Social Media

What World of Warcraft has to offer

Posted by SchinTeth on January 22, 2012
Posted in: Games and Play, Social Media. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 2 comments

While I was looking for some articles and sources online today, I came across an interesting interview with Bonnie Nardi where she shares some of her thoughts about World of Warcraft. In fact it is really cool to hear her opinions as an anthropologist on a topic that is not treated that often with the respect it deserves in my opinion. For her book  entitled: My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft she plunged into the depths of Warcraft and explored the game. If you click the link above to the interview, you will hear that she actually makes some interesting points of the community aspect of the game without forgetting that it still is a game.

I highlight that last part because when games are treated in media or in science one tends to forget that their main purpose is fun and leisure, or to quote Jerome Bruner (1983, p. 61) :

But let me be clear. Unless we bear in mind that play is a source of pleasure, we are really missing the point of what it’s about.

The interview is being taken for a documentary entitled The Raid. Watching actual players being interviewed for that same documentary I think another feature of the game becomes apparent, but before I go on here´s the clip:

It is mentioned in the interviews but I think there really is a lot of common ground with work management. Even though I never really was into hardcore raiding I think one thing that I have learned from World of Warcraft is that failure is a part of learning. People have to work together very closely and one mistake from one person could mean that all of them fail. This means that they need to have a sort of reflection on what they are doing and what was the cause that they did not succeed in order to improve; in short problem solving in a very social way.

Gaming has something to offer, don´t dismiss it because it´s online.

References:

Bruner, J. (1983). Play, Thought, and Language. Peabody Journal of Education, 60(3), 60-69.

Further resources:

I honestly recommend you´d check out Bonnie´s blog

Another more in-depth look at WoW and what it can offer in educational contexts

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Social media and exchange of ideas

Posted by SchinTeth on January 6, 2012
Posted in: Reflections, Social Media, Technology. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another’s, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.

by Leo Buscaglia

As I check out the “Freshly pressed” blogs from time to time to see what other bloggers write about, I yesterday came across a post describing a journalist that disconnected in 2009 from technology. The blogger comments about this and writes:

On the flip side, I also found the research she presented on the role of Facebook and other social media on personal relationships to be fascinating.  Spending time online means that, yes, you are interacting, but not in a meaningful way.   It was an interesting bit of discussion.

I found it an interesting thought. To some it might be obvious that this is the case, to others it might seem wrong. I did not bother too much but as today I came across another blog (also from the “Freshly pressed”) discussing the value of comments on blogs I think it is worth a closer look. A closer look at what?

Online interaction. Basically what you and I are doing now. Exchanging ideas, sharing experiences and commenting on them. I´d like to use the metaphor of a bar or pub for these online environments as they are a meeting place for all different kinds of people. They are not always clean and well behaved. Sometimes you get into fights but sometimes you meet that one person whom you share a few inspiring moments with. The people around you are all different and of course they have different ideas and experiences but isn´t that what makes them so inspiring?

Ya, you might see trolling and spam but Christopher “moot” Pole, the creator of the dark place that is 4chan is promoting his board because it is raw and unfiltered. Even with the risque of flaming and some trolling on a blog, I think it is a price that is worth paying in order to harvest the wonderful fruits of discussion. Etiquette is nice and necessary but I would like to make the point that without some “rawness” we would miss out on a lot of interesting ideas.

I am aware that it is not always possible to moderate and that not everybody is able to manage the flood of comments that some blogs have but if you do not take the opportunity for exchange remember that your pub might be full of interesting people that you will never know. Does this mean that I need to be informed 24 hours a day what my friends do and where they are?

No. Does it mean I give away everything about me because I like sharing? Well after all in a bar I do not give my personal information to just anybody either. Going back to my introductory quote, sharing is not something trivial and in my opinion it should be more than a simple giving away.

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This work from geniusaround.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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Filter bubbles in the cloud

Posted by SchinTeth on October 25, 2011
Posted in: Reflections, Social Media. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

You guys probably know about the “internet filter bubbles“, if not I really suggest anyone interested in media to have a look at this short clip. It helps getting an overall idea and providing basic knowledge about internet search and social media:

Seems pretty scary at first, you only find what is “close to you” or related to your history; wow! Anyone having a background in education probably knows about the additional problem of “confirmation bias“, which basically says that we tend to prefer information that is in line with our way of thinking – put differently – We learn easiest what we know already.

But I did not start this blog post to scare you off or to draw a dark picture of education.

I d´rather discuss an article that dismantles some of these negative future projections. I sometimes hear or read on the web about how everything is going down. Zombie Apocalypse is near!  John Hawks writes in his article, that all is not so bad and that:

At no time in history have people been exposed to a wider range of opposing viewpoints.

And I think he is right. Even if we consider that there are filters all around us, in the web as well as in our daily life where people do not always point out when we oppose their viewpoints. I think it is important to be aware of these “filters” but anyone that has Facebook, Twitter or even used Google or Wikipedia before should find that there are a lot of different opinions out there. We are presented with a variety of viewpoints and with the help of new technologies it goes far beyond the local communities, let´s only consider TED. Irony strikes when we are made aware of internet “filter bubbles” through a medium like a TED talk, presented on the web because we could have never attended it in person. Only watching the talks we are presented, not only with a broad variety of knowledge and research but also with differing opinions. In one of these talks Sugata Mitra explains how children teach themselves with the help of the internet (>>Link<<). To me it is just fascinating how knowledge gets spread around the globe and I personally think that the access to internet should, because of its huge advantages, become a basic human right for everybody. But I will stop here, as I think there is not much I can add and you will any ways just consider what you would like to read :P I will end this with a question and a short List of references concerning social media, that anybody that is interested can consult for further information.

Do you guys think that the internet can lead to more ignorance?

Short list of interesting references

The human brain limits your friends to 200

Measuring influence on Twitter

How youtube is driving innovation

Ignore Facebook and other social media to your detriment

Search engines that are supposed not to filter your results

http://duckduckgo.com/