CHI2010 Conference Day 2

Giving number 100 of 112 25-second speeches this morning was the scariest moment in my academic life*. If you’re not familiar, CHI has a fun tradition of doing CHIMadness each morning where EVERY speaker of the day gets up and does a 25 second “commercial” for their talk. Very nerve racking. VERY. The room was so packed that the organizers needed to invoke the fabled Fire Marshall rules and keep people out of the room.

This is what I remember: I said “Good Morning Atlanta!” much too loudly and then Layered Elaboration blah blah blah previous iterations blah blah blah permanent markers blah blah 4:30 in Regency 6. Completely quiet audience. Exit stage right.

After that, I needed to get to a workshop on Storyboarding. I was not that interested in spending my morning doing this, because I know everything there is about storyboards…wrong! It turned out to be a great class. It was led by Pieter Jan “PJ” Stappers, from Delft University of Technology’s ID Studio Lab’s Context Mapping group. Such a cool class! We really got into storyboarding at a level I had not thought about before and did a fun class exercise with cameras and play-acting to build storyboards for an equalizing remote control.

I spent the next few hours in a state of excitement and fear for my impending presentation. I met our session chair from Cornell as well as the other speakers. I was second. I was getting really nervous until the chair introduced me as Gregory. Allison and I had practiced to just pick up from there, but, instead I opened with “I go by Greg. Apparently, I filled out the form assuming my mother would read it.” And it went smoothly from there. I got some easy questions (how old were the kids) and some not so easy ones (how is this different from brainstorming? when should you throw away designs and start over and how does this technique allow for that?). My goto answer was “artifacts”.

And then dinner and then most of Lost and now bed. It was a great day but long.

*besides the Institute for Interactive Technologies Corporate Advisory Board making me ridiculously nervous 12 years ago this week…go Bloomsburg Huskies!

Wired Gallery list Things to fill my basement with

I’m surprised this list doesn’t have a slide rule. I would love to be able to use an abacus.

Gallery: Low-Tech Computers From Prehistory to Today | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.

CHI 2009 Next Week

So I’ll be off to CHI next week. Here is my poster that I’ll be displaying:

And here is the paper: Wii Can Do It

Wish me luck!

$12 Computer: Playpower Wants to Save the World 8 Bits at a Time | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

I’m going to use the $88 I save from an OLPC to put towards an iPhone.

$12 Computer: Playpower Wants to Save the World 8 Bits at a Time | Gadget Lab from Wired.com.

Evaluation of two online reference tools

This is an evaluation I wrote for class. I needed to ask the same reference question to two different sources. I chose the Internet Public Library and AskUsNow! The AskUsNow folks were at the Enoch Pratt Library and did a great job answering my question and finding me sources all at a distance:

If you remember from my biography on the discussion board, my research interests are in using games for learning. My latest research project has been looking at using cooperative design to create an instructional video game. So far, the game that was designed has only come to life in the design team’s drawings and models. Eventually, I will need to build a working prototype that can be played, so, I decided to use this assignment to learn about a programming language named Python and its use in three-dimensional games.

Because my subject deals with computers, I thought that using two computer-based reference tools would be best. I chose AsUsNow! and the Internet Public Library (IPL). The AskUsNow experience was synchronous and the IPL was asynchronous. I asked the same question to both resources and got extremely different answers. The question I asked both resources was: what resources can show me how to get started in programming games in 3D using Python?

I asked the IPL my question first. The interface was very simple and asked my question, what I wanted to do with the information, what references I had already searched through and a few other questions. The site said that it would take three or so days to get answer my question but I had the answer in 70 minutes on Friday afternoon.

After I submitted my question to the IPL, I went to AskUsNow and chose my local library system. I filled out the form to start a live chat session. The form asked similar questions as the IPL, but, I was connected with a reference librarian at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore instead of waiting for an e-mail. When the service starts, it lets you know that your question is being looked into. The person I communicated with gave me some sources to look into and offered to get a book that matched my needs via interlibrary loan.

Both services were relatively easy ways to find resources for me to learn about using Python for three-dimensional game development. Both services were timely: 70 minutes for the IPL and about 35 minutes of chat with the AskUsNow service. Both services provided links to web sites but only the live librarian found a book for me. Both services started their search with google, but the IPL told me what their search terms were without me asking. Neither one negotiated the question with me very much, and, although the live librarian responded to my follow-up questions, I felt like neither one was very interactive.

The results of the IPL’s search was a bit of a let down. I’m not sure why, but, I think that they are judging themselves on quantity of answers as opposed to quality of answers. The IPL librarian, a volunteer according to the web site, sent three resources: a site with tutorials, the Python web site, and a second site with tutorials. I informed them when I submitted the question that I already knew two other computer languages and assumed they would approach my information need with that in mind. I also informed them that I wanted to build an instructional game, but, the resources returned to me did little to move me forward.

I was more impressed with the resources that the live librarian found me through the AskUsNow site. Although the librarian did little to negotiate the question beyond “Have you seen this?” and what I asked, the resources found were pretty useful. This librarian seemed to understand that I had some prior knowledge and looked for resources that addressed my need. The first resource found was the Python site, then a site about Python in 3D, then she found an entry in a mailing list archive that listed three books. She then asked if any of the books looked interesting. I told her I was interested in one and she checked availability and ordered it via interlibrary loan to my local branch from Johns Hopkins University’s library. After the session, the service sent me a transcript of the dialogue for my own reference.

I was most surprised that each librarian used Google as their first search for a reference. This surprised me because I thought they would have a lot more resources available to them in the library than I have at home. In fact, using Google and Worldcat, I was able to access the same availability information at the Enoch Pratt and surrounding libraries that the librarian did. I think the only difference was she could order the book via inter-library loan. I would use the AskUsNow service again because of the high quality results delivered by the Enoch Pratt reference librarians but would prefer an in-person experience.

Reading and class reflection from 2/19/2009

This week, we talked about two readings: A truly useful bat is one found in the hands of a slugger by Grob, and Government information policy research: Importance, approaches, and realities by McClure and Jaeger. I thought Bat was a good article because it not only describes how evaluations can be used as a valid research method, but, it also had a How to succeed in business kind of vibe to it.

As I’ve talked about before, evaluations are a way to look at interventions and decide if the are helping, not helping but not harming, or harming their intended audience. This article wonders if “evaluations are useful only if they are based on randomized experiments, with control groups, null hypotheses, and designs that examine every possible explanation of apparent but suspect success of social programs.” [p. 499] The article acknowledges that only a handful of evaluations have met that description and less rigorously performed evaluations can still move knowledge forward (if thorough and objective.)

The part I liked best was the author’s description of how to get into the world of policy influence. Grob offers a loosely framed, step-by-step process to become a player that I think could be useful in my own academic career. His steps, translated by me, are:

1. Learn who the thought leaders are – get in the scene. Find out who is leading the field in what. Become one of them by specializing in a topic and becoming recognized as a thought leader by other thought leaders. So if I want to be in the instructional game world, I need to know who the others are and become recognized by them. I can see how conferences and journal articles as well as some of my speaking gigs can really move that forward.
2. Master the machinery – Grob was referring to how policy is created. I didn’t think that I’d be interested in policy, but, when I thought about it, I realized I’m more interested than I thought. For example, I would love for video games to be part of curricula but the only way to do that is to influence policy. Maybe not congressional policies but state and local jurisdictions’ education policies.
3. Body of work – Grob says you need to know everything about your topic. True. Not only do I need to be familiar with the research on my topic, but, I need to be familiar with the policies about my topic. It won’t do me any good to research instructional games that could never be realized due to policy.

So I liked that article and McClure and Jaeger’s article is going into my library to be re-accessed when I need more exact information on looking at policies and research about policies.

CHI 2009 Acceptance

My paper “Wii Can Do It: Using Co-design for creating an instructional game” was accepted to the CHI 2009 conference’s works-in-progress track.

This is a big deal for me because the reviewers/judges were torn on whether or not it should be accepted (there was a lot of discussion), but, they all ranked me high in my writing skill. Take that 11th and 12th grade AP history teachers!

Here is the abstract:

There are many children for whom learning is difficult if they need to remain still. The Nintendo Wii, with its motion-controlled sensors, can support learning experiences that enable children to be physically active learners. This paper presents the methodologies and results from a multi-day, co-design session at the University of Maryland’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab. The goal of the sessions was to design an instructional game that leveraged the Nintendo Wii’s motion controls to teach about U.S. National Parks.

There are some things I wish I had done differently. In order to keep the count to 6 pages, I cut out this paragraph and that really confused the reviewers:

On the surface, it would seem as if the co-design sessions led to a recreation of the 1989
Broderbund game Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, even though none of the child-
partners are old enough to have played that game. But, Carmen Sandiego was a fact-
based game that required the players to identify historical events through clues, and, the
preliminary game designed by Kidsteam requires higher cognitive skills to problem-solve.
The Kidsteam game could engage more players because it relies on problem solving, physical
activity, and immersive environments which may be traits of successful Wii games.

One reviewer said that the game designed in the project sounded like Oregon Trail…that paragraph may have shown that was an interesting finding.

Let’s hope the future Walsh cooperates and I am able to go in April.

Making a Scary Mask

As part of my doctoral funding, I work for the International Children’s Library. I’ve been doing a lot of community building by answering the very interesting e-mails we get as well as answering and contributing to the forum.

This week, I posted a How-to on making a scary mask. It is a tie-in with the New Zealand book Sydney and the Sea Monster by David Elliot. It’s a fun book…you should check it out.

Link to Activity | Link to Book

OLPC is no longer based on Sugar: ivan krstić · code culture » Sic Transit Gloria Laptopi

Part of me is bummed that the XO computer’s OS, Sugar, didn’t seem to pan out for the project. I am glad to see the project continuing on, and (hopefully), positively affecting cultures around the world.

Constructivism rules!
ivan krstić · code culture » Sic Transit Gloria Laptopi

Are You Connect.ed? Social Networking Forum

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had the opportunity to speak at the Social Networking Symposium held in Baltimore at the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s School of Nursing. All of the presentations as audio and slides have been posted on their site. I encourage you to watch it!

I would watch it in the order that we presented as we reference previous presentations:

Andy Carvin
Me (Greg Walsh)
Jean Judy
Melanie Moran

[Link]