Different Application Skills
I agree that virtual reality has a definite impact on reality. People experience real emotions and do develop certain skills when interacting with different games and such. In the end, virtual reality and the real world mesh together into the experiences that people have in their lifetimes. However, when taking the classroom into account I remain skeptical. There is a point in your podcast where you state that the same skills are learned via a game as in a traditional classroom; both force students to critically analyze and respond to different topics. Though the basic skill sets might be similar, I believe the application techniques/skills required are different. For instance, in my limited teaching experience, students seem to have an easier time analyzing visual texts than written ones. If this is true for most students, then shouldn’t games be used to “better students’ writing” after they have learned the foundation of writing and analyzing via the traditional method of teaching?
Christa Weaver
Greater Sense of Collective (Secret) Agency
Are we ever outside these connections you address? Well done further bringing to our attention what the readings have been clarifying: the traditional distinctions have proven problematic and they become even more so when we used definitions from centuries ago to understand what was invented decades, years, and weeks ago. Peter, you referenced “alternative lived experiences,” which I find a fruitful way to look at our new virtual personae. Steve, toward the end of the podcast—after you joined Peter’s more technologically eager camp—you claimed that these virtual communities are an extension of ourselves just as we are extensions of our virtual communities—an observation of great importance indeed. As these communities start to reflect us—from facebook to World of Warcraft—we start to embody them. Many people take pictures with the intention of putting them on facebook. Facebook is no longer a repository for pictures; it is the cause. The same can be said for music/film/politics… people, now, live their lives differently (for instance, try new films) in ways that they might broadcast via facebook. When we get to the issue of an online relationship status, we get to an issue that can ruin relationships before they get going or strengthen the bond by the mutual gratification from a public display of commitment… either way, these online communities do affect us in this physical mirage we call reality. Peter, you want to encourage the blurring between game space and learning space. I support this endeavor completely. What you to transmitted to our classes actually embodied your message. Was your message the medium and process by which you collaborated? Was your message the actual words you spoke? Both are in play and both affected my physical life and my virtual life.
P.S. Although Layla is often attributed to Eric Clapton thanks to his overwhelming success and the later popularity of his solo rendition of it, it too was truly a collaborative effort. As Herb Bowie writes on the website Reasons to Rock, “In fact, though, Derek and the Dominos was a band with a distinct identity, and their one recorded album was a truly collaborative effort.” We often mistake collaborative accomplishment for individual accomplishment, just as we mistake real life for virtual life… when in fact both binaries are fraught with problems. Thank you for blurring my binaries and revealing my own interconnection with my various personae, which I naively categorized into a hierarchy that could not account for my various identities.